Category Archives: SOU Track Plans

Track plans for the Southern Railway

My New Layout – Southern Railway St. Charles Branch

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In addition to keeping up Appalachian Railroad Modeling, I’m a model railroader myself. A few years ago, I had to tear down my first layout [largely unfinished] based on the Interstate Railroad in Virginia in preparation for a move. My layout space in the new house is a bit smaller, so it gave me the opportunity to model something different. You’ve probably seen a few of the ideas as they’ve shown up in the track plans section of ARRM.

Just a couple weeks ago, though, I began construction on my new layout, a 12 x 16′ double-deck design … Read more →

BRIM Brimstone Railroad, TN track plan HO

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BRIM Brimstone, TN HO Scale Track Plan by Dan Bourque
  • Size: 13′ x 18′
  • Scale: HO
  • Minimum Radius: 24″ 
  • Minimum Aisle Width: 27″
  • Designed by Dan Bourque

The Brimstone Railroad was a quaint little coal hauler in northeastern Tennessee that connected with the Southern Railway’s CNO&TP line at New River, TN. What made the Brimstone unique was its motive power, a pair of three-truck shays that ran the 12-mile line into the 1960s, long after the Southern had dieselized. The Brimstone majored in coal and minored in lumber up until the early ’60s when Ritter Lumber shut down its operation in New River. In 1966, the Southern purchased the Brimstone and ran sporadic mine runs for the next few decades. The tracks were finally pulled up in 2015.

The … Read more →

SOU St. Charles Branch, VA track plan HO

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SOU St Charles Branch, VA track plan HO
    • Size: 12′ x 16′
    • Scale: HO
    • Minimum Radius: 24″ 
    • Minimum Aisle Width: 30″
    • Designed by Dan Bourque

Southern LogoThe St. Charles Branch was the Southern Railway’s primary coal branch in Virginia until the acquisition of the Interstate Railroad in 1960. The St. Charles Branch ran from the Southern’s yard at Appalachia, VA for several miles until joining with the L&N at Pocket, VA and heading up Straight Creek to the small yard and wye at St. Charles and several tipples that lined branches north of town. Like many of the Southern’s coal branches in the corner of VA/TN/KY, the line was shared … Read more →

SOU L&N Clear Fork Branch track plan HO

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SOU L&N Clear Fork Branch track plan HO
  • Size: 12′ x 16 ′
  • Scale: HO
  • Minimum Radius: 24″ 
  • Minimum Aisle Width: 30″
  • Designed by Dan Bourque

Southern LogoThe Clear Fork Branch on the border of Tennessee and Kentucky branched from the L&N’s mainline but was owned by the Southern Railway and jointly served by both roads. The Southern reached it via trackage rights from a connection to it’s Jellico line a couple miles north of the branch. The branch was several miles long, but most of the loaders were stacked in the last half of the branch between Clairfield, TN and Fonde, KY.

The Layout

This track plan captures the Clear Fork Branch from Clairfield to … Read more →

L&N SOU Middlesboro, KY track plan HO

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L&N SOU Middlesboro, KY track phan HO
  • Size: 15′ x 20′
  • Scale: HO
  • Minimum Radius: 30″ (unless otherwise noted)
  • Minimum Aisle Width: 30″
  • Designed by Dan Bourque

L&N LogoThe L&N first reached the hamlet of Middlesboro, KY (then Middlesborough) around 1890 on it’s quest to tap the coalfields and build a bridge route to the Norfolk & Western in western Virginia. From Middlesboro, the L&N used (and later acquired) the Southern’s (KCG&L) tunnel near the Kentucky/Tennessee state line at Cumberland Gap to reach Tennessee and then Virginia. For a few decades, this route formed the mainline of the L&N’s Cumberland Valley (CV) Division. The … Read more →

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 … 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 →

SOU St Charles Branch, VA bedroom track plan HO

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Southern St Charles Branch track plan HO scale by Dan Bourque
  • Size: 13′ x 14′
  • Scale: HO
  • Minimum Radius: 24″
  • Minimum Aisle Width: 33″
  • Designed by Dan Bourque

Southern LogoThe St Charles branch can be found in extreme southwestern Virginia. A neighbor of the Interstate Railroad, the lines of this branch extended from the Southern’s yard at Appalachia, Virginia, down the Powell River, and then fingered out along several creeks up toward the Kentucky border. Like many other Southern Railway coal lines, it was jointly operated with the L&N who had trackage rights on the St Charles branch from its connection at Pocket, VA. Traffic and tipples ebbed and flowed over the years, but CSX and NS unit trains continue … Read more →

SOU Oneida, Tennessee and Brimstone, TN track plan HO

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Oneida, Tennessee and Brimstone HO scale track plan - lower level
  • Size: 27′ x 30′
  • Scale: HO
  • Minimum Mainline Radius: 30″ (27″ Brimstone)
  • Minimum Aisle Width: 32″
  • Designed by Dan Bourque

Southern LogoOne of the Southern Railway’s most famous lines is its Cincinnati, New Orleans and Texas Pacific (CNO&TP) main through Tennessee and Kentucky where it was known as “the Rathole” for all its tunnels and bridges. Though this busy line ran through the heart of Tennessee coal country, it didn’t serve the coal operators directly. Instead, the CNO&TP interchanged with several short lines that ventured down into the valleys full of tipples to bring the coal up the slopes of the Cumberland Plateau to its mainline. These short lines included … Read more →

SOU Murphy Branch, NC track plan HO

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Track plan SOU Murphy Branch, NC HO scale
  • Size: 13′ x 14′
  • Scale: HO
  • Minimum Mainline Radius: 24″
  • Minimum Aisle Width: 30″
  • Designed by Dan Bourque

Southern Logo (plain)While not a coal branch, the Southern’s Murphy Branch in western North Carolina was certainly set in the Appalachians. The branch, which struck out westward from the Southern’s large yard at Asheville, NC, was loaded with great Appalachian industries such as pulpwood loading, paper mills, coal dealers, fuel oil dealers, furniture plants, etc. and even an interchange with the L&N’s own Murphy Branch at the line’s terminus in Murphy, NC. The use of old F-units and first-generation geeps into the early ’70s added to the branch’s … Read more →