21 Wyoming Division Scenery by Verryl V Fosnight Jr
Wyoming Division HO Operation Layout Wyoming Division HO Operation Layout
21 Wyoming Division Scenery
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Verryl V Fosnight Jr's Gallery Verryl V Fosnight Jr's Gallery
Wyoming Division HO Operation Layout Wyoming Division HO Operation Layout

21 Wyoming Division Scenery
  • Aug 15, 2020
  • 24 Photos
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  1. Verryl V Fosnight Jr's Gallery
  2. Wyoming Division HO Operation LayoutWyoming Division HO Operation Layout
  3. 21 Wyoming Division Scenery21 Wyoming Division Scenery
Intro Allen Lenny
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Allen drew and printed out on the 3D printer these company houses to fill in the south side of the tracks with some town. They are just temporarily set in place at this time. Allen wants to weather them and landscape the "yards," probably with streets perpendicular to the tracks to make a safe space for operators to reach the hand operated turnout ground throws. The viaduct is 6thStreet near the Rawlins Depot hidden by the coal tower.
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The viaduct from the southwest side, Rawlins, WY.
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The Texaco oil outlet and the Kasoming Oil tanks between the depot (in front of the cutaway part of the backdrop) and the coal tower (with part of a concrete footer just visible at the lower right corner of the photo.
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Another view of the oil companies. The spur behind the Kasoming Oil Tanks with the flat car on it serves Larsen metals, one of two scrap metal yards on the layout. the other is in Downtown Ogden and is served by SP tracks.
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The model bend around the end cap that joins benches 1/5 and 2/3 just west of Dale Junction and prior to the Hermosa Tunnels. It is hard to distinguish Kelly Daniels' backdrop and the model scenery that Allen ut down. I numbered the aisles of the layout so the benches are designated by calling out the aisles on either side of a bench.
53
Rancher wearing coveralls (!) checking his stock and a saddled house without a rider, probably wondering where the wrangler is--maybe heeding a nature call behind the snow fences.
cow stand off
Different cow, different farmer, different pickup. Allen's scenery with Lenny's 3D printed "steel" snow fences. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snow_fence for the science behind snow fences.
Cullen warehouse 2
Cullen Commercial warehouse in Wamsutter, Wyoming.
Dry Wash
Red desert area of dry prairie between Rawlins and Wamsutter.
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Cowboy on eastern slope of Sherman Hill near Cheyenne. Must have been a very, very wet spring and summer, because the grass is very tall. I lived in Cheyenne from age 1 1/2 to about 15, and remember the grass that tall, or nearly so, only once--when we took a trip back from California in about 1957, or thereabouts.
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Just a few miles west of Cheyenne starting up the Sherman Hill grade.
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High grass, fences and power poles along a cut for Tracks #1 and #2 up Sherman Hill just out of Cheyenne.
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Slag dump in Hanna.
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This view is looking from the Hanna coal mines area back toward the Hanna coal marshaling yard. Allen scratch built the trestle for the mine access track which crosses over itself. The curves are all tight radii from the yard up to the end of the mines, so there are two sets of diesels for the Hanna coal drag job. There is a dedicated 4 axle diesel for yard to mines work, and a consist of RS-3's for the coal drag delivering coal from Hanna to Medicine Bow, Laramie, Harriman, and Cheyenne. At Cheyenne hopper loads are distributed to City Coal, the coal tower, the yard power house, and Wycon Chemical just west of Cheyenne. Naturally, the consist returns all empty hoppers back to the Hanna Yard.
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Lots of junk and scrap lumber just dumped around the area. It's coal mining--neatness is not important.
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Explosives shed?? Isolated and well labeled. Junk scattered around is a nice modeling touch.
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This is the stub loading track for one of the Hanna mines. the access track climbs in a broad loop around this structure and continues up to the last modeled mine. That continued track can be seen at the top left of the photo.
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The stock pens built by UP in Bitter Creek, east of Rock Springs, to facilitate cattle and sheep loading. The overpass is US Highway 30, part of the original Lincoln Highway from times Square to San Francisco. It roughly followed the route of the UP Transcontinental Railroad, but occasionally deviated from it where a steeper route was feasible. Cars could climb steeper grades than trains.
Fence
Very realistic looking barbed wire fence. The verticle separators between posts were always made from random thin tree branches, so they were never straight. both of my sets of grandparents homesteaded in SW Colorado in 1917, coming up from Oklahoma by horse drawn wagons. Down there the only trees on the prairie were stubby cedars (anyway, that's what they called them). The grew widely spaced on certain hills about 1 days wagon ride away further west in Colorado. That was the only local trees or wood available. I don't remember any of those twigs used in fences this way, but larger tree trunks that were twisted and knarled were used for fence posts. But I imagine the UP could freight in straight lumber for posts, and they probably participated, at least, in fencing. No railroader would want to hit a cow.
