After a lot of fun with foam, the upper level benchwork for the new Great Western is installed and ready for track. All that remains is to install the Masonite backdrop.
This is the right side of the center peninsula. The Loveland GW yard is on the right, the I-25 overpass at Birds is at the lower rear and Officer Jct is in the lower front. One side of Johnstown and the start of the Welty Branch with sugar beet dumps is on the top. The new fascia is not painted satin black yet.
The ruling grade down Oklahoma Hill is in the lower right with the Poudre River crossing in the lower middle. The Windsor Kodak plant (served by the C&S) is in the lower right rear with the Windsor sugar beet factory on the lower left. The entrance to the Eaton staging yard is at the far left of the left level. The industrial side of Johnstown is on the upper right and the Johnstown sugar factory will be in the upper left rear. The white table is the "crew lounge".
The lower level has the Windsor sugar beet factory with the C&S Greeley branch running behind it. The Eaton staging yard, C&S/GW crossing and GW wye are in the lower rear. Along the upper left is the branch to the UP Interchange and industries in Milliken. There are still lots of odds and ends stored on the upper level.
Before I could install the upper level, there were some areas where I needed to rough in some scenery since access will be awkward with it in place. I used a lot of scenery salvaged from the old layout - it is essentially background stuff and doesn't need to be finely detailed.
The major area is the east end of Windsor where the GW crosses the C&S and heads to the east (represented by the small Eaton staging yard). A wye for turning engines in Windsor is part of this trackage and uses some of the C&S tracks, as does the prototype.
The C&S is the track on the other side of the road going from middle right to left. The GW main comes from the lower right and swings to the upper right. The track in the upper middle is one leg of the wye. The red building on the right is the Dara Licht elevator (wink, wink).
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Another spot with a long reach is the tail track of Officer Jct which heads up the helix to Johnstown. The track goes through a clump of trees which camouflage the tunnel to the helix. It's not quite as dark as it looks in the photo but it is dark enough such that details of the trickery are not obvious.
A scene under construction is what I consider a signature scene on the layout. When interstate I-25 was constructed in the 1960s, an overpass for the GWR was needed. The bridge over the road is very distinctive and I am in the process of scratch building it. All that is needed yet are very special handrails, ballast for the ballasted deck and paint. The grain elevator is a stand-in for the very distinct elevator that will also be scratch built.
George Booth
Director of Everything, The New Great Western Railway
http://users.frii.com/gbooth/Trains/index.htm
George Booth
Director of Everything, The New Great Western Railway
http://users.frii.com/gbooth/Trains/index.htm
