A Tour of the Eastern District of the New Great Western
The Great Western upper level holds the Colorado towns of Johnstown and Milliken, southeast of the main yard in Loveland. Included are the Welty branch containing sugar beet dumps and a staging yard representing the line heading southwest to Longmont. There are a total of six sugar beet dumps on the upper level, three on the Welty branch, one in Hardman at the top of the helix, one on the boomer track at the Johnstown sugar factory and one in Milliken.
A total of five trains per operating session work the upper level, all originating and terminating in the lower level Loveland yard:
1. The Welty Beet Turn switches the three beet dumps on the Welty branch delivering empty beet hoppers and returning with loaded hoppers for the Loveland factory,
2. The Eastside Beet Turn switches Hardman, the boomer track and Milliken with the same work as above,
3. The Milliken Local works the line from the Johnstown sugar factory to the UP Interchange at Milliken,
4. The Johnstown local works in Johnstown, including the Longmont staging yard,
5. The Johnstown sugar factory turn works just the factory.
The following photos cover the district and represent a combined Johnstown and Milliken local. Photos of the Welty turn and “helicopter views” of the entire layout follow. All except the overviews are taken at my eye level (I’m 6’1”),
Combined Milliken and Johnstown Locals
The local is seen emerging from the top of the helix. GWR SW-9 #121 is at the head six cars destined for locations in Johnstown and Milliken, The scenery in this half of the outside of the helix area will be mostly bushes and trees representing a deep cut and camouflaging the helix entrance. A hill and trees to the left will visually separate this area from the north side of Johnstown. A short trestle over to the right will cross the Big Thompson River.
The other half of the upper edge of the helix is home to the Hardman sugar beet dump. A massive beet pile here provides loads for six beet hoppers. This is switched by the East Side Beet Turn so we just wave to the scale operator and pass on by.
All the locations for switching are temporarily marked with business cards with the location’s abbreviation and full name. I use a “tab on car” forwarding system – the tabs are color coded for the town and have the location’s abbreviation. While visually distracting at first glance, the tabs are easy to use and can be simply removed for better photos, as I did with the cars in the train. The tabs are operationally equivalent to a car card and waybill system but without all the fuss and bother.
We’ve arrived at Becker, a passing siding on the north end of Johnstown. The Welty branch heads off to the west (left) at the end of the siding. However, there are two industries at the beginning of the branch that we need to switch. We’ll leave the train on the main since we are the only traffic on the east side and take the cars we need to switch up the branch.
Just past downtown Johnstown is an old and unusual grain elevator, represented for now by a piece of PCV pipe. The elevator base is round with a square top and will be a simple structure to scratch build. .There are also a couple of sheds making up the complex. We will spot the UP box car behind the partially loaded CB&Q car.
I have temporary labels for upper level locations stuck on the fascia so operators know where they are. They will eventually be engraved plastic name tags. The tabs also have a town abbreviation – “JT” for Johnstown – to aid operators who may be color challenged.
At the other end of the siding is the Carnation dairy plant which gets mostly reefers and box cars. The prototype looks much like this DPM kit bashed building but is painted white and is well weathered. I need to get my paint booth built Real Soon Now!
After taking care of the elevator and dairy, we head back to the main, couple up and head into town. The siding with the tank car is the Loomix fertilizer plant. The siding used to be a double ended passing siding but now has a grounded box car in the middle, just to the left of the tank car. This box car is used by the GW to store supplies and tools. Since the track is now not a through track, the city paved over the siding at that point. This complicates the switching for Loomix.
The siding on the right leads to the small Simplot fertilizer plant and a large stock pen. The stock pen is not prototypical but I needed a spot for a nice pen I had kit bashed for the old layout.
At the other end of the siding is the Johnstown Feed and Supply complex. The main line to Longmont heads off to the right in front of the depot and forms one leg of the Johnstown wye. The engine is heading down the south leg to the sugar factory. If we had some cars for the feed supply, it would be a simple trailing point move at this point.
Continuing on the wye brings the Longmont staging yard into view. It is hidden from view from most angles by a free standing backdrop (the water tower hides the edge). The empty track on the left of the staging yard is the tail track of the wye, useful for turning engines and doing run-arounds. The track in the middle of the wye (behind the NP box car) is for a Coors barley elevator, another neat scratch building candidate. If the elevator and the staging yard need switching, things can get complicated.
The photo on the backdrop is the actual Longmont beet factory. In reality, the Longmont plant is many miles from Johnstown but the photo was neat and gives operators a feel for what’s going on here. In operation, the staging yard will have a few outbound cars on one of the two middle tracks with the other left empty for inbound traffic. The Longmont plant was fairly independent (it had its own connections to the C&S and CB&Q) and only a few cars actually moved between it and the other towns. The right-most staging track will eventually hold a small passenger that ran from Longmont to Eaton and back in the early years. All the switches back there will eventually be powered but for now they can be accessed by a removable backdrop panel on the left side of the yard.
We are now passing the Johnstown sugar factory . The buildings here are place holders for yet more scratch built structures. This factory gets tank cars of low grade molasses from the other beet factories and extracts more sugar as well as monosodium glutamate (MSG). It gets 10 tank cars of molasses per session as well as coal, limestone and other supplies. It ships out a few box cars of sugar and MSG per session as well as returning the empty molasses tank cars to Loveland.