Ferguson Merchantile 2
Ferguson Mercantile in Wamsutter scratch built by Allen. I'd think it was Christmas time by the sacks of mail. OTOH that is more mail that Wamsutter gets or sends out in 4 or 5 Christmasses, maybe 4-5 years!
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A train emerging from the east bound (left hand running) track from Cheyenne through Dale Junction and down the western slope of Sherman Hill toward Laramie.
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I think that is a Challenger going west through the one train length of double track at Harriman, Wyoming on the Harriman Cutoff, Track #3. On the UP such sections of double track are a single main plus a siding, but this section was about 1/3 of the length of track from the Speer Wye just SE of Cheyenne to Dale. When we put in ABS signals, instead of 3 one-train length ABS blocks, we made 2 longer ABS blocks with the main plus the siding making up one block, and the main plus the part of the main parallel to the siding forming the other block. This is a good down the track shot that shows Harriman, the line shacks and the coal tower, in a way they cannot be seen from the aisle.
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2555 leads a local freight train eastbound for Cheyenne across the crossover at Dale changing from left hand running back to right hand running. Allen and Lenny worked on the scenery here separately at different times. Allen did the terrain and ground cover and hillocks of pink granite and Lenny did a lot of the rock carving and staining of the the rock castings and the line and fence details at Dale.
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Here comes #2555, having picked up speed down toward Cheyenne.
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An eastbound local freight pulled by a 2-8-2 Mikado, renamed as a "MacArthur" after the Pearl Harbor attack, just crests the Hill just past the Sherman Depot just out of the scene to the left. It is properly on the right hand track east of Dale Junction. Note the fields of snow fences, hand built by Allen and Lenny. Nowadays, Lenny spits them out on his 3D printer. The Harriman coal tower on Track #3 (Harriman Cutoff) is on the right. The actual UP tracks #1 and #2 here are miles apart from #3
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East bound 2555 local, having just cleared Dale Junction and crossed over to Track #2 from Track #1 (#2 is left hand running from Laramie up to Dale) continues up to the summit of Sherman just to the right of this view. The Sherman Depot is just to the right of this scene, and from there it is downhill on the eastern slope of Sherman Hill down to Cheyenne.
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2555 local descending eastbound past the Sherman Hill Depot.
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A pair of Challengers leads a westbound freight train up Sherman Hill from Cheyenne to Dale.
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Big Boy at good speed up the western slope of Sherman Hill on the point of a PFE Special and just entering the left hand portal of the Hermosa tunnels #1. From Laramie up to Dale is left hand running to take advantage of the milder grade of the newer Track #2 opened in 1951 On the Wyoming Division Layout these 30 reefer trains are high superiority ("Specials") just below passenger trains. I believe Allen formed the mountain and the portals, and Lenny carved, weathered, and stained the "rocks.'
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FEF 818 pulling a mixed train westward up the eastern slope of Sherman Hill past Whiteface Herfords and one Jersey (?) milk cow.
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This eastbound FEF (4-8-4) has just crossed over from the left hand Track #2 on to the right hand track #1 at Dale Junction to continue cresting Sherman Hill. The top of the Hill is just to the right of this scene. Up and our layout run up the western slope of The Hill on the newer left hand track, because that grade is less steep that the original 1860's Track #1, which was routed downhill rapidly on the Laramie Range during the original Transcontinental construction. The Harriman Cutoff Track #3 is in the middle of the scene. Track #3 cuts off about 50 feet of elevation to the summit, and we have modeled it accurately; #3 is still climbing E to West (Right to left) here, while the original mains, #1 and #2 are still climbing to the summit to the right, or east of this view. Allen's pink granite "rocks" in the foreground match the photo backdrop rocks in the back very well, and his late summer grass is just the right high prairie color.
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FEF 810 (?) pulling a mixed train up the western slope out of Laramie toward Dale and Cheyenne. The cut is at the western entrance to the Hermosa Tunnels #1.
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This clip starts with a consist of 3 EMD E Units leading a passenger train down Sherman Hill eastward toward Cheyenne. The blue building is part of the Wycon Chemical plant on the outskirts of Cheyenne. The passenger train soon passes a Challenger helping a Big Boy with a freight trains up Track #1 west of Cheyenne toward Dale. It soon passes a rancher trying to walk up to his Wyoming Whiteface Herford. It's 1957 prior to the bogus animal-fat-causes-heart-disease-medical-journal-article, you know back when beef was really good--before the use of Angus cattle.
