Maverick Canyon

Go, Verne.......  

Really looking forward to this.

Rob Clark
Cornhill & Atherton RR

Maverick Canyon

Thanks, Rob!

It's always exciting when you come across something that exceeds your expectations...and delights you with unexpected surprises. Such were the reactions of me and my wife as we explored the route of my proposed Maverick Canyon Branch, along the remote Dolores River Canyon. Our trip in early July was unforgettable, as mundane scenery gradually transformed into beautiful red cliffs that rival Monument Valley or Canyonlands.

Here are a few photos of the mouth of the canyon:

That's the Dolores River in the foreground. As there are no bridges nearby, Maverick Canyon must be accessed by 4x4 through many miles of rough road through the Uncompahgre Wilderness area to the east...an all-day venture we hope to make in the future.  For now, this is enough to inspire the design and modeling.

Here is a closer view of the mouth of the rugged Maverick Canyon.

Colorado 141 (the highway in the corner of the picture) was very lightly traveled...it seems few people venture into this area of Colorado. Virtually all of the traffic was heavy dump trucks serving nearby mines.

We came away with some great memories of our discoveries that day, and I am excited about the scenic potential of this location! I wanted to model something different while incorporating the RGS/D&RGW, and hope I could depict the classic trains of these railroads in red rock country. It seems that is not only possible, but - as I share more of the branchline's hisotry - would be very feasible. More to come!

Can't wait to see your

Can't wait to see your masterful work on this!  Eye candy for sure!

4 x 4 or Boat

I prefer exploring the canyon by boat. We have paddled all of the boatable sections ( Class II to IIII white water depending upon water level) several times. I have to agree that the canyon is absolutely beautiful whatever your mode of transportation and makes a great area on which to base a model layout.

Definitely looking forward to following your build.

Backdrops

Looks like a great setting for a layout to me!  Do you have a plan for your layout backdrops?  I would like to do similar scenery but I've been unable to find anyone who sells red rock backdrops.  I was up at Verde Canyon in Arizona a couple months ago and took some photos.

Thanks...

Thanks, Rick and Ken. This is going to be a lot of fun, and I hope to share some ideas and inspiration with others who have limited space and are sitting on the sidelines instead of building a layout.

Ken, I was referring to getting back into Maverick Canyon, not the Dolores River Canyon...I found myself wishing I could have run the Dolores in a kayak in earlier days! Here's a satellite image of the mouth of the canyon:

Note the dirt road...looks like a great place for a railroad right of way reaching down the canyon to the mines!

Steve, I have not seen red rock backdrops available anywhere. I am leaning towards painting my backdrops. They will be 1/8" masonite primed with white paint, and will be removable from each module to facilitate painting on an easel, where reaching over the layout won't be necessary. That will be the first scenery step after I collect red rock soil from the area you mention above...the colors are almost identical to Sedona, and I'll take any excuse to drive up there to visit! Once I have the soil, I can blend colors that match.

Thanks for sharing the great photos.

Maverick Canyon

Looks like a winner Verne -- even if it is the wrong scale 8> ))

Bill Uffelman

Ocean View DE

Love it!

Really looking forward to seeing your progress as well.  Very similar to what I'm doing with my NG layout in California.  There's something really inspiring/compelling about rugged terrain and winding a railroad through it!  You've done your research well, and found a spot that means something to you.  When designing my track plan I first used google maps to block out where my line would run in relation to topography and other rail lines.  Google Maps topo feature really comes in handy here. 

Also photo backdrops from the real locations are going in to help with the scenery.  If you've got an artistic hand, by all means paint them, it's just not something I was gifted with. haha.  Planning a trip to gather dirt and rock from the area for more authenticity.  You've got your location in your backyard I gather, so why not grab some of that red rock next time you are there? 

My latest blog post has a couple shots of my photo backdrops that not only provide reference, but a color pallete and contours for the foreground scenery to match. 

Rob

Verne, I'm also very glad to

Verne,

I'm also very glad to see this project back, and especially interested to see you how you tackle the portability issue.  I think I'll be starting soon on some similar work set in similar terrain - Utah's Castle Valley.

Chris

Watching from here!

I'm glad to see this progress Verne. I haven't been in that country for a very long time. Brings back memories. Looking forward to seeing your version of it. 

Well Vern it sounds like we

Well Vern it sounds like we will be seeing more of your modeling, sounds like a win win for us.

Backdrop photos

Streamliner Steve: you said you had taken some pictures at Verde Canyon. You can 'stitch' some together to make a long (panoramic) picture and have it printed out and then glue it in place.

I purchased some cloud wallpaper and put it up behind my layout. Then I printed out some scenery photos, cut out the sky part of the photo and pasted them to the 'cloud' backdrop.

Update on planning

On another forum, the discussion came up regarding what season I plan to model...and how modeling winter, with patches of snow could be an interesting scenic element that would really set off the red earth and rocks. The elevation of Maverick Canyon is about 4,300 feet, which means it would receive some periodic snow, but not the heavy accumulations seen in the high country.

