Modeling Ouray - Layout Planning

Planning your layout is an essential part of model railroading. It doesn't matter if you want a simple oval of track, or a fully realistic model of a major yard, even a little planning can go a long way in making sure your layout will fulfill the desires you wish to have, but also fit your constraints of time, space and money.

In planning for the Ouray Branch layout, I already knew I was going to be roughly using the TOMA concept (The One-Module Approach), which I had briefly discussed in an earlier blog post. As such, I would be building the layout in sections, so as more space may become available down the road I can expand the layout, but I can get started on something now. With that, I had selected Ouray as my starting point, as operationally it makes the most sense. As I would be starting with Ouray, my focus went solely onto that (mostly), but still with consideration for future expansion. That said, here's my process for designing the Ouray sections.

I started with absolute basics. What were the things I had to have? What were things I could do without? How could I compress things down to a reasonably sized layout? Well known layout designer John Armstrong called this process the "givens and druthers." I immediately made a list in my head, mostly as follows:

Givens (requirements):

• The total layout length should be no longer than twelve (12) feet on one side
• No section of the layout shall be more than two (2) feet deep and six (6) feet in length, so to facilitate easy movement in the future
• Mainline minimum curve radius shall be 24 inches, and 20 inches on all other tracks
• Layout will be at a height that is easy to operate from yet have a fairly realistic vantage point for viewing (I ultimately went with a 54 inch track height here after some mocking up)
• Turnouts will be #6 or greater
• Rail will be code 55
• Mountain scenery!!! Anyone who has been to Ouray knows this is very important

Druthers (things that would be nice but aren't necessarily requirements):

• All track will be handlaid (turnouts will for sure, but was on the fence at the time about using flex track elsewhere; ultimately have decided to go all handlaid)
• Get the track layout as close as possible to the real Ouray while still fitting the space and allowing for scenery
• I wanted track to not always follow the layout edge, it just looks better
• Avoid curves on the section joints wherever possible, and keep turnouts away from same

Having completed this list, I looked at photos and maps and drew up a very rough track plan, as seen here:

As it says, it is very much not to scale, as I would soon find out. On this version, I designed the layout using four sections that were all two feet deep (except the corner) and fit in a roughly 12 foot by 7 foot space. The track arrangement was made close, but not quite true to the prototype, eliminating a second double ended siding near the turntable and the track into the lumber yard on the south side of town.

With this plan in situe, I fired up AnyRail (a computer track planning software, available here: AnyRail) to see what I could do to form it into a computer track plan. What I ultimately found out was that I was shorting myself a little, and I could fit more into the space, especially if I increased the seven foot side by one foot, to eight feet. This allowed me to include the missing double ended siding, and extend the track on the south end of the layout to allow more headroom. I also modified the eight foot side to be 18 inches deep to help eliminate some dead space, while the twelve foot side remained two feet deep. I was easily able to accomodate my minimum radius and turnout requirements, while maintaining plenty of space for the sheer mountain scenery.

Local RGS HOn3 modeler Scott McLeod saw what I had come up with, and liked it but suggested I add the lumber yard at the end of the southern most part of the layout. Though compressed, much like other points on the plan, I was able to fit it in. Below, we see what ultimately came of this process: 

Though the two double ended sidings are shorter than true prototype (though not by much), and there is some compression in a couple other spots, the layout holds generally very true to how the trackage in Ouray was in the early to mid 1940s, the period I am modeling. Very happy with the end result, I have undertaken designing the benchwork for the layout. I just did it on a piece of paper. It doesn't have to be exact, just to have on paper what I plan to do for reference. This is seen here (obviously I wouldn't expect anyone to be able to read my bad handwriting, but you get the idea):

With this all complete, I am now ready to start in on the new layout. As it so happens, the old layout met its demise this past weekend. It served well to help my skills along, but it was time to say goodbye with this new forthcoming layout in the imminent future.

With the old layout now retired to the dump, my next step is to acquire materials to begin building the benchwork for the new layout. Currently, my hope is by Thanksgiving I will be ready to start in on construction. I am beyond excited to begin, and I am also excited to share the progress with all of you. Maybe by the time the National Narrow Gauge Convention returns here to the Twin Cities (Minneapolis/St Paul) in 2026, I'll have something for you all to see in person! That's my ultimate goal at this time, anyway.

Until next time, friends. See you down the track!

Prototype Research for Model Railroading

One of the most fun (at least to me) and important facets of prototype modeling, or even proto-freelance modeling, is undoubtedly one thing - research. Researching the prototype can even be a hobby in itself, and there are many ways to approach it. In this post, I'd like to talk about how I have gone about prototype research for the Ouray Branch, what sorts of material I've used and how they help and even how other modelers can use these tools to help with research for their own railroads. Now some of you may have heard this type of information before, especially if you are already a prototype modeler. There are many books and articles that have been written more or less on this very subject. I feel it is an important topic to discuss though, and one facet of the hobby I truly enjoy, so let's dive right in.

