weaverton

weaverton Hancock, West Virginia...
Hancock is what really got me interested in the East End. It is a perfect spot to model railroad. There was a classic B&O interlocking tower, a small yard, a spur heading to Berkeley Springs, the Route 522 road bridge, and a passenger station. Hancock has everything a model railroader looks for in a prototype. The tower at Hancock has a two letter call sign, which happens to be "HO", perfect for a model railroad in that scale.

The main operating feature here is the Berkeley Springs Industrial Track. This track branches off to the southeast and runs down to a sizable US Silica plant. Chessie used their charachteristic HC-44 small 2-bay covered hoppers almost exclusively to run the sand out of the plant. The sand was used in making glass. The plant also needed the occasional boxcar. Also on this industrial track was a Westvaco Pulpwood Yard and during the early Chessie Era a few small shippers in Berkeley Springs. I'm not 100% sure if these small places were shipping or not, but on my road they will be modeled for some interesting operations.

There was also a scale at the yard, to weigh the sand cars leaving. Across the tracks from the tower was a small freight station and a shed. The shed is a Western Maryland design, and was likely moved to Hancock when much of the parallel WM track was abandoned in 1976.

As for the passenger station, Amtrak's use of it varied over time. Amtrak established the Blue Ridge (DC to Cumberland) in 1973, Hancock was on the route. It fell off in 1976. When Amtrak truncated the Blue Ridge to Martinsburg, in 1980, the Shenandoah was created and Hancock was a stop. Amtrak ended the Shenandoah in October 1981, when it started the Capital Limited (DC to Chicago), and Hancock was removed from the stops on the Capitol Limited.

Below is the prototype map of Hancock.

Since Hancock was the first section I built, I do not have a graph paper plan for it. Starting on the left of the map above, my model includes No. 1 and 2 Mains. They go through the entire three sections that make up Hancock and can easily be noticed by the light colored ballast on the track. They are also higher than the surrounding tracks. My yard includes many, but not all of the tracks. I have the Passing and Storage Sidings, as well as No. 1 and 2 Yard tracks. I do not have room for the No. 3-5 Yard tracks. Behind the passenger station I have modeled the Scale and Warehouse Tracks. I also included the Outside and Inside Tracks in the little yard behind the passenger station. I did not have room to include the Middle or Fire tracks. I have also modeled the Berkeley Springs Industrial Track.

Below is the Hancock control panel, which shows the layout and track names.

Below is the west of the three Hancock sections. It is not yet ballasted. The two tracks on the bottom are the No. 2 and No. 1 Main. Moving up from the mains are the Passing Siding, Storage Track, No. 1 Yard and No. 2 Yard Tracks.

Below is the middle of the three Hancock sections. HO tower is seen in the lower left. The passenger waiting shed area is in the lower right. Track wise, from front to back are the No. 2 Main, No. 1 Main, with the light ballast. At the left is the start of the Passing and Storage Sidings. The last four tracks on the right side are the Scale Track, Warehouse Track, Inside and Outside Tracks. The Scale House sits on the Scale Track. The turnout hanging off the right of the photo is the Berkeley Springs Industrial Track. The road on the lower right is River Road.

Below is the east end of the three Hancock sections. It is hung in its final position on the layout's second deck. Near the road is the Berkeley Springs Industrial track. It stops about six inches from the end of the section. Hanging off the end, with the light colored ballast are the No. 2 and No. 1 main lines. The passenger station mock up can be seen as well, sitting on its foundation. The brick passenger platform can be seen between the tracks and passenger station in this view. The road seen on the hill is River Road that runs right next to the yard.

Below is the middle and east sections of Hancock mounted permanently. The locomotive is pushing a string of cars over the scales on the scale track. The scales are under the third car from the locomotive. The light color is the concrete pad around the scales. The other tracks (Outside, Inside and Warehouse) have typical collections of boxcars and gondolas. Waiting at the signal on the far end, by the mock up of the passenger station is a GP40-2 running light.

Below is the first run of a train on Hancock. The scale house can be seen right above C&O GP7 5760. Off in the distance the freight station and shed can be seen.

Below is a view of C&O GP7 5760 pushing sand cars over the scale at Hancock. The scale house is hidden behind the third sand car. Note all the white spilled sand on the scale itself. HO tower sits off to the right. It lasted until about 2007.

Below is an intersting little passenger waiting shed. It used to sit across from the passenger station for folks heading east. It's not there today and I'm not sure when it got razed. Also included is a prototype photo.

Below is my new technique for building structures. I build the foundation and the building separately. This is the foundation for Hancock's passenger station. The brick loading platform can be seen as well. The end of the Warehouse Track can be seen with the nail temporarily serving to keep cars on the track.

Below is an overview of the east end of the yard. The passenger station mock up can be seen on the right. The Berkeley Springs Industrial Track is the dark ballasted track in the front. The boxcars are on the Warehouse Track which ends behind the station. This appears to be where the local was made up, since it was the longest track.