Colorado Midland Railway Engineering Report

[Dave V]

Dropped some coin at Caboose Hobbies today!  I have all the track I need except ME code 55 bridge track...they were out.



An unusual sighting on a westbound manifest at Lewistown...a pair of Colorado Midland cabooses heading for Colorado Springs and the year 1905!



Still figuring out the bridge situation.  When I did Colorado in HO, I used a Heljan plastic trsetle kit and managed to get two trestles out of a single kit (one straight, one curved).  I could probably do that with the N kit:



I like that it's plastic and therefore sturdy.  This will be my show layout when done.

[Chris333]

Oh I forgot about those Grandt Line houses. The house that was on my layout was bashed from them. Can't wait to see progress.

[Dave V]

Back in 1996-7 I built an HO Colorado-based layout, and this is what my trestles looked like using the Heljan kit (both came from one kit).  Please pardon the low quality of the photos:







And another look at that old layout, LOL:

[Philip H]

Honestly, you have the talent to make it work and look good. To for it!

[Dave V]

The Midland was no stranger to wooden trestles:





And then there's this...  I think the Walthers/Heljan kit will work perfectly for the wooden trestles:

http://www.nscale.net/forums/showthread.php?18360-Build-Thread-3-x6-Portable-Layout/page5

[Cameron_Talley]

Dang, you aren't messing around when you get started on a project!  Looking forward to reading the build progress!

I have that Grandt line company house kit--I really like the different variations you can come up with. 

[C855B]

Dang, you aren't messing around when you get started on a project! ...

That was my reaction. No commitment issues here.

[jpec]

Those Grandt Line Reese St. Rowhouses are a kitbasher's gold mine...

Jeff

[Dave V]

Went skiing at Monarch today (season pass).  US 50 through the Royal Gorge/Bighorn Sheep Canyon was an ice sheet (cars in the ditch and one flipped over).  Some days I miss the Constang but most days I love my Subaru...like today.  Anyway, we decided to go back by way of 285 from Poncha Springs to Buena Vista where we pick up and parallel the Midland grade all the way back to Colorado Springs by way of Trout Creek Pass, South Park, and Ute Pass. 

The layout we're designing actually looks more like Ute Pass than anything else.  Hmm...  But then again, there were no real online revenue sources on that part of the Midland (besides ice cutting in the winter).  The gold ore coming down Ute Pass to Colorado Springs and the Golden Cycle Mill mainly came from what the Midland Terminal brought up from Cripple Creek to its connection with the CM at Divide.

[Dave V]

More thoughts on rolling stock...

I won this on eBay:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/301432459731?rmvSB=true

Of course, the D&RG became D&RGW after the Midland went under, but...  Oh well.  I could always repaint that post-1940 stock car scheme to a Colorado Midland Palace stock car.

https://www.labellemodels.com/images/HO-54.jpg?osCsid=11s645pliqlo3e8dhstlapmla2

As for Midland cars, assuming I can acquire proper decals, Fine N Scale does 36' truss-rod boxcars, gons, and flats:

http://www.finenscale.com/rollingstock.html

...which leaves me needing a locomotive.  I think I've settled on the Roundhouse/Athearn 2-8-0 as my primary power at first.  Just hafta find one.  I'll be using this paint scheme:

http://mail.brassguide.com/Classic/Product/Detail/058945/HO-Brass-Model-Train-MEW-CM-Colorado-Midland-2-8-0-Steam-52-Pro-Custom

Or this one:

http://mail.brassguide.com/Classic/Product/Detail/058941/HO-Brass-Model-Train-MEW-CM-Colorado-Midland-2-8-0-Steam-51-Pro-Custom

...since I can cobble together what I need from alphabet sets.  Although, if I wanted to go back to the late 1880s, there's this one:

http://mail.brassguide.com/Classic/Product/Detail/058947/HO-Brass-Model-Train-MEW-CM-Colorado-Midland-2-8-0-Steam-53-Pro-Custom

...which would need multi-colored decals.

[Dave V]

First freight car consigned to the new Colorado Midland layout passes through Enola.



I've begun building the Colorado Midland's Basalt station from the Walthers Clarkesville depot kit. The kit comes with a poured concrete platform which I'm planking over to be more correct for 1905.  Not much is known about what depot colors the Midland used since it went under before color film was invented.  I did learn that in my era, the D&RG owned half of the Midland's stock and that many structures were repainted into D&RG's colors.  Presumably this is when some depots went from a uniform dark color (probably oxide or mineral red) to something in a 2-tone, light over dark.  I also found out that there's no consensus on what colors D&RG used in 1900-1910 so I went with what everyone knows, the colors the D&RGW used after 1930.  The walls are actually painted with a yellow ochre craft paint with Poly Scale Roof Brown trim.  Lots of "fussy work" since the outer window frames are actually molded into the walls with minimal relief.  I found my hand numbing problem probably prevented me from having the crispness in color separation I might have had years previous.  I started with a very thin wash of black to help crisp up the trim and add a hint of weathering.

[Chris333]

I was running my Bachmann 4-6-0 around yesterday. With a "cow catcher" and a smaller tender it could be an easy passenger locomotive. With the Athearn 2-8-0 you still kinda have tender problems. Not as easy to fix though because the motor is in there:
https://picasaweb.google.com/ErieChris333/MaPa280#5499840557933004754
https://picasaweb.google.com/ErieChris333/MaPa280#5493993509572427650
I built a smaller tender with a smaller motor. The loco ran great stock so the new motor was only because of it's size.

Then again if you leave the 2-8-0 tender maybe a bigger 4-6-0 tender would look OK 


When I looked at your station earlier at work on my phone I thought it was a flat printed paper model.

[Dave V]

Chris,

I think I'm rolling with the 2-8-0 for now.  How did you do that tender?  The stock tender is definitely too tall for a Midland tender (or nearly any other at that).

I'm essentially starting from scratch, as very little of my materials on hand will translate from the JD (even scenery materials will be dramatically different).  My hope is to have a presentable layout by Thanksgiving since that's about when the train shows in the area really get fired up.  As such, I'll probably do the minimum treatment to the 2-8-0 to make her presentable (i.e., Midland paint) and then revisit at a later date.

It'll be interesting to see if my SuperTrees armatures can, with some white spray, Sharpie dots, and yellow flocking, be made to look like autumn aspen trees.

When I looked at your station earlier at work on my phone I thought it was a flat printed paper model.

Is that a good thing?   

[CVSNE]

It'll be interesting to see if my SuperTrees armatures can, with some white spray, Sharpie dots, and yellow flocking, be made to look like autumn aspen trees.

Is that a good thing?   

Dave,
The simple answer is yes.
Do a search on YouTube for a small HOn3 layout (like 3 x 6 or so) that was in the Carstens booth at the NMRA show a couple of years ago (I can't access YouTube from here or I'd get the exact link) - the builder made some great looking aspens using the exact technique you're describing.

Marty

[Dave V]

Dave,
The simple answer is yes.
Do a search on YouTube for a small HOn3 layout (like 3 x 6 or so) that was in the Carstens booth at the NMRA show a couple of years ago (I can't access YouTube from here or I'd get the exact link) - the builder made some great looking aspens using the exact technique you're describing.

Marty

Yes, I've watched this one many times!  Love it!