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Modeling the Blackhawk and Central City Introduction
This series of articles is intended to document all parts of the building of the Blackhawk and Central City – my basement layout. Topics will include the techniques used, scratch built items (cars, motive power, structures), benchwork, electrical wiring, and scenery. Make sure to check back once in a while. These pages will be updated as work progresses. The Blackhawk and Central City The Blackhawk and Central City is a small (about 70 square feet) “alternate history” HOn3 layout. Set in the early 1870s, it is based on the Colorado Central and Gilpin Tramway lines located in Gregory’s Gulch and the Clear Creek area of Colorado. The location choice allows modeling of the interesting parts of narrow gauge railroads (switchbacks, looping track over itself to decrease grades, etc.).
In this alternate history, the Gilpin Tramway (a 2’ narrow gauge railroad that served the area of Gregory Gulch) was built as a full 3’ narrow gauge railroad and connected to the Colorado Central at Forks – in other words what was to become the entire north Clear Creek branch of the Colorado Central.
Why Build From Scratch
The initial intent of this layout was not “build as much as possible from scratch” (it just grew into that). While the bridges for the B&CC were intended to be scratch built, the original intent for other structures was to use kits from various manufacturers. However, after getting about a third of the way into building the first kit, I became disgusted with the facts that most parts weren’t square to each other and the ones that were square didn’t line up correctly! It appeared that building from scratch would be less of a headache, and well as they say “the rest is history”. Besides finding scratch building enjoyable, research indicated that scratch building would be necessary for appropriate details (stub switches over split switches, link and pin rolling stock) and also potentially economical (0-4-0 and 0-6-0 HOn3 rolling stock is not that common anymore). Article List Techniques These links provide articles on techniques that I’ve used for various parts of the structures that I’ve done:
• Doors and Hinges
• Building Stairs
• Roofing
• Signage
• Adhesives
• Weathering
• Windows
• Miscellaneous Details
Structures • Freight Stations : This article covers the two small freight stations that are located at the ends of the two branch lines.
• Ledman's Lumber : This article describes building Ledman's Lumber Mill.
• Coaling Tower : This article describes building the Coaling Tower.
• Water Tower : This article describes building the Water Tower.
• Cascade Refining : This article describes building the Cascade Refining.
• Bridges : This article describes building the Bridges.
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