COLORADO NORTHERN By Mike Morrison.

The Colorado Northern is a 12' x 9' N scale layout being built by the club Treasurer (that's where the club funds are going) in his basement. Although operated centrally from within, the layout is accessible on the outside on three sides. All baseboards or bench work as the Americans would say are two feet wide. The layout is operated with a Digitrax Super Empire Builder DCC system using the company's infra red system.

The imaginary route is based on the D&RGW (that's the Denver & Rio Grand Western to the uninitiated) line from Salt Lake City, Utah to Denver, Colorado, although the section involved is from Grand Junction, Colorado to Denver via the town of Mesa (Glenwood Springs). In my imaginary scenario this line was owned by the Colorado Southern. The C & S was taken over by the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy (Burlington Route) which, in 1970, was itself amalgamated into Burlington Northern, along with Great Northern, Northern Pacific and Spokane, Portland and Seattle Railroad. Although the line is run as a Burlington Northern line in the general timeframe 1975 to 1985 all loco's purchased by the individual companies before 1970 remain painted in their original schemes. This allows me to run CB&Q and Great Northern loco's in their original liveries. The timeframe itself is variable as I do also run 1990's equipment.

In the track plan the line leaves the rear staging loops and arrives on the layout via tunnel No 9 from the West and along the banks of Boulder creek into the town of Lake City and particularly, North yard, which is a division point yard on the route. All trains stop here to change crews, some, i.e. loaded coal trains require helpers to be added for the climb up into the Rockies over Monarch Pass to the mid point town of Mesa, where helpers are cut off and return to Lake City. North Yard is divided into 9 tracks. From inside to outside they are as follows. 1. Loop beside the Depot. 2. No 1 Mainline. 3. Yard lead. 4. Eastbound arrivals and departures. 5. Westbound arrivals and departures. 6. Terminal road for freight cars for Lake City Industries. 7. Terminal road for freight cars for Mesa Industries 8. Terminal road for through freight cars. 9. Caboose Track. Engine servicing and a small engine house diverge from the Depot loop, as do four industries.

On exiting North Yard the line becomes double track for the climb over Monarch Pass. Trains pass to the right of the large Cargill grain elevator and the Delta paper mill complex, before beginning a two per cent gradient climb around a horseshoe curve over the pass to the summit of the line just before the town of Mesa. A line to the Monarch No 1 mine leaves the mainline at Mesa. This mine supplies coal to Mesa Dept. of Public Utilities as well as Delta Paper at Lake City. Mesa also has Printers supplied by Delta Paper and a Flour Mill supplied by the Cargill grain elevator. A Lumberyard and Oil dealer also figure in the industries here.

Leaving Mesa the line returns to single track and runs along behind North yard and over a couple of trestle bridges before dropping on a two per cent gradient behind the back scene and into the looped staging yard. The staging yard has eleven tracks supporting the undernoted trains. 1. Divisional freight from the West 2. Divisional freight from the East 3. Amtrak California Zephyr Superliners Eastbound 4. CB&Q (Burlington Route) California Zephyr Westbound 5. Combined Double Stack/TOFC (That's trailers on flat cars) train Westbound 6. Manifest freight Westbound 7. Manifest freight Eastbound 8. Loaded Grain Train Eastbound 9. MTY coal train Westbound. 10. Intermodal double stack train with some Tri level auto-racks Eastbound 11. Loaded coal train Eastbound Stationed at North Yard are one pair of helpers, the Mesa local, and a yard switching loco. All trains are double headed, some triple.

Locomotive decoders are programmed to the same basic loaded speed table in order that they all run at the same speed despite variation in motors. They layout is run to an operational sequence but freight cars used for switching each have a car card giving instructions for its next move. All freight cars and loco's are fitted with Micro Trains couplings to allow remote switching. Most points in the main yard and industries are operated manually by Caboose Industries groundthrows. Remote points i.e. staging and some mainline points are operated by Peco point motors and are considered under control of the dispatcher. Although built as a one-person layout, operation could be extended to two Loco engineers plus a Dispatcher to control the sequence.

Amtrak California Zephyr led by a P42 Genesis Locomotive climbing the 2% gradient East out of Lake City.

A BN coal train climbs the 2% horseshoe curve into Monarch Pass.

A BN RS1 in GN livery switches the Monarch Mine.

A BN coal train at the summit of the line at Crystal Lake, just before the town of Mesa.

Industries at Mesa.