Getting Prepped For Helix and Mainline Track Connection

I have installed the Sub-road bed for the area leading to the Helix. This will make it possible for me to continue the mainline and connect it with the helix.

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Layout Footprint

For those that are curious of the layout footprint. These can also be viewed with the links under Layout Track Plan in the right column of the blog. The layout is currently housed in an addition to my home. The addition total foot print is 21' x 40'. The layout room is 21' x 25' and the additional space was made into a craft room for my wife. She has so graciously agreed to let me use the craft room as a crew lounge for operating sessions in the future. Thanks Dear! 

The footprint for the layout was drawn in XtrakCAD which is a free CAD program that can be downloaded by clicking the white hyperlink.

Upper level, with the helix in the lower right and Santa Fe NM Yard in the upper left. The industry tracks have not been laid yet as I have been experimenting with ideas for those.  

Lower level, again with the helix in the lower right. El Paso Texas yard on the left side and in the upper right will be an interchange with the Southern Pacific's Sunset Route. The over and under on the left peninsula is undecided at this time. Trying to come up with ways to extend the run has its challenges.

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Early Layout Beginnings To Now

I finally got around to finding pictures from the early start of the layout and I wanted to share those on the blog with photos of more recent ones. The following are photos of the early stages of the layout bench work, along with descriptions of the other photos.

    

There are other photos between these early stages and the later stages of construction, but I have been unable to locate them. Lost, within the fields of electronic storage some where unknown.

The following are the early construction of the peninsula leading to the Santa Fe NM yard. How I do need to come up with names for the yards other than the city names. I need to work on that!

                     

         Stack of Homasote waiting for cutting and trimming and installation.           

                  

          Santa Fe NM yard.             

Mainline and siding leading into arrival departure tracks.

                                                        

                                                              Arrival/Departure tracks.

Arrival/Departure and caboose tracks with the locomotive faciltiy.

                                                               Santa Fe NM Yard.

Joining of the reverse loop for continuous running, with a glimpse of the branch line on the wall to the left and the open end of Santa Fe NM yard.

Mainline (to the right) with Denver and Salt Lake City staging (left two tracks) with the branchline above.

Good view of the branch line above staging. At this point I am a little hesitant on weather or not to continue the branchline because of height concerns. I struggle with eliminating it or not.

More of the branchline.

The branchline separated from the main. In this photo you can also see the styrene under the main track for my experiment with super elevation on the curve and the branchline rising in the back ground.

This photo shows looking down the branch line the opposite way with the main (to the right) waiting for helix construction before continuing on.

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Back Story

My fondness for the DRGW, or Rio Grande if you will, has been with me since I can remember seeing my first train. Being that I was raised in the Denver Colorado area, that first train happened to be a Rio Grande train. Since I wanted to model Rio Grande motive power and equipment and have a different name for my model railroad, I decided I needed to come up with a back story to explain this. In my railroad world the Rio Gande made it to Santa Fe New Mexico with standard gauge track, even though in the real world the railroad serviced Santa Fe with narrow gauge track and has been long gone. I hope readers will enjoy what I have come up with. This is a very fictitious story. Click on the white “back story” hyper link to read the story.

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A New Beginning

This is my very first blog and I'm learning as I go and on the fly. My goal is to show my progress on the C&RGCRR a HO scale model railroad that I'm presently building.

A good friend of mine suggested I start a blog to keep track of the layout progress and for ease of sharing photos of that progress to others. Many thanks to Allen Heimsoth for the suggestion and hand holding to get this blog started. Thanks Allen! Check out his blog called The Little Rock Line.

In the future I will get photos uploaded to show where the railroad construction is at the present time.

I have spent all summer building a seven layer double track helix, pictures to follow in the future also.
Please check back to see future additions.
Also, please feel free to comment or make suggestions for the Blog as I'm a newbie to blogging.

Under Construction

Please bare with me. I’m new to blogging and still trying to get past the learning curve. So you can consider the blog under construction.  Thanks! 😁