The Ozark Northern is a favorite of super modeler Tim Muir over at Elvas Tower.
I need to make a move on the StL&NA, A&O Sub, and Ozark Northern in regards to uploading it here at Trainsim. I do NOT want to recompile the installer so that no passwords are required. I guess the easiest way around that is to include the password in the route description/listing that would appear for the route. I would also need to add a new Readme/EULA releasing the routes/models for mods/redistribution/etc as freeware.
In the meantime I'm slinging mud on the seams of the backdrops (HO layout) here in my computer, as well as looking to tackle backdating the Trinidad to Raton portion of Bob Wirth's Raton 3 route to 1882. (Like I don't have enough project routes already??) Retirement: Always have things to do!
One of the things I've wanted to see is tacking the same railroad in two disitinct eras, 1880s and 1980s. The Raton Pass route might be what I'm looking for.
Parker B. - A Misplaced Midwesterner.
Also known as Mr. Two Bits and Mr. Squarewheels.
The Raton 3 route vs an 1882 version would be an excellent example of contrasting the changes over the decades. Actually, the Raton to Trinidad portion changed rapidly after being built in 1878/1879. The changes at Raton within 3 short years were dramatic.
One of the things I like best about 19th century railroading (in view of modern routes) was that everything was so much more compact. This lends itself well to simpler towns that can require careful thought at to how to switch it. It also means that a "large" industries of the 19th century weren't near as sprawling as today's "large" industries. (AND, there weren't huge industries on the mountainous rail lines.) Plus, there were onesy/twosy small industries everywhere. Also, the trains are FAR shorter, which is gentle on the CPU/etc of those with lesser computers. Further, in the late 19th century and 1900s, routes were springing up everywhere and far more towns had railroad access.
Lastly... it's more challenging to run steam in a simulator than diesel. For me, running diesels in a sim is, well, boring. When working grades with a tonnage train (provided there are decent steam physics), I have to watch my steam usage, etc, etc.
Like model railroading, train simming in V scale is a great big tent with room for everybody!
Time to take a look at another of my project routes. This time...
THE COLORADO & SAN JUAN
THE CONCEPT...
The Colorado & San Juan is a proto/free lanced route based on prototypes and also inspired by proposed prototypes. I have bent history as needed to accommodate my concept. (Such as my C&SJ replaces the D&RG from Grand junction to Ouray. However, the C&SJ does interchange with the D&RG at Montrose.)
The C&SJ began construction at Grand Jct, CO, immediately upon the arrival of its close ally, the Utah & Colorado, in the mid-1870s and began building southward. Once Ouray was reached, the terrain became very rugged and it was with great effort and expense that the C&SJ pressed on.
However, press on the did, for the plums to be picked from doing so were plums of gold and silver. The rails left Ouray, and conquered the mountains needed to reach Ironton Park. However, another climb lay before them: The climb to Sheridan Pass. This they accomplished, and the descent began toward Silverton. Upon reaching Silverton, the mainline continued south toward what would become Durango. From the Durango region, the rails continued south/southeast to a connection with the ATSF that was building west through New Mexico.
As this was taking place, even more "expansion fever" was felt by the C&SJ. Inspired by a proposed rail line in 1879 that was to run from Lake City to Silverton, the C&SJ took matters into their own hands, and started building east out of Silverton with Lake City to be the destination. To do so made the effort to get to Silveron look tame by comparison! The climb to Denver Pass was long and tortuous. A forlorn helper station was hastily constructed well below Cinnamon Pass that was aptly dubbed "Cinnamon". From there, the rails pushed on to Denver Pass. Once punching through the divide with a tunnel, what waited for the rails on the other side was so rugged that it required switchbacks to dissipate the elevation needed to reach the floor of the gulch at Henson Creek. Eventually Lake City was reached, and from Lake City a short branch was run to San Cristobal area mines. At Lake City, the C&SJ established connection with the D&RG once they hit town.
SO, it's the early 1880s and the plucky Colorado & San Juan is enjoying some very lucrative boom times by virtue of the gold and silver in the San Juan region!
THE ROUTE...
The idea for a proto/free lanced route came about because of my interest in 19th century railroading in the San Juan region. However, not one of the prototypes of the region had all the elements I wanted. SO, in about August of 2017 I took my old Silverton RR route (Silverton over Red Mountain to Ironton Park), and began to rework it and extended it to Ouray as well as reworked Silverton to reflect what could have been at Silverton IF the C&SJ was there instead of the D&RG.
I've chosen to model the San Juan Subdivision from Ouray, CO, to Silverton, CO, as well as the Lake City Subdivision from Silverton to Lake City.
