Colorado Midland Railway Engineering Report

[Dave V]

CMRy's Colorado City shops have turned out another class 138 2-8-0. This is one of the older Roundhouse engines that required new knuckle couplers but it runs very well.



Every train room could use a stepstool.  For years I've been using an old bathroom stool from when my children were much younger.  Today I gave it a coat of oxide primer and a stencil and now it helps contribute to the railroad museum vibe that I'm trying to establish in the train room.  It's nowhere near the size of a real railroad passenger step stool but it works for me.

[OldEastRR]

Hmmmm ... does this fit into your CMR plans?

[Dave V]

Hmmmm ... does this fit into your CMR plans?

I hadn't seen that...  It looks intriguing!  Had this kit been reintroduced when I was still planning I might have been able to use it.  For now, though, there's no way it would fit.  Even if it did it would completely dominate the 2.5 x 5 foot layout.  That might not have been a bad thing except again, I would have needed to integrate it into the design early.

For now this Tomytech warehouse seems to be working:

[Dave V]

Another view of the newest addition to the roster.

[Rich_S]

Dave, Man am I glad I do not have the room for another door layout. You have peaked my interested with your Colorado Midland Railway build. The layout looks great, another work of art.

[Dave V]

Dave, Man am I glad I do not have the room for another door layout. You have peaked my interested with your Colorado Midland Railway build. The layout looks great, another work of art.

Thanks, Rich!  Fortunately this is much smaller than a door...a mere 30" x 60".

Current state of the Colorado Midland layout. At some point I have to tackle the big mountain in the back corner.



Here's a sample of what it takes to build a layout. This is the working table for the Colorado Midland. To the left is my original Pennsy Juniata Division layout.



More train room wall candy.

[Philip H]

Another view of the newest addition to the roster.

I didn't realize extended hydro-cushion draft gear went back that far historically!

[OldEastRR]

I didn't realize extended hydro-cushion draft gear went back that far historically!

MTL Tru-Scale coupler fix that right up!

Dave: About the smelter kit: yeah, from the size of that thing it would take up the entire branchline area. I wonder if the buuildings could be laid out more linearly, making a long thin footprint. I really like the narrow narrow-gauge track line.
Wonder if they sell the chimney assemblies separately. I could use some like that.

[Dave V]

I really like the narrow narrow-gauge track line.

I do have some of that along with some pushcarts I plan to add to the scene.

[nkalanaga]

Philip:  That one is a little exaggerated, but many locos of that era had extended front draft gear.  It was needed to clear the long pilots, especially if two locos had to be coupled nose to nose.

The same thing could be found during the link-and-pin era, when locos had links at the end of long bars, to clear the even longer "cowcatchers" of the 1860s.

[nkalanaga]

Dave:  A little late, but I just got around to reading the magazine.  Did you see the CM refrigerator plans in the Sept/Oct issue of the "Narrow Gauge and Shortline Gazette"?

[wcfn100]

  Did you see the CM refrigerator plans in the Sept/Oct issue of the "Narrow Gauge and Shortline Gazette"?

Why would it be in that magazine?


Jason

[Chris333]

Shortline. 

[nkalanaga]

Chris333:  Right.  They cover a lot of standard gauge, although mostly "narrow gauge era".  You won't find much modern shortline stuff, or modern narrow gauge for that matter, but for anyone modeling pre-WW II, it has some good stuff.  If nothing else, the old building articles are useful for any railroad, and the standard gauge cars are often typical of construction methods of the period, so useful even for major roads.

[Dave V]

Yesterday's work on the Colorado Midland:

Added some narrow gauge mine trackage and a mine cart to the smelter for dumping waste rock into the canyon below.



A simple grade crossing for the old wagon road.



More work in the area of the Aspen tail track...



Oh, and more decor for the train room.  It's Howard Fogg's depiction of the Midland crossing the Denver, Leadville & Gunnison (former DSP&PRR) narrow gauge on Trout Creek Pass in the 1890s.