Your railroad's story and history


The Columbus & Hocking Valley Ry is owned and operated by the CDB Industries and is one of 7 short lines owned by CDBI.

The C&HV came into existence in 1978 when CDBI bought the old Athens sub-division of the Chessie System.During this purchase 2 other short lines was bought,the Parkersburg & Ohio Valley RR that ran from Parkersburg WV to Athens Oh and the Ohio Midland Ry that ran from Jackson,Oh to Newark,Oh.These 2 roads was quickly merged into the new C&HV.

By purchasing these roads the CBDI finally had the long sought after southern Ohio coal fields and industries.The CDBI relaid the track from Nelsonville to Athens which had been removed by the C&O some years ago.The old Logan yards was rebuilt and upgraded during this time as it would serve as the home shops and the only major yard on the C&HV since it was centrally located on the line.The second yard would be located in the old C&O(nee CHV&T) Mound Street yard and would require trackage rights over the Chessie to reach..A agreement was struck with the Chessie for those rights.

The former P&OV yard in Parkersburg was upgraded as was the OM yards at Jackson and Newark.

The C&HV connects with the following roads.

Chessie(c&o) at Columbus.N&W at Columbus.

DT&I at Jackson

Chessie(b&o) at Newark.

Scioto Valley Lines at Lancaster.

Chessie(b&o) at Athens.

Commodities haul: Grain,Lumber,coal,coke,steel,fly-ash,food stuffs,sand,glass,corn sweetener,corn starch,vegetable oils,scrap,pipe,chemicals,paints,news print,pulpwood,wood chips and other general freight.

Total cars handle 32,584 a yearThanks to a aggressive marketing team freight traffic has climb a staggering 33% since the CDBI started the C&HV.


CDBI owns the following roads.

Cumberland,Dickersonville & Bristol Ry.Cumberland to Bristol VA.The CD&B is the flagship road.The CDB in CDB Industries is the same.

Kentucky Central.Cumberland Ky to Maysville Ky.

Artemus-Jellico Artemus,Ky to Jellico TN.

Cincinnati & Lake Erie.Cincinnati to Toledo.

Detroit Connecting.Detroit MI.

Columbus & Hocking Valley Ry.

Huron River.Huron,Oh to Barberton,Oh.
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Cjcresent, don't get me wrong, I like the fact that on a model railroad a person can name things and places to suit the individual. Where and when else, would that ever happen? The younger generation always seems to look with disdain at the previous generations accomplishments. However, I still think John Allen's G.D. Line is the epitome of Model Railroading and will hold John in the highest esteem, until I die!

I'm reading "Model Railroading with John Allen" again, for the third; or forth time, as I write this post and I am still amazed at what he accomplished in a time when very little HO equipment and structures were commercially available. Here I sit, and bemoan the fact that the "Shake-the-Box" kit is almost gone from the hobby, a fact that I think John would maybe find humorous!
 
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NP2626 said:
Cjcresent, don't get me wrong, I like the fact that on a model railroad a person can name things and places to suit the individual. Where and when else, would that ever happen? The younger generation always seems to look with disdain at the previous generations accomplishments. However, I still think John Allen's G.D. Line is the epitome of Model Railroading and will hold John in the highest esteem, until I die!

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I hope that you're just misunderstanding what I meant.:confused: John was and still is my idea of the epitome of a model railroader. I used to get letters from John, as he was kind enough to write to an impressionable teenager and college student. I still have those in my possession. While we discussed motive power mostly, he did confess that he was tired of the name, "Gorre & Daphetid". If you look at the JA book, you will see that he stopped referring to his RR as the Gorre & Daphetid. Instead he was referring to it at the time either as the G&D, or the GDLines.
 
John ending up not liking the name he chose for his railroad is certainly his choice. I neither like; nor, dislike the name Gorre & Dephited, as it's only a name; however, the name is instantaneously recognizable as being tied to John Allen and something very special. If your saying people shouldn't chose fictitious names for their model railroads, then I disagree with you, as I think people should be able to name their railroads what ever they want.

