The D&RGW in Sn3

Picture #1: The master plan - designed with 3rd PlanIt.

Picture #2: Here's a 3-D view of the layout. Minimum radius will be 36" and all turnouts are hand built FastTracks #7's.

Pictures #83-86: This update has been a long time coming as we typically spend the Spring at our seasonal home in California. However due to the unique circumstances this year we elected to return home earlier than usual so after 16 years I decided that it was well nigh time to get on to tackling my (condensed) rendition of the Gunnison CO roundhouse. It features full interior framing and is lit with 14 - 0402 Warm White SMLED's. Other than some interior detailing and weathering, it is now basically complete with the above photos illustrating its construction.

Pictures #87-89: Gunnison finally got a bit of basic scenery around the engine servicing area.

Pictures 90-91: The ash pit finally has some ashes.

Picture 92: The coal tower loading bunker has been weathered, the drop gates put in and the grating installed.

Picture 97: A loading ramp for moving heavy machinery on to flat cars, based on a photo of one that Lex Parker constructed in On3.

Pictures 98-99: Station stop for the local and a view looking west from the east end of Cimarron.

Picture 100: This view is looking towards the the mainline which extends east from Sapinero to Gunnison. The bridge was cut into the mainline and is based somewhat on a scene at Mears Junction.

Picture 101: An overview of the scene immediately below and just past the west end of Cimarron. The track in the foreground is the mainline that loops around and crosses over itself on the bridge on its way up to Sapinero, and the short section of track in the background leads to the Salida end of the staging trackage.

Pictures 102-103: As the access to the area behind the mill is somewhat challenging to access, I built up this scene off the layout with a base of 2" Styrofoam insulation board covered with plaster cloth and various rock castings and then colored it and applied ground cover, trees and shrubbery before setting it in place. These photos show the roughed-in scene; I still need to fill in a few gaps and crevices plus add some more greenery but that can be done as I finish up the foreground part of this scene.

Pictures 104-106: Scenery with hardshell and rock castings now started along the main line! I am using a traditional method of creating a lattice work out of ~1" wide corrugated cardboard strips and covering that with Woodland Scenics Plaster Cloth. Once the plaster cloth is set up I overcoat it by painting on a very thin coat of Hydrocal to provide additional strength but be warned, do this step in small batches as it sets up quickly! The rock castings are done with dental plaster as recommended by my late friend and noted modeler Paul Scoles poured in a mixture of some of my old handmade latex molds and some commercial ones by Joel Bragdon that I picked up at a National Narrow Gauge Convention or a Sn3 Symposium some years ago. For anyone living in Canada, I purchased my dental plaster from Dental Deals Canada in 50 pound boxes - and when I ordered three, the shipping was free!

Pictures 110-111: Once groundcover and ballast is installed, it becomes a bit of a challenge to remember where the under-the-ties uncoupling magnets are! So following a solution that I copied from my late very good friend Brian Ellerby, I've installed some LED's adjacent to the magnet locations which can be illuminated at each town as required. When not lit, they are virtually undetectable as you can see in these photos at the west end of Cimarron.

Picture 112-113: More rock castings applied at the west end of the layout, plus I cut down some of the supporting joists to allow a better view into the canyon scene.

Pictures 114 - 115: The rock castings have now been colored and ground cover and vegetation started from left to right.

Pictures 116 - 118: The area behind the roundhouse and extending from the line approaching Gunnison and above to the line rising up to Sapinero has now received rock castings. As well, the area adjacent to the Burnside Mill has finally got some ground cover and vegetation which will allow me now to close up one of my access points that I had left open to provide easier access.

Pictures 119 - 121: I extended the ground cover and vegetation further along the east end of the room and added some color to the castings on the west end. And as noted previously, some hardshell is now in place closing up the temporary access that I had left open to facilitate working in the corner adjacent to the mill.

Pictures 122 - 123: Ground cover and vegetation has now been added on the west side of the room.

