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Norfolk and Western Elkhorn Grade

This layout represents a real section of railroad in Virginia and West Virginia as it existed in the 1930s.

HISTORY:
The Elkhorn grade was a section of the Pocahontas District on the Norfolk and Western that was a continuous bottleneck prior to 1918. Up until that time, the railroad had to battle the hill with 2-6-6-2 articulated steam locomotives. Right in the middle of the whole mess was the 4000' long Elkhorn tunnel. The tunnel had a 2.5% grade. Working uphill through this nearly mile-long tunnel, the steam locomotives were limited to 5 Miles Per Hour on freight trains and were a nightmare for the crews. To solve this problem, the Norfolk and Western electrified a section of track between Bluefield Virginia and Vivian West Virginia. Two of the N&W's massive boxcab electric locomotives could handle a train that required 3 Z1 class 2-6-6-2s up the grade. Even though engines had to be swapped at Bluefield and Vivian, the time saved by running at speed through the tunnel made the electrification worth it. The electrics continued working until 1950, when the N&W built an $11 Million dollar bypass to the Elkhorn grade.

THE LAYOUT:
The layout is a small oval-shaped table with Bluefield and Vivian yards connecting to a common Staging Yard. This layout is built for point-to-point operations. The object of the exercise is to shuttle cuts of cars from Bluefiled to Vivian and back again.

The layout was built to the size and proportions of something you might find in someone's basement. It's very selectively compressed and may have a few landmarks out of order, but overall captures the feel of what it is trying to represent.

OPERATIING INSTRUCTIONS:
Start by grabbing one of the pairs of siderod electrics at either Bluefield or Vivian. Grab a set of cars from the electrfied yard and take them through the Elkhorn tunnel to the other yard. Exchange your cut of cars for another cut, which you take back through the tunnel to the other yard. Repeat this process as long as you like. If either yard gets full, grab one of the steam flyers from the Staging Yard, and pull cuts of cars from Vivian or Bluefiled through the Staging Yard to return them to the starting point. You can also exchange a cut of cars from either yard with a new set from the staging yard so it doesn't feel like you're moving the same cars over and over.

If you really want a challenge, send one or both of the Steam Flyers with passenger trains out and try to navigate your freight train up and down the line working around the passenger traffic, while still keeping the passenger trains on the mainline and on time.

CUSTOM LIVERIES:
I used a few of my own custom N&W liveries, all of which are listed as required. The layout should still function without them. No QuickMods were used on this layout.


Questions? Comments? Leave 'em below.

Updated 2/28/21: Added switchboards to the layout.