our almost-empty spare bedroom. Since I’m not much of a carpenter, I had my dad build two layout sections, one 4′×8′ and one 4′×6′, for this lay- out. However, I had totally misjudged what would actually fit into the spare bedroom, and this relatively small rail- road was a leviathan in the space in which it had been built. My wife was upset that there was practically no room left for the single twin-sized bed; this was, after all, supposed to be a guest bedroom. It was time to “drop back and punt.” The other available room was my
As in many Appalachian towns, Dixieco’s main street is against the tracks (opposite). CSX is the favorite railroad of the author’s son, Tristan, who is now eleven years old (below). Though small, the HO scale McCoy Fork Branch has three spurs that keep crews busy. Among the major shippers is Unimin’s feldspar plant, where GP40-2 4439 is working (below left).
trains and model railroading was rekindled, and I’ve never looked back since. The old “Trunk Line” layout in my granny’s basement was resurrected and provided many, many hours of en- joyment (even if I never did get around to building any scenery). Almost the only major change in the hobby for me was a switch to N scale in 2003. Almost. There was one other major
change, not only in my hobby, but in my life, the birth of our son, Tristan. As he grew from an infant, it was immedi- ately clear that he shared my interest in trains; in fact, he might like trains even more than I do. Now that he is eleven, his fever for steel wheels on steel rails has not diminished one bit.
First ideas Initially, my son’s model trains were wooden, being, of course, the Thomas the Tank Engine line. While he loved the Thomas wooden trains, he soon dis- covered the “real” road names produced by Whittle Shortline while on a trip to Strasburg, Pennsylvania. CSX, Chessie System and Norfolk Southern equip- ment soon began sharing the tracks with Thomas, Percy and Gordon. I knew I had a prototype fan on my hands. It was then that I initially conceived of building an HO layout for him. My first thought was to construct a version of John Allen’s famous “Time- saver” in my son’s bedroom. The power would be a CSX switcher, since CSX is far and away his favorite railroad. A smattering of cars from CSX and other railroads would provide the pieces for
RAILROAD MODEL CRAFTSMAN 73
our version of Allen’s famous switching puzzle. After a search on the Internet, I purchased an older Athearn “blue box” kit for a CSX SW1500. It was during the brief and enjoyable “assembly” of this little switcher that the whole con- cept of Tristan’s layout changed. By then Tristan was old enough to read (although “devour” would be more accurate) the monthly issues of RAIL- ROAD MODEL CRAFTSMAN and Model Railroader. It was his idea to have a “bigger” railroad than just the Time- saver. The “availability” of two different rooms in our house made a larger lay- out a distinct possibility. The first plan was to construct an L-shaped layout in
study, which was mostly empty except for my desk, a rocking chair, some stor- age boxes and a built-in bookshelf full of railroad books. However, it was plain to see that the L-shaped layout would- n’t fit this room, either. What to do? The 4′×8′ section had to go. Within a week of being built, the 4′×8′ was torn down, and the 4′×6′ section moved from the spare bedroom into my study. The study was now, more than ever, the “railroad room.”
The McCoy Fork The challenge at this point was to find a suitable trackplan that would fit on this 4′×6′ while allowing for scenery, structures, and some operat- ing fun. After searching through nu- merous books and websites, we ended up settling on a plan from that very same Atlas Blueprints book that I had as a child. “The Dispatcher’s Delight” became our trackplan.
Our railfan photography adventures
have always been in the Appalachians along CSX’s former Clinchfield, L&N and C&O lines in the area, so a layout emulating the Appalachians in scenery and operations was called for. Further, my personal favorite model railroad is,
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