Eastward to Roanoke!

We began operations on Version Two of the CR&E with a test operating session in December 2009.  Since that session, we have had six operating sessions while I've continued to build the railroad to make it what I want it to be.

During the test session, the railroad between Lewisburg, WV, and the Charleston, WV, staging yard did not exist.  We used Lewisburg as the west end staging yard for this break-in session.   By February 2010, when I hosted the NC RailRun N Scale Edition, the mainline was installed west to Charleston, including the junction with the Kessler & Northern District branchline territory at Meadow Bluff, WV.  The branch itself did not exist during that session, except for a small stub track.

Our April 2010 session became our first "official" operating session with a regular crew.  The K&N District was still a short time away, but would become semi-operational by the June 2010 session when rails reached a point just north of Kessler, WV.  By August 2010, the K&N had reached Sam Creek, WV, and by the December 2010 session the entire south end of the K&N was fully operational. 

With the K&N mostly complete, except for a few feet of track that will be inside the mole staging area inside the peninsula, I turned my attention to other construction efforts.  By the February 2011 session, benchwork was underway for the extension of the CR&E mainline east from New Castle, VA, through Abbott and Catawba, to Roanoke.  I found myself very inspired after that session and immediately resumed work on that new portion of the CR&E mainline the day following the session.

Now, two short weeks after the February session, the CR&E mainline has officially been extended another 40 or so feet from east of New Castle, VA, to a point just west of Roanoke.  As of about 8PM this evening, the mainline was realigned so that, instead of heading directly into the staging yard after leaving New Castle, it now makes a run in front of the staging yard and around the peninsula before entering the Roanoke staging yard on the opposite end of the original alignment. 

The new locations of Abbott and Catawba, VA, are along this route.  Abbott will be home of the Shenandoah Rock Quarry, just as it was on Version One of the railroad.  Catawba will be the location of the Southern States feed mill, another carryover from Version One, as well as a team track and a stub-ended track representing the Catawba Creek Branch to the Catawba Hospital.  Southern States will be a larger operation than it was on Version One, and it may actually receive a dedicated unit train that will be delivered by the New Castle Switcher.  The Catawba Hospital, a state facility, will receive an occasional cut of coal for the power plant.

The extension project is nearly complete as of this writing.   The Roanoke staging yard ladder was removed today and will be positioned on the opposite end of the yard.  Five of the nine Roanoke staging tracks were extended to the wall after the old ladder was removed, with track on hand to finish the remaining four.  Track has been torn up at the other end of the yard to make room for the new ladder, which should be installed this week.

After the Roanoke staging ladder is reinstalled, the modeled portion of the railroad will be extended east another five or six feet to a new connection with the N&W west of Roanoke.  At "N&W Jct," the CR&E will enter the double-track N&W Christiansburg District for the remainder of the run into Roanoke.  I plan to install N&W color position light signals at the junction to give the feeling of entering another railroad.  Once this alignment is complete, westbound CR&E Division trains out of Roanoke will come out on the N&W's mainline and then diverge onto the CR&E.  I'm a fan of junctions, and this will allow me to have yet another one on the railroad. 

I'm very excited to be nearly complete with ALL of the CR&E subroadbed and trackwork.  After the mainline extension is complete, I will install the industry tracks at Catawba and Abbott.  After that I will finish the remaining trackage on the K&N District and then put the tracklaying tools away!   I'm eager to move on to different projects.