Pretty good progress this past couple of weeks - the grade for the switch lead out of Durango is done to a point above Wildcat Canyon, and the hidden grade diretly under it is done to that point as well. Work is progressing on the townsite for Hesperus and the curvy roadbed in Wildcat Canyon. This has been a slow area to get thru, because I've been building lots of 1x2 u-shaped supports, to hold the switch lead above while making a bit of a tunnel for the hidden track below. The benchwork is quite narrow at this point, and there's not much room for the upper track supports.

Good progress this weekend - subroad thru Durango is finished! Working on the area around Hesperus and Wildcat canyon now. This shot shows the lower line at Mancos, and then the line coming into the cutoff for Durango (Durango is beyond the upper line on the left). This is another complicated area... basically the main line goes thru Mancos (below Durango), then drops into a tunnel until Hesperus. After that, it's hidden again as it loops under Ophir and climbs up toward Durango's level.

Here's another show, showing more of the line coming into Mancos on the lower level, and the climb to the Durango cutoff above and behind it. It'll be a bit challenging to make this work scenery-wise, but I think it's very doable.



Access into Durango proper is (as w/the real RGS) via a backing move thru a junction switch. The main here comes up out a tunnel (the middle roadbed here), goes to the switch (beyond the photo on the left), then rises backward from the switch into Durango itself (the upper-most roadbed here). The lowest line in this shot is the main coming into Mancos.