29 - 31 March 2000

Catching a Bird of a Different Color!

I recently decided to tag along with a few NVNTRAKer’s on their journey to Hawk’s Nest, WV, although my reason for going was entirely different. The story starts this way – last summer I was surfing around Bernie Kempinski’s New River Subdivision website and I noticed a neat N scale layout that was built using a few hollow core doors with foam laminated to it as a layout base. I had some questions so Bernie put me in touch with its owner, Bill Sparkmon. 

After a few e-mails sailed back and forth, like the Remington shaver guy, I liked it so much, I bought it. Only catch was, it was in West Virginia. No problem, I thought, that’s not too far of a drive from where I live; but when I whipped out the ol’ map I discovered it was a mere 367 miles from my front door! Well, to keep this tale short, after a few aborted attempts at picking it up, Bill suggested I try to get it during the C & O Modelers weekend being held at the Hawk’s Nest Lodge in Ansted, WV. So, on March 28^th, I boarded the Cardinal at Union Station, hooked up with John Drye, Brian Brendel, and Steve Zutter along the way and proceeded to have one of the best times of my life.

Although I had read and heard Matt Schaefer’s descriptions of the route, it was still like having a fairy tale come to life before your eyes! Majestic mountains, rushing rivers, grass between the rails (huh? inside joke, you had to be there), animated conversation and great food (even though they were 1 salmon short; Brian, you get to order first next time!). As we left the diner, John suggested we check out an “emergency” from the vestibule of the lounge car. After riding through the New River Gorge looking (just sticking your head out doesn’t constitute hanging out, thank you) out the emergency windows of the car, we deemed the emergency was over. The view of the train cutting through the darkness of the gorge was matchless and sure gave you a feel for what it was like for the engineers of all those H’s, J’s, and K’s that passed through during the steam era. We de-trained in Montgomery, WV, right on the advertised and met our ride up to the Lodge – none other than Matt and Georgia Schaefer 

After a good night’s rest, we reconvened in the Lodge’s restaurant for breakfast. I checked on the rental truck I was supposed to pick up early in the morning and they said it wouldn’t be there until after 10 am - rotten luck that, now I can go sightseeing with the gang! One of the places Matt took us was to a river rafting outfitter that had a large deck overlooking the New River Gorge and we were fortunate enough to have a train pass right below our feet – actually a few hundred feet below our feet – while we were there. It reminded me of N scale trains passing through Matt’s Hawk’s Nest module. I was able to get my truck, get it loaded, and get home just in time to help my 6 year old with his homework. My only regret is that I couldn’t stay longer. Oh well, it makes for a great “excuse” to go back. If you ever get a chance to ride, it is well worth it – like Matt says it is a bird of a different color.

To sum up my trip, I’ll paraphrase a popular commercial:

Cost of layout - $200

Cost of truck to get it home - $201

Great train ride, great friends, great conversation, matchless scenery – Priceless

Some things even MasterCard can’t buy.

C&O/CSX MODELERS WEEKEND

The New River modules have been to Wisconsin and all over and on March 30th at Hawk's Nest we displayed a 17' x 9' New River layout including Quinnimont, Thurmond, and Glade Creek. Paul Fulks and Dudley Ross brought modules from Huntington, WV and Montgomery. They joined with Bernie Kempinski, Brian Brendel, John Drye, Jeff Peck, Carl and Steve Zutter, me, and other helpers to run the New River Sub as well as monitor the CSX and NS operations. The small lodge with only 34 rooms is situated just right to get the flavor and best view of the gorge. The staff and the weather were perfect Betty and Edith served us as we looked out over the gorge. Lodge employee Jimmy Layton even built us a one foot bridge module and NVNTRAK awarded him best module of show! . Why is it we always need these new bridges built?

DOODLEBUG - I towed NVX2 300 miles without an incident until I picked up members off of Amtrak 51 Wednesday at Montgomery and started up the mountain. Jeff, Brian, Steve and JD said we hear the chains dragging. Yea right, I guess so with 1000 pounds of NVNTRAK gorillas sitting in the back!

