Interstate Railroad - Appalachian coal hauling in 1952.

[DanielB]

Good afternoon,

 

I thought now might be a good time to start a new topic on a much planned but so far unstarted layout build - the Interstate Railroad of Wise County, Virginia, in 1952.

 

A short history of the Interstate Railroad

Founded in 1869 by the Virginia Coal and Iron company, the Interstate was a small but extremely busy coal hauling railroad, interchanging with the Southern Railway, Louisville & Nashville, Norfolk & Western, and the Clinchfield. Though a common carrier of both freight and passenger traffic, the 81(ish) mile railroad was primarily a coal hauler, and owned a sizable fleet of 50 -55 ton hopper cars - 3147 at it's peak.

 

A profitable enterprise for almost 90 years, the Interstate was a savvy operation, earning it's money not only from hauling coal, but also from 'per-diem' car fees - it preferred to keep it's freight cars anywhere but on it's own trackage, as it's interchange partners paid a fee for every Interstate car on their rails. As such, there were always crews and locomotives kept ready to move as many cars as possible to other railroads' trackage before midnight every day.

 

When their aging fleet of hopper cars needed replacing, the Interstate management decided it would cost too much money, so they put the railroad up for sale. The Southern Railway beat the L&N to the purchase, and they took ownership of the Interstate in October 1960.

 

The layout

I planned to model the railroad before they dieselised their fleet, but I have the rolling stock to run the layout after dieselisation, as well as after Southern ownership and Norfolk Southern ownership as well.

 

I have chosen 1952 as the year to model as that was when the Interstate had - to me at least - their most interesting roster of locomotives, from a simple 0-6-0 switcher all the way up to ALCO/Brooks 2-8-8-2 mallet locomotives.

 

Though I have yet to work out a track plan, I know that I cannot prototypically model the railroad as I simply do not have the space. As such, the layout will be a proto-freelance model - a fictional layout but operated as per the prototype. Per-diem operations will be replicated by ensuring no loaded coal hoppers will remain on the layout at the end of each operating session, all will be in staging, with only empties in the yards and interchanges on the layout.

 

The L&N and the Interstate paralleled each other for a good chunk of the IRR's length, and it will be along one of these stretches of line that the layout will be set. Benchwork is about 50% complete at the moment, though I need to figure out how I want the layout to be situated in my layout room. The plan to begin with is to model a section of the Interstate main running through a small town, with a small yard, a few industries, and a coal tipple, as well as the L&N main line - and an interchange between it and the IRR.

 

The initial boards will be set up on the opposite side of my layout room to Piedmont Blues. Eventually I plan on raising PB up on a frame so that I can add further boards with hidden staging for the Interstate layout underneath it. In the interim, the initial boards will be a self contained switching layout - allowing for traffic from the mine, to the yard, then off layout to staging. Empties will be brought back onto the layout from staging, into the yard, then mine runs will take the empties to the tipple. There will also be regular local and interchange freight trains, and the occasional passenger train.

Edited February 16, 2021 by DanielB

[DanielB]

References

What kickstarted my interest in the Interstate were two books picked up from Seaboard Southern show a few years ago. Both by Ed and Hugh Wolfe, they are:

 

"The Interstate Railroad: History of an Appalachian Coal Road"

"Appalachian Coal Hauler: Interstate Railroad's Mine Runs and Coal Trains"

 

Ed Wolfe has also written a third book on the Interstate, which I finally found a copy of at non-scalper prices, and is currently on route from the USA - which is the reason for this layout project finally being started. That book is:

 

"Interstate Railroad: Memories of an Appalachian Short Line."

 

The first book in the 'trilogy' is about the history of the railroad from inception to it's purchase by the Southern and eventually it's ceasing to exist once the Southern was merged with the N&W in 1982, forming the Norfolk Southern. The second book is about operations on the railroad, including maps of all the branches and mines, track layout, photographs of the steam and diesel fleets, and the rolling stock roster. The third and (so far) final book contains accounts of the people who worked the railroad and their experiences on the day to day running of the Interstate.

