The WP&P is a fictional railroad, as modeled by Michael R. Rountree. Begun in 1896 as the Paston Valley Lines and dependent on its mainline connection to the Baltimore & Ohio, the line eventually grew across the West Virginia / VA border to reach the town of Winchester and then a connection with the Norfolk & Western beyond. Ultimately, following reorganization under the new WP&P name, it reached Portsmouth, VA. The line met its "demise" in 1967, when at long last the major shareholder N&W finally completed its takeover. The north-south line between Winchester and Portsmouth was abandoned, but the coal-productive line west from Winchester was preserved as a branch and as a bridge route to the B&O. The route is modeled as it would be in 1971, with a heavy N&W influence but with the remnants of WP&P equipment in evidence.
In the real world, there are two shortline railroads in the area where my model railroad is fabled to run. Thus, the WP&P can be said to be a combination of the Winchester & Western and the South Branch Valley; my prototype research tends to orbit around these two, at least when I'm not absorbing all things Norfolk & Western. On the SBV one can ride a famed scenic excursion, the Potomac Eagle, so named because as it runs alongside the south branch of the Potomac, it passes by the eyries of bald eagles, which can be seen from the train. The SBV started just as a B&O branchline, but the WP&P imagine what might have been if this line had run not north to the B&O main but rather east and over the mountains; the Winchester & Western is, in this scenario, imagined as the descending route down into Winchester.
RECENT ARTICLES:
Norfolk Southern has decided to paint several new locomotives in “heritage” schemes, harking back to the fallen flags that played a role in the mergers that became today’s carrier. If you’re wanting to play along, you might wish to re-create the corporate look of the N&W of the 1960′s, as NS has done with its spiffy blue heritage unit. If you want to work with that Dulux Yellow and Blue scheme, one thing you need to know is what font to use for that crisp, san-serif lettering style they used.
Tags: font, Norfolk & Western
Fully functional diesel engine servicing facilities are now a part of Winchester Yard! Back in October 2011 I began the development of this little wedge of plywood, which previously had been serving as a temporary shelf for tools and whatnot while working elsewhere on the layout.
Tags: building, engine, Layout, Winchester
I model the Norfolk & Western in 1971 (in addition to my fictional WP&P, which I treat as if it were recently merged into N&W). I’ve got a good sampling of EMD and ALCo engines to fill my roster, but one thing lacking are the GE U-boats. I can readily get my hands on a [...]
Tags: engine, kitbash, Norfolk & Western, rolling stock
I travel up to my sister’s house often, and the route is up I-75 through Ohio. There are a few long stretched of this interstate which run parallel to a major rail mainline, but of course every time I drive it there is just nothing to see. Well, this past Christmas as I was driving up, I got lucky and found a train running slightly slower than me and in the same direction! Not only that, but I just happened to have my camera accessible.
Tags: railfan
With the recent acquisition of another Atlas 90-ton triple hopper (thanks TwinDad!), I figured this is a good opportunity to show how I am going about bringing the car weight up. Open hoppers are notoriously difficult, since they lack places to hide unsightly weights like the self-adhesive chunks I usually use in closed cars. The key is to use sheets of lead, which can be cut and fit in without being conspicuous.
Tags: hopper, rolling stock
Model Railroading is Fun!
It's the World's Greatest Hobby. If you're a model railroader, too, you might be interested in exchanging Rail Passes with me. The Rail Pass is really just like a token or collectible card, though in the real world such passes were issued to V.I.P.'s to enable them to travel for free. Owning one meant that you were someone special, and I have created a Rail Pass for the WP&P that I can give out to persons special to me. If interested, read all about it and contact me to work out the particulars.
Layout Design
One of my favorite aspects of the hobby is layout design. In fact, it's the reason why I went into my chosen profession, architecture! Ever since my teenage years I have been filling up pads of graph paper with sketched dreams. Every now and then, I will add some featured plans as articles here, to show some of my work. Most of the time, these are revisions to plans posted by others, as I frequent various model railroading forums and love to help out. Of course, you can view my own layout plan, as well as the design of my N-Trak module, both of which exhibit some good design features.
