Category Archives: Track Plans

Listing of ALL track plans on Appalachian Railroad Modeling. For more tailored results, select a category from the sub-menu of the Track Plans tab above.

SOU Monarch Branch, VA track plan HO

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SOU Monarch Branch, VA HO scale track plan
  • Size: 15′ x 20′
  • Scale: HO
  • Minimum Radius: 27″ 
  • Minimum Aisle Width: N/A
  • Designed by Dan Bourque

Southern LogoThe Southern Railway’s branch to Monarch, VA was a leg of the coal-producing St. Charles Branch west of Appalachia, VA. The L&N had (and CSX still has) trackage rights on the branch, so mine runs from both railroads worked the major mines on the line including Blue Diamond’s Monarch Mine, Benedict and Kemmerer Gem.

The Layout

L&N LogoThis track plan represents the Monarch Branch and Kemmerer Branch of the St. Charles line as they appeared … Read more →

INT Dorchester Branch, VA 2 track plan HO

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INT Dorchester Branch, VA HO scale track plan
  • Size: 20′ x 15′
  • Scale: HO
  • Minimum Mainline Radius: 27″
  • Minimum Aisle Width: N/A″
  • Designed by Dan Bourque

Interstate LogoThe Interstate Railroad had four primary branch lines that served the coal fields of southwestern Virginia. The shortest of those branches was the Dorchester Branch which split from the L&N and crossed the Interstate mainline at Dorchester Jct., VA. Its profile crossed a valley via a trestle before descending and then ascending a grade to Dorchester, home of a medium-sized tipple and two banks of coke ovens along with a couple small truck-dump docks at the … Read more →

LEF&C, PA Diesel Era track plan HO

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LEFC, PA HO scale track plan
  • Size: 19′ x 12′
  • Scale: HO
  • Minimum Mainline Radius: 24″
  • Minimum Aisle Width: 27″
  • Designed by Dan Bourque

LEF&C LogoThe Lake Erie, Franklin and Clarion Railroad was a 15-mile long coal hauler in northwestern Pennsylvania. Like other PA short lines such as the Montour, Cambria and Indiana and Pittsburg & Shawmut, the LEF&C ran its operations with a handful of diesel switchers. With its simple track arrangement, compact motive power and a number of industries in addition to the coal loaders, the LEF&C makes a great subject to model even in a modest space.

The Layout

This track plan depicts the … Read more →

MTR Montour Railroad, PA track plan HO

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MTR Montour Railroad, PA track plan HO - lower
  • Size: 14′ x 40′
  • Scale: HO
  • Minimum Radius: 24″ 
  • Minimum Aisle Width: 30″
  • Designed by Dan Bourque

Montour RR LogoThe Montour Railroad existed to serve the coal mines along a semi-circle southwest of Pittsburgh, PA. By the 1970s, the railroad’s operations consisted mainly of four major raw coal loaders, the large Champion Prep Plant, and interchanges with several railroads. A few small non-coal industries broke up the monotony of endless coal hoppers, but black switchers and hoppers still ruled the line until its closing.

The Layout

This track plan began as a challenge to design an HO-scale … Read more →

B&O West End Cumberland Div, WV track plan N

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B&O West End Cumberland Div track plan N - upper
  • Size: 26′ x 31′
  • Scale: N
  • Minimum Radius: 21″ 
  • Minimum Aisle Width: 30″
  • Designed by Dan Bourque

B&O LogoThe West End of the Baltimore and Ohio’s Cumberland Division was home to some of the most serious mountain railroading in the U.S. The B&O’s crossing of the Appalachians through West Virginia required four long grades of around 2% or more between Keyser, WV to the east and Grafton, WV to the west including 17-Mile Grade, Cranberry Grade, Cheat River Grade and Newburg Grade. To move the heavy traffic and coal through this corridor required a double-track main and helpers gallore. In the steam era, there were multiple helper bases including … Read more →

P&S Widnoon Branch, PA track plan HO

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P&S Widnoon Branch track plan HO
  • Size: 10′ x 14′
  • Scale: HO
  • Minimum Radius: 24″ 
  • Minimum Aisle Width: 35″
  • Designed by Dan Bourque

Mahoning Yard on the Pittsburg & Shawmut in the rolling hills of western Pennsylvania was where the three-mile long Widnoon Branch (formerly Tidal Branch) split from the mainline along Mahoning Creek. Mahoning was also the dividing point between the two locals that worked the P&S–the Kittanning Local from the south and the Brookville Local from the north. During the 1970s, the branch served two loaders reached via a three percent grade. Additionally, a shorter branch across the creek to Carpentertown served a bank of modern coke ovens later converted to a trump dump tipple.

The Layout

This track plan represents the … Read more →

BLE Branchton, PA track plan HO

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B&LE Branchton and Hilliards Branch track plan HO scale
  • Size: 12′ x 20′
  • Scale: HO
  • Minimum Radius: 27″ (30″ mainline)
  • Minimum Aisle Width: 24″
  • Designed by Dan Bourque

B&LE LogoBranchton, PA was home to the Bessemer and Lake Erie’s northern coal operations including the mainline from Filer, PA (north) to Butler, PA (south) and the adjacent 10-mile Hilliards Branch. Until 1958, the Hilliards Branch was a major supplier of limestone bound for Pittsburgh’s steel mills, but after the limestone operations shut down, the branch continued to supply coal from a few modest operations into the 1990s. While the mine run base was moved to Butler in the early 1980s, Branchton continued to serve as … Read more →

SOU Brevard Branch, NC track plan HO

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SOU Brevard Branch, NC HO scale track plan by Dan Bourque
  • Size: 6′ x 22′
  • Scale: HO
  • Minimum Radius: 22″
  • Minimum Aisle Width: N/A″
  • Designed by Dan Bourque

Southern LogoThe Southern’s Brevard Branch stretched from Hendersonville, NC to Lake Toxaway, NC in the foothills of the Appalachians. The largest customer on the line was the paper mill in Ecusta, and in the 1980s the line was cut back to Ecusta, just short of the line’s namesake, Brevard. This branch was far from the coal fields, but a power plant at the mill received coal, so hoppers were a common sight along with tank cars and boxcars. The mill at Ecusta made fine paper for Bibles and … Read more →

Winifrede Railroad, WV track plan HO

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Winifrede Railroad track plan HO scale
  • Size: 10′ x 15′
  • Scale: HO
  • Minimum Radius: 24″
  • Minimum Aisle Width: 40″
  • Designed by Dan Bourque

The Winifrede Railroad was a small short line that ran from the Kanawha River and a connection with the Chesapeake & Ohio to the coal mining town of Winifrede, WV along Fields Creek. While it connected to the C&O, the Winifrede was primarily a shuttle operation bringing coal from a large tipple near Winifrede down to a barge transloading facility at Winifrede Jct, near Chelyan, WV.  For much of its life, the Winifrede operated a single locomotive and a ragtag fleet of old, beat-up hoppers to run alongside cars borrowed from the C&O. During the late steam era, the locomotive … Read more →

URR Clairton Branch, PA track plan N

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  • Size: 18′ x 19′
  • Scale: N
  • Minimum Radius: 15″
  • Minimum Aisle Width: 30″
  • Designed by Dan Bourque

Union Railroad LogoThis plan is good for those who like big industries and modeling a small area in a big space with little compression. The Union Railroad has served US Steel’s Pittsburgh, PA steel mills for more than a century. While the URR’s own coal tipples played out long ago, the Union still hauls a lot of coal from it’s coal-hauling neighbors and serves the largest coke plant in the nation at Clairton. N scale was chosen for this layout to allow the huge … Read more →