The Yrbi Branch

The Yrbi branch started as a track that ascended away from the main line at what will now be called Yrbi Junction. It was going to loop back and run against the north wall of the layout room above the cities of Denver and Salt Lake staging tracks. It was then to curve and move along the east wall of the layout room above the mainline. From there it would cross the mainline and the drill tracks for Santa Fe yard and feed a few industries inside the loop at a higher elevation on the peninsula encircled by the arrival departure tracks. As I thought about this over several months while working on the town of Summit, I decided to abandon this plan as the top level of the layout is a little excessive in height, which was a mistake in planning and progress on the layout has gone too far to fix. So it was decided more height was not the way to go. It is planned that a local will run between Yrbi and Yrbi Junction to set-out/pickup cars at the branch interchange tracks, at Yrbi Junction, which will be dropped off by mainline through freights.


The next set of photos shows Yrbi branch raised sub-roadbed, risers, and the section of sub-roadbed that ran above the cities of Denver and Salt Lake staging tracks, all of which have been removed.

Future north end of summit to the left.

The next three photos show the old sub-roadbed above the two staging tracks with the mainline closest to the camera. This is the north wall of the layout room and the wall in the back ground of the third picture is the east wall. As mentioned before the sub-roadbed and it's supports have been removed.

The next set of photos shows the Yrbi branch as it is today with continued construction as well as future construction. The sub-roadbed from Yrbi junction around the curve just had the risers removed and attached to the grid work thus the holes that were cut in the cork to allow access to the screws. The long section of tangent sub-roadbed was relocated just to the right of the main and attached to the grid work. Fortunately the cork was not glued down all the way on this section which made for easier disassembly.


As seen in this photo is the turnout for future branch interchange tracks and maybe a wayside industry or two. I'm also thinking of maybe constructing a wye to turn the local locomotive in the area behind the camera. Some extra thought needs to be given to this as I'm undecided at the moment.

The track will extend here and loop around and above the outer edge of the helix.

This will be Yrbi. A large grain elevator and maybe some type of mill with a wye if room allows.

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Progress at Summit

The town of Summit is the name given to the block of track at the top of the helix. After a little brainstorming with myself and my wife Pam as what to name the town, and after mulling over many combinations of catchy names. I finally decided to keep it simple and name it Summit. The plans for Summit are three industries and accommodations for pickup and drop off for helpers which will entail non-powered dummy locomotives. The town at the bottom of the helix will also have accommodations for the same purpose. 

To mainly provide for operational interest, the plan is for every train that traverses the helix will have helpers on the end for both up and down movements. The train crew will cut in the locomotives before traversing the helix up or down, and like wise cut out the helpers when arriving at top or at the bottom. The reason behind having helpers on trains down the helix was to provide a way for the non powered helpers to be returned to the bottom of the helix without a separate crew to do this or an extra move for the crew. When operating sessions finally commence, they will be closely monitored as to weather this will be feasible pertaining to the question, "Will it become too much of a bottleneck?" I know many of you are thinking it will but again, the main reason for this is to add operational interest. After observing operation sessions and it does become just that, a bottle neck, the idea will be abandoned.

The North end of Summit with siding turn out and the turnout that will eventually lead to the two industries at the north end. The blank cork on the right is the branch line that will eventually lead to a grain facility.

The upper two pictures show the south end of Summit showing helper storage track for downward helix trains and eventual lead to the south industry with the mainline, siding and branch to the left in the lower picture.

Far south end of Summit showing the helper storage track for trains reaching the top of the helix with the freshly glued down cork for the branch to the left. I'm still in planning stages for the three industries for Summit and a name for the branch line town. This will be revealed in future blog posts when decisions have been made.

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