The United Verde & Pacific Railway

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Kegg_Works
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The United Verde & Pacific Railway

Post by Kegg_Works »

Hey all, been a while again.

I've already announce a few projects I'm working on, and mentioned a few others. But I figured I'd start dedicated thread for one of them. And this one is my BIG project! Recreating the little known, but oh so charming United Verde & Pacific Ry in TRS12.

The UV&P was a 3ft gauge common carrier who's primary business was to haul smelted copper from the smelter in Jerome, AZ to the interchange with the Santa Fe Prescott & Phoenix RR at Jerome Jct. What is today known as Chino Valley. The UV&P wasn't very long, just a little over 26 miles. But what makes this line so interesting is not just its history, but the route of the line also. For roughly the first half of the railroad, around 13 miles or so give or take, is pretty strait. Only 6 or 7 curves for that stretch, but once the line passes its half way point the grade starts to viciously twist and wind its way over the jagged and serrated slopes of Woodchute Mt.! These curves are INSANELY sharp and warranted engines no long than 2-6-0s! One of the trains I love about this line. Below is a ling to an aerial map superimposed upon a modern satellite image. And if you follow it, you'll see just how rugged this line was!
http://www.davesriogrande.net/Maps/AZ/U ... cific.html

As you can see most of the grade is in tact as a dirt road, often used by those wanting a scenic drive through the Prescott National Forrest. Although there are no tunnels there are a number of cuttings along the route. One in particular towards the end of their "horseshoe curve" which was a sharp, flange squealing 140 degree curve! Below are some photos of the route and of the motive power and rolling stock.

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The locomotives, as you can see, are very unique compact 2-6-0s. There really sin't anything close to them already available for Trainz so I'm commissioning the folks over at K&L Trainz to build them for the game. It'll be a while before they'll be able to start work on them, but I think they'll be great for both this route and as more generic versions as these chuncky steamers would be quite versatile on other slim gauge operations. A friend drew up a color drawing to give an idea of how these engines may have looked back in the day.

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Progress on the route has started, track is roughly laid out, though is pretty accurate in term of the placement. Next up is grading and adding sidings. That's going to be one of the hardest parts. Sadly I don't have any shots of the progress so far, but I promise to post some soon! Also I'd like to give a huge thank you to Curtis for helping me with the terrain map, because without it this route would not be possible. :D
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Pencil
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Re: The United Verde & Pacific Railway

Post by Pencil »

Nice drawing! I'm looking forward to seeing the progress on this route!

Curtis
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Kegg_Works
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Re: The United Verde & Pacific Railway

Post by Kegg_Works »

Pencil wrote:Nice drawing! I'm looking forward to seeing the progress on this route!

Curtis
Thanks Curtis!

Sadly I won't have any screen captures until sometime next week. However I did begin grading work from Jerome Jct. (Chino Valley) past Russel (the half way point) and now I'm about halfway between Russel and Bodkin. The aerial map linked in the first post should be a decent reference guide for the locations. I also placed one of the sidings and a spur along the route. I still have yet to place the siding and spur at Russel. Other adjustments and altering of topography need to be done to the graded areas. I'm sorry to say that its unlikely that a 2-8-0 will be able to hand this route without derailing... or a lot of flange squeal. (Which reminds me, I'll have to place some of your flange squeal track along some of the curves on this route.) :mrgreen:
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Kegg_Works
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Re: The United Verde & Pacific Railway

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PROGRESS!!!!! :mrgreen:

So yes, as promised, for once..., some screen captures of the progress I've been making on the UV&P route. First up is Jerome Junction and.... there's not much here. Not right now at the moment. It's the first of two major challenges, the second being Jerome itself at the opposite end of the line.

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As you can see about the only thing I have here is the roundhouse. Jerome Jct. has a pretty extensive yard with both standard, narrow, and dual gauge tracks. This photo shows what it will eventually look like once I've finished the bulk of the route between points "A", Jerome Jct. And "B", Jerome, AZ.
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Sadly only about half to two-thirds of the yard can be seen. The most prominent structure is the one from which the photo was taken. A set of elevated bins which coke was loaded to be transferred to the narrow gauge for shipment to the smelter at Jerome. Oddly the loading trestle and bins are used by the Standard Gauge with the narrow gauge on either side to collect the coke.

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Next up is the round house and wye tracks. Now I've had to make a historical compromise here as there never was a turntable here. The roundhouse was located at the end of the wye tail with a three-way switch leading to the roundhouse stalls. Elevenor's roundhouse looks to be a pretty darn close match to the UV&P roundhouse, but it has the turntable attached... Oh well, I might find something better later on. So for now its a good stand in.

