Place and Time

[J3a-614]

Matty G's comment in the "Playing with Trains" thread (in which he mentioned the frequency of model railroads featuring a West Virginia location) strongly suggested a new thread, a sort of survey, which asks the question:

What location and time period do you model?

My own choice is West Virginia, the area between Charleston and Gauley Bridge, ca. 1948, which is favored for scenery, classy and modern big steam on long, heavy trains on three favorite roads (C&O, Virginian, and an outpost of the NYC, the former Kanawha & Michigan), plenty of passenger action (on the C&O, with a little 3-car local on the Virginian), classic structures (including C&O wood depots), plus this is a section of the C&O that is not too frequently modeled--a chance to be a bit different.

Two other locations (still in West Virginia, although this is not meant to be a West Virginia thread) I would consider interesting would be B&O's West End (with its extensive helper operations out of Rowlesburg's M&K Junction, and a colorful terminal and junction at Grafton), and the network of lines around Wheeling and Benwood, W.Va. (where I'm from originally), featuring the B&O, PRR, W&LE, an industrial road at a steel plant, and, (prior to 1947, and especially in the late 1930s), an extensive streetcar system.  

What do you do?

[pdlethbridge]

My railroad is based loosely on the Maine Central and its connections with the B&M. The time era is late 40's / early 50's that would cover steam and diesel. All engines are small, IE, 4-4-0, 2-8-0, 2-10-0, H 16-44, GP7, RS 3, 44 tonner.

[mabloodhound]

My railroad as well as my towns are completely fictitious and are situated in New England/New York during 1920.
Mine is a "what might have been" and I doubt you would find any prototype similar.
But I'm having fun!

[Bill Baker]

My road represents the Rock Island as it was in the mid to late 50's.  Some steam and some diesels.  In particularly I have tried to replicate the Choctaw Division as it ran from Memphis, thru Little Rock and on to Oklahoma City.  I hope someone who is a Rock Island fan would respond to this post.  I'm beginning to think I'm the only one in the whole world who is a RI fan.

[Joe323]

My Railroad Represents The Intermodal Operations found in Northern NJ and Staten Island, NY in a Modern context except that I use Chessie System and Conrail Locos Just because I like their paint scheme better then the CSX locos.  A separate Level will show The Staten Island Railway passenger service.

[Johnson Bar Jeff]

I have nothing but complete admiration for modelers who are able to recreate in scale a particular place and era, but such is not my lot in model railroading (for lack of space, lack of time, and perhaps most importantly lack of self-confidence in my own abilities). My Frostbite Falls & Anhedonia is a short line that hovers in a nebulous Neverland between two great mountain ranges (that is to say, two Woodland Scenics ready-made tunnels  ). My current emphasis is on vintage HO equipment, both rolling stock and scenic items, and on any given evening, anything might be found running on the single-track main line from an 1860s woodburner to a 1950s F-unit passenger train--and in any road name from the PRR and the B&O to the SP, the UP, the AT&SF, and the GN.

But I sure am getting a lot of fun and relaxation out of my trains! 

[jettrainfan]

Mine is basically what if Norfolk southern sold the Ex. nickle plate road line. when i gave it some thought, i came up with a funny little back story that mentions a museum buying the line and does the local jobs. so its litterly the Ex. NKP from lakewood to rocky river... except rocky river is winterton. so its fictional.

[full maxx]

mine/ my little engineers is not set in any time frame and he runs steamies and diesels and the Acela Express as far as where...its what ever is in his imagination, as long as he has fun... time and place is irrelevant right now

[J3a-614]

Ah, yes, we've all been there at one time, and in reality, we still go there. . .

How did Edmond Gwynn put it, as Kris Kringle, to a young Natalie Wood in the classic film, "Miracle on 34th Street?"  I seem to recall the line went, "You've heard of the French nation, and the British nation? Well, there's also the imagi-nation. . ."

I'm an old movie fan, too.
 