Maybe I'm not understanding you, as I'm failing to see your point.

I don't think this is the right place to discuss this in this thread, as we're talking about: Your railroad's story and history, not someone elses.
 
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my freelance railroad the Ashland Charleston & Southern is a reather aggressive railroad that has bought out and control several other railroads. But in the AC&S's world Norfolk Southern and CSX are not as big as they are. and there are only 2 railroads that serve florida, thats Florida East Coast and AC&S. The AC&S's main line runs from Ashland KY to Miami FL. but i model the line between ashland and charleston. the ac&s uses a mix of power from EMD, GE, ALCO, & Baldwin.
the ac&s makes most of its money from the moving of coal.
 
NP2626 said:
...If your saying people shouldn't chose fictitious names for their model railroads, then I disagree with you, as I think people should be able to name their railroads what ever they want.

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You are misunderstanding! I don't mean to imply that at all. I don't care what other people have as RR names, or the place names on that RR. I simply used prototype names located on a map where the Southern, now NS, runs.

Now if someone wants to use fictitious names, GREAT! Its good that they wanted to do that. Some of those names are good enough to be "prototypical" on their own. Who can say that the Utah Belt, V&O, Allegheny Midland or the Sunset Lines, aren't real systems? By using the real names when you're modeling a real RR and real area, why not be prototypical in more than just cars, locos, type of scenery and use the real names from the area? To me it just makes the RR seem even more real.

I mean look at the "people" who run my "shops" from my "history". Yasir Itsa Flat (Yassir Arafat), Slo Medown Milosovich, (Slobodon Milosovich sp), and then there's Crusty O'rench, (crusty old wrench). With these names, not only did I match their names to their jobs, but it also indicates that I'm a Car Talk fan!:D;):p There were a lot of other names I could have used as well. There's Sara Bellum, (Prairie Home Companioin), the office manager, her assistant Sharie Brum, and the comptroller/accountant Iad Rong.;)

I have no problem with fictional names at all.
 
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Free lanced; or, prototype, I guess it's an individual choice! I understand the attraction of both; but, don't understand the lack of understanding some people have for the other side.
 
trainman78 said:
my freelance railroad the Ashland Charleston & Southern is a reather aggressive railroad that has bought out and control several other railroads. But in the AC&S's world Norfolk Southern and CSX are not as big as they are. and there are only 2 railroads that serve florida, thats Florida East Coast and AC&S. The AC&S's main line runs from Ashland KY to Miami FL. but i model the line between ashland and charleston. the ac&s uses a mix of power from EMD, GE, ALCO, & Baldwin.
the ac&s makes most of its money from the moving of coal.
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Finally someone who has their own railroad and it overtakes the big boys....lol. I like that idea. Look forward to hearing more about it.
 
NP2626 said:
Free lanced; or, prototype, I guess it's an individual choice! I understand the attraction of both; but, don't understand the lack of understanding some people have for the other side.
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To be a lil bit off topic myself, I can understand just about everyones perspective on this subject. The ones I don't understand are those who are 10p% prototypical and down those who want to freelance or protolance. I envy those who take the time to do extensive research so that everything is a exact match from real to model. Thats not my cup of tea and I wish everyone could understand and help each other become better in the hobby. Remember, this is supposed to be fun and relaxing and rewarding.

Now, back to those stories. :)
 
The Adirondack and Northern is a regional line that serves the Adirondack Mountains of Upstate NY. Trackage follows the Hudson River for the majority of the line, with dozens of spurs and lines off from the main. Primary goods hauled include products of the logging, lumber, paper, and mining industries.

