Chessie System-Athens Subdivision....

[CandO7430]

Greetings all, I created this thread to document the progress of my Chessie System layout. I hope to gain some good feedback and I hope that you all enjoy following my progress. The line I model is the Athens Subdivision of the Chessie System in the 1970's. The line ran from Parsons Yard in Columbus, Ohio to Athens, Ohio. The real Athens sub was once the main coal artery of the Hocking Valley Railway, but during the 30's the coal mines played out and the C&O merged the Hocking Valley to utilize it's line from Parsons Yard to Toledo. As traffic declined over the years the Athens sub was little more than a branch on the C&O system.
I chose to model this line as a "what if". In my world, the coal mines are still running strong and the Chessie uses this line as a vital link in it's system. The Penn Central also takes full advantage of trackage rights to bypass it's own hilly and curvy West Virginia secondary, which the NYC really did. I like big six axle 2nd generation power and coal and I represent them both well on my layout. You'll see six axle PC power, leased Reading Geep's and even a DT&I SD38 that finds it's way to Logan once in a while. I built this layout largely out of my head meaning that I had a plan and just started building benchwork. I also laid out the trackage without a trackplan, just a general idea of how I wanted it to look. I've reconfigured the layout several times mostly to enhance the operation and in the last case to open up my train area. I think I've finally settled on something and I've been busy building scenery and trying out various techniques. I'll post pictures as I go along and I hope that you all enjoy watching my progress. To start out here is my layout as it exists today. I figured this way it would be easy to look at a picture and find it on the layout. This should be fun. Take care all until next time.

[tetters]

Looks pretty awesome. Bookmarked it so I can keep track of updates.

[Trucklover]

That is some plan!! Im looking forward to seeing it take shape and being built Good luck, i sure wish i had that kind of space to do a layout like that...

What are the dimensions for the room?

[CandO7430]

Thanks for the kind comments. You think being a mechanical engineer I would have had dimensions all over the place. I always forget something. The overall dimensions of the layout is 18' X 20' with room to grow. I'll get together an overall room size to give you a flavor for what I've got to work with.

[Bigsteel]

wow,what i would give for a layout that size ,i've bookmarked this thread for any updates.this looks to be one heck of a plan,cant wait to see your work --josh

[Trucklover]

WHOA!! 18x20!! Dang i wish i had that right now!! LOL maybe one day

[LynnB]

Wow nice size room to model in. The plan is very interesting. How far have you gotten on the layout?

[CandO7430]

wgrider, The track plan that I show is what I have as of today. All the track is laid and I'm now working on scenery. I plan on posting some pics sometime Sunday to give sort of a tour of the layout as it is now. I've also had a request for a pic of my DT&I SD38 so I'll throw that in too. Oddly enough, on the weekends I'm usually too busy to get much done but I know I need to get the pictures up so I'll get on it tonight. Thanks so much for the feedback so far.

[CandO7430]

Ok Guys, I've got some pictures now for the official tour. We'll start with Logan Yard which is the hub of operations on my layout much like the real Athens Sub. This view is looking west toward the City of Logan. From left to right is the main, one combination arrival/departure track and five classification tracks. The track coming toward the camera is the Pomeroy Sub and the line that the Reading GP30's are sitting on is the future expansion.

[CandO7430]

Next up is Logan Yard looking East. the caboose track is in the foreground and on track 2 is my yard power, a Chessie SD20-2 and SWMT #146.

[CandO7430]

Here is the always busy engine facility. As you will see, there is almost always some PC power hanging around here. The offensively yellow sand tower will be painted very soon in a nice flat black. The two engines on the left are my fantasy units. The lead engine is a C&O Dash 8 40-C and the trailing engine is a B&O Dash 8 40-CW that I painted and lettered myself. Actually any PC or C&O/B&O engine you see was painted by me.

[CandO7430]

This is where the City Of Logan will be. As you can see I've got the station in place and a downtown building. The downtown building I think will be shifting to the right to make room for a residential area. It'll be a while before the scenery gets here so I've got lots of time to think about it. Oh, the two RDC's are privately owned by the Monday Creek Coal Co. and they use them to shuttle miners from Logan, Lancaster, Nelsonville and Athens to the mines. I got these two beauties for a song on Ebay.

[CandO7430]

In the foreground is the team track and then Keynes Mill is in the background. The City of Logan is behind me. The different color foliage that you see is ground up seat cushion that I am making my trees out of. I haven't actually tried to make one yet but I'll let you know how it turns out. The white styrofoam under it is the residential area that will be shifting down closer to the station. In it's place will be the fairgrounds and the Hocking County Fair. What a great fair, you should try the Bob Evans cheeseburgers, heaven on a bun I tell ya

[CandO7430]

This is the farm that I have been working on. Just last week this was flat down to the foamboard. Since I have never done scenery before, I've been trying out different techniques and this one I seem to like. I take pieces of foamboard of different heights and glue them here and there in the general landform that I am going for. Then I take plain old screen and cover the whole area. I staple the screen to the foam in spots where I want a flat spot for a road or house and let the screen dictate the slope of the hillside elsewhere. finally I cover the screen with plastercloth and viola, a farm. I'll be using sculptamold to make the roads and give a light cover to the plastercloth before I paint it.

[CandO7430]

Here is the new industrial area that I've put in place. The trackage on this peninsula has changed three times but I'm finally happy with it. This area was holding up my scenery efforts as I couldn't decide on a trackplan that was intersting to operate. One trackplan lasted only a few hours before I tore it up and came up with what you see here. Anyhoo, just to the right is the fuel dealer. The red building is Tappan Industries which makes toilets. In the background is the sprawling Sullivan Paper Products. SPP is owned by and named for a friend on this message board. It's the busiest industry on the layout and even has it's own switcher, an SD24. The switcher services all three industries and then leaves the outbounds on the passing siding for pickup. I'll show a closeup view of SPP in the next installment. Way in the background is Monday Creek Mine #1. I'll get a better view of that soon.