Once I had finished Andover staging, Dorchester Jct. and most of the Dorchester Branch, I could run my first mine run. On June 16th, 2009, with Stu Thayer at the throttle and me as conductor, we set out from Andover with 2 locomotives, 6 empty hoppers, a covered hopper of ammonium nitrate and a cab.

First mine run pulling past the diamond at Dorchester Jct. The tracks in the foreground are the L&N interchange. The tracks in the middle are the side tracks we'll use to turn the train.

If you know the Interstate, you know Dorchester was a stub-ended operation, so trains had to be turned at Dorchester Jct. and shoved up the branch. We accomplished this in a few moves and shoved cab first over the creaky trestle and up the holler. We arrived at Dorchester, left our cab and the covered hopper on the Dorchester main, and shoved the empties up past the tipple. Next we grabbed the empty ammonium nitrate hopper from the end of the old coke track, grabbed the loaded covered hopper and ran it down to the end of the track. With the empty covered hopper and cab safely on the main, we finally pulled the 6 loads from the tipple, buckled onto the covered hopper and cab, and headed out of town. With no run-around to accomplish at Dorchester Jct., the trip back to Andover went quickly.

Shoving empties past the Dorchester tipple--can't you see it?

All in all, even this simple, one tipple mine run took us 25 minutes to complete. My son and I have done this a couple of times with similar results–looks like the goal of 3-real hour/12-scale hour ops sessions is realistic if it takes this long just to work one tipple.

My son running trains at age 4. He's a pretty good engineer--keeps the speed down and listens for the "at'll do" call to stop

I model the coalfields; therefore, I need to model a lot of “crummy track.” By this, I mean a daily load of heavy hoppers in humid, rainy “hollers” meant it was tough (an economically unpalatable) to keep trackage in pristine order. It was much easier to impose severe speed restrictions on the crews, but even then, a broken rail or track out-of-gauge was not uncommon.

Handlaying track makes it easy to model crummy track. For the visual effect of crummy track to be effective, there needs to be something to contrast with–the mainline. For my mainlines, I use 1/8″ high ties, code 83 rail, keep all the ties closely spaced, align them 90 degrees to the track and nicely in line on either side of the track. For my secondary tracks, I use 3/32″ high ties, code 70 or 55 rail, space the ties out, align some of them cockeyed to the track and only loosely align them on the sides of the track. This gives the distinct impression of a mainline and sidings, and the difference in tie and rail height make the sidings lower than the main which is prototypical. Here are some photos to show the effect.

Difference between tie spacing and alignment between the mainline (middle) and the siding (bottom). Note how the siding ties are further spaced and somewhat misaligned

Another photo to show the height of the main (middle track) and the spacing and alignment differences of a well used secondary track (foreground) and a neglected siding (third track)

The second photo also illustrates the difference in color of the ties. For the main, I leave the stain (Minwax ebony) on longer to create an almost black tie. For the secondary track, I wipe the stain off quickly to leave more of a grayish color.

Telling a story. The ties and uneven rails indicate there was once more here.

Track can also be used to tell a story. For example, one of the tipples I model (Dorchester) had tipple tracks and coke tracks. In the era I model, the coke ovens had been long abandoned. To reinforce this using track, I modeled the track as if the rails had been cut back a bit by putting some old ties in place beyond the rails. I left the rails different lengths intentionally to look like they’d been just taken apart at the nearest rail joint (I also drilled a couple of holes through the ends of the rails to reinforce this). A pair of crisscrossed ties over the rails made a quick bumper. For the extra ties, I used a square file the same width as a rail and made a slight notch where the rails used to be and then poked some spike holes with a small spike and pliers. Viola! Extra scenery and interest for very little investment.

So far, my biggest modeling challenge on the layout has been Dorchester trestle. My model is about 1/3 the scale of the actual trestle which spanned the valley between the Interstate RR mainline at Dorchester Jct. and the town and tipple of Dorchester. This is a classic wooden trestle with a slight curve at one end and a couple of off-kilter trestle bents where a road goes underneath. If you have it, you can see a good picture of this trestle on the cover of Ed Wolfe’s second book on the Interstate: Appalachian Coal Hauler.

Scratchbuilding seemed the way to go for this bridge, so my first challenge was finding some plans. The trestle bents are a little unique with only four square posts. I dug around online until I found some diagrams of a narrow-gauge trestle with the same basic configuration. I played around with the drawing size in PowerPoint until it printed out in HO scale. The rest of the “blueprint” consisted of determining the spacing of the bents (eyeballed from photos) and the height of each bent (guesswork based on photos and the terrain supported by my layout).