Pictures 124 - 125: I needed to retain some access points on both ends of the layout for potential maintenance, as you can see by the plywood panels. These will have some basic landforms built up with Styrofoam insulation board and formed before applying the plaster cloth. As per an the technique described in an old 'Building the Rio Grande Southern' video that I had converted at a DVD I will place some clear Saran-type plastic wrap on top of the existing fixed scenery before dropping the plywood panels in place and then apply the plaster cloth on the lift-out panels. This should result in a nice tight fit while eliminating the risk of the lift-out panels becoming permanently attached. The panel at the east end required some additional framing but all in all was an easier installation than the odd-shaped panel between the turntable and the mainline approach to the west end of Gunnison.

Pictures 126 - 128: Some more areas at the east end of the room have now been finished and it looks less like the snow scene in the previous photos!

Picture 129: A panoramic view of the above area (slightly distorted).

Pictures 130 - 132: "...and Snow is in the forecast!" The cardboard strip webbing is now in place and ready for plaster cloth for the remaining areas at the east end of the layout.

Pictures 133-136: I've struggled how best to create some visual separation between the main division point yard at Gunnison and the town of Sapinero which is immediately behind and 8" higher. So I came up with the idea of a photo backdrop mounted on three removeable 4' long panels in order to allow emergency access to the Montrose/Salida staging trackage which is hidden below Gunnison and under Sapinero. These panels are secured in place with sleeves at each end created out of 3/4" aluminum angle stock mounted on 1" x 2" posts, various small angle brackets plus a sleeve made out of the same aluminum angle stock and cabinet door magnetic catches at the top. I still need to fill in the gap between the west end of the panels and my existing scenery as shown in the last photo but I think that the concept will work just fine once that's completed.

Pictures 134-138: "It snowed!" Woodland Scenics plaster cloth has now been applied over the cardboard webbing, followed by a coat of thinned Hydrocal plaster to provide some additional strength and smooth out the areas where the plaster cloth pieces overlap. The plywood panel will have some basic contouring applied and then the plaster cloth plus Hydrocal top coat applied next. I'm going to try a method that John Koch illustrated in one of his "Building the RGS" DVD's , in which after constructing the surrounding areas to the point that I have, placed Saran plastic wrap around the edges and draped it over the underlying existing area(s) to protect them. Then plaster cloth was applied to the removeable panel, extending slightly over the edge (but on top of the Saran plastic wrap) that when set up would provide a nice tight joint while remaining removeable. The first photo is a somewhat distorted panoramic view while the plaster cloth was setting up as are the next three while the final one is after the Hydrocal top coat was put on.

Picture 139: The start of scenery on the lift-out plywood panel with the cardboard strip webbing now in place, ready for plaster cloth.

Pictures 140-142: 30 pounds of dental plaster for a week's worth of rock castings.

Pictures 152-156: I've kept looking at - and been tempted - to purchase one of Raggs to Riches beautiful JJ Harris Warehouse kits to to replace my RGS Ridgway office building. But it was just a bit too long and when I asked Joe whether he thought that I could shorten it, his general comments indicated that this would be a pretty daunting task! That only left one option, either to scratchbuild a customized abbreviated variation --or-- to rejig the placement of some adjacent structures that would be retained. As you can see, I chose the latter option by doing the following :

• I shortened the station team track by ~3" and slid the depot to the east (right).

• I shortened the west (left) end of the depot platform by ~3"

• I relocated the water tank ~2" further west

which all of the above, resulted in a gain of 8" that will yield me sufficient space!

Pictures 157-159: My photo backdrop order from Railroad Backdrops arrived and has now been installed over three removable panels to allow emergency access. I think that this will work out fine and am really pleased with my decision to use this to break up the interface between Gunnison (in the foreground) and Sapinero (above and behind).

Pictures 160-163: This is how the photo backdrop project has ended up, with many thanks due to fellow Sn3 modelers and good friends Doug Jolley and Mark Evans for their valuable feedback and suggestions ! In the first photo, Doug suggested adding a small section of photographed rock work to soften the transition from the the 3-D scenery to the backdrop by eliminating the blunt edge as seen in the previous group of photos. The other suggestion was to apply a narrow painted border along the top to help visually separate the two scenes - much like that which is present on a decked layout - which is simply a strip of masking tape painted with the same color as the fascia along the edge of my benchwork.

