Fun in 4′×6′
The CSX at Huntdale, N.C. (left), provided the inspiration for this layout scene at Dixieco, where the tracks are across the road in a cut (above). The author kitbashed the church.
and always has been, Tony Koester’s Allegheny Midland, even though he has moved on to a new layout based on the Nickel Plate. It was my goal to cre- ate a layout that looked like the AM, although I’ll never be able to do any- thing but poorly imitate Tony’s skills and incredible work.
Not able in this space to really do any kind of by-the-letter prototype modeling, I decided to do a freelance prototype set in the Appalachians. Our design was conceived as the (created) McCoy Fork
Branch of CSX’s Ap-
palachian Division. The Dispatcher’s Delight trackplan features three spurs and a very short siding; I added an additional short spur in one of the corners. Three of these spurs would be used for serving industries. Based on our choice of lo- cale, these would ideally be coal mines or loaders. The one other spur would serve double duty, being used as the “house” (depot) track and also to serve a mining supply company. The first lesson I learned was during
laying the track. The foam roadbed from Woodland Scenics is easier to install than the old tried-and-true cork roadbed. My next step was to begin acquiring the structure kits that I intended to build or kitbash for the layout. In some cases, structure dimensions found in the trusty Walthers catalog or website were used to sketch out structure sizes and locations. Knowing where they were going to be placed allowed me to begin conceptualizing the scenery. Being fans of the prototype Clinch- field route, we knew we would want some tunnels, and the trackplan al- lowed me to locate two bores in our lim- ited space. These tunnels, besides pro- viding some scenic interest, also provide
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scene dividers and help to somewhat break up the run of the train when it’s operating in the loop mode. With the tunnel portals installed and structure locations sketched out, it was time to build some scenery. On my original model railroad, I intended to build mountains with wooden sup- ports, screen wire and plaster-soaked paper towels. Those days are gone. On the McCoy Fork, I tried and fell in love with the technique of using wadded-up newspaper covered with plaster cloth from Woodland Scenics. What an easy and relatively-fast way to build moun- tains and hills! Within practically no time at all, we had created a rugged mountainous area, immediately evoca- tive of the Appalachians, for our trains. After
building the mountains, I
knew we would need an enormous number of trees (or something resem- bling trees) to cover the mountainsides and create a realistic Appalachian look. On one side of the layout, I used
Woodland Scenics’ Foliage Clusters. I realized, though, that there had to be
a cheaper way of creating a convincing Appalachian forest than using the fo- liage clulsters. I thought back to an Allen Keller video of my hero Tony Koester’s Allegheny Midland, and the tree-making technique he described. So, on the back side of the layout I used poly fiber stretched out and gently rolled into balls, then covered with fine ground cover. First we used Elmer’s spray adhesive to attach the ground cover to the poly-fiber balls, but later we switched to Aqua Net® hair spray. The hair spray is cheaper and easier to clean off the hands. Tony’s tech- nique allowed us to make the tremen- dous number of trees we needed quickly and inexpensively. It was sometime during this scenick- ing phase that Tristan mentioned he wanted a bridge on the layout. I could, of course, have added one, but only after tearing out a big chunk of what we had already done. After some politicking on
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