 I first made the trestle deck by tracing the needed shape onto a piece of cardboard using a piece of flextrack and a sharpie. Next, I used thumbtacks to hold the long pieces wood into place in the shape of the trestle and about 4 scale feet apart. I glued on the crossties which I’d cut from a sheet of 3/16″ basswood and left the assembly to dry for a day. Finally, I added the rails (code 70 weathered rail) and guardrails (code 55 weathered rail) by spiking them into place. I tried to make sure the spikes all made it into the longitunal members of the deck, but any stray points sticking out were cleaned up with some nippers.

Nearly finished trestle deck built on top of a cardboard outline

The trestle bents were built on top of the scale drawing by carefully cutting and gluing pieces I’d pre-cut. I didn’t use any tacks–I just glued the top and pillars in place, added the middle crossmember and left them to dry. Once this assembly was dry, I could add the crossmember on the other side and the diagonal braces easily. To finish the bents, I marked and cut the pillars to the correct length and added the bottom crossmembers and diagonals. Next, I stained the deck, bents and the small pieces I’d be using as the longitudinal braces between the bents–this would have been nearly impossible once everything was assembled.

Trestle bents were assembled on top of a drawing printed to HO scale

To assemble the trestle, I laid the deck upside down, marked the location of all the bents and glued the bents in place one at a time, checking for a good 90 degree placement before moving on to the next bent. After letting this dry for a day, I added the longitudinal braces and placed the trestle onto the layout. For support, there’s a piece of 1×3 that just touches the bottom of the longest bent. Before adding scenery, I will add some 1×2 risers for each of the bents, but the trestle is strong enough that two heavy locomotives don’t cause any flexing.

Fully assembled tresle. Note the 2 angled bents where a road will cross underneath.

Trestle in place on the layout

I can’t wait to put the scenery in place around the trestle, and I’m almost sad I won’t have another substantial trestle to build for the layout. . . almost.

The central peninsula creates the biggest benchwork contstruction challenge. It’s three levels: staging, lower level and upper level. I decided to make the staging level the primary benchwork for the lower level. It’s constructed of 1x3s in an open benchwork style, and there’s a short 2×4 wall running crossways across the widest part of the peninsula for support.

Lowest level of benchwork supporting Miller Yard staging. Open grid 1x3s on top of a short 2x4 stud wall.

After laying all the track for Miller Yard staging, I added a second layer of open grid benchwork for Norton on top using 1x2s.I mirrored the grid of the staging level so I could bring risers up from anywhere there isn’t track on the staging level for support. This has proven plenty rigid.

The lower deck grid mirrors the staging grid with risers to support the 1x2s

The plan for the upper level is to cantilever 1x3s across the entire width of the peninsula and attach them directly to the 2×4 studs. I’ll finish off with a 1×3 across the edge of the benchwork to keep things ridgid and in line.

I use 11/16″ plywood with a top of 1/4″ luan for subroadbed. It’s not the quietest roadbed in the world, but it’s sturdy, and it holds spikes really well. Cutting this wood roadbed to the right shape can be a challenge, so here’s the method I settled on.

First, I cut some large panels of luan to cover where the tracks will go. I use a Sharpie to make several marks on the luan and benchwork so I can line up the panels later if they move. I then make a few strategic marks on the luan to designate where the mainline and other important tracks will go in accordance with the track plan (e.g. “the mainline should be 9″ from the front edge of the benchwork when it’s 4″ from that wall–make a mark”). Next, I take a piece of flextrack with thumbtacks in the holes and lay it down on top of the marks taking care to get the curves and placement right. Then I mark both sides of the flextrack with a sharpie. There, now the mainline has been marked.

Panels of luan ready for marking

Next, I’ll mark the switches by pulling up a few of the tacks and moving the track over. It’s easy to get nice, fluid turnouts this way. Two more marks with the Sharpie, and we’ve got the switch marked. I’ll continue this process until all the tracks have been marked.

I’ll then take the luan off the benchwork and cut along the lines with a jigsaw until I have just the luan that goes under the tracks. Then I’ll use this as a template for the plywood, but instead of marking right along the edge, I’ll leave a 1/2″ to 1″ buffer to leave more plywood than luan. After a few cuts with a jigsaw, you’ve got both pieces of subroadbed cut into just the right shape for the track. Just make sure you offset the joints of the plywood and luan by a few inches.

Completed subroadbed - laying ties and track is a cinch

I attach the plywood to the benchwork using 1×3″ risers to get the elevations right, and then I glue the luan to the plywood using wood glue and clamps until it dries. This method produces rock solid subroadbed, and because you’ve already traced out the track pattern, laying ties on top of it is a cinch.