More Loops

gfisher

Old Hand
I have been going a bit loopy from all the tree planting on my The Loops section of Norfolk Southern's Appalachian crossing...there are sure a lot of trees in North Carolina...but I finished the north side of the track today, so here are some pictures.

loops44.jpg


loops45.jpg


loops46.jpg


loops47.jpg


loops48.jpg


loops49.jpg
 
WOW!!!! The route looks fantastic! Your routes always look so real. This looks like it will be a lot of fun to run. Can you provide a little history on it?

Thanks
 
Well, the route began as the Western North Carolina railroad at Salisbury in the 1850's and reached as far as Old Fort at the edge of the most rugged part of the Blue Ridge mountains, which contains Mt. Mitchell, the highest peak in eastern north america. The Southern Railroad took over the line and built west through Ridgecrest toward Ashville. It is now part of NS's Piedmont Division. This section of the line rises 1000 feet in about 13 miles, with 2.7 percent grades at times, culminating in the 1,800 foot Swannoa tunnel at elevation 2535 feet into Ridgecrest. The route has enough degrees of curvature to equal 8 complete circles. EMD has used this section of track as a test track to test wheel slip control systems.

The line was completed between 1875 and 1892 and at one time one-half of North Carolina's convict population worked on the line. 461 of them died in the attempt, mostly from blasting accidents.

This all comes from the September 2006 issue of Trains, which was my inspiration to model the line.
 
George absolutely beautiful capture of late fall in the Appalachians. I'm going to have dl this one and study it. I've got a piece of Huntingdon County PA sitting in Surveyor that I want to look like this.

Bob Pearson
 
Beautiful George!

I saw the TRAIINS article and I thought somebody should do it for Trainz....

Andy :)
 
Looks great as usual......you are the reason I've not built any more routes, you know.

So, shall we call you GeorgeStop....or GrogGeorge?

Ed:hehe:
 
Great now if we only had morre southern diesels, high hoods and everything. Be even better if we had 4501, or 772 and 630.
 
Haven't seen any pictures recently on this route. Would be great to see some more since it is such a great route. Please post a few more shots.

Thanks
 
One more. Looking east toward Ridgecrest, showing the interstate exit into Black Mountain, NC.

loops55.jpg


The route is almost done...just need to finish up Black Mountain where there is a passing siding and a small industry spur. I'll do a few more screenies later today.
 
Back
Top