Pictures 172-177: "One step backward, two steps ahead!" A failed solder joint on a point on one of the turnouts leading into my staging trackage required cutting out a small section of completed scenery in order to repair it. Given that situation, prudence dictated that the patch should remain removable (just in case, right?) but as long as I was drawn into scenery mode it also seemed a good opportunity to finish off both the access lift-out panel behind the Gunnison turntable and a small section of scenery that extended between the west end of Gunnison and Sapinero that tied into the photo backdrop.

Pictures 178-180: Many years ago I built the Building & Structure Co.'s kit for the DSP&P/C&S depot at Gunnison CO which has served as both Cimarron and Sapinero on various layouts over time...however, it just never looked quite right in the context of a D&RGW setting so it's now been replaced with Banta Modelworks' kit for the Allison CO depot. I replaced the supplied shingle roofing paper with some Building & Structure Co. cedar shingles that I'd stashed away and also added some SMLED lighting.

Pictures 180-194: The SMLED lighting on the J.J. Harris Warehouse, my new Sapinero depot and my roundhouse at Gunnison inspired me to retrofit some other structures as well so here are some photos illustrating the results.

Photo 195: Here's an overview of "the state of the Nation", looking back from the west end of Sapinero across Gunnison with Cimarron in the background.

Photos 196 - 202: Black Canyon Fuels (built from a Ragg's to Riches Dolores Conoco Plant kit) is now in place. Due to space restraints, I modified Joe's kit as follows:

• the large warehouse and the adjacent platform between it and the smaller warehouse were shortened.

• the smaller warehouse was also moved forward by a similar amount.

• the overall length of the main platform was also slightly reduced .

• the office, garage and swivel loading supply pipes were repositioned across the track from the main facility.

• SMLED lighting was installed in the office and both warehouses.

Photos 203 - 204: I think that I've finally reached the end of my SMLED replacement campaign! Although the long-term plan is to replace the existing depot at "Gunnison" (an old - and long out of production - Foothill Model Works Ophir depot kit) with a Ragg's to Riches Mancos depot kit - which will also be rebadged as "Gunnison" - I decided in the meantime that I'd upgrade it with SMLED's. And while the intention for its ultimate replacement remains, it no longer seems as high a priority...

Photo 205: The long promised and eagerly anticipated LH101-R wireless throttles have finally come to fruition so I ordered three of them which will replace some of my LH101 wired throttles. At this same time, Lenz has also released a Ver.4.0 firmware upgrade for the LZV200 command station so I've installed that as well as bringing my existing LH101 wired throttles up to the latest Ver. 2.10 software that is installed in the LH101-R wireless throttles. As some of you know, I put my toe in the water with NCE but quite frankly could never get comfortable with it; I found the throttles unwieldy (for the big one), or lack of display in the smaller one. As well, NCE only allows F2 to be set to momentary action vs. Lenz in which any function can be set to either latched -or- momentary operation. Oh and yeah, the Ver.4.0 Lenz firmware provides 69 functions! And finally, I really like the ability to upgrade software at home by simply downloading new software over the 'Net to update the throttles, or by plugging in a proprietary USB update stick into the command station to do a complete system update. Soooo...what's NOT to like?🙂

I believe that Lenz lost market share over the past years due to lack of a radio throttle but they've come roaring back and IMHO, are now the state of the art...YMMV.

Photos 206-210: One thing to is that the new LH101-R radio throttles are a bit thicker than the LH101 wired throttles and I found that I needed to shim out my New Rail Models Universal Throttle Pockets accordingly to accommodate the ~0.130" increased depth. I initially made a one-piece shim out of 0.080" black sheet styrene but found that the throttle would not fully sit down in the throttle pocket as the little ridge just under the knob prevented it from doing so as you can see in the first photo. I thus added some 0.030” and 0.020” black styrene sheet to increase the thickness of the shim but decided to just use strips of it as seen in the second photo, rather than go through the effort of cutting out one-piece templates as that results in a lot of waste material. The increased thickness of the combined shims now equaled 0.130” which coincidentally, matched my measured thickness difference taken the day before! The fourth photo shows the throttle now properly seated in the the throttle holder. I typically place a piece of Velcro on the fascia behind where the throttle sits to prevent scuffing when taking the throttles in or out of the throttle pockets. Once the newly-shimmed throttle pockets were installed, I then added small discrete strips of Velcro to the back of my thinner LH101 wired throttles and one remaining LH100 wired throttle to mitigate the increased space resulting from the increased depth due to the shimming to accommodate the LH101-R radio throttles.