* As mentioned above, the C&SJ connects with the Utah & Colorado (which replaces the Denver & Rio Grande Western) narrow gauge line at Grand Jct, thus giving the two lines, the U&C and C&SJ, the ability to flow inbound/outbound traffic to/from the transcontinental line at Odgen, UT.
* The C&SJ replaces the prototype D&RG from Grand Jct, CO, to Ouray, CO. The C&SJ connects with the D&RG at Montrose, CO.
As for the modeled portion...
Ouray to Silverton:
* At Ouray I used the premise that the proposed prototype Ouray & Ironton RR was built, but the C&SJ did the building in the place of the O&I. This gets the fictional portion of rails from Ouray to Ironton Park in order to utilize the prototype Silverton RR routing.
* From Ironton Park to Silverton, the routing and industries of the prototype Silverton RR were used, as well as some that I found on maps and also included.
* On 6/20/21 I got the happy idea to run the line to Lake City from the proposed line that was mapped back in 1879. (The map was included in the book "The Rainbow Route".) My virtual rails reached Lake City 2/10/22. Went ahead and laid track to San Cristobal to access as many old "Mine" locations as possible that appeared on the topo maps. A San Crystobal Turn will be fun.
Un-modeled southern portion of the C&SJ:
At this point I do not chose to model the Silverton to Durango portion, nor proceed southwest out of Durango to Gallup, NM or somewhere to connect with the ATSF. I'll leave that to my imagination.
Freight traffic:
All manner of goods flow toward the C&SJ to supply the towns and mines along the line. The C&SJ originates vast amounts of coal from the Durango region, ore from the mineral rich San Juan mountains, lumber products, as well as fruits/vegetables once north of Ouray.
The boom times are good on the C&SJ!
Pics will commence in earnest sometime tomorrow. For now, below is a screen pic taking a look at the depot area at Ouray, CO. You can see roadbed on the mountains in the background as the line fights its way up to Ironton Park. The track at Ouray was originally free lanced into place. However, I finally uncovered a map of Ouray and it looked quite interesting, so I plucked out the free lanced track and emulated the alignments and industries of the prototype.
Finding a route to leave Ouray was a fun challenge. I knew that this early on, I did NOT want switchbacks. In fact, I wanted to have a contiguous main from Ouray to Silverton without switchbacks. I'm sure knowledgeable enthusiasts of that region immediately think: "So what did you do at Corkscrew Gulch, where sat the turntable w/switchback on the MAIN LINE of the Silverton RR?"
Fair enough question... we'll deal with that when the time comes! But first, we gotta get outta Ouray!
About Ouray: In the absence of prototype data, the first track I laid for Ouray, I simply winged it and plotted the track/depot in a manner I thought "plausible". It was pretty nifty, I thought. Then, several years later, I fell upon an earlier track chart for Ouray. I had the depot on the wrong side of the Uncompagre River. Well shite. That will never do. (I always prefer to use and reflect any actual prototype data I have for a location, even if I'm proto/free lancing.)
SO, I set in reworking the track of "my" Ouray to better conform to the actual Ouray. It was cool that the way I had previously chosen to leave Ouray to the south was already in place on the actual prototype!
Anyway, here's a few pics of the struggle to get out of Ouray...
On the upward climb, immediately after leaving Ouray proper, there are several bridges and a horseshoe curve w/trestles to get you started. Shortly after leaving that, you approach another horseshoe curve w/trestle needed to continually gain elevation. Here's a look at the second horseshoe curve w/trestle. In this picture the engine is pointed downgrade toward Ouray.
The struggle continues as you now begin to near the entrance to Uncompahgre Gorge. In this view you can see several tiers of narrow gauge rails as the C&SJ struggles to leave Ouray. In this picture, the train is again pointed downgrade to Ouray. Part of the horseshoe curve and trestles upon immediately leaving Ouray can be seen down below on the left.
A slightly different angle that shows several tiers of track near Ouray. The engine is pointed downgrade to Ouray. From this curve, traversing upgrade (to the left) the line enters Uncompahgre Gorge.
And here's an overview of Uncompahgre Gorge. Extensive cribbing and trestle work were needed to get out of Uncompahgre Gorge. (As is the case in many places on the C&SJ!). In the distance, you can see a small mountain community where is found the first pass track area upon leaving Ouray. We'll take a look at that little town next.
And this is the little community of "Stair Step Falls", so called by the tumbling waters of the Uncompahgre River tumbling along at the bottom of Uncompahgre Gorge.This scene is looking upgrade toward Fall Creek Jct.
