NYC Piney Fork Secondary, OH track plan HO

• Size: 14′ x 17′
• Scale: HO
• Minimum Radius: 24″
• Minimum Aisle Width: 30″
• Designed by Dan Bourque

Few people picture the New York Central when they picture coal-hauling railroads, but the NYC was a major player in the coal fields of Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Ohio. The NYC’s Piney Fork Secondary ran south from Alliance, OH into the rich coal deposits of eastern Ohio where it intertwined with coal lines of the Pennsy, the Pittsburgh & West Virginia (later N&W), and the Nickel Plate Road (formerly Wheeling & Lake Erie and later N&W). The nerve center for NYC’s coal operations on the Piney Fork was Minerva, OH, home to a small yard and engine facility along with nearby interchanges for the PRR and NKP. From Minerva, the line headed south through farm country, rolling hills, creeks and tunnels until it reached its southern terminus at Dillonvale and a connection with the NKP/N&W. Along the way were a couple of short branches and several loaders.

The Layout

This track plan is designed to capture the key elements of the line south of Minerva in the transition era, though it could easily be adapted to a later plan representing the Penn Central. In all, it models about 40 miles of railroad in a bedroom which means its highly compressed, but it still allows for realistic operation and some great scenes. It’s designed as 5 vignettes. The lower level represents the two ends of the modeled area, the yard at Minerva and the huge prep plant and loader at Piney Fork. Under this level is a four-track staging yard representing Dillonvale to the south and Alliance to the north–it’s double-ended making the entire layout a continuous running loop. Minerva is modeled on the smaller side, but 6 tracks should be plenty for the operations on the layout. I’ve also included the turntable and roundhouse along with the diesel servicing tracks, though I’ve had to stub and shorten many tracks compared to the prototype.

A double-track helix transports the line to the three scenes of the upper level in 4 turns. From Minerva, there was little in the first 17 miles to Bergholz, so it’s a great place for a helix to suck up running time without losing important scenes. The railroad pops out of a tunnel, crosses a bridge, and heads into Bergholz, just like the prototype. While details are difficult to find, aerial photos from the early ’70s appear to show two small truck-dump loaders, one on either side of the main, in Bergholz, so both are modeled here in addition to the short siding and station. Just south of town was the wye to the 4-mile long Wolf Run Branch. Unfortunately, I had to model the wye backwards (the line actually swung off to the east), but it seemed a reasonable compromise to get the branch and the good-sized loader at the end as the second scene. The lift-out section along the branch is for a jack-and-jill bathroom that can be accessed from an adjacent room, so blocking the door is not an issue. Back on the main, the line swings through a very compressed version of the steady climb from Amsterdam-Apex (3.5 miles of 1-1.4% grade in real life) that contains a station siding/team track, small loader, spur to what I believe was another loader, and the entrance to Apex Tunnel. From here, the line descends toward Hopedale. I had to skip the loader at Pan (between Apex and Hopedale) to save space, but the P&WV/N&W interchange at Hopedale seemed more important to operations. Hopedale is a bit of a mystery–there’s a building in topos and aerial shots that straddles the siding, but it looks more like an engine house than a tipple–it’s possible the NYC stationed a crew here to work the Piney Fork area or to serve as a helper crew for the grade between Hopedale and Apex which neared 1.5% against loads in some spots.

From here, the line heads back down the helix to the long scene of Piney Fork. The star here is the huge prep plant with mine tracks running all over, but I’ve also included the small yard and two track spur on the north end of town that appears to have served both a 2-track tipple and a small coal dock. The line from Piney Fork to Dillonvale conveniently entered a tunnel just south of town. This line was abandoned by the Penn Central, so its easy enough to include a line to Dillonvale staging that’s only used for earlier sessions.

There’s a lot of compromise besides compression to make this line fit into a bedroom. First, I had to adopt a 24″ minimum radius which is not ideal, especially for steam engines. I also had to use a lot of hidden track–it’s utilized well to create distance between scenes, but it leaves the train hidden for more than half of its run over the layout. Construction also presents a challenge along the peninsula. To get the roundhouse at Minerva, I had to end the backdrop about 3 feet from the end of the peninsula–this means the upper deck must be cantilevered from the helix to make the end of the upper peninsula stable. I also had to use a couple awkward transitions of track through backdrop, most notably the two lines entering the helix which are hidden by a curve around some trees on the Minerva end and a cut (prototypical) into some trees on the Piney Fork end. Staging is also tucked up pretty tight under Piney Fork, but if you want more elevation, you can turn the Minerva-Alliance line under the main helix and add a second small helix under the Piney Fork tunnel at the other end to drop the staging tracks. Because of the hidden trackage and need to walk across the room in some cases to follow a train, a DCC system with wireless throttles would be a good idea.

Operations

There is very little info on NYC operations in this area, but it’s easy to develop a plausible scheme. Mine runs would originate in Minerva where crews would pick up power and cab, assemble their empties, and head south. Based on the number of loaders, the size of the tracks, and the distances, I can see anywhere from 2-4 mine runs in a day. 1-2 to serve the Bergholz-Wolf Run area and to work Amsterdam, Apex and the Hopedale interchange, and 1-2 to work the Piney Fork area and run to Dillonvale (this loader is big enough to have needed a couple mine runs daily). The four interchanges on the line (Dillonvale/NKP, Hopedale/P&WV, and Minerva/PRR/NKP) add a lot of variety to operations because mine runs would need to do some classification to block cars bound for the various interchanges.

PC F7A 1807 at Cleveland, OH, Jul 1975 -Dan Bourque collection

Speaking of interchanges, with 1-2 operators, loaded hoppers would just be brought to Minerva and dropped (visible staging), but a third operator could be employed as the yardmaster, classifying cars at Minerva, hostling power, and making occasional runs of PRR and NKP trains from staging swapping empties for the recently gathered loads.

It would also be easy to add variety by varying the era. A Penn Central session would bring different power (like F-units in the ’70s). Loaders could be opened, idled or closed in a PC-era session as well, and the line to Dillonvale could be closed, making a different traffic pattern for the coal. Additionally, with team tracks and locomotive servicing tracks, there’s an excuse for some non-coal traffic as well–it should be kept to a minimum to appear realistic for the ratio of coal:non-coal.

Things I Like About This Plan:

• Lots of mainline run
• Great little yard at Minerva
• Good variety of loaders and interchanges

Things I Don’t Like About This Plan:

• Tight minimum radius
• Lots of hidden track
• Wrong orientation of wye for Wolf Run Branch
• Significant compression

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