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I like the well-thought-out concept of this, moreso because I am a NW modeller, and what's more, my parents own a time-share condo in the Hendersonville area. The thing I would call into question is your mention of modern Amtrak two-level equipment for a layout set in the 50's. Amtrak was formed in 1971, and they inherited a lot of underutilized passenger equipment at the time. The "full-dome" two-level equipment got introduced later, along with other modern passenger equipment that was never lettered for any road other than Amtrak. In the 50's the state of the art would be the Budd fluted lightweights, with gleaming silver/chrome finish, and the "vista dome" observations such as on the California Zephyr. The domes were a unique feature which was advertised on the CZ, not that they weren't used elsewhere, but just to say that they were not in common use on smaller roads. I've been having to come to terms with this myself, since I have domed passenger equipment that to my educated eye now seems out of place rolling through West Virginia hollers. Nothing says you can't be running vista dome scenery trains across your line; that section of NC may very well justify them. But, I think you should give up on Amtrak, and think more "Pullman". A passenger train of the 50's was a railroad's chance to strut its stuff in as elegant a manner as possible, and they painted their sleek trains like peacock's feathers. Having your own small railroad means you get the chance to indulge your creative whim, and come up with the most attractive or flamboyant or vivid color scheme you can think of. Just include silver! Now, since you're interchanging with the southern end of my Shenandoah division, and I've got the connections at the northern end covered, perhaps once you've envisaged this color scheme we should consider building in some interchange traffic between our lines. Trouble is, my city of Winchester, VA, is also well known for its apple production, so no-go there. Unless... maybe the company "Winchester Apples" somehow owns the growers in NC, and collects from both, hauling over the Shenandoah to distribution houses in or near Roanoke (midway, and on NW's east-west mainline). This way, form time to time, the same reefers might get routed to either of our pikes... and I'd have an excuse for having an Apple Valley lettered car in the consist. I do like the thought of running equipment lettered for other fictional roads on my layout, such as the Virginian & Ohio hoppers I recently found (hard to find stuff in N-scale).
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