To understand what I envision for coal operations on Version Two of the CR&E, I first have to explain a little about the proposed layout design.
There are two areas of the future basement that will have railroad in them. Those two areas will be connected by a laundry room/half bath that will hopefully be able to serve as a staging yard and as a pass-through from one side of the basement to the other.
The side that is finished is 11.5 X 23 feet in size. That side should see almost immediate layout construction, as basically all that is required there is a coat of paint and to install some extra lights. This room is on the right side of the house, looking from the front yard.
The side that is unfinished is currently garage space and is approximately 23 X 23 in size, to be verified in less than two weeks if all goes well with my move. That side will have a larger portion of the layout in it, but not until I can get the room finished. This area is on the left side of the house, looking from the front yard.
The layout will be double-deck, point-to-point, linear design, and around-the-walls with peninsulas.
The lower level in the left (garage) side will be an extensive coal branch operation serving several coal loadouts of various sizes. Right now I'm planning two large flood-loading operations to load unit trains for power plants, two medium-sized operations for miscellaneous cuts of coal loads, and at least a couple really small-time operations that will ship small single car shipments on a less regular basis. There will also be staging at the end of the modeled portion of the branch to simulate coal trains originating in northern West Virginia. All of this lower-level trackage in the garage side will be known as the Kanawha & Northern branch(es) of the CR&E.
As trains on the branch territory on the lower level twist around peninsulas and walls working their way east, the last station feature they will pass in the garage side will be the K&N coal yard. Several tracks here will be used to store empty hoppers and loads. The mine runs working the small and medium sized loadouts will collect empties and set off loads here.
After the lower level route passes through the K&N coal yard, it will punch through the wall into the laundry room, where the through route will become the CR&E mainline between Charleston, WV, and Danville, VA. In that laundry room will be the staging yard for the west end of the mainline portion of the railroad.
Follow me? The K&N (lower level) line goes through the wall and becomes the CR&E mainline once it enters the laundry room.
After passing through the laundry/staging room, the rails punch through another wall and enter Lewisburg. This is the location of the division point classification yard approximately midway on the CR&E's mainline route. Lewisburg is located in the 11.5X23 foot currently finished room, as are the locations of Caldwell, Archer Fork, and Glace on the lower level. The mainline then climbs through the Loops to access the upper level. The upper level in that room includes Forester, Paint Bank, and some middle-of-nowhere running until the route again pokes through the wall and enters the laundry room area on the upper level.
The laundry room is only a pass-through on the upper level. The rest of the modeled CR&E mainline from New Castle to Roanoke (staging) will be built as the upper level in the garage side. This portion of the railroad will be above the lower level K&N branch territory.
That may be just enough to digest in one post, so I'll follow with another explaining what I currently plan to do with coal operations on the railroad. You'll need an understanding of the K&N concept to get it, since all of the coal moving over the railroad will either originate on the K&N or in staging.
Stay tuned for the meat of the coal-moving message....
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