 

This final book will be a great source of inspiration of the detailing of the layout once it's built, and the operations once they get going.

 

I have also started putting together notes and indexes of photographs from various sources - Facebook groups, the internet, and the reference books I have in my collection.

 

Progress

So far, progress is small, mainly I have been building up my locomotive and rolling stock fleet.

 

Locomotives so far are:

 

Steam Locomotives:

IRR 2nd #10 - Baldwin built 0-6-0 switcher with slope tender.

For this locomotive I have a Walthers Proto-Heritage 0-6-0 with DCC sound. I will need to scratchbuild an Interstate slope tender for it, but beyond that it is a pretty accurate representation of the IRR locomotive. Though this locomotive was retired from service in 1950, I think I can fudge that date a little with flagrant use of the 1st Golden Rule of model railroading.

 

IRR 2nd #9 - Alco Brooks class H-10-s.

Purchased August 1941 from the Pennsylvania Railroad, 2nd #9 is an MTH model with DCC sound. All that will need to be done to this locomotive is the Keystone logo removing from the nose, an IRR badge making to replace it, and some Interstate decals.

 

Southern Railway #1884

Walthers Proto-Heritage USRA 0-8-0 with DCC Sound. The Southern Railway had a number of 0-8-0 locomotives built to USRA standards under the class As-11. Though not used on the IRR in reality, this locomotive will be used on the layout using Rule #1.

 

Southern Railway 4-6-2 Ps-4 Pacific

A United Brass locomotive, I'll need to paint this and fit a DCC decoder. This will be used on the L&N main pulling Southern passenger cars as run through power.

 

Pennsylvania Railroad 4-6-2 K4 Pacific.

A Bachmann Spectrum model with DCC. A purely fantasy model on my layout, I just really like the K4's. I'm going to remove the Keystone logo and re-number this as an Interstate Railroad locomotive. The IRR bought an H-10-s from the Pennsy, so I'm using that as an excuse to say they also purchased this one at some point.

 

Pere Marquette 2-8-4 Berkshire

A Bachmann model with DCC, this will be re-numbered at the very least into an L&N M1 for use on the L&N main.

 

Nickel Plate Road 2-8-4 Berkshire

A Bachmann model with DCC, this will be re-numbered at the very least into an L&N M1 for use on the L&N main.

 

Diesel locomotives:

IRR RS3 #38

A Bachmann model with DCC Sound. My first actual Interstate locomotive, and the model that started this whole layout build.

 

The rolling stock fleet should be pretty easy to collect - 50-55T rib sided hopper cars were the mainstay of the IRR fleet. I'm basically going to buy them up when and where I find them, and repaint/letter them myself. I have found an eBay seller than produces IRR decal sheets for diesel locomotives and freight cars, so I'll be getting a bunch of them next month to keep a stock of them for projects as and when I can.

 

As for ready to run, Bachmann and Atlas have made RS3's in Interstate schemes, so I'll be keeping an eye out for them. As for freight cars, Accurail and Bowser have both done runs of IRR coal hoppers, the latter of which have just been added to Rails of Sheffield's website after I enquired about them getting them in for me. Though expensive (due to the costs of importing them), Rails have been really helpful with sourcing them for me, so I shall be purchasing one of each of Bowser's offerings per month for the foreseeable future, which should - combined with the aforementioned decals - allow me to build up a decent fleet of accurate models.

Edited February 16, 2021 by DanielB

[DanielB]

Structures

If you've made it this far through my wall of text, I have some pictures to show you all.

 

Seeing as there's not much I can do on the layout build at the moment, I have started to build structures to place on the layout once it is built.

 

The plan is to make at least three sets of structures for the layout - one set per era I can model. The idea is to make each structure as a diorama where possible, allowing them to be swapped out easily depending on what era stock I fancy running during an operating session.

