Southern Railway's Slate Fork Branch (N)

[Paul S.]

Welcome to Slate Fork Country!
The year is 1978. The nation is Star Wars crazy and disco drunk, and a California band calling itself "Van Halen" has just released its debut album.

Things are a little less frenzied and somewhat more traditional in the hollers of Appalachia though. Take the Southern Railway's Slate Fork Branch, a former short line founded in the early 1920s by a Midwest steel consortium. It's been moving coal much like it has for the past 50 years. The only significant changes were a pair of SD-9s that replaced aging second-hand steam locomotives in the mid 1950s, followed by the loss of independence when the Slate Fork Railway came under the Southern's flag in the early 1960s (about the same time, but with considerably less public attention, as Southern's acquisition of the nearby Interstate Railroad).

Located like the Interstate in the extreme southwest corner of Virginia, the former Slate Fork Railway interchanged its traffic with the Southern, but it also did business with the Clinchfield, providing the Clinchfield with a steady, if not large, stream of coal traffic.

Today in the late 1970s, the Clinchfield -- part of the Family Lines -- still interchanges cars with the Southern for delivery to a tipple on the Slate Fork (a stipulation the ICC insisted on as part of the purchase conditions). But the Slate Fork's key loadout sees Southern hoppers only, loaded with a highly coveted metallurgical bituminous coal which travels south on Southern iron to Alabama's steel mills.

Demand for coal is high, and the Southern operates two mine runs a day up the Slate Fork. A smaller truck dump is located further along the branch, as well as an ammonium nitrate bulk facility. Trucks take the fertilizer to surrounding mines, where -- when mixed with diesel fuel -- it becomes a powerful explosive used to open new seams.

For more on how a guy who lives on the edge of the map in the Pacific Northwest came to be enthralled with the Appalachian coal haulers, see Saga of the Slate Fork.

Trackplan

Timetable

[Paul S.]

One important facet of a realistic model railroad is smooth-running, slow-speed movement of locomotives. I'm pretty fussy about this.

Keep-alive capacitor-based devices have been all the rage for DCC these past few years, but most fit HO or larger. Until now.

I acquired an Iowa Scaled Engineering Run-N-Smooth Power Keeper today, and hope to document its installation and performance over in the Electronics forum: https://realisticmodelrailroading.ne...keeper#post404

[Steve]

I look forward to that documentation Paul . I will be following this

Steve

[Paul S.]

No pressure on me then, Steve!

I need to buy a Dremel carbide cutting bit next. Looks like some extra space will be needed in the frame.

Those guys at ISE make some great stuff -- not to mention some of them model the Iowa Interstate.

[Michael Whiteman]

You have such a great command of the English language Paul. I really enjoy ready about the history of your RR. It's been a long time since I've seen your layout and a lot has changed. That seems to be your and my life story. LOL Thanks for finally posting the track diagram of the extension down to staging. Speaking of staging.......... how does your power escape when pulling in head first? With one turnout you could make a run around track, unless it was full of empties. I always thought you should have 3 tracks in staging. Looking forward to seeing many more pictures in the near future. Thanks for all your hard work launching this site, It's gonna be fun.

[Paul S.]

Thank you, Michael!

Staging just accommodates a typical train now, Michael, and turnouts in staging eat capacity. For years now I favored sector plates for staging for just that reason.

After moving the sector plate over one track, I can move a string of cars into that track, realign the sector plate, and a free the locomotive.

But the loads are dedicated loads, and the MTYs are dedicated MTYs, so I reset them in between ops sessions anyway -- loads back to the tipples, MTYs back to staging. Then I make up a new Slate Fork Mine Run. Every fifth train or so I'll add a covered hopper for Hercules Powder.

The tipple at Koester is served by Clinchfield/L&N cars only (part of my fictional narrative), so the mine run stops at Koester, pulls the loads, runs ahead to Clinch Junction, swaps loads for MTYs on the interchange track, shoves the MTYs back to Koester and spots them at the tipple. Then the power couples to the train and heads for Slate Fork.

Oh, and those SD-9s on the Slate Fork? Part of the M&A agreement stipulated the Southern keep SD-9s 208 and 209 for exclusive use on the Slate Fork (they'd been 571 and 572 on the independent short line, indicating their year of purchase). The crews liked them (and while I enjoy seeing a pair of Geep 38s running long hood forward as God intended, a single unit also saves space; besides, SD-7s and SD-9s are a personal favorite, along with SD45s).

[TimMoran]

Paul S. - Is there a chance you'd be willing to share pictures of your sector plate staging? "Asking for a friend"......<grin>

[Paul S.]

I can do that, Tim! I still have them in the cache on the ol' desktop. So I'll post them tomorrow if not sooner.

[Michael Whiteman]

I totally agree with you regarding the use of sector plates on non scenic staging tracks. Not only saves space but also many dollars. I think this is something everyone should seriously consider. I didn't realize you had one at the far end.

[Joe Atkinson]

Those guys at ISE make some great stuff -- not to mention some of them model the Iowa Interstate.

Those IAIS guys are trouble for sure.

Your layout's looking great Paul!

[Paul S.]

Thanks, Joe! Seeing the terrific modeling and operations that you, James McNab and Scott Thornton do modeling the IAIS has definitely been a source of inspiration.

[Joe Atkinson]

Thanks, Joe! Seeing the terrific modeling and operations that you, James McNab and Scott Thornton do modeling the IAIS has definitely been a source of inspiration.

Very kind of you Paul. Thanks very much.

[BarryK]

Paul I saw a few photos of your railroad on another site and really enjoyed it. I like the simplicity and great scenery. Looks like a fun little railroad to operate. Barry

[James M]

Those IAIS guys are trouble for sure.

Yes we are. Excellent progress as always, Paul

[Paul S.]

Thank you, Barry and James.

It is fun to operate. And I've built in a couple "time expanders" such as the train register and the swing gate to make the run longer.

Admittedly, junctions where railroads crossed at grade were not common in the coal fields, and a swing gate less so, but a little modeler's license never hurts.

[TimMoran]

Good morning Paul!

I love the concept of your railroad and the implementation of sector plate staging!

Regarding the operations aspect, I wondered if you had ever done the following:

After crossing the interchange, run up to Slate Fork, run around your train, and back down to Flanary with the caboose and car(s) for the truck dump. Make your moves at Flanary, return to Slate Fork to complete your work there and finally back to "home".

The reason for my question is this: the train passes Flanary on the way to Slate Fork and returns to Flanary to do switching after passing Slate Fork on the other side of the ridge. The switching method I asked about retains "scene integrity", if you will. The trackage to the right of the Flanary truck dump is simply headroom to work the siding.

Thank you for sharing your layout here and allowing me to comment!

Tim Moran

[Paul S.]

Actually, Tim, Flanary is located at the end of the branch (an arrangement I borrowed from the Interstate/Southern's Dorchester Branch). So the mine run's power runs light up to Flanary, pulls loads, runs back to Slate Fork and swaps loads for a couple empties, then back to Flanary to spot the empties.

Thanks for the kind words!