Introduction

I'm modeling portions of the C&O Hinton Division in N scale, starting with the mainline between Hinton, WV and Prince, WV. The era is the 1950s - steam was still present but fading fast with first generation diesels having a firm grip on Chessie's road.

This blog will document the progress of construction and eventually operating sessions.

It all started nearly 17 years ago on a trip to Hinton, WV to visit some relatives. I was intrigued by the area and the fact that my great-grandfather was a carpenter for the C&O there at Hinton. Being a budding model railroader new to N-scale, I decided to model this line. I drew up a track plan for a very small layout and bought an Arnold S2 painted for the C&O. The layout was just a switching toy and didn't last. Eventually I built a larger switching layout. Neither of these two were very prototypical. After participating in operating sessions at several large layouts, I had a good idea of what I wanted to do - and it was going to need some space.

A while back I knocked together a 6' long Layout Design Element based on the crossovers at CW Cabin (west end of Hinton yard) as a taste of what was to come. Finally just a year ago I moved to a rented townhouse that had a modest but very useable basement and some real construction began. Since this is still not a permanent location, I've been building in segments around the concept of Layout Design Elements. While not truly modular, these segments are designed to be disassembled readily and re-assembled elsewhere with relative ease (as opposed to destroying and rebuilding an entire layout).

Recent work has been in the construction of the segment including Prince, WV and the mainline up to the west yard ladder at Quinnimont. Next up will be Quinnimont itself and the east yard, followed by some shopping for a larger basement so I can fill in between there and Hinton before doing further work on the branch lines.