 

The layout will be modelled in winter, with most of the trees without leaves and the entire layout covered in snow. As such, the structures will also have a layer of snow added. I'm hoping to use cling film or something similar, and to apply a layer of my own snow paste (a mix of matt modge podge, water and woodland scenics snow flock) to the film to create a "hat" for each building, allowing me to re-use the buildings in future by making the snow removable should either the winter idea not work out as I hope, or if I ever decide to change my mind and redo the scenery for a difference season.

 

So far, I've put together and started painting/weather an old Walthers Cornerstone kit I've had sitting in a box for a couple of years - Midstate Marble Products. This will form one of the small industries on the layout, and will represent a stone cutters to allow for gondolas of uncut stone to form some of the non-coal traffic.

 

Here's how far I've gotten with it. I still need to paint the static crane that comes with the kit, though the winding house for it has been painted and suitably rusted up.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[dave1905]

Per diem isn't really a profit center.  In the 1901, the Interstate only owned 7 cars total.  By the 1940's they owned about 2800 cars, by the 1950's it was down to 2300 cars, of which most all were hopper cars (less than 200 flats and gons).  The per diem rate in the 1940's was about a dollar a day per car.  Since they owned no boxcars, any general freight received would have been in foreign cars which they would have had to PAY per diem.  Per diem really didn't become a "profit center" until the 1970's when the incentive per diem rates  for certain boxcars went into effect.  That's actually why they formed incentive per diem, because normal per diem rates weren't high enough to cover the cost of ownership of a car.

[DanielB]

They still made it work somehow. Often, they borrowed cars from their interchange railroads, had them arrive early morning into Andover yard, would run half up to the mines and leave them to be loaded. They'd bring the other half up in the afternoon and bring out the loaded ones, then pick them up in the evening and have the whole lot back on home rails before midnight - thus they would get the use of the cars 'for free'.

 

I think a lot of how the IRR made a profit each year was by minimising cost of per diem going OUT, and maximise income from per diem on their own cars.

 

I doubt they made a lot of money from the per diem on their own cars, but keeping the costs they had to pay other railroads down had to have contributed at least a little. It all adds up, after all.

[SonOfMike]

Love the rust on that little shed 

 

[DanielB]

Cheers, Johnny.

[DanielB]

Quick update for now,

 

Contikits and eBay have provided a source of a few bits for the layout. The former has provided a couple of coal cars and a box of 200 assorted doors and windows from Tichy Trains, which will allow me to start scratchbuilding structures for the layout in earnest. Once they arrive I can get to building a few trackside structures as well as some coal camp houses and a company store.

 

eBay has provided a few more freight cars and a Walthers National Fuel Supply kit which is now out of production as far as I am aware. This kit will serve a number of purposes, including part of the company store property in the form of a coal trestle which serve as a location for the unincorporated town on the layout to source their fuel from.

 

The concrete structure will probably serve as some sort of garage or storage shed at the coal tipple, and the ramp up to the coal trestle will likely be kitbashed into part of a truck dump elsewhere on the layout.

 

The office building will serve as practice for painting and weathering brick structures, as in the past I've not had much exposure to it.

[Allegheny1600]

Hi Daniel,

 I like it!

The idea of a smaller road using some of the readily available RTR steam locos has been floating around my head for a while now so I will watch with interest.

By the way, I wonder if those C&O hoppers you got from Contikits originally came from me!? Ha, ha, I used to have a nice mixed rake of around 40 of them, along with numerous others too. I just couldn’t keep everything and had to dissolve some of my US fleets a while back.

Good luck,

John

[JAMO]

What a nice project Daniel! 

I like shortlines and coal cars.

I stay tuned to see the news and the progress of the ideas.

[DanielB]

Thanks chaps, going will be slow to begin with as I've got to clear out one side of my layout room to facilitate the building of the IRR.

 

I've got a rough idea for a track plan but it's whether I can fit it all into the space I have. I'll not know the final track plan until I have the benchwork built and can start laying things out to see what I can fit and what is wishful thinking!

 

Not much progress but I do have a few photos of my new purchases - John, either of these yours?

