Lakeside Lines: The Railroad
The Lakeside Lines is a Virginia based coal hauler set in the year 1979. The big mergers are still ahead, GP9's are still in service, cabooses are required by law on every train.
The Lakeside Lines was planned to be as close to real as possible. Curves were to be measured in degrees, and be large enough to exist on the prototype; switches were to be long enough for real locomotives to get through; the lengths of yard tracks and sidings were scaled directly from full sized examples, and able to hold prototype length trains. The idea was to make no compromises.
The only way to make the Lakeside Lines completely right was to freelance. By freelancing, I can argue that every thing is exactly the correct size, and in exactly the correct place. However, to be convincing, the railroad mirrors the common practices of the Chesapeake & Ohio and Norfolk & Western systems whenever possible.
Lakeside Lines: The Model
In the real world, we only experience one place at a time. When real locations are scaled down exactly as HO scale models, they tend to occupy extremely large spaces. Because of this I decided to use my entire basement to model just one piece of the Lakeside Lines System, the yard at North Franklin, West Virginia.
The entire 2.3 scale mile length of modeled railroad is given over to the North Franklin Yard; from the yard's entrance switch in the town of North Franklin, to the west switch of the passing siding, on top of Hines Hill. Track arrangements and lengths are a composite of the western side of the Norfolk & Western yard in Bristol, VA and the west throat of the Chesapeake & Ohio yard in Covington, VA, as they existed in the late 1970's.
A large portion of the basement is devoted to behind the scenes staging. There are
25 double ended storage tracks for main-
The Ultimate Model Railroad
As of September of 2009, with the completeion of the westbound staging yard the railroad is basically complete. There are still many scenic improvements to be made. The staging yards were designed to hold a complete 24 hour sachedule of trains, many of which still need to be added to the railroad. The signal system still needs to be made fully automatic, a project which will hopefully be completed this coming summer. There is still stuff to do, but the railroad is a very good one right now.
Regular operations are under way and they are very enjoyable, but I have come to realize the magnificent staging yard I built to provide the layout with scale length trains could support something much more: the ultimate model railroad. Imagine if the line west of Bluff tunnel continued on into a great new extension corridor style structure, that connected the existing layout to a second structure built on the lot next door. The structure could be built so that it resembeled a train depot and could also serve as an operational entrance to the model railroad. Altogether there would be 15 to 20 scale miles of single track main line with every inch modeled to no compromise standards.
The proposed line would travel several miles to the depot styled structure, in which it would climb Northfork mountain by means of approximately 6 scale miles of continous 1% grade. A second mile long passing sodind would be encountered near the summit of the mountain, just east of the portal of Northfork Tunnel. Trains would dissappear completely into the 6000+ foot tunnel, whose track would only be accessable for maintenence.
Emerging from Northfork Tunnel, the raill line would proceded the miles down the west flank of the mountain, then down the corridor structure to the town of Seneca, WV. Seneca would be the site of a third passing siding, not to mention the junction with the Cumberland branch. Beyond Seneca the extension would reconnect with the existing eastbound staging yard. The whole railroad would be controlled by a CTC machine located in an office within the new depot styled building.
Imagine operating a train on this model railroad. You might pick up your westbound
from the staging yard and bring it into North Franklin yard. The train could be
an 80 car long manifest freight pulled by three locomotives. Assuming there is no
work to do at North Franklin, (If there is, 30 minutes to an hour will be required.)
the train would stop to pick up a pair of GP9 pushers. You would then proceed to
climb Hines Hill, where perhaps, a red board might be encountered at the west end
of the passing siding. You might wait some time for the eastbound to emerge from
Bluff Tunnel and clear your signal. You then re-
A small stairway takes you under the tunnel and up into the space where your train is seen departing the west portal of Bluff Tunnel. You walk along with your train for many miles of forrest interspersed with farm fields. The train is moving at scale speed. You keep watch for the lineside signals, which you dare not fail to notice, because you have no idea what other trains are out on the railroad. Occasionally you must blow for a rural grade crossing. Once in a while you pass a spur for a lineside customer. You and the conductor, who is watching the rear of your train, and is in radio contact with you, truely feel alone along the open road.
After about four miles of this the track begins twisting through the curves of the Northfork Mountain grade You see the first part of your long train snaking along beside a fast moving creek and crossing bridges over it from time to time; the end of the train is always out of sight. The train is climbing the hill slowly, even though the throttle is better than three quaters open and the locomotives are roaring, you hesitate to open the throttle more, for fear the engins will begin to slip, stalling the train on the grade. In time you reach the Northfork siding. You look out for the red over yellow indication which would indicate yout train will be held short of the tunnel in the siding. It is a pleasant suprise to find the signal green, and you note a loaded coal drag is in the siding waiting for you to clear. You toot twice at the engineer who is waiting on you in the aisle as you meet his train. He toots in return.
Now you follow your train as it passes in front of the loaded hoppers. In time the far end of the siding is reached and the train makes a sweeping turn into Northfork Tunnel. You are pleased that you have gotten the heavy consist over the crest of the mountain without an embarrasing stall tieing up the railroad. Your conductor meets you at at the tunnel's portal as the end of the train dissappears into the mountain side. All attention then turns to the portal on the other side of the aisle where the train, in time, begins to emerge from the west side of the mountain. By now, the throttle has been cut way back, and the train is drifting down the convoluted flank of the mountain, snaking through wooded ravines or on roadbed consisting of shelves carved into steep cliffs. It will be six miles before the train if off the mountain; then three more miles of open country before the town of Seneca is reached.
The yellow over red signal indication at the east end of the Seneca passing siding informs you you will be holding the main here, but will have to await the passing of an opposing train.The locomotives of the daily Seneca turn have tuked themselves into the lead of a spur track so as to be out of the way of the ensueing meet. You can't help but think about how long it must take the crew of that job to make the trip from North Franklin Yard to Seneca and back, while working the customers along the way. You slow your train and crawl along the siding to the red signal one mile ahead, stopping just short of it. You wait. Your conductor comes up for a chat as you both wait. Fifteen minutes pass before a headlight appears on the Cumberland branch. The train's engineer comes up from the stairway under the railroad and greets you, then he guides his train in delibert fashion onto the passing siding and then around your awaiting manifest. The signal ahead at last clears.
The trip is now nearly over. You get the train moving and watch it dissappear behind the brick plant. It is time to pass back under the layout and into the room housing the North Franklin Yard and use the video moniter there to guide your train into the end of its staging track. You have been on the road well over two hours now. Even a passenger train encountering nothing but green boards will have required an hour. If the experience were any more real, the railroad would have to pay you for it.
It facinates me to ponder that from the base of what has already been realized, I could build this incredible model railroad. I'll bet there are many, including myself, who would love to participate in such a realistic operating experience. Unfortunately my work teaching high school here in Southwest Virginia leaves me without the time or financial means to accomplish the job. Someone would have to buy an awful lot of Lakeside Lines stock. But you never know who else or how many might come to share such a dream, so I thought I'd put it out there. Should it ever get built, you may look for the photos of the new territory on this site.