Appalachian Crossing, VA track plan O
- Size: 80′ x 80′
- Scale: O
- Minimum Radius: 66″ (60″ non-mainline unless otherwise noted)
- Minimum Aisle Width: 36″
- Designed by Dan Bourque
This might be my favorite track plan I’ve ever designed! Not because it’s huge (it is), and not because it’s the most accurate (it’s not). It’s because I think it really captures the feeling of Appalachian coal hauling railroads in southwestern Virginia in the late steam era, and I think this design (one of my first “mushroom” designs) with lots of narrow scenes near eye level would really transport viewers and operators to another place and time. … Read more
The N&W’s Pocahontas Division Mainline was the heart of the N&W. The double-track main cut through the mountains of the West Virginia coal fields with branch lines of various sizes plying the hollers and feeding an endless string of coal hoppers to the main. As the N&W’s main east-west artery, the “Pokey” main also hosted numerous non-coal freights and the N&W’s hottest passenger trains. Add in dozens of tunnels and bridges, small mountain towns and some company towns, and you’ve got the makings of a great model railroad … 
The N&W’s Dumps Creek Branch operated more like a self contained short line than a branch. In it’s 16 miles, the signaled branch served several large loaders of the Clinchfield Coal Company, a pair of the company’s large preparation plants and a power plant. It had its own yard at Carbo, VA with a small shop, and it operated big power on several trains daily hauling coal up and over the Sandy Ridge through a tunnel more than a mile long.
The Interstate’s Dixiana branch north of Norton, VA was home to several coal loaders and served by two mine runs per day. A small yard at Norton was used by the Interstate’s first and third mine runs and “Hill Crews” bound for the Clinchfield at Miller Yard to sort cars bound for the Southern and L&N (west) from those bound for the Clinchfield (east) and the N&W at Norton. The N&W’s medium-sized yard at …