Conrails West Virginia Secondary

Model Railroader Prototype information for the modeler
1

My first memories of Trains are the big, dirty, and blue locomotives of conrail. Now those days are gone, long gone in my sense of time. Being only 11 in 1999 when conrail called it quits my memories of conrail are very small and few. So now being old enough to do the electrical , and construction work I would like to capture conrail as I rember it by modeling it. I have found out that the line that runs about five miles from my house is what was the West Virginia secondary. I would like any information at all that anybody may have on this line.

Thanks,

Trent

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Here is the address of a West Virginia forum,I think there is a Conrail discussion thread on it http://mountainstaterails.net/ joe

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Norfolk Southern owns it now. They still call it the West Virginia Secondary.

I remember fondly the Conrail era, at least the mid-eighties to 1999. Shame

Conrail is gone, but it can live on in our memories and our layouts.

Here is a link to a Yahoo discussion group (of which I am a member) :

http://finance.groups.yahoo.com/group/wvsecondary/

I hope the link works, as I’m a little rusty at posting them. If it doesn’t, you can

cut and paste.

Before Conrail, it was Penn Central; New York Central.

There is a five-span curved chord bridge at Point Pleasant, W. Va. (crossing the

Ohio River). On an interesting side note, the old Silver Bridge was right beside it.

As you perhaps know,it collapsed Dec. 1967,killing over 40 people.

There are 4 tunnels in Meigs County,Ohio, the longest is around 800 feet at

Langsville. There is another longer tunnel at New Lexington,Oh.

The main commodities : coal,chemical, mixed freight.

I’ve only railfanned from Columbus,Oh. to Charleston, W. Va. One of these

days I’m going to go way back into the mountains of W. Va. to the end of the

line. Train movements weren’t that great, on good days 1-3, at least at my

neck of the woods, Hobson Yard, 4 tracks,about a mile long. Located beside

Middleport,Oh.

4

The bridge I know well, it’s about 45 minutes from me. My dad is a carpenter and works near the bridge often, so when I was little I was down there a lot. I belive Dad told me he saw a speed limt sign of only 10mph on that bridge. why so slow, does it have any thing to do with the age, and height of the bridge?

The Hobson yard is very near to the JayMar coaling company which is who my Dad works for. I rember always watching it when we would drive by it. Also I never really knew what it was when I was younger. If I went down to vist do you think NS officals would let me on the property to look around?

Hey thanks very much on the information both of you. A few more specfic questions.

What motive power was used on the line?

What/who where some of the biggest suppliers/demands for railroad shipments?

Where can I get a satillite map of the line?

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The bridge is almost 100 years old,completed in 1908 (same for the Langsville tunnel).

I don’t know of any clearance problems. Perhaps it’s an age issue. Does anybody else

out there know?

As for NS allowing you on the property, I don’t know. Politeness and courtesy go a long

way in gaining access,even in this liability crazy world. I have only casually railfanned

since the late 80’s.

Back then the usual motive power was 2 SD-40s on the headend, 2 SD-40’s on the

tailend, for coal movements, which of course were always northbound. They had a little

difficulty with wheelslip ( with underpowered trains ) at Carpenter Hill, which was about

2% (my estimate) on the south slope, somewhat steeper on the north slope. The hill is

basically between Athens and Meigs counties. I never saw any wheelslip, as usually they

had 3 or 4 SD40’s. I am not 100% certain, but I believe a lot of the coal went to a loadout

dock at Toledo.

Chemical plants in the Kanawha Valley (excuse my spelling,might be wrong) were of

course the destination for tank cars.

Google has a sattlelite image service, but I think it only covers urban areas.

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The SD-40’s were replaced by wide cab units, probably in the early Nineties. Sorry, I

don’t know specifically what kind of units.

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I do rember seeing widecabs in the mid 90’s, and I have no idea what they where either. I do know that they had the racoonI belive that is what it was called white mask if that helps distingash them any.

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I found that Conrails three wide Cab units

SD80 Mac

SD70Mac

SD60M

do any of those seem right?

9

I seem to recall GE models, possibly Dash-8 40CW. Sorry I can’t remember.

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There are some great shots of the West Virginia Secondary at http://www.davedupler.com/rr.html

plus other southern ohio spots.

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I believe NYC built that line primarily to supply itself with locomotive coal.

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I remember reading something someplace about this line but my recollection is that it was “acquired” as opposed to “built”; somehow or the other the name West Virginia Central crops to mind. Anyway, if memory serves me correctly NYC acquired/built this line specifically for the purpose of tapping coal deposits, something deficient on the rest of the system.

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Actually, the line was Kanawha and Michigan, Toldeo and Ohio Central, and some other lines. Check out http://www.members.kconline.com/plank/tochome.htm

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If you can, locate a book titled “A Sampling of Penn Central.” There are a number of photos of the WV Secondary. Also a discussion of operating conditions and large customers. Of course all information is 20 years older than you want and the locomotives wear basic black instead of blue, but you should find it a good place to start. (I drove I-64 near some of this line last summer and was able to recognize one of the chemical plants.)

Does your local public library do interlibrary loans? If so, ask Allen County Public Library, Ft Wayne IN, to send you “my” copy.

Interesting note on the bridge: according to the book, during PC times the speed limit on the bridge was greater than the speed limit on the approaching tracks, due to deferred maintenance.