Photos 211-213: My PBL operating coal tower is modeled on the facility at Durango CO but I wanted to give it at minimum,at least some of the flavour of the facility at Gunnison CO. One of the prominent features of the Gunnison facility that always caught my attention were the staircases instead of the ladders which were at the Durango CO and Chama NM so I replicated these out of styrene.

Photos 214-218: Alas, the coal tower control module for the chute operation and timed bucket sequence seems to have failed as the bucket operation sequence slowed right down so that the cycle timed out before the buckets could complete their full up+down travel. My good friend Jack Walton has offered to troubleshoot it for me and repair it if possible but in the mean time, I built up a simple manual control system that I fitted behind the PBL control module faceplate. As the faceplate is only thin aluminum, I added a spacer of 0.080" sheet styrene to reinforce it and eliminate flexing. The chute raise+lower and the bucket up+down operation are controlled by a pair of (ON)-OFF-(ON) DPDT switches wired as reversing switches with a 560 om resistor in series with a 2.0 k ohm trimmer on each motor output to facilitate voltage adjustment as/if required.

Photos 219 - 221: One of my many"roundtuit" projects was to add some lighting and basic interior details and passengers to my two-car Sapinero Local passenger train. The cars are by PSC and I added some Grandt Line (now San Juan Details) seats and some seated passengers from Railmaster Exports. The interior lighting is 0603 warm white SMLED's and the marker lights are 0402 SMLED's in PBL castings. Each car has independent electrical pickup from both rails but I also added a pair of plug-in jumper leads between the two cars for improved pickup which seems to have resolved any flickering.

Photos 222 - 225: My other "roundtuit" project was to recreate the moonlight effect that I had on my very first Sn3 layout, for which I had used a couple of strings of outdoor blue Christmas lights. But now with the advent of LED's, I opted for some blue LED lighting strips which I simply taped to the edges of my LED track lighting strips which provide my primary lighting.

Photos 226 - 231: As I suspect with many other modelers I've acquired a fair amount of M.O.W. (Maintenance of Way) equipment over the years and I felt that it was clogging up siding space, thus compromising operations. After reviewing my Gunnison yard configuration it was apparent that I could add a new spur that would be expressly devoted to storing M.O.W. equipment. The local control panel also had to be redone to reflect the added spur but all was completed within a week.

Photos 232 - 238: On my very first Sn3 layout which I started building in the early 1980's I utilized the tried-and-true twin coil Tenshodo switch machines to throw the points on my turnouts but these can be brutal on soldered joints so I always planned to replace them with SwitchMaster turnout motors if I ever rebuilt - which I subsequently did in 2006 when I moved. I used these on my second layout and then again on my third and fourth (which is my current) layouts after another move but found that over time, some of them would get "lazy" and wouldn't always respond until some manual intervention would bring them back to life. I know that others have also experienced this issue and one of them was my very good friend Dale Kreutzer in Port Orchard WA. Dale decided to embark on a wholesale replacement program with servos so inspired by his success, I decided to follow suit! I had a total of 30 turnouts to upgrade so as I write this (August 30, 2022), I have only two left to do, which will now have to wait now until after the National Narrow Gauge Convention in Tacoma WA which starts in a couple of days.

The first three photos show the N3IX Engineering QuadLN_S control board which can power 8 turnouts, a servo pre-mounted on the Berrett Hill Shop mounting bracket and the SPDT switch that is soldered to the male end of the servo cable. I purchased the servos off of Amazon, the mounting brackets from Berrett Hill Shop and the control boards and cables from N3IX Engineering . The next two photos show "Out with Old, in with the New" and a group of 8 servo assemblies pre-assembled and ready for installation and the final two photos show some typical installations. Note: this would have been a lot easier to do when initially building the layout when access was easier but that said, the results are most certainly worth the effort.

Addendum: Controlling Turnouts with Servos has a more detailed description of the procedures involved in installing servos for turnout control.