And now the train is headed upgrade and approaching Fall Creek Jct. The Fall Creek Branch will continue straight ahead to serve the mines in Canyon Gulch region to terminate at the little town of Fall Creek where Fall Creek joins Canyon Creek. The main line to Silverton will take continue to the right over the trestle, accomplish another horseshoe curve w/trestes, and continue the climb to Ironton Park.
Here the mainline to Silverton is passing over the Fall Creek Branch. Ahead is Squaw Siding, so named for nearby Squaw Gulch. Squaw Siding is the second pass track after leaving upgrade from Ouray. In another mile or so the line will pass through the mining town of Pickhandle, where are several mines to serve.
That's it for this installment. When I return, we'll check out the mining area at Pickhandle and continue upgrade to Ironton Park, and eventually to the summint at Sheridan Pass... then to Silverton! From there, we'll take a look at the progress on the Lake City subdivision.
And now we're at the bawdy town of Pickhandle, where hard fisted miners and ladies of the evening reside. The reason for the existence of the town of Pickhandle is that there's a small mining district at Pickhandle that is accessed via a switchbacks.
And to reach those mines, via the switchbacks you have to deal with Gawd Awful Tail Track. Gawd Awful tail track is on a significant downgrade, so you have to be on yer toes in order to navigate it with cars loaded with sacks of silver and gold ore. Here's a pic of Gawd Awful Tail Track...
Leanin' Tree Curve signals the entrance into the upper elevations of Uncompahgre Gorge. From here on, the line clings precariously to the walls of Uncompahgre Gorge as it makes its way to the isolated mining community of Black Bear, and onward toward Alpine City sitting on the wide and mineral rich Ironton Park area...
Very nice trackwork and terrain work indeed, and a long way down if you derail. How many times was Gawd Awful (hehe) Tail Trackbeen overshot?
Thanks Parker.
The NED 10m Seamless terrain is gorgeous on the entire route, but the terrain rendered in the Ouray/Uncomahgre Gorge area is blow mind. Shucks, it's fantastic terrain all the way along the route!
As for the track work: Well, the geometry of X-Tracks narrow gauge pieces aren't perfect. Even though there are no obvious rough spots, there are still some occasional clicks and bumps when sitting in a running.engine on account of the minor geometry nuances. I guess that just adds to the atmosphere of a rough and tumble narrow gauge!
As for running off the end of Gawd Awful Tail Track...
I hate to admit this, but I have only run one activity on this route! That activity was a switching activity at Ouray late one snowy evening. That activity went like this...
After waiting for a southbound freight with a Mason Bogie on the point to whistle off and head into the snowfall about dusk, we commenced switching. After a spell, the Agent at Ouray waved us down. So, we cut away from the cars we were working and I took the engine over to the depot. Once inside the warm depot, the Agent told us we needed to leave off the switching and hurry up and run light engine up into the mountains. Seems that south bound freight we watched leave before we started switching, never OS'd past Black Bear. Given the potential emergency (hopefully only stalled by a snow drift or small snow slide and not derailed and off in the gorge!), we grabbed our gear an' grub from the depot, climbed into the cab of our Mogul, and we were off into the gathering darkness on a cold snowy night to rescue what was hoped to be only a stranded train somewhere up in the wilds of the mountains above Ouray. Given the pale illumination of the oil lamp headlight amid the heavy snow (I have a modified "Environment" file in place)... it was a bit unnerving working the grade at a speed that would allow me to get stopped before slamming into the back of what should be a stalled train up ahead!
Yes, it was fun... but my biggest kicks with V scale seems to be on the creation side of things. That is, I get my biggest kicks out of building routes and fleshing them out with vegetation, structures, and stuff. SO, I don't run them much! Shame on me.
BTW, I found the train... but couldn't shove them on up to Black Bear! They were stuck stopped cold by a snow slide! They had to be taken back down to Ouray.
Your trestle work is amazing and shows how railroading was done at the turn of the century. I enjoy the history you and Jerry "Landnrailroader" include with your dialogue and your routes.
Your trestle work is amazing and shows how railroading was done at the turn of the century. I enjoy the history you and Jerry "Landnrailroader" include with your dialogue and your routes.
Thanks for you encouraging words, Kevin.
Visually, bridges and cribbing are worth the considerable effort to place. However, I'm sure you noticed that my bridge models are quite simplistic compared to some bridge models. However, that's the way I roll in regards to scenery objects: As simple as I can make them, yet still look acceptable once installed.
I use the cribbing to avoid having to grotesquely modify the terrain on a mountainside. This often results in long stretches of cribbing (which is a PITA to install), but I'd rather have unrealistic amounts of cribbing as opposed to very unrealistically wide and crude roadbed benches that are unsightly.
