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The telephone poles are Rix Products, and the utility poles are Walthers Scenemaster. I follow the methods described by Jeff Wilson in "Make accurate utility poles and wires". That's a PDF downloadable from Model Railroader. I especially like the glass-like insulators you can achieve with a base of metallic silver followed by a glossy blue-green acrylic. But I don't string wires -- too many hands and sleeves to catch during operations.

Thank you Tracy. You sure have a wealth of wonderful memories. Those were the days!

💙 T.E.N.

Thank you Darren. I'm happy to share the fun and glad that you enjoy it!

Glad you enjoyed it!

Thanks! That's one of those little things you only notice in a video close up -- part of the fun.

Sounds like you like to be surprised Cliff. :-) We'll try to shock you again in future videos! Thanks!!!

Thank you! I'm glad you enjoyed it. The operating crew strives to reproduce the jobs and actions of the C&S Northern Division in 1958.

I love that your name is Burlington Route. Big fan of the CB&Q and the C&S/FW&D. 💙 T.E.N.

Thank you! If the next passenger train had been northbound, you'd have gotten your literal turning too. Perhaps in the next video. :-)

Thank you! I'm glad you enjoyed it.

You've got some history there. I went down to RY two or three times in the late 1980s to take some photos of the remains and measure some foundations for the missing steam locomotive facilities. It was completely abandoned. In the 1990s, Elitch Gardens Amusement Park ran their first season or two with the turntable bridge decorated with lightbulbs. Everything else was gone, obviously, and so was the TT bridge soon after that.

That's a Brass Hat Announcer at about 4:42 in the video. You can see the Union Station master press the button for Number 17 in that scene. (BHA was made by Boulder Creek Engineering, which is now out of business.)

Thank you! Exactly the flavor I was after. I'm glad you enjoyed.

Yes, and one more reason for the rapid move to diesels for passenger service. Along with marketing pizazz, lower labor costs, ...

Yep! I think I bought it (along with two others) in the late 1990s.

Thank you! Filming the night scenes are challenging, but I like the results too. And it gives a real sense of our layout operations. We operate both day and night sessions, with computer controlled sunrise and sunsets. The nights are shorter than the days though, as it's mid June on the layout right now.

Thank you. Mike was an inspiration and wonderful information source for many of us, especially those of us modeling the Burlington Lines. I've always admired Mike's backdrops in print and video, though I never saw them in person. It's an honor to be compared to Mike and his modeling.

I'm glad you enjoy them, we do too!

Thank you! That's a vintage Life Like Proto 2000 E8 -- and I never appreciated the moving journals until this video too! That is an unexpected "happy accident" of the camera.

Glad you enjoyed it! Thank you.

Thank you very much Martin. These videos are fun to make too!

Thanks Jeff. I always try to put something new in every video.

Thank you! We do run Santa Fe trains between Rice Yard and South Denver, so you'll see the ATSF in a future video.

Thank you! Glad you enjoyed it.

Thank you, glad you enjoyed it! I know Berthoud well -- next town north of Longmont. Just a bit too far for my basement. :-)

Thank you! That is dual gauge... standard and 3-foot narrow. The switches in Boulder are hand-laid. Fourteen switches and 28 frogs. Some switches have one frog, others two, and others have three!

@@CSRYfan will we ever see any narrow gauge action?

I hope to have some NG action in the future.

From your pen to the algorithms eye (ear?). Thank you!

Yah, a bit of a hiatus while finishing the Boulder Depot. Glad you are enjoying the series!

Actually, that was a "cross-dissolve" between clips to imply elapsed time and keep the video crisp. I inadvertently made the cut between clips so that the first mail car was superimposed on itself, which made it look like the engineer did not stop. That was an error on my part. There were actually minutes between the clips as that pick-up was a bit down the track. You can see its position in the scene when the Shoshone arrives and passes the station. So the engine and first mail car had to "go deep" to get it. I'll get better at this!

Thank you Peter!

