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Dave,Thanks for the info. The reason I asked was a while back I was watching a video that interviewed people that worked and lived around the RGS and at one point one the guys who was a brakemen, said Durango to Deloris was often a fourteen hour day. So I've wondered how a single crew could get Durango to Rico or Ridgway to Rico. I figured they would have to do something like one crew leaves Durango and at Deloris another crew would take the train on to Rico, or maybe the originating crew layed over in Deloris then took the train to Rico the next day. Figured it would have to be something similar, Ridgway to Rico with the crew change/lay over at perhaps Vance Jct. Oh did you think about adding the wye in the corner between Gallagher and Rico?Scott
No wye. I know you suggested it but it's not happening. It wouldn't fit even if I wanted to destroy a scene I really like as it is. I'm actually not entertaining any suggestions to change scenery or trackage right now. I couldn't be happier with how it is right now so the answer to any "have you thought about" questions--as they pertain to track and scenery--is yes, and I'm not doing it...
By my era, no trains ran all the way through from one end to the other. Through cars were usually exchanged at Rico in the earlier days but in later years the railroad was actually operated like three distinct railroads... Durango-Dolores, Rico-Ridgway, and relays between Dolores and Rico. For me, anything happening south of Rico is transparent as long as the cars I need are waiting in Rico and my setouts for the second district get picked up by whoever's got the relay duty (usually with RGS 42) between Rico and Dolores.
Dave, sorry I wasn't suggesting you change your layout, just that you could if you wished. It's your layout, if you like it then it's perfect the way it is. Oh and I like it also I'm just trying to get a feel for operations on the layout I'm designing. Looking at a timetable from 1939 it shows trains running from Ridgway to Rico and vice versa in four hours and trains Durango to Rico in five. So I'm trying to reconcile the difference between what appears to have been reality and what was published in the time table.Scott
The only trains on an RGS 1939 timetable would be the daily Galloping Goose. Those times are not unreasonable for the Goose. All other trains—ones pulled by actual locomotives—ran as unpublished extras.
I was pretty sure the freight trains were unscheduled and as the RGS had ended passenger service in about 1933, I think, I figured it might be the Goose schedule. So I'm still wondering if a train could go Ridgway to Rico in a day. (Weather permitting) or would it have to change crews/layover en-route.Thanks,Scott
Could? Yeah, but it'd be a very long day. Did they? Not that I'm aware of. The Beebe/Clegg special went through but they overnighted in Telluride.1939 was the last year the Goose operated between Durango and Dolores until the tourist seasons of '50-51.EDIT: Just re-read the post. Ridgway to Rico in a day with the night layover at Rico was quite common. It would have been unusual to return to Ridgway same day.
Doubleheading, 4% grades, and doing work en-route it's hard to believe they ever made it, even in good weather let alone in the winter time.Thanks for the information.Scott
Very much digging this discussion. The map reminds me a bit of the beloved Ma & Pa, hardly the shortest distance between two points, and not much point in being where it was as long as it was...The card system should be perfect, and using vintage looking paperwork will add substantially to the ambiance. Also, the simplicity of the operation and the overall size of the layout means it can be enjoyably run by you and your sons reasonably comfortably, or just by yourself when they get their driving licenses and the attention of their classmates of the fairer persuasion (at that point they're lost!)Or, if there's an occasion for an or three to make their way to your basement, there's enough to do to keep them amused, even as they soak up the wonderful scenes.Regarding the wye, at some point not having it will drive you and your Teutonic sensibilities around the bend, and you'll figure out a way to solve the riddle in a coherent and elegant manner. But until then, we'll badger you about it, but only in the Engineering Report thread! This is the type of operation I will be targeting on my next ops oriented layout... which may look a lot like this one, with an M&P theme...Lee
In the last years there are accounts of railfans helping the crews rerail engines. In one case, Phil Ronfor and Dick Kindig had to give the crew a ride into Rico by car when they couldn't get the road engine re-railed at Gallagher before they ran out of hours. At that point running anything other than the Galloping Goose came with more risk than reward.My version of the RGS has a much higher traffic level and therefore somewhat better maintained right-of-way because that's how I would like to imagine it. It's a vital cog in the nation's war machine of the early to mid 40s. In my world there are enough people moving for various reasons--i.e., government folks surveying the potential to extract uranium from mine tailings (which actually happened, although the G-men traveled by car instead), CCC people doing projects vital to improving access to and reclamation of precious metals and timber for the war effort, and troop movements--as to justify the occasional steam-powered passenger train in an era when the real railroad stopped running the Goose between Durango and Dolores due to lack of passengers.
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Topic: Operating the RGS First District in HOn3 (Read 3682 times)