Primary motive power for the railroad includes a variety of diesel locomotives. Yard duties and light branch duty is typically done by 1st generation locomotives such as GP9s, SD9s, F9s, and SW1200s. Newer yard power includes a trio of Gensets and some MP15s. Transfer power is usually handled by a sextuplet of GP60s and a few tattered GP40-2s. Road power is anything that management can get for cheap from the storage lines of the Class 1 RRs. Several variants of SD70s, SD50s, SD60s, SD40-2s, AC4400s, C44-9Ws, B40-8s, C40-8s are all on the roster. Others include an SD70ACe scored cheap from EMD and talk of more of the newer SD70M-2s and SD70ACes joining the roster as well. Rarer models include RS36s, C424s, and RS3s, although these only serve the logging lines and are rarely seen outside of their yards/routes as they recieve fuel/maintenance via mobile trucks/trailers.

Interchanges occur with Norfolk Southern and CP Rail. Norfolk Southern locomotives are commonly seen on the southern portions of the ADKN, but rarely go more than a mile or two outside the South Terminal.

Operations are a bit odd for a regional railroad. While freight is what keeps the railroad running, there are a few passenger trains. They are run to supply the logging camps and mines with workers. With 4 mines and several logging terminals online, equipment is very common to be carried on the ADKN. Cabooses are also used on the ADKN on most trains. The cabooses have been retrofitted with better sleeping quarters and improved appliances/facilites. Their most important role is a shelter for conductors throwing the switches in the winter. Without the cabooses, they would have to stand outside in the fridged Adirondack winters.

Thats all i can think of for now, but you get the idea :D
 
Updated A&CC RR story

A&CC RR History

The Aspen & Colt Creek Railroad began life as The Aspen Timber & Western Railroad in Aspen, Colorado. It began by someone by the name of Mark Timber of Aspen who, along with other railroad investors, bought the old Aspen Branch from the Denver & Rio Grande Western in 1940. The ex DRGW Aspen branch stretched from Aspen, north to Glenwood Springs, Colorado.

With the help of investors, Mr. Timber bought 4 Berkshire type steam locomotives as well as 2 Yellowstone type EM-1 steamers from the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad. The primary freight was coal hauled in from Glenwood Springs from the DRGW south to points along the Aspen Branch and into Aspen. In Aspen, there was a lumber yard, a metal scrap yard, stock yard and a feed/grain mill. All products were shipped out by the ATW as well as any empties back to Glenwood Springs. Also the ATW hauled in food and supplies to a freight depot in Aspen and was trucked out from there.

Business held on for 9 years until a health issue forced Mr. Timber to sell his majority share of the company. One of his investors, Mr. Charles Vandergriff of Palaski, Va. was able to buy out the entire company from Mr. Timber and the other investors including the name, property and equipment. He moved all locomotives and what rolling stock he could and sold the Aspen Branch to the Town of Aspen. Which sat dorment until they pulled the rails years later. After finding a couple of other railroad investors, Mr. Vandergriff began operating the Aspen & Colt Creek Railroad on November 15, 1949.

Mr. Vandergriff was able to aquire 45 miles of the Norfolk & Western Railway's Radford Division in Pulaski County, Va that laid abandoned for a couple of years. The main town was Howard Junction which included a freight depot and a feed/grain mill. It also was the site of the ACC 3 track yard, roundhouse, coaling facility and transfer point for coal, freight and empties to be switched from the N&W to the ACC. The end point of the ACC was the Town of Lily, 45 miles to the north of Howard Junction up into the Blue Ridge Mountains with a max of 2% grade.

The work mule of the ACC was the Yellowstone EM-1 which was able to haul coal from HJ to Lily. While the Berk's switched at HJ and hauled freight and empties to and from the two towns. There was also a freight depot in Lily where incoming freight was able to be offloaded and trucked into town as well as any mail that needed to go out. In the Town of Lily, there was a lumber mill/yard, scrap yard and coal yard with a coal distributor for the local town folk for heating purposes. The ACC also gave the N&W trackage rights for fast freights that needed to get to the otherside of the mountain as well as reroutes.