BOOKS - The first source of information that I find very useful are books. There have been literally hundreds, if not thousands, of excellent railroad books chronicling nearly every railroad out there (as long as they're not too obscure) and every imaginable railroad subject. If you do a little searching, I'm sure in most cases you can find at least one book relevant to the prototype you wish to model. Relating to the Ouray Branch project, here are two books in particular I have found very useful thus far:

"Gunnison: From Marshall Pass, Lake City and Crested Butte through to Ouray" has a section toward the back on the Ouray Branch, with some text but mostly photos and a couple of maps. 

"Colorado Rail Annual #11" on the other hand, has a section spanning the second half of the entire book dedicated to the branch, with lots of text covering the history on the line and a following section full of maps and photos. Many railroad books will include such material, and even the most minute amount of information or even a single photo in one of these books can provide a treasure trove of knowledge to help you with your prototype modeling. Go ahead, if you haven't already, start a search for books on your favorite railroad or a subject you are interested in. What information they can provide is often worth every penny spent!

MAPS - Often books will contain maps, but other sources may be available for maps which may assist you in your modeling. One source commonly used by model railroaders are Sanborn fire insurance maps. These can be used to determine what certain buildings are in the area you are modeling along with other useful information. Most of these maps that are currently available online are quite early however, and in my case, the available ones for Ouray are at best from 30 years or more prior to my era. However, some areas may change more than others, so even these early maps may be useful, especially in more rural locales where things tend to change more slowly. Here is a link to some 1908 Sanborn maps of Ouray.

A common saying these days is "Google is your friend." In this case, Google Maps or Google Earth can be useful, especially if you are modeling railroads in the present day or lines that still exist or even if the right of way is still visible. Much of the Ouray Branch right of way is still quite visible, even today, and so I have used Google to place some locations from photos that I didn't know exactly where they were, normally using the surrounding terrain as comparison tools. Here is a satellite image from Google Maps, showing the Cow Creek trestle (still standing today) and the right of way on both sides of it.

There are other sources of maps as well. ICC Valuation maps are particularly useful but can be difficult to find. Often, at least in the case of the Rio Grande, these maps more accurately show the track layout of certain areas than non-railroad maps do. Railroad track charts can also be found for many railroads. Take a look, these are incredibly useful tools.

RAILROAD DOCUMENTS - The railroads themselves can be incredibly useful resources. Employee timetables can be used to research not only the lines a railroad operated, but can give some insight into how they operated those lines. There are many examples of employee timetables for many railroads that have been scanned and are available online. Here are a couple pages from D&RGW Alamosa Division timetable #122:

Another document I have personally found interesting is a Condensed Profile of the D&RGW RR System from 1945. This document contains profiles of many of the Rio Grandes' lines, both standard and narrow gauge, as they were in 1945 including stations, watering facilities, grades, rail sizes and year said rail was installed, curvature, etc. Note the 45 and 30 pound rail between Ridgway and Ouray!

Train registers, valuation maps, track charts and all kinds of other material can be found. Do an online search or look around on eBay or at a local train show. There are all kinds of materials out there from the railroads that can provide immense amounts of information.

PHOTOGRAPHS - This is the really fun one for me. I have spent hours going over and compiling photographs of the Ouray Branch and yet, I continue to find photographs I haven't seen before. Google Images is a good starting point for this, but often you will get a lot of photos you aren't looking for. Ebay is a good source for photos if you want to pay a little for a photo. Often times for older photos on eBay, these are scans of slides or the slides themselves.

Photo sites more specifically tailored to railroads, especially if there is one for the railroad you wish to model, are the best in my opinion. For my subject, the Friends of the Cumbres & Toltecs' collection of photos, particularly those from the collection of Richard Dorman, have been immensely helpful for finding photos related to the D&RGW as well as the Rio Grande Southern. Dorman Photo Collection

Another source I have used is the digital photo collection of the Denver Public Library. This site contains all kinds of railroad photos, notably photographs taken by Robert W. Richardson and Otto Perry. Denver Public Library Photo Collections

There are many photo sites like this. If you do a little searching, you should have no trouble finding some kind of helpful photo.

OTHER RESOURCES SPECIFICALLY FOR MODELING - Lastly, you might find other resources that have been compiled specifically for model railroaders. Drawings, plans, maps and all kinds of other information may be available from other modelers and railfans that have been tailored toward model railroading. Many railroad historical societies have such material for modelers to use, take a look!