As for the history: I enjoy sharing the premise of a route (if prototypical) or the concept of a theme (if proto/free lanced).
So we now have climbed out of Uncompahgre Gorge to Ironton Park. (A "Park" in Colorado nomenclature was a wide flatter area. It could be small like the Ironton Park, or huge, like the South Park.) As soon as the train surmounts the climb out of Uncapahgre Gorge, the train arrives at the intermediate helper station of Alpine City. Here's a couple of views of Alpine City..
Just ahead (south) of Alpine City, the line will start to seriously climb again. As the line works its way up the sides of the Red Mountains, it will pass through several very active mining areas that's part of the lucrative Red Mountain mining district. Obscene amounts of valuable ore (gold/silver) is being (was mined) from this fabulously rich area. First the train climbs past the White Cloud and Silver Belle mines...
NOTE: The core of my Colorado & San Juan proto/free lance route was based upon my route rendition of the 17 mile long prototype Silverton RR. My Silverton RR route was based upon the prototype, thus, I tried to adhere closely to the locations and track arrangements of the railroad that ran from Silverton to lower Ironton Park That means the track just south of my fictional Alpine City all the way to Silverton is essentially prototype. (Except for using a loop at Corkscrew Gulch instead of the "turntable on a switchback" of the prototype.)
And speaking of Corkscrew Gulch, here is how I handled that:
And here's a closer look at the Guston depot area. In this screen pic, the engine is pointed north toward Ouray. If you look closely at the background, you can see the line making its way around "The Knob" as it makes the final approach to Sheridan Pass.
Now you're sitting in the cab seat seeing what you would see in-sim. Also, this view is reflective of the Engineers of the prototype Silverton RR saw as they went about switching the Guston area!
From the Guston Area, there is a spur to Red Mountain Town. The prototype Red Mountain Town was a fascinating place that is a real switch puzzle. Red Mountain Town contained the very rich National Belle mine. My rendition of Red Mountain Town is track for track as well as the gradients (4%) being very close. Eventually, the place holder structures for the National Belle will be replaced with custom structure for same. (IF I live long enough LOL!) There is much scenery still to be accomplished at Red Mountain Town, but all in good time. Oh, and the real Red Mountain Town was wild and woolly! In keeping with that, I will be modeling the "Silver Slipper Saloon" (combination saloon and brothel). The Madame (and owner of the saloon) is the colorful and saucy Fanny LaPlentee. (The Silver Slipper and Fanny LaPlentee are creations of my over active imagination. I have way too much fun with this route theme!)
Still lots to do at Red Mountain Town, but at least there's a bit of scenery stuff to look at, which is the entire point of my "Phase 1" scenery concept..
Passing by the Red Mountain Spur and easing along the side of "The Knob", this is the view you get of the Red Mountains Mining District when you look out the cab window...
From The Knob you climb the last of the grade to reach the summit at Sheridan Pass. Sheridon Pass is between Silverton to the south, and Ouray to the north. In this view the engine is pointed south. Yes, the track and elements at Sheridan Pass are based on the prototype..
From Sheridan Pass, the line drops down through the Chattanooga Loop, and makes its way to Silverton. Here's a view of Silverton looking east. The engine in this picture is pointed north...
For Silverton, I imagineered the differences that could have been had the C&SJ existed. This means replacing the D&RG in its entirety. Behind this scene is essentially a track for track replica of the D&RG track that was at Silverton. I may leave it as is and add some industries, or I may edit it down some to be in keeping in what could have happened had the C&SJ had existed in the San Juan mountains. Oh, and the actual north/south main line of the C&SJ would theoretically continue south to Durango, then be imagineered south into New Mexico for a connection with the standard gauge east/west Santa Fe RR. I have considered merging the Durango route... but thus far I just haven't taken the plunge. Doubt that I will. What I have created is far more fun than the run to Durango would be.
Now, in the next installment of this tour of the C&SJ, we'll be taking a look at the Lake City Subdivision. The entire Lake City Sub is still quite bare, but there are some interesting points that I'd like to point out! As is the case with quite a bit of this route, the east along the Animas River is based on the prototype Silverton Northern. In fact, I have included the town of Eureka (based on maps) and eventually intend to run the line up to Animas Forks as per prototype. In the mean time, at Eureka Jct, the main line bends to the right and starts the tortuous and long climb to Denver Pass. From there we'll... ah... getting ahead of myself!
Are those trestles close to the real ones in design, or semi-re-imagined by you? Either way they are amazing work and I salute your modeling skill. I also wonder how you did those puffy mountainside whiffs of cloud.
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