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This is East Siding which is located about a half mile east of the wye and is 873ft long.

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Just after East Siding is Mile Two Spur, and it's appropriately named as it's located right at milepost two. The spur was 320ft long and used for the loading of cattle. I'm still trying to figure out how exactly I'll add a cattle loading area here as records suggest it wasn't anything significant. So perhaps nothing more than a portable loading ramp? However in the distance is the long trestle spanning Granite Creek.

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Here is Davis, located just before milepost 9 and it had a 710ft long siding her. Here there was also a wagon road crossing and where lumber was picked up to be shipped up the to smelter in Jerome for its expansion and for constructing the new engine facilities for the UV&P in Jerome. The portion of the line between Jerome Jct. and Russell, the half-way point of the route, is pretty strait. With only about 6 or 7 broad curves along the way. The only difficulty being that some areas had a varying 2% grade in spots. But along such strait Right-of-Ways that wasn't anything to really worry about.

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Just past the broad curve at Davis the line again continues strait and now boarders some of the rough terrain that it will soon be navigating. This is just a foreshadowing of the steep grades and exceedingly sharp curves this line with traverse.

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Russell, the half way point between Jerome Jct and Jerome, AZ. Here there was a 698ft siding as well as a 270ft spur. This is approximately milepost 12. Obviously the siding and spur have yet to be added as most of my focus is on the route itself. Once the grading is complete I'll come back and place in the sidings and spurs where appropriate. But from this point on the journey becomes far more treacherous...

As an interesting side note, Russell was originally known as "Summit". As at the time this would have been the highest point on the UV&P. However surveyors wanted to avoid some of the harsher canyons and gulches further down along the slopes of Woodchute Mt. and so at Bodkin the grade began to climb again.

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In the distance you can see a somewhat shallow cut. Just behind it is Russell and now the line descends and the curves are almost non-stop from this point on with only a few brief sections of strait grade.

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Continuing around the "hill" from the previous shot the grade continues to drop. The grade here varies between 2 and 3% and so operating on this line will be a challenge. Sadly I don't have an accurate track profile so I don't know what the grades were in reality. So I've been making educated guess' by raising and lowering the track to get what looks 'right' compared to its position against the landscape. I feel it's pretty darn close despite not being totally accurate.

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Here is the first major bridge site after Russell. With this rendition of the UV&P I'm depicting it as it appeared between 1894 and 1900. By 1900 most of the bridges were removed and grade relocated via fill and culvert. Here the grade would have continued around the hill and then curved up to reconnect with the existing grade, completely bypassing the trestle. All in all I may end up making three versions of the UV&P. 1894-1900, 1900-1911, and 1911-1920. The second verison of the route would include all the grade relocations and one the relocation of the depot in Jerome. (More on that in another post) The third version is the UV&P's twilight years as in 1911 a new standard gauge line was built branching off from the SFP&P about 17 or so mile north of Jerome Jct. This new line then found its way to Clarkdale where it was decided to relocate the Jerome Smelter. Not to mention copper deposits were found beneath the Jerome smelter itself. So all this completely bypassed the UV&P and thus made the little narrow gauge line obsolete. And so it was abandoned in 1920. Kind of sad if you ask me...

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Here is a shot that I hope conveys the sort of topography that the little UV&P had to negotiate. These are just the beginnings of the serrated slopes of Woodchute Mt. and as you can tell it's already pretty rugged. And it only gets tougher from here! The closer the line gets to Jerome the more jagged the slopes of the mountain get. This should look stunning once everything gets textured and planted. And It will look even more so in TANE since it shows better depth with scenery. The view of Woodchute Mt. looming in the background would be really cool to see. But for now I'm sticking with TRS12. :wink:

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Above is a shot from an aerial map of the section I'm presently working on. Russell is just out of frame to the lower left and the arrows note key locations and progress points. Some of the track is 'graded' past the first trestle, but most of it from here to Bodkin still has yet to be done.

Well I certainly hope I was able to capture your attention. And thanks again, Curtis for making the map! As you can see I'm putting it to good use! :mrgreen:
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Colorado76
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Re: The United Verde & Pacific Railway

Post by Colorado76 »

Very nice progress so far! I like the route and I am looking forward to more!

