The Chesapeake & Ohio and Clinchfield met end-to-end at this yard at Elkhorn City, Ky. In this misty 1973 scene, a C&O train is ready to head north with a string of hopper cars from the Clinchfield. Tony Koester photo […]
C&O at Elkhorn City
Tag: Appalachia
The HO scale Chesapeake & Ohio New River Subdivision layout
Facts and features Name: Chesapeake & Ohio New River Subdivision Scale: HO (1:87.1) Size: 19 x 24 feet Prototype: C&O New River Gorge and coal mine area Locale: Thurmond, W.Va. Era: 1957 Style: walk-in Mainline run: 102 feet Minimum radius: 30″ (24″ in Waynes-burg Mine wye) Minimum turnout: No. 6 Maximum grade: 1∕8″ per foot […]
CSX sets annual Santa Train trip for Nov. 22
KINGSPORT, Tenn. — The annual CSX Santa Train trip is set for Saturday, Nov. 22, the railroad has announced. The 83rd running of the train, a tradition dating to 1943, will again feature a 110-mile trip from Shelbiana, Ky., to Kingsport, distributing more than 15 tons of toys, gifts, and winter apparel to thousands of […]
Bob Bartizek’s Pennsylvania & Western RR in O scale
Tour the Pennsylvania & Western RR, Bob Bartizek’s impressive O scale (1:48, 3-rail) model railroad representing a fictional subdivision of the Pennsylvania RR in western Pennsylvania between 1949 and 1953. Though it uses 3-rail power and GarGraves Phantom-line O gauge track with a black center rail, the locomotives and rolling stock are all built to […]
Bill Neale’s PRR Panhandle Division in HO scale
Follow Model Railroader Editor Eric White on a journey into the thick of operations on the Pennsylvania Railroad’s Panhandle Division, as replicated on Bill Neale’s HO scale (1:87.1) model railroad! As feature in Great Model Railroads 2010, Bill’s 200-foot multi-level layout captures a vital stretch of mainline serving the coal and steel country of western Pennsylvania […]
Hoseshoe helper
Conrail 6070, a former Erie Lackawanna SD45, assists a westbound freight up Pennsylvania’s Horseshoe Curve on July 25, 1981, just a few months after removal of one of the Curve’s four tracks. Photo by Robert S. McGonigal […]
The HO scale Pennsylvania RR Panhandle Division
Facts and features Name: Pennsylvania RR Panhandle Division Scale: HO (1:87.1) Size: 25 x 41 feet Prototype: Pennsylvania RR Locale: eastern Ohio, western Pennsylvania, and West Virginia panhandle Era: late 1940s and early 1950s Style: walk-in Mainline run: 150 feet Minimum radius: 36″ (main), 24″ (branch) Minimum turnout: No. 6 (main), No. 5 (branch) Maximum […]
Curt LaRue’s PRR Panhandle Division in HO scale
Embark on an epic journey back to the late 1940s and early ’50s, as depicted on Curt LaRue’s HO scale (1:87.1) Pennsylvania Railroad Panhandle Division! Originally presented in the October 2025 issue of Model Railroader magazine, this stunning layout comes to life as cameras capture various modeled rural and industrial sites along the multi-track mainline […]
75 years ago in Trains: New hope for Cherry River Boom & Lumber
“TlMBER!” It was that cry ringing across West Virginia’s Appalachian slopes that put loads on the flat cars of the Cherry River Boom & Lumber Company’s Railroad, and cash in the company coffers. Once the Cherry River trundled 100 million board feet of lumber a year down to the mill at Richwood. But timber grows […]
Doubleheaded C&O Mallets
Chesapeake & Ohio 2-6-6-2 Mallets 1309 and 1302 are departing Scarlet, West Virginia, in June 1950 with a loaded coal train. The 10 members of C&O’s H-6 class were the last steam locomotives built for domestic use by Baldwin Locomotive Works (1949). Engine 1309 is being restored for service on the Western Maryland Scenic Railroad […]
Coal train on Helmstetter’s Curve
Railfans watch as a Western Maryland coal train swings around famous Helmstetter’s Curve on its descent eastward toward Cumberland, Md., in May 1952. Photo by Edward Theisinger […]
4-6-6-4 in Cumberland Narrows
Western Maryland 4-6-6-4 1202 drifts downgrade with an eastbound freight in the narrows along the Potomac River just west of Cumberland, Md., in May 1952. Edward Theisinger photo […]