Winter would be fun to model, but the cottonwood trees along the Dolores River would be bare branches, a bit of a challenge in HO. I would much rather model them in the gold foliage of fall. Modeling the fall also provides the operational advantage of the stock rush that would keep the RGS and D&RGW very busy for several weeks as livestock were brought down from the high country, either to market or to a warmer climate. So, like everything else, it would be a tradeoff.

I am seriously considering building this layout out of extruded polystyrene foam...rather than the conventional wood frame approach. It would be built in modules, each with wood reinforcement around the edges to keep them rigid, and could rest on a simple table or light framework made from birch plywood. I recently acquired an old Sears Craftsman table saw that still works great, and it would be handy in ripping the plywood into the pieces needed for the table base for the modules. The modules would have smooth bottom sides, with integral wiring for isolation blocks and turnout control. A DCC bus can be connected module to module using multi pin connectors. 

I may build a small layout testing this approach and giving me some practice with the red rock scenery and river, before jumping into building the layout. You can see more of the approach I plan to adopt on Ken Patterson's website. Click on the Shelf Layout Design and Construction topic. I downloaded this video and found it very interesting...he has been working with foam on his standard gauge HO layout for ten years, and has encountered no problems (besides some very minimal shrinkage of modules). I feel there are many advantages to this approach.

Quick update

I have not been idle over the past weeks, but have been focused on my health, which has greatly improved over the summer. I am thankful I can clear off the workbench and begin modeling again. I have made some interesting design decisions that I will share in a new update shortly.

You may have noticed my avatar on MRH has changed to a version of the RGS' 'Sunrise' herald. Upon further thought and research, I have decided the branch best fits under Rio Grande Southern management. I have a number of RGS locomotives in my small stable of power, and am learning a lot about their operations and how the branch can fit in well as part of the RGS. I find this almost as much fun as building the layouts and running trains!

Vern very glad to hear your

Vern very glad to hear your health is improving. Also very glad to hear you are feeling well enough to get back to model railroading. I am sure there are lots of folks looking forward to your posts on the new projects you will be doing. I also have to say that doing prototype research is an interesting hobby in itself. Even if one is free-lancing researching the location and the industries that were there and how they worked is quite interesting. It is also much more convenient now thanks to the web. I have literally read volumes just to develop the whys and hows of the area I will be modeling.

Really glad things are getting better!

Planning progress

Chris, I look forward to what you come up with in your nearby Castle Valley...that is an interesting name!

I have been planning a number of LDEs (Layout Design Elements) for my Maverick Canyon layout. With a space just under 10' square, there will be four LDEs in sequence along the walls of the room. In sequence, entering from a door in the lower left of the plan, they will be:

1. A small yard representing the end of the branch, providing visible staging (this section is limited in depth because it spans my workbench)
2. A locomotive facility including a turntable, rip track, two-stall roundhouse, coal dock, sand, ash pit and water column
3. The townsite of Maverick, with a small station and industries including a Frijolene wholesale distributor, a packing shed, and a stock pen
4. A big honkin' mill representing a vanadium/radium/uranium mine (these minerals were often found together)

The mill will be a large structure to imply an important industry worthy of a branch line to serve it. Here's a conceptual photo of what the mill will look like:

The mill will be based on the Pro Patria Mill in Rico, and will be the largest model structure I have ever built. (structure image courtesy of Banta Modelworks, used by permission)

At the very top of the structure are end stations for a cable-operated ore tram that was retired years earlier. In more recent years, ore came in to the structure at the top left by dump truck, where it was dumped into a bin below. Ore was sorted in the structure immediately below the bin, and then transferred to the mill works (the main structure with the steep roof). Processed ore was then loaded into boxcars inside the shed in the foreground. Immediately above the two boxcars is a coal dump, where a gondola of coal for the boiler house was spotted. Immediately above the coal dump shed was the boiler house.

I will paint the structure mineral red, with original mill buildings in a more faded shade...implying newer construction of the truck dump house, etc. The scene will also include ample tailiings piles, and a dormitory for miners and an office building. If space allows, a smaller mill may be located just down the branch a bit to imply some friendly competition.

The mill will (ideally) be perched on a steep incline, reached by a 4% grade that will require two C-19s to handle about six cars. This is intentional, as I have come to really enjoy the 'stack talk' of these locomotives pulling together on a stiff grade! A spur will be added behind the ore loading track to serve the coal dump shed.

This facility is large enough to produce three to five loads of ore daily, and will receive a dump-bottom gondola of coal every other day. The kit, from Banta Modelworks, has more than 400 parts, and will keep me busy for quite a while!

Now you're cooking Verne...

Your decision about developing the RR as a branch of the RGS makes much more sense than as an orphan D&RGW branch. It's a right turn at Placerville. Check out the Placerville track plan in RGS Story Volume 1.I think you could work in the prototype wye as the start of the branch. Volume 1 also contains some info about the mill in Vanadium which might give you some idea about kitbashing the Pro Patria mill kit.