Mike Blazek is well known in the narrow gauge modeling community for his plans and so-called "Narrow Gauge Workbooks." The later is a compilation of information, maps, drawings and whatever else may be useful to the modeler grouped into workbooks, each in regard to a different location on several Colorado narrow gauge railroads. Mike also has plans available for these in HO, S and O scale and even some for the 2 foot gauge Sandy River & Rangeley Lakes Railroad in Maine. I have his Ouray and Ridgway workbooks as well as the plans for both depots, and they are a real gold mine of information.

This has been just a very basic look at prototype research for model railroading, what I have used for my own research and what you can use to research your own railroads. You can go as lightly or as deep into research as you want, but it is an essential tool for prototype modeling and truly can be a hobby in itself. I personally find it very enjoyable and it has helped immensely in the planning of my layout, which will be the subject of an upcoming blog post. If you would like a deeper look at some resources you can use for your research, TSG Multimedia made an excellent video with Master Model Railroader Jack Burgess on this very subject, and I highly recommend taking a look: Model Railroading With Jack Burgess Research Methods (On a side note, I visited Jacks' layout during the 2019 National Narrow Gauge Convention. It truly is among the best model railroads I have ever had the opportunity to visit.)

See you all down the 3 foot gauge track! Enjoy your research, it's well worth the time.

Going Prototype: How I decided to model the Ouray Branch

At the end of my previous (first) post, I mentioned my old proto-freelance layout just wasnt piquing my interest any longer. For the uninitiated, proto-freelancing in model railroading simply means either using real locations but fictionalizing the railroad, using a prototype railroad and fictionalizing the locations, or a combination of both.

My previous layout was built as a modified version of the Model Railroader Magazine Virginian project railroad, which ran in the magazine in early 2012. The track plan was, however, in my case flipped and otherwise modified to work better for narrow gauge and otherwise to my liking. Here is an overview of the layout:

The layout conceptually modeled a fictional branch line of the D&RGW narrow gauge, which would have peeled off of the Alamosa to Mears Junction "Valley Line" at Moffat, ran west to Saguache and then north into the mountains to Bonanza, all real locations in Colorado. While this worked well for this layout, I very much treated this layout as a test bed to work on my model railroading skills, and always knew I'd like to go full prototype when my skills allowed and the proto-freelance thing just didn't do that for me anymore.

Some time ago, late in 2021/early in 2022, that realization hit me. I wanted to change gears and go to prototype modeling. I still wanted to model the D&RGW narrow gauge in the early 1940s, and stay in HOn3, but I wasn't quite sure what section I would like to model, or how I would go about modeling it since I didn't exactly have a permanent space at the time (I still don't).

The answer to the latter portion came to me early in 2022. Some time ago I had learned about a concept propogated by Joe Fugate and Model Railroad Hobbyist known as "TOMA," or "The One-Module Approach." In short, the TOMA approach is a sectional approach to building a model railroad where one can build their layout in pieces and add staging to operate the sections until more is built. There's more to that, but this is not exactly pertinent to this topic. Deciding to go sectional, using TOMA as a guide, I then went looking for a section of the Rio Grande that I would like to model.

Many D&RGW narrow gauge modelers model what was once known as the 4th Division. This includes the line from Alamosa, Colorado to Antonito (where the Santa Fe branch leaves for Santa Fe, New Mexico), then west over Cumbres Pass to Chama, New Mexico and on to Durango, Colorado, where branches to Silverton and Farmington as well as a connection to the Rio Grande Southern railroad all come together. No doubt this is because two segments of this part of the railroad survive today as the Cumbres & Toltec and Durango & Silverton railroads. This area is shown highlighted on this 1940 D&RGW map:

I am somewhat different in that my interest lies a ways to the north, on what was the 3rd Division. This includes the original D&RG narrow gauge main line to Salt Lake City, running west from Salida, Colorado over Marshall Pass to Gunnison, then through the Black Canyon to Montrose, as well as branch lines to Monarch, Crested Butte, Baldwin, Lake City and Ouray. Naturally, being my interest lies here, this is where I went looking for somewhere to model. Again, this area is shown highlighted on the 1940 D&RGW map:

I long thought my "dream layout" would be the main from Salida to Gunnison, over Marshall Pass, including the Monarch Branch, Crested Butte branch, or both. This however, would require a large layout in a large space to model, something I have become less and less interested in doing. As an aside I also looked at just the Crested Butte branch as a modeling idea. While the switching in Crested Butte would be fun for an operator to do, the branch normally only saw one train a day in the 1940s and was extremely heavy on coal traffic and not much else. Here we see D&RGW K-37 class mikado #494 on a freight train at Marshall Pass:

With this idea discarded, I looked west. Next consideration was the mainline between Cimarron and Montrose, over Cerro Summit. This segment was just 22.5 miles in length, and featured helper engines on both sides of the hill. Best part? Because of the light rail in the area, K-27 mikados and C-series 2-8-0s of several classes were the rule of the day here. But two nagging subjects bothered me. Being a fan of operations in the hobby, the lack of on-line switching between Cimarron and Montrose was a striking factor. There were stock pens at Cimarron and reefers were loaded at Lujane, but not much else was going on in that 22.5 miles in terms of switching. The other striking factor was the scenery. This section of the railroad was very much high plans and foothills country. There were a couple of neat vignettes on the line, but nothing that really tickled my fancy. Below we see C-21 class consolidation #361 climbing the grade to Cerro Summit westbound with a K-27 helper on the rear:

My third and ultimately successful consideration was the Ouray Branch. Already, this branch was among my favorites, but as I'd find during my research, this ticked all of the boxes for me. It was fairly busy in the early 40s, with interchange traffic to/from the Rio Grande Southern as well as several on-line customers, and occasionally saw up to two trains a day. The scenery is not only spectacular, it is quite varied. The line was 36 miles long, so it could be modeled in a reasonable space if compressed properly. And lastly, K-27 and C-class engines again were the order of the day. I had also been to the area myself before, and loved the town of Ouray in particular. This is it, this is exactly what I wanted, and better, it was a perfect subject for a sectional model railroad with plenty of operational possibilities. Another photo, this time of C-18 #318 crossing the "Mill Trestle" on its way to Ouray:

With a prototype segment finally being decided, next came research into the Ouray Branch and figuring out how I could turn it into a model railroad, built in sections starting with one that could be operated by itself until more layout can be built. We will take a look at this process in a future post.

Until next time, Happy Model Railroading!

An Introduction

First of all, I'd like to welcome you all to my blog. I'm Dan Lindfors. I have been in the model railroading hobby since I was 5 years old when I received a HO Walthers Trainline train set for Christmas. Since then, I had been modeling in HO standard gauge for many years, with my interests sort of changing around from time to time as I went. This included the Santa Fe, Milwaukee Road, BNSF, Duluth Missabe & Iron Range and Rio Grande, steam and diesel, passenger and freight. But none of this was what really mattered most to me, as I would find.

I have been a longtime fan of Colorado narrow gauge, however, and the Denver & Rio Grande Western and Rio Grande Southern railroads in particular. In 2003, when I was 9 years old, my family took a vacation which included rides on both of the surviving portions of the Rio Grande narrow gauge. I had seen them on videos previous to this, but the trip further put interest in my mind. Here are a couple of photos from that 2003 trip: 

Fast forward a couple of years to 2005. During a visit to the California State Railroad Museum, I picked up a copy of Robert W. Richardsons' book "Rio Grande: Chasing the Narrow Gauge Volume 1," and looking through the photographs in the book, the hook set deep. The following year, Blackstone made their first release of HOn3 K-27 mikados. I had taken notice of the advertisements in Model Railroader magazine depicting these locomotives, and I knew that's what I'd really love to model. Over the following several years, I picked up a Blackstone K-27 and a few pieces of rolling stock, but at the time I was staying in HO standard gauge, as I had quite a bit of time and money invested in that by this time. My true desire was set aside for quite some time. 

In May of 2013, after almost 10 years, another trip was made to Narrow Gauge Country. This included rides on both remaining segments of the Rio Grande narrow gauge once more. Again, a couple of photos:

Though my interest in the Rio Grande narrow gauge was still very, very strong, I had not yet been convinced to go deeper into modeling it at this point. That changed the following year, in 2014.

In August of 2014, I attended the Fireman School at the Cumbres & Toltec Scenic Railroad, one of the two remaining segments of the narrow gauge. For over a decade now, the railroad has hosted several classes each season where folks can pay to experience a few days rotating through the cab of a steam locomotive on a train of freight cars learning how to fire or run. It was an amazing experience, but most importantly to me, it really fired up my interest in modeling the Rio Grande narrow gauge. Here's a link to a GoPro video I took during that trip: In the cab of Engine 489 from Cresco to Cumbres

The experience was so amazing that in June of 2015, I returned to do the Engineers side of things. Again, here's the link to a GoPro video from this trip: In the cab of Engine 488 from Lobato to Cresco

That was it, my interests were firmly cemented. After some thought to how I wanted to approach building a narrow gauge layout, I finally began construction in 2018 of a 4x8 HOn3 layout based roughly on the Model Railroader magazine Virginian project railroad from 2012, but flipped and somewhat modified to fit my desires. After 2 years, this is what the layout looked like just before I put it away when other projects came along and stole my focus, along with being busy working for a shortline railroad by this time.

And that was that for the time. Early in 2022 though, I revisited my HOn3 model railroading desires. The old layout, being proto-freelance, just wasn't doing it for me anymore as I wanted to go to full prototype modeling. Thus began the journey that has led to the layout to be featured on this blog, but I will dive into the journey in future blog posts.

For now, Happy Model Railroading! See you down the tracks.