Nah, no DCC decoder people. They're DC. ;-) Glad you enjoyed the video!

Thank you! And just a bit of weathering makes them perfect. :-)

Thank you! It does take a long time... for me anyway.

That's the plan! And thank you for your support!!

No layout is every totally completed !!!

Thank you -- glad you enjoyed it!

Thank you. I'm glad you enjoyed it!

Thanks Tony! Model train operations need to be complex enough to keep it entertaining and engaging -- but not any more than that!!!

Rough translation from Google Translate: "Hello, this is Rainer from Germany, I think it's great how realistic your railway operations are, it's just wonderful to hear and to see, keep it up, have a merry Christmas and pleasant holidays, warm greetings from Erfurt in Germany." Danke Rainer! The same to you and yours this holiday season.

I do too. :-) Thank you!

Thank you very much! I'm glad you enjoyed it. And the communication details are part of what makes operations fun.

The RY Coaling Tower was guestimated from photos, on-site foundation measurements, and an 8x11" 1948 C&S Ry drawing of basic measurements I found at the Colorado RR Museum. My July 2004 Model Railroader article describes how I built the animated model, and includes the scale drawings I created. This iconic structure is in a ton of locomotive photos from the 1950s, so no depiction of Rice Yard is complete without it. It was well worth the effort!

@@CSRYfan awesome! July 2004, gonna have to pick that one up. I've always been more of a UP guy and I'm still learning all the sources for Q/C&S reference material. I have a 902 just begging to be photographed and this scene seemed perfect. photos.smugmug.com/photos/i-mKp9JS3/3/O/i-mKp9JS3.jpg

Yep, that's a famous (among C&S fans) photo by M. C. Trent. No. 902 is under the coaling tower on the night of November 21, 1958. This photo was used on the album cover of "All Steamed Up".

That's a great town, with a nice C&S Ry station. I've taken a few photos there.

I'm glad you enjoyed it and found it helpful.

Thank you very much! I'm glad you enjoyed it.

Thank you. I'm glad you enjoyed it.

Thank you. They are a good crew, and they really make these videos special. I'm lucky to have them.

Yes, but usually only if there is a forward and back. For example, No. 46's crew was probably out of time to get to Valmont before No. 45 was due to leave. Without train order no. 16, No. 46 would have to pull out to clear No. 23's departure at Niwot, and then back in to clear the arrival of No. 45. THAT is a saw by.

@@CSRYfan Thank you for replying. That's not what I learned in John Allen's books on realistic operation. In fact, if I recall the illustration in Track Planning for Realistic Operation correctly, the short train pulled into the siding and then long train went around it. Your example at Niwot was an interesting alternative. One could imagine a line where all the trains in one direction are longer than the sidings but not the other, such as when a steep grade limits train length or most short trains are going in one direction and the long trains are empties, such as on the Minnesota Iron Range. Making one empty train from two formerly loaded trains could be a great way to cut crewing costs. If you don't have dynamic braking, such as when using steam power, taking an extra heavy train down a steep grade, like the 2% grade down to the Lake Superior ore docks at Duluth, MN, could be unsafe.

Ah yes, figure 3-5 in John Armstrong's Track Planning for Realistic Operation. I had to look it up. :-) I'm not one to argue with the Dean of Model Railroad Planning, so I'll concede to his definition of saw by. :-) I will say that which train goes on the siding is operation dependent and subject to change by the Dispatcher. In the case of the meet at Niwot, the short train was No. 23, a first class passenger train. 23 took the main track, as the superior train. It also had a scheduled stop for passengers, and the depot is on the main track. Standard operating procedure for No. 23.

@@CSRYfan That's fascinating, especially with the wrinkle of having a passenger train making a scheduled stop during a meet. I hope your videos help more people realize that operating model trains realistically is fun.

Thank you! I don't know Mark -- sounds like another modeler following his hometown railroad like me.

Glad you liked it! Thank you very much.

Thanks Steve -- will do.

Thank you very much!