Merry Christmas!

By | |
Leave a comment

Merry Christmas from Appalachian Railroad Modeling! I hope you’re enjoying all the new content on the site–have you seen it all?

Union Railroad LogoFirst, there’s a new railroad on the site, the Union Railroad. The URR connected several coal hauling roads to the US Steel mills and furnaces in Pittsburgh, PA and was an important player in the movement of coal and other raw materials in the Monongahela River Valley and East Pittsburgh.

To accompany the Union RR are two new track plans. The first is a large N-scale plan for the Union’s Clairton Branch, home to two huge industries, … Read more →

URR Clairton Branch, PA track plan N

By | | , , ,
Leave a comment
  • 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 industrial complexes … Read more →

Unity Railways, PA track plan HO

By | | , , , , ,
4 Comments
Track Plan Unity Railways HO scale
  • Size: 12′ x 14′
  • Scale: HO
  • Minimum Radius: 27″
  • Minimum Aisle Width: 36″
  • Designed by Dan Bourque

B&LE LogoThis plan is perfect for those who want a simple layout and like the railroads around Pittsburgh, PA.  Despite its modest size, there are four railroads represented on this layout along with a yard, an interchange and a large coal loader.  This layout represents a compressed version of the four-mile long Unity Railways Company in its entirety. Dating back to 1915, Unity Railways was constructed to haul coal from the operation at Renton, PA to a connection with the Bessemer & Lake Erie at Unity Jct., PA. Along this short route was a … Read more →

SOU St Charles Branch, VA bedroom track plan HO

By | | , , , ,
4 Comments
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 →

Book Review – Virginian Railway Memories

By | | ,
Leave a comment

By Aubrey Wiley

45star

Review by Dan Bourque

Virginian Railway Memories BookVirginian Railway Memories by Aubrey Wiley is unlike any other railroad book I’ve ever read. It took me a while to put my finger on why it’s so unique, but I finally figured out what it reminded me of–my grandfather’s scrapbooks. My grandfather worked for NASA for 30 years, and he kept amazing scrapbooks with information you couldn’t … Read more →

N&W Dumps Creek Branch, VA track plan N

By | | , , ,
7 Comments
N&W Dumps Creek Branch track plan in HO lower deck
  • Size: 23′ x 24′
  • Scale: N
  • Minimum Radius: 18″
  • Minimum Aisle Width: 30″
  • Designed by Dan Bourque

N&W Logo blue PlainThe 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 Layout

This layout represents the Dumps Creek Branch in … Read more →

Caught all the latest?

By | |
Leave a comment
WM Challenger O scale by Lee Turner

Have you seen all the latest on Appalachian Railroad Modeling? First, thanks to Lee Turner for contributing some beautiful photos of his custom-weathered Western Maryland steam in O-scale. See them on the Western Maryland model photos page.

There are also a couple new track plans to check out. The first is an HO-scale bedroom-sized plan for the Clinchfield’s Nora Spur that captures all the loaders and operations on this busy coal branch using two decks without a lengthy helix. This plan is perfect for the modeler with a modest space who enjoys switching that requires a lot of interesting moves.

Oneida, Tennessee … <a href=Read more →

SOU Oneida, Tennessee and Brimstone, TN track plan HO

By | | , , , , ,
1 Comment
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 →

Book Review – Appalachian Coal Mines and Railroads in Color, Vol 2: Virginia

By | | ,
Leave a comment

By Stephen M. Timko
Morning Sun Books 2014
ISBN 1-58248-419-8

5star

 Review by Dan Bourque

Appalachian Coal Mines and Railroads in Color Vol 2 VirginiaStephen Timko’s Appalachian Coal Mines and Railroads in Color, Vol 2 follows-up his earlier work on Kentucky with a photo album covering the Virginia coal fields. Like volume 1, Stephen has partnered with photographer Everett Young to produce a stunning pictorial of the life of Appalachian coal hauling … Read more →

CRR Nora Spur, VA track plan HO

By | | , , ,
Leave a comment
Track plan CRR Nora Spur HO scale
  • Size: 12′ x 18′
  • Scale: HO
  • Minimum Mainline Radius: 27″
  • Minimum Aisle Width: 28″
  • Designed by Dan Bourque

CRR LogoThe Nora Spur was one of the Clinchfield’s coal-loading branches in Virginia which left the mainline between Dante, VA and Elkhorn City, KY. The six-mile long branch hosted no fewer than six loaders between the mainline and the Blue Diamond tipple at the end of the line and featured grades in excess of 3%.

The Layout

This layout is designed to capture the feel of the branch and its operations in the early ’80s after the addition of the loader … Read more →