Baldy Peak
The San Juan extension of the Denver and Rio Grande West (D & RGW) Narrow Gauge reached Durango in 1881. A line was built north from Durango to Silverton, which still exists today and forms the World famous Durango & Silverton Railroad. The period for the layout is set from the 1930’s until the 1950’s. The Rio Grande Southern (RGS) also connected at Durango.
The RGS mainline ran from Durango to Ridgway, were it again connected to the D & RGW, forming the Narrow Gauge circle. A round trip of approximately 1000 miles. The line left Durango in a North Easterly direction and ran for 162 miles to Ridgway. It was the last line built in Colorado and was started in 1890. The line at Durango is 5280 feet above sea level rising to 8989 feet at the Dallas Divide and then falling to 7003 feet at Ridgway.
The line was hard work for everyone and everything involved with it. With steep grades, harsh long winters and declining traffic, the line finally closed in 1951, just 71 years of operation
The line was in decline, until coal was discovered in the hills around Baldy Peak, this enabled the owners to expand the line and tap into large resources of coal and wood. The coal isn’t heavily mined but the new areas of forest the lines reached are producing good quality wood, which is in demand.
However, money was never readily available for minor work and the line was in generally poor condition. The small Depot at Baldy Peak is right on the edge of town, which is much lower in the valley.
The Local logging company, the Rio Florida Logging Company or RFLC runs a large network of lines around Baldy Peak. It should be noted that the RFLC has running rights on the D & RGW and RGS.
The line was built past Baldy Peak, there was no Depot there, also the RFLC never existed and I have just used modeller’s licence.
The layout is 14 feet long and 2 feet wide, it will be wider when the fiddle yard is built. I have used Brilliant baseboards with ply tops for the track bed, the frame is open and has been modified to allow for the scenery.
The scenery will be made up of polystyrene, cut to size, covered in filler with rock moulds added and the areas blended together to form the contours for the railway. Woodland scenic and Set Scenes scatter materials are used and varies colours are mixed together. Loads of trees are required and will be added as the layout develops.
The track used is Peco O 16.5mm narrow gauge crazy track, with all points electrical controlled with SEEP point motors. DCC is used to control the whole layout, there is no control panel. Should the DCC detect a short the layout is split into 2 power districts. Most locos are fitted with DCC chips and at present 17 locos are fitted with sound. The sound can be switched off if needed.
Stock used on the layout is mainly Bachmann, Broadway, MMI or Precision Craft ready to run, but kits from Backwoods Models, Smoky Bottom Lumber Co., EDM and Chivers Finescale are used.
Steam Locomotives are generally fitted with sound, these include all the Broadway C16’s, the Bachmann Shay’s and Climax’s and the Precision Craft Geese. Sound is being fitted in the smaller locomotives, mainly in the boxcab diesels. Most of the Shays are fitted with a custom Tsunami sound chips and all the Climax’s are now fitted with this chip set. The Bachmann Consolations are also fitted with Tsunami sound chips from Soundtraxx. Loksound chips are being fitted in the diesels, two are now fitted.
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