[jward]

my own preference is also for west virginia, particularly the ridge & valley region south and east of cumberland, md.

second place would be the former western maryland lines out of elkins, which i saw extensively with my dad in the late 1970s.

m&k/rowlesburg and grafton would be fascinating, as would the former virginian out of mullens running e33s and train masters.

wheeling and benwood has me puzzled. i go there every wednesday on my job, and most of the trackage is now long gone but it looks like there were lines everywhere. particularly interesting in the wheeling bridge & terminal line from martins ferry, with one major bridge and 3 tunnels Just to hop across the river and connect with the other railroads. i am still trying to figure out who owned what in this area.

[CNE Runner]

I think I would have said The Monks' Island Railway was situated on a fictitious island off the coast of New England. In reality, I haven't 'pinned down' its exact location. While the Monks' Island Brewery (basically a 'contract brewer') is a major industry - fishing is the other means of livelihood for our intrepid islanders. The island is some 18 miles long (and about 2 miles wide) and has two major population centers: Molena Point on one end (home of several businesses such as the brewery); and Sweet Haven on the opposite end of the island...hosting a thriving fish processing plant.

Originally I viewed the setting of the railway as in the late 1940s to 1950s. Our only locomotive was a Plymouth WDT so the time frame fit. The shareholders of the Monks' Island Railway recently decided that a new Trackmobile would be a valuable asset to railway operations - so there went the time setting...afterall it is my world!

I am rapidly nearing completion of Molena Point's second [visible] business: Captain A. Habbs Marine Supply (made from the excellent Bar Mills craftsman kit Witzinger's Washboard Co.). There are some distant plans to build another, connecting layout, to represent Sweet Haven. This one will feature a double-tracked turntable fabricated from a CD - and just large enough for a Trackmobile. Kudos go out to Jack Trollope, in Scotland, for this unique design element...now we will see if I have the skills to build one.

Thanks for asking,
Ray

[J3a-614]

Well, I'll see if I can do something quick (my wife is near, with "Honey, will you do. . .?")

B&O: Original line from Grafton to Moundsville via Roseby's Rock, turning north at Moundsville to run up the Ohio River to Benwood and Wheeling, originally terminating in stub freight and passenger stations in the vicinity of the current Civic Center (and the pre-Civil War freighthouse survived to be demolished for that Civic Center--ugh!); later connected with another line coming from Pittsburgh via Washington, Pa., and Elm Grove; part of this route is now a bike path, including the large curved stone bridge and tunnel visible from Interstate 70.  Final approach to the B&O station that survives today as a college was on street trackage down 17th street, with elevated platforms at the station proper and a bridge over Big Wheeling Creek, then a descent to street level to run along the Ohio as far as 30th street or so, then turning in to follow the base of the ridge into Benwood.  Also B&O is the large bridge with a loop approach in Benwood, and a wye junction on the west approach; south leg went to Zanesville, Oh., while the north leg went north to Bridgeport and turned west to Holloway and Willard; now abandoned.

Special note about the B&O's track arrangement in Benwood:  for trains coming to or from the B&O station in Wheeling, they had to cross over their own line/Benwood and points south line on the Benwood bridge's east approach, cross the line to Benwood and points south at grade, go around a double-tracked loop to where they rejoined the Benwood-points south line (also double tracked at this point).  It was a track arrangement that looked like something a model railroader would plan, and for the same reason--lack of space for a wye junction at bridge level on the West Virginia side.  Equally amazing, at least for me, is that the junctions with this loop, including the combined grade crossing and junction at the north end of the yard at Benwood (which included at least one double slip switch), was never interlocked; it was handled to the end by switch tenders in a shanty adjacent to the junction.

PRR: Both lines down the Ohio from Stuebenville, Oh. and Follansbee, W.Va., Wheeling station lost to fire in the 1960s, was located north of the Civic Center location, part of its walls remain as retaining walls above a section of right-of-way that is now another bike path (argh!).  Ohio line still proceeds south to Powhatan Point; West Virginia line parallelled B&O to Benwood along the river; had its own yard and roundhouse in Benwood, but I have never seen photos and could not tell you where it was.

