Ophir is coming along. The loop and road thru town are complete (in plywood only), and bridges on the line are complete from 44-A near Vance Jct all the way thru 46-D on the high line. Of course, I'm having to compress the lengths of the bridges, as I've only got about 29' to work with. I'm also trying to keep some kind of relative separation between the the bridges - ie 46-B and 46-C are right next to each other, 46-A is a little before them, and 46-D is a bit further away in the other direction.

But all this fiddling means the compression is all over the board - 45-B is about 62% of it's prototype length, while 46-D is only 37%. And the entire high line is pretty straight - there just isn't room for any twists or curves. I did manage to curve the lower line a bit. So - it's not an exact model, but I knew that starting out. At least there'll be lots of trestles to build and (eventually) look at. Maybe I can mass-produce these critters when I get to that point - I'm up to 11 already!

The climb to Ophir

Well, last weekend saw more work on the Ophir loop area. The track is so high here, I feel like I'm working on an 'airline route'! The big bridge 45-A has it's form roughed in, and I'm working around the depot area now, toward the back of the loop. In this area, there are 3 levels of track - the hidden return loop, the hidden Durango staging, then the Ophir area. I hadn't planned on going over the staging, but the grades worked out and pushing that loop back to the wall gave me a little more room for 45-A.

Here's a shot of trestle 45-A's opening, showing most of the loop area and the hidden return track under the loop. The grade up from the Ophir lowline lessens to 1% over 45-A, then flattens to zero thru the depot grounds, then back to 2% entering 45-B. It'll be flat again on the passing siding (just to make switching easier), but by having some grade in the loop itself, I think I can get a little grade separation between the siding and 45-A below it.

Here's another shot, showing the area where the siding at the Ophir depot will begin, and the opening in the rear for trestle 45-B.





Here's the grade coming up from Vance Jct. I roughed in the location for trestle 44-A at the beginning (not really visible in this shot). The Ophir low line, on my layout, is a constant 2.5% grade, and as curvy as I could make it, given the long narrow benchwork in this section.


The grades came out so high that the high line bridges will be nearly level I think - I'm already nearly at the Lizard Head elevation and pushing eye-level for viewing. I would've liked a little more vertical distance between the lower and upper lines, but I think this'll work ok. I had to maintain the steep grade on the lower line, just because Ophir depot had to be high enough to clear the Durango staging tracks.

Keystone hill's subroadbed and benchwork is complete, and the grade is in place all the way through the wye and up to the edge of Telluride proper. Roadbed has been progressing up the lower portion of Ophir loop, about a 1/4 of the way to Ophir so far. And - the first three bridges have been roughed in - two on the Telluride branch (39-A and 42-A) and one at the base of Ophir loop (44-A, the Butterfly trestle). These are really just framed openings in the roadbed, with support below for eventual trestle bents, but it's a tremendous boost to me to be able to see them. For now, I've got very narrow sections of plywood tack-glued over the openings, wide enough to just support the flex track that'll be laid there initially. Later, I'll pop the plywood and flex track tie sections out and build real bridges under the rails. But that's probably a long way off. At least the narrow plywood kinda looks like a bridge, and it makes imagining the final scene much easier.

All sections in this area have been immediately covered with wooden track and Thomas trains, and that's ok with me. In fact, sometimes they get covered before I've even anchored the new roadbed to the risers! This is all Eli's work (he's 7). The opening for bridge 39-A had a beautiful plastic suspension bridge running across it before I had a chance to add my temporary plywood support. My 10-year-old, Josh, has also been 'testing' the roadbed by manually running one of my old Lionel O-27 steam engines over the roadbed, around the entire layout. It's surprising that this locomotive actually fits through most of the HO-gauge-sized openings in the walls and hidden trackage. So - no 'real' track yet but at least something's moving on the layout! I love having the kids involved like this; it's great to see them interested in it.

Work has begun on Telluride's benchwork! The main decking for Vance Jct was completed, and basic benchwork built for Keystone hill - the first part of the Telluride pennisula.

A bit more completed - upper decks are done now for both Rico and Ridgway. The upper-deck supports for Ridgway required some extra work, since it's got to be strong enough to lay on should I ever need to work on the plumbing, which is directly over it. This is one of the few spots in the basement w/a drop ceiling, and the yard completely blocks access to it w/a ladder. So - the yard'll have to be designed so I can lay a board over it, then lay on the board to work on the plumbing. Hopefully that'll never be needed, but it's better to plan now for it.