In mid 1950, the ACC looked into starting a passenger train to transport passengers up the mountain and to local ski resorts as well as to the Town of Radford for transfer to the N&W. So the ACC bought two EMD F7A units, a baggage car, 2 coach cars, a dome car, and for the rare use, a diner car. The train was to be stored at Howard Junction and when needed, make trips north to Lily and the ski resorts. As for operations to return the train back to HJ, there was a runaround track just outside Lily where the power was cut from the train and run around to the opposite end, then proceed south back to HJ and/or Radford. The ACC was looking into installing a wye outside the town of Lily so the whole train could be turned. However as of 4 years after service started, there were no immediate plans to do so.

At the beginning of the 1960's, the ACC saw a increase of traffic and was forced to purchace 2 diesels and was able to buy additional trackage from the N&W along the New River into West Virginia to meet up with the Chesapeake and Ohio Railroad in Beckley, West Virginia. The new diesels included a EMD SW9 and the other was a Alco RS3. The SW9 saw service at HJ for switching at the yard and the RS3 was used for both switching and extra power on trains going up the mountain. As of 1961, all steamers were still in service while the N&W and other railroads had sold off or scrapped their steam locomotives and were running diesel locomotives.

With the additional trackage, this now meant that the ACC was offically a bridge route that linked the City of Radford to Howard Junction to Beckley, WV through the Blue Ridge Mountains. So this also meant a increase of passengers that wanted a faster route to Beckley and points north into Ohio. It also meant that the ACC could interchange with the C&O and allowed further increase in profits by allowing more freight to run as well as the increase of passenger service.
 
Midnught Special said:
Well heres mine, its kinda a work in progress and its fictional, havent decided if I want it more based on US or German Democratic Republic [Deutsche Demokratische Republik] (DDR) but I may do a bit of both, but anyways...here goes


The New Berlin Railroad company originated out of Berlin Germany, now they originally started as a really small line that operated locally and acquired track-age and one really old and run down steam train that was used and abused constantly, the engine was on its final legs and the company was about to sell it for scrap and close its doors when the new owner Jim S. came in bought the company and the only train they had and fixed up the engine and brought it up to spec with all new parts and a few major overhauls then assigned the train to be primary on the passenger service that was started with a few older ex Amtrak cars that are still in Amtraks scheme that was a prototype set up, the engine is at times used to assist other trains if and when needed through the harder sections of the rail line that most other trains have troubles getting through, at this time the company has one Alco-Shark that originally was intended to to be used for the passenger service however the engine was unable to run due to engine issues and was decided that after it was repaired it would be used to run logging trains as it was newer and would be able to replace multiple outdated engines that were run by other companies that shared the main line.

The NBR is located in the US in a small town in Vermont near the Canadian border so from time to time there are both Canadian trains and vehicles that are seen around the town. The company is slowly looking to aquire more track and freight cars.


New Berlin its self wanted to keep its Deutsche Demokratische Republik ties as that was there home land, the buildings of the town mostly resemble buildings that are found mostly in Deutsche land.


and thats more or less what I have so far...this is supposed to be more or less a small time railroad company (start up) that was on the verge of death that is trying to rebuild its self into something respectable. So I hope you guys like it, but I wanted to try and show a small failing start up type railroad...
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Thats cool. A Euro-American railroad, or one that has connections to the other country. A very interesting idea. Look forward to hearing more when you can.
 
Photogdad said:
Thats cool. A Euro-American railroad, or one that has connections to the other country. A very interesting idea. Look forward to hearing more when you can.
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I agree, I thought it would be cool to try something like that and it would be a way to explain why my layout will have both Euro touches with American mixed in...and I figured I would be placing it after WW2 (they broke off at the out break of WW2 as the people felt that the reason Germany went to war was wrong) I will add more and repost as I figure out more and get a better direction of my layout...


go to http://www.modelrailroadforums.com/forum/showthread.php?p=256628&posted=1#post256628 for updated history and tell me what you think :)
 
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Gotta love the Berk's. Mine are going to be in the same style as NKP Berk's, K-4 class.
 
