Touring the Virginian & Ohio, Gauley Subdivision

The tour of Allen McClelland’s Virginian and Ohio, Gauley Subdivision model railroad begins with Allen taking us to Kingswood Junction just west of Santell Yard. Here westbound trains appear on the railroad with the Allegheny Midland in back and the Westbound on the main. At Linndale there is a small community with two main industries, the CM Plastic company that makes containers and the Marshall Chemicals. The chemical company happens to get its containers from CM Plastic.

Here also features the start of the westbound grade with a westbound train waiting to be cleared out of the siding. The scene above Linn Creek has a 1.67% grade with the merchandise westbound train working its way up the grade to New Garver at the summit. New Garver is the eastern end of the lap siding. This features the New Garver station, a turnout for one of the lap sidings and a pair of crossovers to pass into the north siding.

In the helper pocket, there is a pair of GE U25C. Up at the summit, the back siding is the north, and the front siding is south. They use two separate bridges over a creek. On the descending grade, it loops above Robert’s Creek and drops down the grade at a spiral, the longest grade on the layout at 1.65.

A westbound train descends the grade going through Robert’s Tunnel. It proceeds through a mountain and reappears at another location. Tony Koester goes on to discuss some of the ways Allen designed his layout that differ from the norm and demonstrate how he became so well known for his inventiveness.

Watch more from Allen Keller’s Great Model Railroads in the Model Railroad Academy archives.