To the right (behind the caboose) is the boomer track with the Johnstown beet dump, more work for the East Side Beet Turn. There is a long passing siding here which serves multiple purposes. Cars heading to the UP Interchange at Milliken are left here by the factory switcher to be moved by the Milliken local. Likewise, the Milliken local drops cars here for the factory. And, of course, the factory switcher uses it while working the factory.
Before heading down the line to Milliken, we need to run around the train on the sugar factory passing siding so we can push it. There are no runarounds in the Milliken area so we need to first run light to Milliken to get outbound cars, pull them back to the siding then push the inbound cars back down. Such a simple thing made more complicated by not having enough track. Typical down-on-their-luck short line stuff.
The photo behind the train is the Colorado Alfalfa Products facility in Hillsboro, just west of Milliken - another scratch building project.
Down in Milliken, we pass by the beet dump and drop our cars on one of the two UP interchange tracks. The Western Plains Grain elevator is also located here and usually needs switching. Most of the coal for the Loveland and Johnstown beet factories comes from the UP. Eight cars per session come through Milliken while a few more come through the Kelim interchange on the lower level.
The East Side Beet Turn arrives in this area with only three empty hoppers and can use the short double-ended beet siding for a round around while switching.
The Welty Branch Beet Turn
The Welty Branch Beet Turn heads out of the Loveland Yard with 10 empty hoppers for the Welty branch. Here it is just passing the Carnation dairy on its way out of Johnstown. The train is carefully blocked by the yardmaster so the beet dumps can be switched with minimum fuss. If it is not blocked properly, the engineer will have a heck of a time up here.
The crew will leave the last five cars of the train in front of the switch for the Pulliam beet dump and take the first five down to the Buda beet dump. Buda has a long runaround and boomer track and can be switched fairly easily. On return, there are some tricky moves to swap loads and empties here as well as running around the two cars for the Clarks beet dump, a facing point lead back to the left. And, of course, making sure the caboose is on the other end of the train for the return trip to Loveland.
The first order of business at Buda is to push the advertising car down under the I-25 overpass while pulling the empties into the passing siding to run around them. When switching is completed, the ad car must end up back on the siding.
On the prototype, there are two more beet dumps on the other side of the overpass, the last being the Welty beet dump, hence the name of the branch. The overpass has only the east half of I-25 modeled but the mirror behind it fills in the west side (and another beet dump in the distance if you look just right).
After the run-around, the crew pulls the loads from the boomer track and puts them on the main track. Then it’s a simple matter to grab the empties and spot them on the boomer track. After the ad car is replaced, the loads are pulled around towards Pulliam but left shy of the beet dump while the rest of the empties are worked. Then it’s time to head into Johnstown to turn the engine and head back to Loveland.
A Helicopter View of the New Great Western
With the camera and tripod perched precariously on a table and myself balanced on a ladder, I shot some overviews of the upper level and the general train room. One advantage of a 10 ½ foot high ceiling.
Looking down on Johnstown with the wye to the left. The Welty branch is in the upper middle. The prototype Johnstown downtown area is oriented about 45 degrees to the railroad. Not having the streets going directly across the upper level allows the buildings to create a view block from one side to the other. I still need to spend time arranging the downtown buildings and deciding how wide the streets should be. Overall, this area is a good representation of the real Johnstown.
Other things on the lower level visible here are the Loveland yard and beet factory (middle right), areas east of Loveland (middle). the Lory beet dump (lower middle), the Cache La Poudre river trestle (middle) and the Windsor Kodak plant (middle left, in the shadows - the lower level lighting was not on).
Looking down on Johnstown with the helix to the right. The Becker passing siding is at the top with the Welty branch heading to the left. This is a good view of the Loomix plant, Simplot and the cattle pens. Note how the Becker siding is oriented – it is good for working the Welty branch but awkward for working Loomix. The grounded box car is the grey car in the middle.
Lower level things visible include the Loveland yard (middle left), C&S/UP interchange loop (around the walls), the lift up bridge connecting the C&S to the GW at Loveland, the black lift-up bridge carrying the C&S/UP loop across the entrance door, a sugar beet field (green), the Gove siding (middle right) and the UP Ft. Collins branch (against the backdrop behind the beet field).
Looking toward the rear of the room with the Johnstown sugar factory upper left. There is a four foot access space between the layout and the garage door to fiddle with the upper and lower staging yards and for tool and materials storage. The lower middle is the far end of Windsor.
Note the plywood platform on the floor to the right. I built three of those to help work on the upper level and to assist vertically challenged operators. This one is 18” wide, 4’ long and 12” high. The other two are 15” wide and 3’ long. If I need extra height, I can stack a smaller one on top of the larger one (and try to remember to not fall off).
A better view of the Welty branch and the Longmont staging yard. Clarks beet dump is the first on the branch and is a facing point move. .Pulliam is in the middle and is double ended. Buda is on the far wall and has a run-around and boomer track. The east half of the I-25 overpass is at the end. Note the water tower hiding the edge of the backdrop in front of the staging yard.
My “workshop” is the space in the middle. I have an old office desk on sliders that pulls out from under the Loveland yard (or actually, is pushed under it for operating sessions). The computer is used to view photos I took of the area I’m modeling as well as holding my “playlist” of old rock’n’roll music that I listen to (hence the speakers over the backdrop). Much stuff is stored next to the workbench and behind the layout skirt. A 45’ long test track is mounted on the fascia above the workbench. It is connected with a phone plug and three jacks so I can power it from DCC, the programming track or straight DC.
I hope you enjoyed this tour. My next blog entry will be about operations – schedules, methods and overall philosophy. Then I finally get to do some modeling!
