This site may be helpful:
http://appalachianrailroadmodeling.com/
Joe
CSX Historical Society http://csxthsociety.org
Covers the former Baltimore & Ohio, Chesapeake & Ohio, Western Maryland (Chessie System) and Clinchfield RR in the areas you're interested in.
Sean
HO Scale CSX Modeler
I would resort to google and information on the internet before I would try to find a book. NS and CSX railroads each have coal routes in those states and carefully worded searches should produce decent results.
Try railfanning sites for those states. Certainly railfanning WV, OH, and KY will have to include discussions and pictures of a fair amount of coal routes.
A layout with modern coal trains says long unit trains and a lot of space to me. Perhaps that's okay for you or you have other plans.
- Douglas
I would like to start planning a new layout and I would first like to start researching the prototype. I would like to model modern coal routes in West Virginia and Ohio with coal being transported from the mines to coal fired power plants. Where would be the best source of prototype information such was what routes exist, which power plants are serviced by which railroad company etc? I would prefer to keep it modern and as possible, so I am not sure if any good books exist with this information. I would like to model both CSX and NS and maybe have more emphasis on the delivery to the power plants aspect.