The stock rush is a great time to model, particularly in that location. IIRC, at one time Placerville shipped more cattle than any other single location in the country. You're gonna need a lot of stock cars.

Jerry

Yes!

Jerry, thanks, sometimes I take the 'long way around' to get to a point that might be obvious to others! Anyway, the RGS was in receivership by my modeling period of 1942, operating under the financial support of a loan from the Defense Supply Corp., under the office of Defense Transportation. The uranium ore quietly mined in the region was the most strategic material supporting the war effort in 1942. Most of its equipment was leased from the D&RGW, so I can have the 'best of both worlds'.

The wye in Placerville is the logical start of the branch, but would have to be flipped in my parallel universe, so the free leg of the wye is situated to the west of the leg heading to Ridgway. I have studied the mill at Vanadium, that is an impressive complex and can indeed serve as inspiration. There was a uranium mill built in Gunnison, and the smelter in Durango was converted to process uranium ore in the early 1940s, so loads could head east or south.

I understand Placerville was indeed the top stock shipping point...in the later years, more sheep than cattle. I have a stock pen kit and about 120 head of the wooly critters waiting for their turn on the workbench. The fall stock rush was an exciting time of maximum effort on the RGS and D&RGW, and I definitely want to represent it. While not as active as Placerville, Maverick will have its share of livestock and produce shipment...primarily beans from Paradox Valley destined for the Frijolene plant in Farmington.

ROTFL

Thanks, Paul...the best possible health news on all fronts, all engines ahead full!

I cracked up with your suggestion...tempting, but the Frijolene Board of Directors (me, myself and I) want the brand prominently displayed. It would be a great gag to pull out a CRAMPS car, however!

You are definitely on the right track, however...after all, Frijolene is the gas with the secret bean-chile additive for 'more power in the passing lane'...

Here are two proposed designs...

(Frijolene logo by Dave Meek)

I am leaning towards the first one, which can use Blackstone narrow frame tank cars, or my own custom tanks on a flat car. I would, of course, include the 'FRT' reporting marks...for Frijolene Refining and Transportation.

One more 'passing thought'...the beans for Frijolene are grown in the nearby Paradox Valley, where a number of uranium mines were once located. Is there a connection between their potency and the presence of this mineral? Who knows?

On the same page

Dave Meek was thinking the same thing, and came up with a billboard that will be proudly displayed behind the Frijolene dealer's property. It shows a couple cruising in a Buick 88 convertible with the slogan "If you're not driving with Frijolene, you don't know beans!"

I couldn't say it any better...

Can't wait to see what you

Can't wait to see what you come up with. Are you going to be running RGS 41?

Photo-lancing is born

Love the conceptual picture of the mine and surroundings. You may have created a new genre here: -

"Photo-lanced"

Seriously..........

Rob Clark
Cornhill & Atherton RR

Visualizing a layout scene

Bremner, thanks! I will indeed be running RGS #41 and #40...and may add to my small RGS fleet over time (most of my locomotives are D&RGW, but all served on the RGS at one time or another).

Rob, I like the name 'photo-lancing'! t's something I have done before to help visualize a scene...I am better at Photoshop than I am at sketching...and I cant wait to get started on the mill. The kit has more than 400 parts, I understand it is one big box of laser cut wood! I also want to include an office, dormitory and perhaps a garage for the dump trucks that serve the ore dump.

After researching a bit more on uranium mining and ore processing in the region, I have considered the question where the ore from this mill would be shipped. Possible refining centers, closest to farthest, include:

Uravan - just down the branch about 20 miles, the prototype received ore by dump trucks from nearby mines (but with the Maverick Canyon Branch, a spur could be built to the mill)

Primos - South of Placerville on the RGS, and the site of a large mine and mill with refining capability

Durango - Just beyond the RGS end of track, the old smelter was converted around 1940 to process uranium ore

Gunnison - A uranium processing plant was built here in the early 1940s; cars would be routed via Ridgway to the D&RGW Third Division

​Denver - Several sites here processed uranium ore

FOOTNOTE: just to put to rest any 'glow in the dark boxcar' jokes, this ore required a lot of refining to produce fissionable uranium. In its natural state, it was pretty benign stuff, and did not glow or emit high levels of radioactivity. The ore was shipped in boxcars, in piles of ore centered over each truck. It was very dense, heavy material...so only a small percentage of the car's volume would be used to bring it to its weight capacity. Boxcars were exclusively used (with doors kept closed and locked) to prevent the damp, mucky ore from freezing during the winter...and to prevent pilfering. Because vanadium is present in the same ore processed for uranium, miners were told they were mining vanadium, helping keep the uranium mining a secret until the end of World War II.

Great concept

This is a creative, well thought out and well researched concept, and I can't think of anyone better to bring it to life than you, Verne. I'm really going to enjoy watching this unfold.