Edit post

Edit your reply below.

Post Body
Enter your post below.
I model a fictional road AFTER it has already been merged into the Norfolk & Western. You didn't have a category for "Already merged", so I voted for "rails to trails" abandonment. My fictional road had a mainline that originally stretched from Portsmouth, VA, northwest to Richmond, then north through Culpeper to Winchester, and then turned west to head across the mountains towards Grafton, WV. Following the merger (which was kind of a gradual assumption of control, really, since NW and B&O each maintained large semi-controlling interests in the line throughout its life, and it was a minor feat for NW to excercise its equity and enact a "hostile" takeover). Immediately after absorption, the mainline between Richmond and Winchester was abandoned, while the line from Richmond to Portsmouth was sold to RF&P, and a portion of the line south from WInchester to Culpeper was acquired by Culpeper county to maintain service to a few industries (this segment is operated by Southern, which interchanges at Culpeper). So, the only portion remaining is the Winchester Branch, i.e. the sgement west from the NW Shenandoah main line at Front Royal, across the state line and down the South Branch Valley then up the Tygart valley into Grafton. This happens to be the portion I model, of course. And its reason for preservation is that it serves as a useful bridge route for traffic passing onto B&O rails; westbound traffic doesn't need to go to Hagerstown, remaining on home rails longer. Plus, a collection of coal mines have yet to play out, even though they are as old as my WP&P is; the road was originally laid when a surveyor for B&O discovered the coal seam, got entrepenuerial, and found enough investors to create his own short line. The original Paston Valley Lines suckled at the teat of mother Baltimore until bankruptcy and reorganization, when some shrewd politicking got N&W interested in the new management's plans to extend east to Winchester and just beyond, to meet the N&W's shenandoah main line. B&O held a lot of shares picked up on the cheap after the bankruptcy, and N&W invested just as heavily to buy up the remainder, coming nearly onto par with B&O, while flooding the new WP&P with the capital it needed. Nobody cared too much about the third "P" in the name though, which stood for Portsmouth and was intended to make the line into a Chesapeake port coal hauler of equal stature to either of its peers. So, throughout its history, my railroad was able to play B&O and N&W off of each other, like a child of divorced parents milking them for spoilage. Each Class 1 saw their near-control of WP&P as a way to intrude on the other's geographical monopoly over coal haulage. Neither wanted to own it outright, though, so it remained quasi-independent, until ultimately it failed. The steep grades required to get across the Appalachians in a southeasterly direction called for too much locomotive overhead, on a line which didn't have online traffic generation sufficient to support it. Plus, there was too much competition from larger roads which had many more significant connections. So, NW scooped it up in the end (B&O had little interest since the profitable portion, Winchester to Grafton, was basically parallel to their Cumberland mainline), and now I'm modeling it 4 years after the merger. All this backstory lets me indulge in as much or as little prototype NW or freelance WP&P as I desire, and it is fun to try to represent the shift in operations. My WP&P was an almost all-Alco road, and since the shops know their RS-11's and RSD-15's, these units tend to stay assigned to the Winch Division. Not only that, but N&W sees fit to gather their Alco units here, too, though the growing dominance of EMD six-axles is certainly showing in the road freights that arrive coming up from Roanoke. The dream that was the WP&P, though, is essentially abandoned; there is no mainline to Portsmouth any more. All that remains is the original contested B&O - NW bridge.
Tags (Optional)
Tags are keywords that get attached to your post. They are used to categorize your submission and make it easier to search for. To add tags to your post type a tag into the box below and click the "Add Tag" button.
Add Tag

Update Reply

Subscriber & Member Login

Login, or register today to interact in our online community, comment on articles, receive our newsletter, manage your account online and more!

Model Railroader Newsletter See all

Sign up for our FREE e-newsletter and get model railroad news in your inbox!

Subscriber & Member Login

Edit post

Post Body

Tags (Optional)

Subscriber & Member Login

Users Online

Search the Community