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Well heres mine, its kinda a work in progress and its fictional, havent decided if I want it more based on US or German Democratic Republic [Deutsche Demokratische Republik] (DDR) but I may do a bit of both, but anyways...here goes


The New Berlin Railroad company originated out of Berlin Germany, now they originally started as a really small line that operated locally and acquired track-age and one really old and run down steam train that was used and abused constantly, the engine was on its final legs and the company was about to sell it for scrap and close its doors when the new owner Jim S. came in bought the company and the only train they had and fixed up the engine and brought it up to spec with all new parts and a few major overhauls then assigned the train to be primary on the passenger service that was started with a few older ex Amtrak cars that are still in Amtraks scheme that was a prototype set up, the engine is at times used to assist other trains if and when needed through the harder sections of the rail line that most other trains have troubles getting through, at this time the company has one Alco-Shark that originally was intended to to be used for the passenger service however the engine was unable to run due to engine issues and was decided that after it was repaired it would be used to run logging trains as it was newer and would be able to replace multiple outdated engines that were run by other companies that shared the main line.

The NBR is located in the US in a small town in Vermont near the Canadian border so from time to time there are both Canadian trains and vehicles that are seen around the town. The company is slowly looking to aquire more track and freight cars.


New Berlin its self wanted to keep its Deutsche Demokratische Republik ties as that was there home land, the buildings of the town mostly resemble buildings that are found mostly in Deutsche land. Originally when WW2 broke out the company had 15 various types of steam locomotives however near the beginning of the war all company assets including all but one locomotive, the Deutschland were forcibly taken over, after that happened, the original owners packed up the last surviving locomotive and with the aid of the Allied forces smuggled them selves and there locomotive out of the country as they felt what the Third Reicht and Adolf Hitler were doing was mortally wrong. the NBR is currently in a long battle trying to reclaim there lost assets from the new government as they sold all known assets of the Third Reich that were built by Hitlers army, so the government is attempting to get any assets that its able to recover back into the hands of the rightful owners, one day the NBR hopes to have more of its assets returned so they can continue running in there home land and bring more over to there new home in the USA.

The US government has also stepped in to assist there recovery process by supplying them with there very own locomotive as during the war time effort the NBR gave the army sole use of its passenger train the Luxurious Deutchland which ferried people to and from the ports and army stations for war time efforts. at this time the NBR is struggling to get back to normal from the events of WW2 but is confident that it will slowly continue to succeed.


At this time NBR has one Birkshire class steamer that is in service, which is usually housed in a converted barn at this time. They are also in the process of trying to overhaul the aging ex-Amtrak cars and make them into there own train and aquire any other cars for use, they currently also have come into possession of an abandoned freight set up that was found recently in a cornfield that was wreaked and left to rust, so the yard mechanics and engineers have been working tirelessly to restore this freight set up to working condition for immediate deployment

and thats more or less what I have so far...this is supposed to be more or less a small time railroad company (start up) that was on the verge of death that is trying to rebuild its self into something respectable. So I hope you guys like it, but I wanted to try and show a small failing start up type railroad...
 
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Excellent read. Seeing as you have set the new town in VT, I would check the web for railroads that ran back in the day, gather some ideas as for where the rail line will go and for any abandoned tracks you can snatch up. Keep us updated on you progress.
 
Photogdad said:
Excellent read. Seeing as you have set the new town in VT, I would check the web for railroads that ran back in the day, gather some ideas as for where the rail line will go and for any abandoned tracks you can snatch up. Keep us updated on you progress.
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my RR I plan to have cover from WW2 (start of) to present day...the Town is technicially "New Berlin" in VT, just havent specified exactly where it is/will be, its partly a fictional place anyways :)
 
Oh and New Berlin just finially after years of fighting got word from the German Gov't that there Yellowstone just got released and is being returned to them immediately and is soon to be on its way shipped over so yay! Its an exciting day, however most of there Class G12's, Class 58, Class 59, high speed steamer 61's were unfortunately lost during war time but if any happen to be recovered they will be returned immediately to them.
 
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