C&O Piney River and Paint Creek Sub, WV track plan HO

• Size: 13′ x 16′
• Scale: HO
• Minimum Radius: 24″
• Minimum Aisle Width: 27″
• Designed by Dan Bourque

Despite the long name, the Chesapeake & Ohio’s Piney River and Paint Creek Sub was a very short affair, less than 7 miles in length. Unlike most coal branches, this line also served a small city (Beckley, WV) and several industries on its way to the coal loaders at the far end of the line. The short running distance, ample side tracks and mix of industries makes it a perfect prototype for a large bedroom-sized layout.

The Layout

This plan is designed to represent the line in the early diesel era. The track arrangements are still accurate for the steam or transition era, but 24″ radius curves are better suited for 4-axle diesels than 2-6-6-2s. It captures every major aspect of the line on a single level, though in a much-compressed format. The town of Beckley occupied about half of the branch’s length, from Beckley Junction to about Skelton, so about half of this layout is dedicated to Beckley, a town of about 12,000 in 1950. The railroad snaked through the town as it climbed a 2% grade from Beckley Jct and then descended a 1% grade into Skelton before climbing gently to the tipple at Cranberry, the end of the line. This track plan captures the curvy nature of the line through town and some of the overpasses, underpasses, and even a tunnel under the main street (Robert C. Byrd Drive).

Short industrial sidings sprang from the line throughout town, and I was able to capture about 3/4 of them here. While I don’t know what industries lived where, the Jan 1950 C&O Industrial Directory lists 14 industries served by the team track and 17 industries served by private or yard tracks including Armour & Co meat, Ashland Oil, Beckley Ice & Feed Co, Beckley Lumber & Supply, Beckley Newspapers, Bonham C.K. & Son coal yard, Economy Wholesale grocery warehouse, Hill-Rohrer Lumber, M&M Sales gas and oil, Means Lumber, Price Brothers feed, Quality Lumber & Supply, Raleigh Cash Grocery, Richmond Block Co (concrete block), Standard Oil, and Universal Supply. Beckley Junction was home to 4 private tracks serving Amere Gas Utilities, General Department Stores grocery, Gulf Refining Co bulk gas and oil, and Higgins Grocery Co. Even the small hamlet of Skelton served a textile plant and bottling company via team track and Acme Construction Co concrete and Houchins Manufacturing Co cement block via private sidings. In addition, it appears a small coal loader operated off a spur just outside the middle of town (parts of it are now an exhibition in Beckley). I don’t have information on when it was active, but I’ve included the loader (right next to the “60” on the peninsula). The second half of the layout represents the mining towns of Skelton and Cranberry and their two tipples. Skelton was a stub-track affair that swung hard off the main more than 90 degrees to the tipple–this arrangement is captured in the way Skelton is crammed into the corner of the layout room. One awkward portion of the layout is where the line to Cranberry swings under the tipple at Skelton. This was obviously not the real-world arrangement, but it helps create some distance to Cranberry. I had to add an extra highway overpass to hide the transition through the backdrop (the other end is hidden behind a hill and trees). I had to cut the tail tracks at Cranberry, so I added a run-around track to the arrangement. Also, there’s a double-ended siding just before Cranberry that shows empty hoppers spotted in aerial photos from 1970, so I’ve added a couple small docks to make a fourth and fifth loader for the layout. The layout is set pretty high. This not only leaves extra room under the layout for storage or bookshelves, but it brings the operator closer to the trains, and it helps the 24″ radius curves seem less sharp when viewed from the side rather than above.

I envision staging as 2-3 double-ended tracks on a reversing loop under Beckley. There’s room for them to be about 17′ feet long which is plenty enough length for two Geeps, 30 hoppers, and a cab. Staging is reached via a 2.5 turn helix under Beckley Jct. I’ve also drawn in a connection between the top loop of the helix and the long industrial spur at Skelton to form a continuous running loop for the days where you just want to run trains in a circle. I doubt more than one train served this line at a time, so it would be a good candidate for simple DC wiring with 3-4 blocks; however, an entry level DCC system with a walk-around throttle would be a good option as well. Finally, I’ve drawn the edges of the benchwork on straight lines and angles to make construction simple.

Operations

This layout is designed for 1-2 people. It’s essentially an industrial switching layout that happens to have a few coal loaders, but there’s enough industry here to keep the operators busy for hours! While I don’t know for sure, based on other C&O names, I imagine the mine run working this area would be called the Piney River and Paint Creek Shifter. The mine run would start in Raleigh staging (Raleigh is only a couple miles away from Beckley in real life). Power would be a couple of Geeps (GP7s or GP9s), and the train would consist of a mix of probably 2/3 empty hoppers and 1/3 non-coal cars for the industries: boxcars for lumber, newspapers and feed, reefers for groceries and meat, covered hoppers for concrete, tank cars for oil, a flat car with equipment for the team track, and maybe even a loaded coal hopper for the local dealer. Stub sidings went every which way, so the single long run-around in Beckley would get plenty of use! After leaving the Beckley pick-ups on the run-around, the shifter would then haul the empty hoppers to the loaders, using the short run-arounds at Skelton and Cranberry to orient the cars and work around the loads before collecting the loads and bringing them back through Beckley, picking up the outbound Beckley cars before heading back to Raleigh and calling it a night.

Variety in operations is gained by not serving every industry every session. You could also run two trains per session (two trips of the same shifter) when the industries and loaders are busier than usual. This is probably realistic as the line was close enough to Raleigh that the shifter could easily make multiple trips rather than trying to work around 30 cars at once.

Things I Like About This Plan:

• Lots of switching
• Great mix of coal and non-coal industry
• Realistic proximity of large loaders to a good-sized town
• Single deck allows ideal layout height
• Option for continuous running

Things I Don’t Like About This Plan:

• Tight radius
• Tight aisles
• Limited variety in operation

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