Modified from R.D.Turner 1987 “West of the Great Divide” Sono Nis Press, Victoria page 54.

Having made the decision to model the scene at Rogers Pass the next problem was to find more information on the number and placing of the tracks. I was in luck because a detailed survey was make on April 14, 1887 by A.L. Poudrier for the CPR and has been redrawn by R.D. Turner for his book on railroading in British Columbia.

The plan as drawn by Turner was overlaid with a one hundred foot grid to estimate the size of the space required. One hundred feet in n-scale is 7.5 inches so the plan covers a space 30 by 105 inches. This turned out to be very fortunate for me since the Prairie Rail Workshop, the model railroad club that I belong to, constructs modules that are 30 by 47 inches so with a little strategic shrinking the plan can be accommodated on 2 modules. The only complications are that the club requires a double track mainline on each side of the module and runs transition to modern rolling stock.

A little work with the Atlas layout planning software (RTS10) and I was able to fit the plan into 2 modules and incorporate the double track main on each side. This left the side without the town a little bare so I took the information that the long diagonal track running from right to left ran to a saw mill and included the saw mill on the other side. It will take some more imagination to come up with a scheme to fit the 2 modules into the club’s travelling layout but it should be possible to represent it as a railroad museum with excursions.

The finished track plan next time.