Milepost 351.5

MONTROSE

Elev. 5,794

On my layout, Montrose is the only fictional town. It's based on the real town of Montrose Colorado which connected with the Rio Grande Southern RR via the D&RGW branch to Ridgway. On my layout, it serves a purely operational purpose. Because I didn't plan any staging into my layout when I first built it, I've been using Ridgway, Vance and Rico to hold cars that should have "left the layout" in interchange service.  As I have acquired more cars, these duel purpose towns have become clogged to the point of being non-functional.  It was clear that I needed to come up with some sort of staging strategy.

My Montrose started as a north end staging yard that grew. Initially, it was going to be partically hidden under Rico. It evolved to say the least. It's now turned into a full fledge town on my layout that will be fully sceniced.  Along the back two tracks will be "flats" to represent all the north end offline business that generate traffic on my layout.  These tracks are dual guage and serve as an interchange between the narrow and standard gauge D&RGW.  There is a tank farm spur to service the petroleum traffic. I sized the yard based on how many cars I could potentially see offline at the north end. It will hold up to 55 thirty foot cars.

Montrose	Montrose	Montrose
Montrose	Montrose	Montrose
Montrose	Montrose	Montrose