Norfolk & Ohio

[ndbprr]

Does anybody know whatever became of Carl Appel's Norfolk & Ohio railroad? Pictures of it appeared in the mid 1950's in MR. He was running 200 car hopper trains in OO gauge with #16 turnouts. To me it was one of the most realistic railroads to ever appear and I haven't heard anything about it for many years now. He lived in Allentown, PA.

[Anonymous]

Dang sounds impressive. sorry i can not help you.

[Anonymous]

It shouldn't exist anymore since I live very close to Allentown but have never heard of it.

[Anonymous]

Hmm,

A local hobby shop has a complete collection (As possible) of MR.. If you can narrow it down to a article or a month I may be able to find out for you.

[jrbarney]

HighIron2003ar,
As listed in a search at the Index of Magazines at this site, here is an article that dealt with Mr. Appel's layout.
Bob
NMRA Life 0543

Carl Appel's Norfolk & Ohio revisited, Model Railroader, November 1958, page 30. Article also published in Classic Articles from Model Railroader , page 67, ( "APPEL, CARL", LAYOUT, TRACKPLAN, "WESTCOTT, LINN", HO, MR )

Carl Appel's Norfolk & Ohio revisited, Classic Articles from Model Railroader, page 67. Article also published in Model Railroader, November 1958, page 30, ( "APPEL, CARL", LAYOUT, TRACKPLAN, "WESTCOTT, LINN", HO )

And, here's the information I copied from the NMRA's SIG site. Perhaps Mr. Gilbert knows what happened to Mr. Appel's layout.

"American OO Gauge SIG - The American OO Gauge SIG is dedicated to the preservation of American, OO scale (4mm = 1ft). Presently, the primary activity of this SIG is publishing the semi-annual, SIG newsletter, The OO Road, but other activities are under consideration. For more information consult:

William Gilbert
1108 Westwood Ct.
Madison, IN 47250
[phone]
NMRA-maintained web page "

[Anonymous]

I understand Carl died about 5 or 6 years ago. Yes, the N&O was a magnificent railroad. It was an unusal scale for the USA but it was very well executed. He had a great artistic eye and obviously modeling talents way above most of us since he had to scratchbuild N&W class A's and all his other engines.

The railroad had such appeal due to it's panoramic viewing of N&W/C&O/Virginian style railroading. Like ndprr said, he had #16 turnouts and ran huge trains. The scenery was spectacular.

What a shame Allen Keller didn't get the N&O on tape for us. Same for Irv Schultz's St. Clair Northern and Bud Sima's PURR. Would have been more interesting than re-visiting a layout they had already filmed. I like the NEB&W but there are other layouts worthy of taping.

Roger