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Big Boy climbing up the eastern slope of Sherman, on the right hand "double track" of the Harriman Cutoff, which before we installed the ABS (automatic block signals) was a siding near Harriman, Wyoming. We used that siding along with the original main to form a short stretch of double track, because the layout distance from Cheyenne to Dale Junction (about 60 feet) was not long enough to have 3 signal blocks with a siding in the middle. So at the suggestion of Dennis Drury, we installed two longer blocks, with the siding being part of the eastern block, and the original main including that part beside the siding as the other (western) block.
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Westbound Big Boy 4006 coming through a cut on the eastern slope of Sherman Hill. The train has just left the former siding which is now part of the west bound track, as explained in the previous video Description.
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Big Boy 4006 headed west down the (proper) left track #2 toward Laramie. Background noise is from visitors.
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Red Desert area west of Rawlins and east of Wamsutter with Challenger 3958 pulling a freight westbound.
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Video by Allen Montgomery of Big Boy 4022 pulling a string of stock cars east up the Laramie side of Sherman Hill. Tunnel is the two bore Hermosa Tunnel #1. There are actually two tunnels side by side and together they are named by UP as #1, I think because they were bored at the same time. Other duel tunnels such as #5 and #6 at Curvo, Utah and Aspen and Altamont, #2 and #3 were bored at different times. I believe Allen and Lenny Wyatt both worked on the tunnels, Allen doing the over all mountain forming and Lenny doing the scenic details of the approaches and portals.
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Big Boy 4022 eastbound just past Dale Junction but still climbing to the Sherman Hill Summit at the Sherman Depot. The Harriman Cutoff Track #3 is in the foreground. The relative elevations of Track #3 to # 1 and #2, with the train on #2, is our version of the 50 feet in overall grade Track #3 (Harriman Cutoff) saved over #1 and #2. The train has just crossed over from the older track #1 on to the newer Track #2 and resumed on down the Hill running on the right-hand track.
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Eastbound Big Boy 4022 down Sherman Hill on Track #2. The crossover is to access Granite Quarry beyond these tracks. The turnout in the first few frames of this video starts the siding to the Quarry.
Snake River Shearing Co. 5
Sheep pen of Snake River Shearing Company in Wamsutter, Wyoming
West end of stockyards
UP stock yard at Wamsutter, Wyoming used to load stock and rest and water animals per 28 hour rule for transporting them. Scratch Built by Allen. I believe that is a 1953 pale green Chevy being loaded by the driver with a weeks shopping from the Wamsutter Grocery. My second car was a four door white '53. I had to settle for the four door when my wild aunt came back to our house in Long Beach to get her '53 Merc 2 door hardtop with a continental kit! She had left it with us and after I had gotten my driver's license, I used her Mercury for about 6 months. I'd tell you more about Aunt Darlene, but you are too young.
20 Scenery and Structures June 2020
20 Scenery and Structures June 2020
22 ABS Signals
22 ABS Signals
03 Phase III Construction
04 Phase IV All Track Done--Details
05 Structures
06 Wyoming Division Operation Sessions
07 Fall Invitational Nov 12-14, 2016
08 First Annual Winter Invitational
09 Backdrops Signals Scenery
10 Backdrops Signals Scenery
11 2017 Winter Invitational Meet BBQ
12 2017 Winter Invitational Meet Ops
13 Winter Invitational 2017 Lenander Photos
14 2018 Fourth Winter Invitational
16 Spring Invitational (5th) Ops Meet
17 Photographing the WyoDivOps 12/14/19
18 Ops 121419
19 Photos "Lightweight Ops Article"
20 Scenery and Structures June 2020
21 Wyoming Division Scenery
22 ABS Signals
23 Structures During Pandemic
24 Post Pandemic August 2022
25 How We Operate-Fall 2022
Intro Allen Lenny P1000799 PP Sht P1000803 PP Sht P1000805 PP Sht P1000807 PP2 Sht 12 53 cow stand off Cullen warehouse 2 Dry Wash DSC01153 DSC01157 DSC01160 DSC01696 DSC01699 DSC01706 DSC01707 DSC01712 DSC03126 Fence Ferguson Merchantile 2 IMG_0269 MVI_0268 MVI_0272 MVI_0274 MVI_0275 MVI_0276 MVI_0277 MVI_0281 MVI_0282 MVI_0305 MVI_0307 MVI_0308 MVI_0314 MVI_0315 MVI_0316 MVI_0318 MVI_0319 MVI_0320 MVI_0321 MVI_0323 Snake River Shearing Co. 5 West end of stockyards
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