W&LE (NKP after 1947):  Ohio River line on the Ohio side parallelling the PRR from Dillonvale, Ohio, turning inland near Martins Ferry to curve and climb to a bridge over the Ohio (now gone), running through two short tunnels followed by another bridge over Big Wheeling Creek in the Fulton area, then following the creek to a a station located adjacent to thethe B&O station on 17th street.  The last passenger trains ran in 1938 on this route, and the station would be demolished and replaced by a bus station in about 1947; the last time I saw it, the bus station was in use as an electrical supply business.  I can still rember in the 1970s finding tracks on the other side of the creek that looked like they would have been the station approach tracks; in any event, it seemed strange to be looking at what seemed to be the remnant of a fairly elaborate fan of tracks that went nowhere.

Wheeling also had a fairly elaborate street railway system, at one point had three companies providing service.  Wheeling Public Service had a standard gauge line out to Elm Grove (it had once gone to West Alexander, Pa.), which had once been a narrow gauge steam dummy line in the 19th century; one of its cars survies in a trolley museum in New England, and is operational.  The other lines were broad gauge, 5"2 1/2" (same as Pittsburgh), and part of these survived as late as 1947.  Remnants visible today include two car barns, one in Center Wheeling virtually in the shadow of I-470 near 30th street, , and the other, if I remember correctly on Chaplain street; both are now occupied by other businesses.  There are also two bridges running from Wheeling Island in the river to the Ohio side that carried trolleys back in the better day.

Also, across the river in Bellaire, was the eastern terminal of the Ohio River & Western, a narrow gauge line abandoned in 1930 or 1931; two of its last engines were second-handers from the East Broad Top, one a 2-8-0 identical to the same type on the D&RGW, the other a 4-6-0 like what Bachmann makes in large scale and On30.

Hope this helps out; I have to go, when I get back I will try to list some other information sources for you.

[Colorado_Mac]

Though my "home layout" is only a length of track on shelf in my office, it will eventually be a fictitious small-town in West Virginia - 1920s. 
It comes spent just about every summer during the 60s and 70s around Wheeling, Pittsburgh, Romney, Harper's Ferry, Elizabeth.  Add in plenty of hiking/biking along the Appalachian Trail and C&O Canal, and I'm a big WM, and B&O and PRR fan.  Relatives worked for the C&O down around Clifton Forge.
So the locale comes from childhood, but I like the 20s because railroads were at the top of their game then.

The club I belong to in Denver is early 50s Colorado, so it's a similar and different.

[J3a-614]

Well, I'm back for now, with a "homework" assignment (as Jonathan likes to call this sort of thing) on railroads in the Wheeling area.  Funny that Jon calls this "homework;" I wish my own had been as interesting!  And Rye Guy, Johnson Bar Jeff, and P. D. Lethbridge will like all the smaller and older power that appears as well.

B&O Power, by Larry Sagle and Al Staufer, published by Al Staufer, 1964; has some Wheeling area photos by the late J. J. Young, Jr.

The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad in West Virginia, by Bob Withers (ex-newspaperman from Huntington, W.Va.), Arcadia Publishing, 2007; still more photos, including both the 6th Street Station and the elevated Anne Street Station in Parkersburg.

Pennsy Power III, 1847-1968, Al Staufer with William D. Edson and E. Thomas Harley, published by Al Staufer, 1993; more Wheeling photos by J. J. Young, Jr., a couple of which include the Pennsy station that burned in the 1960s; also, photos of the passenger trains that called at this station, including Pullmans that had been set out for this connection up the river; power alternated between G5 4-6-0s and a burly doodlebug that was powerful enough to pull a short train.

I also vaguely recall a suburban passenger station on this line in Warwood (northern suburb) that was similar to the Plasticville suburban station in style, and was of stucco finish on the outside; sadly, demolished in the 1970s.

The Nickel Plate Story, by John A. Rehor, Kalmbach, 1965; the best history I've seen so far on the Wheeling & Lake Erie, which was merged into the NKP in 1947 (and the whole works merged into the N&W in 1964).  Includes a Wheeling map.