One tip, I don't know if you know but if you trace the route in Google Earth and then right click on your path name and then click on show elevation profile you will get the elevation and grades of the route (Pending on how accurately you place the path line in Google Maps), Also you can move your mouse over the profile and get the exact grade at that specific area. It helped me greatly when I was tracing the route of the New Mexico Lumber Company railroad in Southwest Colorado. It should give you some general ideas as to what the grades were on the railroad.
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Kegg_Works
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Re: The United Verde & Pacific Railway

Post by Kegg_Works »

Colorado76 wrote:Very nice progress so far! I like the route and I am looking forward to more!

One tip, I don't know if you know but if you trace the route in Google Earth and then right click on your path name and then click on show elevation profile you will get the elevation and grades of the route (Pending on how accurately you place the path line in Google Maps), Also you can move your mouse over the profile and get the exact grade at that specific area. It helped me greatly when I was tracing the route of the New Mexico Lumber Company railroad in Southwest Colorado. It should give you some general ideas as to what the grades were on the railroad.
Huh, that's a fantastic suggestion! I had no idea that could be done with google earth. Thanks for the hint! Fortunately for me the grade survives about 97% in tact and is now a dirt road used by a lot of folks who enjoy a scenic drive and 4x4s. Hopefully since it's still an active road I can get some data from Google Earth as you've suggested. :D
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Kegg_Works
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Re: The United Verde & Pacific Railway

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Okay... So it's been a little while, but despite my absence there has been some progress on the UV&P! I don't have any screen shots at the moment, but I will post some shortly. The line has been graded completely to Bodkin Siding at mile post 16. The line has been roughly graded up to about milepost 17 and little bit beyond, but that's a really rough grading. I did have to take some creative liberties as to some of the grades. I've unfortunately been unable to trace the grade via Google as suggested by Colorado76. So what I've been doing is matching the track in proportion to the topography of the landscape as best as I could using Google earth as a guide.

Also I've started working on the yards at Chino Valley/Jerome Jct. The station is in place and I'm working on the yard tracks and placements. One thing though I'm still trying to figure out is what to do for the coke bins at the north end of the yard. The SFP&P RR brings in coke to be transporter to the smelter in Jerome for fuel. It's interesting as the Standard Gauge actually travels up on top of the coke bins and the NG loading tracks are to either side of them. The book I have on the UV&P has a map of the Jerome Jct. yard so I'll see if I can scan part of it to show here in the thread.

Anyway, sorry I don't have any images, but I hope to put some up tomorrow!
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Kegg_Works
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Re: The United Verde & Pacific Railway

Post by Kegg_Works »

Okay! Now for a somewhat more substantial update!! :D

First and foremost, the Jerome Junction yards!!
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I've started working on some of the dual gauge portions of the yard as well as some of the SG yard tracks. Though mostly the station track where the narrow gauge train is shown. Below though is an attempt to recreate/mimic a photo taken during the early days of the UV&P, showing one of their earlier moguls with a Santa Fe Prescott & Phoenix train in the background.

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And here is the photo just mentioned:

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Even if I'm just saying so myself I think I've depicted it pretty darn close with what's available. I do find it somewhat funny that the third rail for narrow gauge is st towards the station so that the shared rail is on the outside. This then changes to the north side where there is a transfer platform. Below is a scan I made from the book I have on the UV&P. It's a poor scan so I do apologize, especially because I have to make it from two separate scans and then piece them together.

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As this image shows the yards are pretty extensive! And hence why it's one of the big challenges for this project. Especially with the placement of dual gauge tracks. The biggest modeling challenge though will be the coke bins to the north end of the yard. Here the standard gauge rides up to drop coke into the bins, of which the UV&P narrow gauge tracks are to either side of to collect and then ship to the smelter at Jerome. I'm not entirely sure how I'm going to pull that off. I've though about using Shortline2's 4-Coal Bins for this, lining several of them up side by side and back to back; and having the SG in the middle. The only part about this method I don't like is that there is no way (that I know of) to make this part of the yard active for the SG. Basically being able to have the SG dump into the bins. I know I'm going to have to make some industry active sacrifices and that may have to be one of them.

Anyway, this is what I have for now. I'll get back to you all on the actual UV&P right-of-way when I have a little more of it done. I know it's been a while, but I promise your patience will be rewarded!
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Pencil
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Re: The United Verde & Pacific Railway

Post by Pencil »

You're making nice progress; thank you for sharing!!
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rogueranger1993
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Re: The United Verde & Pacific Railway

Post by rogueranger1993 »

I think I may have an idea for the coke bins, Gunslinger. I've used the Gossen coal bins on my own upcoming project, since they have a track on top for loading the bins and one below the chute. They also support multiple products by default (though I don't currently recall if coke is one of those), and lining them up in two back-to-back rows could be just what you need.

Hope that helps.
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