known of this locale before I started construction of the origi-
nal layout, then the Thornhill Division would have been very
different.
The area that interests me the most starts at Big Stone Gap,
VA where the L&N and Southern travel upgrade through the
Powell River gorge to Appalachia, VA. Both railroads, the
Southern on ex Interstate RR trackage, proceeded eastward,
crisscrossing each other into Norton, Virginia.
In Norton the L&N terminates at the N&W yard. The N&W for-
wards the traffic on to St. Paul, Virginia interchanging with the
Clinchfield or on eastward. The Southern (ex IRR) went through
Norton to an interchange with the Clinchfield at Miller Yard.
The Southern had interchanges with the L&N at Dorchester,
Virginia and the N&W at Norton.
Virginia Southwestern - 3
2: Helix B aluminum table.
2
3: Helix A aluminum table.
3
In designing a new layout, I wanted to incorporate the key
aspects this region presented. In a relative compact area there
are, four Class 1 railroads with lots of coal operations, inter-
change, and through traffic. The N&W yard in Norton is a good
sized and an easily modeled yard which will serve as a focal
point of the layout.
The railroads share the same rights of way through some towns
and have parallel routes between these towns. Appalachia,
Virginia is (was) a great example of this arrangement. The L&N
and Interstate RR/Southern actually share the same road-
bed with mainlines running side by side through town. The
Southern and N&W have several branches coming off their
main's serving various coal mine operations.
The Interstate RR/Southern had a unique coal gathering
operation using soon to be retired hoppers in captive service
to move coal from area mines to a trans-loader located at
MRH-Sep 2013
