.................................. Return to Sumner's Home Page....

Return to N Scale RR Main Menu... Return to UP Canyon Division Menu

=========================================

..............Previous Page..............................Next Page If There Is One

=========================================

.--- Building Union Pacific's N Scale Canyon Division ---

=========================================

NOTE: I've decide to go with a little smaller layout with a track plan that is also not as complex as I first considered (shown below). One reason is that this will allow me to move the layout into a section of my shop that is easier to heat and more open (less depressing as the part I was going to use). The following pages have info that pertains to the pre-main-layout time period so is still pertinent and will remain in place. So the choice is to read this page even though it won't be used, skip to the next page ( HERE ) or go and look at the new purposed track plan ( HERE ).

=========================================

This will be the build pages for my N scale layout. In the late '60's early 70's I had some N scale track and one loco and a handful of cars but was living in a small apartment going to college so had a very simple layout. Then developed other interests and left the hobby but felt I'd always return and did in late 2018.

Still I was very occupied with sailing so just started catching up on where N scale was now. Wow lots of new things to learn like DCC and the whole hobby was very advanced from the 70's. After taking the sailboat to the Bahamas in the spring of 2019 with my wife Dottie and then selling it, time had come to more completely return to N scale.

I was in the process of building a small camper and still am as I write this but I started buying rolling stock and engines, some DCC ready and others not. Built an Arduino/Raspberry Pi/JMRI DCC control station with a short piece of test track and started wiring DC locos to DCC. My shop is in two parts. One quite large where I do my 'car stuff' and other projects. The other side, about 13' X 32' is being cleared out slowly for the train room.

I've worked on track plans for the past 10 months and have come up with a potential plan for what I'd like to work on, shown above. There are a lot of contour lines in that drawing and the one below so it looks probably more crowded than I hope it will be. Remember that all of the layout above is in a space of over 26 feet by 13+feet.

At 75 now will it ever be completed? Probably no way, but I'll have fun getting as much of it done as possible. I'll be running UP equipment as that is what I saw when I lived in Laramie, Wyoming for years. It will be set in the time period from after WWII to the mid '70's. The location will be fictional and based somewhat on where I live now, which is in Utah's southeast canyon country. UP does have a spur here running down into the canyon along side the Colorado River by Moab, UT but that is the extent of their 'Canyon Country Division'.

Above is an overview without all the contour lines and industries that are shown in the first picture. Trains can originate in the staging yard at the top right and head either east to Canyon City and beyond or head west to Helper and beyond. The route is describe in more detail in the following diagrams.

I'm ready to start work on the Staging Yard which will service the two towns at both ends of the layout, Canyon City and Helper. Hopefully building it will get me laying track, installing the switches I've been making, wiring and some scenery. When it is up and running and the part of the shop where it will go is cleaned out it will be moved there, but meanwhile I'll have a place to run and test equipment.

Once things are ready for the rest of the layout then I'll build bench work and try to get the mainline in place so I can run trains over a longer distance and then start the town areas and other businesses along the right of way.

The rest of these pictures show the main line which originates in the staging yard and heads to either Canyon City to the west or Helper to the east. Above the main line has left the staging yard and heads west into Canyon City. From Canyon City it heads towards Summit.

There is a loop before summit where the track climbs towards summit. Also by Summit is a reversing loop that along with another one by Mesa allows continuous running on the higher elevation tracks. After leaving Summit the …

main line heads to Coalbed Loop where there is a smaller coal mine. There are three coal mines, Summit, Coalbed Loop and Mesa that mine low sulfur coal that is shipped east. After making the loop at Coalbed the line continues running above and behind Canyon City to Mesa and on towards Helper. At Mesa we find the second reversing loop for the upper level.

After passing Mesa the line continues descending down into Helper where it drops its helper engines if going east or picks them up if going west. Continuing past Helper the main line heads east to the south side of the Staging Yard. Another option is for a train to turn back on a short section of track that will take the train towards Canyon City for continuous running. There the train can take the bypass track around Canyon City or go into Canyon City.

This will be an ambitious project and don't expect to ever have it finished to the degree that I've seen from others but it will be fun no matter how far it goes.

I'm hoping that starting to post this will get me moving faster with finishing the camper and getting into the railroading on a full time basis.

=========================================

...........................On..............e.........Next Page If There Is One