Super Realistic HO Train Operations on Lee Nicholas’ Utah Colorado & Western

We return to the scene of the screwing around to review Lee Nicholas’ Utah Colorado & Western. This time taking a train over the line for Salt Lake to Denver as the dispatcher controls signals and train movement.
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Lee uses a CTC Control System to control the main line and follows realistic operating rules including switch lists. The railroad is an amazing layout as well, now 50 year old!! Spangler backdrops, amazing structures and track work.
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Locomotives are individually radio controlled, only a fixed voltage is on the rails. A unique now system just installed. AND Lee is now installing true scale HO switch stands!!
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From the web site:
The history of the HO scale UCW, located in my basement, started in 1970. The layout and the basement have endured a number of rebuilds over the years. The layout now occupies an area 30 x 33 feet (roughly the original size of the basement), and the crew lounge, dispatch office and shop area occupy a 14 x 25 foot space excavated after we added on to our house in the late 70's. It would have been easier to excavate before we built onto the house but not nearly as much fun. I highly recommend completing all that before starting the railroad building process. Anyway, the UCW survived and it now occupies the entire downstairs.

The last major modifications started in October of 1995, when two of the four peninsulas, Crusero to Cobre, were completely removed and rebuilt. This was a tough decision to make because the prior layout was about 98% complete, and had operated in that state for a number of years.

The overall foot print, of the layout, would not change so what were the driving factors in making the changes? A new staging/fiddle yard (MOLE), improved modeling skills, the chance to try out some new construction techniques, increase the layout height, add a helper district, more closely define the operating principals of the UCW, add new lighting and the opportunity to include some of my good friends and operators in the remodeling process were all the factors that were considered.

I am fortunate to have some very talented individuals associated with the UCW. Kelly Newton, Jim French, Dave Schen, Jon Robinson, Bob Gilmore, Rob Spangler, Gary Waite and Rod Loder have all donated their time and talents to the project. Thanks also goes out to the rest of the UCW operating crew who have contributed and faithfully support the operation once a month.

Kelly for his superb efforts in taking a few hundred pounds of plaster and several yards of cheesecloth and carving away everything that did not resemble rocks. He is also instrumental in providing input into the operational philosophy of the UCW.

Rob as spent many hours painting the beautiful backdrops (See Keller Video #27 about the UTAH COLORADO WESTERN) that grace the layout. He and Kelly worked hand in hand while combing the 3-D and 2-D scenery elements.

Dave and Bob have applied their talents to planting trees, building crib work, pouring rivers and adding hundreds of detail parts to enhance the scenery.

Jim has applied his talents in building some of the kit and scratch built structures and signals, helping with track design and providing input into the operational philosophy behind the UCW. He also spent many hours authoring the UCW Timetable and Operating Rules handbook.

Jon spent hundreds of hours designing, programming and building the first CTC computer interface. He spent untold hours and wore out the knees in more than one pair of pants, crawling around under the layout hooking everything up. Although his efforts provided the UCW with a reliable interface for a number of years we decided to install a system I could maintain and program and converted to Bruce Chubb's C/MRI system in 2000.

Rod has been the inspiration behind the CTC machine's that have been and are in use on the UCW. He is also responsible for suggesting the current lighting source used on the layout.

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