 

 

Both had plastic coal loads which have been removed as I'll be using lose loads on the layout, so I'll need to weather the insides of the hoppers  The D&H one had extra weight added in the form of yellow play doh, which you can probably see remnants of in the photo.

 

I've also got these:

 

 

 

I've also got a few kits to build that I found in my layout room that I think came as part of a box of stuff I got second hand from somewhere, though they are a bit new to go on the IRR layout. That said, if I run 1970's to present, these will fit right in on the L&N main (or CSX as it is these days).

 

[DanielB]

Not a particularly exciting photo, but this is what a box of POTENTIAL looks like!

 

Also, this morning, DPD and Hermes were good to me:

 

[F-UnitMad]

6 hours ago, DanielB said:

Thanks chaps, going will be slow to begin with as I've got to clear out one side of my layout room to facilitate the building of the IRR.

is this the final death knell of the DanielB N Scale collection, or has all that long gone by now anyway?

[DanielB]

Nope, I still have an Intermountain SD40-2, a rake of Silverside gondolas and a box full of craftsman kits. I'll build an exhibition layout for them eventually.

 

That said, my O scale and HO scale collections are pretty hefty now, so I doubt I'll buy any more N scale stuff.

Edited February 19, 2021 by DanielB

[doctor quinn]

I bet you could backdate that NS woodchip car to Norfolk & Western easily enough 

Edited February 19, 2021 by doctor quinn

[DanielB]

I think I'll keep it for when I'm running modern era. I've got a bunch of GP35's and GP30's, a pair of which will be getting turned into a CSX unit with slug, just because I've been planning to make one for ages.

 

I've also got an SP unit I want an excuse to run, so I'm thinking of making it a UP patch job.

[DanielB]

Well, that's a couple more 2 bay rib sided hoppers and a bunch of southern states Piggyback trailers won on eBay.

 

The hoppers will be repainted and lettered for the Interstate, and the trailers will be used on a spine car set I have, as and when I run 1970's era stock.

 

Today I've spent my time working on the brick office building from the National Fuel kit, and the time consuming task of painting bricks. I've just sealed the paint with matt lacquer, and once that's dried I'll be using filler putty to apply the mortar to the bricks.

 

Fingers crossed it'll come out okay.

[DanielB]

Though it comes out on camera a lot lighter than it actually is, I'm pretty happy with how it's turning out.

 

I'm using a YouTube tutorial by Jason Jenson for the step by step.

 

Once the filler used to make the mortar has had time to set properly the next step is weathering with pastels.

 

[long island jack]

Dan when it's dry, go over it with a damp cloth to take the powder off, then weather

[DanielB]

Cheers Ray, I'll do that.

[DanielB]

Here's the reason why progress on this one will be slow:

 

My benchwork is under all that crap.

 

I did start adding a water tank to the roof of the stone cutters this evening. Here's as far as I got:

 

 

[DanielB]

Quick update this afternoon - base colours applied and assembly complete on half a Walthers trestle kit.

 

The beams on the right hand end are not attached so I can add more length to it.

 

Going to have to apply lots of washes and weathering chalks to this one.

Edited February 21, 2021 by DanielB

[DanielB]

A fair few structures on the layout will need to be scratchbuilt, so I thought I'd dust off the cobwebs by tackling something small to begin with.

 

Looking through my books on the Interstate produced this excellent photograph from 1918 of a tool house and storage building at Norton.

 

Photo for reference only - no copywrite infringement intended.

 

Here's my attempt at recreating the smaller of the two. I still need to add the roof joists to finish it off.

 

 

Both huts will need tar paper roofs adding, however I'm waiting on some sugar paper turning up before I attempt that.

[DanielB]

Not a bad effort so far, I think...

 

 

[DanielB]

Last update for tonight is the current state of the brick office building. Need to work on the stone/concrete bits, finish working on the doors/windows and then add tar paper to the roof. I'm considering adding a painted sign onto the brickwork but I need to go through my collection of printed signs to see if anything is suitable.