The Wheeling & Lake Erie Railway, by John B. Corns (a former CSX publicity man, by the way), TLC Publishing, 1991; some other photos you won't find elsewhere, including more by J. J. Young, Jr., on the W&LE.

Hidden Treasures, by Edward H. Cass, copyrighted by Edward H. Cass in 1997 and published by Timber Times; the story of the Ohio River & Western narrow gauge line.

The Interurban Era, by William D. Middleton, Kalmbach, 1961; general interurban book, but includes some West Virginia photos.

West Penn Traction, principle author Joseph M. Canfield, Central Electric Railfans' Association Bulletin No. 110, 1968; do not let the "Bulletin" description fool you, this is a hardcover book on the Wet Penn Company, and it includes the Wheeling systems because they were either subsidiaries of West Penn or had at least a physical connection with it; best set of rail maps, including Wheeling, I have been able to locate.

From Small Town to Downtown, by Lawrence A. Brough and James H. Graebner, Indiana University Press, 2004; history of the Jewett Car Company, which was run by Wheeling interests.  What was most fun--the Wheeling interests were originally a bunch of Germans who made their money in the new world in brewing and banking, which lead to real estate, which lead to a need to tie the real estate together with a trolley line; they later wound up with the Jewett company after its original owners had not proven up to the task, and later the Wheeling lines would be one of Jewett's better customers.  And, if you know anything about old trolley systems, you also know that many trolley operators built amusement parks so the trolleys could earn money on Sundays.  The Wheeling men did the same, and wound up with a wonderful level of vertical integration--passengers who patronized their banks, bought their homes in their developments, rode the trolleys to their jobs, drank beer in the taverns supplied by their breweries, rode the trolley to their amusement parks, where they drank more beer from the breweries. . .amazing!  Wheeling Park on US 40 is a former amusement park property on the Wheeling & Elm Grove/Wheeling Public Service line.

I also highly recommend a visit to the Pennsylvania Trolley Museum in Washington, Pa.--but I don't think I'd have to twist your arm too hard for that!

http://www.pa-trolley.org/

I'll try to get back with some photos.

[Doneldon]

I have three layouts, one real, one odd and one imaginary.

I built the real layout for my grandson.  It's just a 4x8 HO table with a very loose contemporary Wisconsin theme.  So loose, in fact, that it has a mountain with tunnels, some desert, two industrial districts, several passenger "stations," and a large second level city fashioned after the town near where he lives.  The idea is that he can just run trains on the double-track mains or learn about switching and real railroad operations.  His line is the Wisconsin Midland.  It runs wherever a train might go and uses both steam and diesel.  He has his own 60' stainless passenger train and his own lokies and rolling stock, as well as rolling stock from anywhere.  His class act is the Polar Express with a custom painted Berk and a four car train with a baggage/north pole mail car, two hot chocolate cars with music and an obs with just a single passenger.  The cars are all fully lighted and fit with interiors and riders.  The cars have glittery snow and icicles.  Yes, I got carried away but then this little fellow could flawlessly sing both Polar Express songs before he was three years old.

The second layout is a neglected 6x9 large scale layout in the basement.  I need to either finish it or sell it.  It's a quandary.

The last -- my -- layout exists solely in my head.  It will be real soon enough, however.  We are moving to a smaller home in a year or two and I'll have a dedicated train room.  I have an old E-type Jag which I will have to sell and I'll use the money to pay for a custom layout finished to the point of readiness for scenery.  My as yet unnamed railroad will be a connection between the ATSF on a lower level and the DRGW on an upper level, set in August, 1939.  There will be no helix; my railroad will be the connecting link winding around the walls.  It will also have staging which will serve as an interchange with the UP in Cheyenne WY.  The whole thing will obviously have a southwestern theme.  I have tons of structures, locos and rolling stock which constitutes my current model railroading.  I am thinking pretty seriously about joining an HO club, too.

So there you have it, the real and the overheated mind.

    --D