YOUNG CREWS - This is what it is all about, letting the young "uns" participate and take the throttle so to speak. We had several small railroaders 9 to 11 years old plus big Chase Kempinski to help run trains all Friday while we socialized and did other official monkey business. . .  Another was the son of a CSX engineer and his friend that really had railroading in their blood too. Saturday us big boys went on a tour and left two small railroaders running trains by themselves. When we got back we heard that two (2) tour buses with 90 people stopped at the lodge and the crowd was 3 deep all around the layout asking who made all this, why is it here, etc. We can't imagine what answers they got but we did not have any NVNTRAK brochures left after that!

THE LAYOUT - We had plans to run DCC and demonstrate some serious switching but the usual happened after we set up. We were all too busy with all the activities and maybe telling lies. One different operation was to run red and yellow the same way like experienced on the C&O with CTC on 2 tracks. This also demonstrated the excitement as explained by the originator of NTRAK, Ben Davis, see the middle of page 2 of the how to Do It book. "Best of all was watching a triple headed passenger train with ten 85' cars catch and overtake a long freight."  That is NVNTRAK, always demonstrating different technologies and operations.

ACTIVITIES - Saturday afternoon we all rode the cable tram down to a big picnic on the river catered by the lodge.  Trains were passing with plenty of horn. We had heard stories about abandon mines so after hiking across the Hawk's Nest RR bridge, Brian and I walked 2 miles up the Anstead Branch and saw some foundations and trestles. Upon our returned the Park Super, Tom Shriver, said he would show us the portals we missed and we toured with him for an hour, another example of the Hawks Nest hospitality. He told us of plans for the Ansted Branch to be a WV bike trail by 2001. In addition his plan was to arrange tours from the northeast to arrive on Amtrak #51 Friday and leave on Amtrak #50 Sunday. If it can be arranged the Cardinal could unload at the picnic area and take the tram up to the lodge. What a great plan!  He hopes to double the number of rooms in the lodge for 2002. The next C&O convention there in 2002 is dependent on that plan to have more rooms. As we left the picnic area the afternoon mist was settling over the river and I was thinking about when I would be back.

SPEECHES - Bernie gave the Keynote speech to a packed house. I was practically in tears at the end. Bernie's new signal bridges are almost sold out and orders are being taken for another run. Ron Lane gave another moving presentation that told about families that lived in the area and worked in the mines and lumber industries. Some of the lodge staff told that they saw their relatives in Ron's slides and told us first hand how it was back then. The talks and tours prompted us to enthusiastically talk up at least 100 new railroad projects.

OBSERVATIONS FOR MODELING - We noticed that Dickerson Yard and nearby junctions all had wind socks and we realized it was in case of spills of hazardous materials. This danger was noted when we saw a NS local switching in the required 4 empty steel gons between the loco and some hot stuff. At this time one third to one half of all CSX and NS coal trains are Conrail red hoppers mixed in. On CSX all Conrail  hoppers are marked "NYC" above the numbers - ready to erase the Conrail logo I assume. Are your trains up to date? As rivet counters all know the empty coal tubs all had about 50 pounds of coal left in the same corners of each car after a rotor dump. The hopper bottom cars had very little coal remaining.

CHASING - We paced a NS coal train wheel to wheel down the Gauley River then spotted the Gauley Trolley on the C&O/NYC interchange with a caboose.  The trolley brings tank cars east on the C&O route and backs 2 miles across the New River to interchange with the NS (ex-NYC). The crew said a caboose is required because brakemen are not allowed to ride on the revenue cars for the reverse movement. The caboose has a sporty head light on top for backing (Make a blow up picture of the light?). It would be great to model in N but I can just see this reverse operation putting all tanks in the river. Need those wind socks! Every morning you wake up to trains passing in the gorge and view the gorge at breakfast. It's trains inside and outside all day long and Saturday at midnight the lodge deck was packed.  Every train was announced in the lobby. What did we know about the train? Employee Jessie was on the deck talking to the CSX engine crews. "What engines you got?" "How's the convention going?" As the engines go out of sight we hear them call the next signal at Fayette Station. It is midnight and we are all in our places on the deck ready for another day at Hawks Nest.