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
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