This part of the layout is centered around the
yard at Martinsburg. The "tower" at Martinsburg is
unique on the Chessie East End, as it is the only one story
tower on the line. It is a very small building that
controlled all the turnouts in the local area. It's call
letters were "NA".
This was a normal stopping point for Amtrak's
Capitol Limited as well as a minor storage yard for
Chessie. There were two enormous roundhouses at
Martinsburg. One unfortunately burned down in
1990. But, during the Chessie era they would have been
located on the backdrop area. They are way too big to
model so I use the backdrop photo to represent them. The
railroad built bridge pieces at Martinsburg in the pre-Chessie
era, but I am not sure if they were still doing that in 1982,
the year I model.
The sidings on the far side of passenger station are primarily used for storing cars bound for the Frog Hollow Industrial Track and the cement industry on it. They were also used for storing Maintenance of Way cars. During the Chessie Era the connection at Cherry Run (Miller Tower area) with the old Western Maryland (WM) main line became increasingly important. The facilities at Martinsburg saw a decrease in traffic as east bound coal trains left the East End at Cherry Run for the powerplants of the northeast. Martinsburg was well past its prime in 1982.
There are two big operational elements in
Martinsburg. First is the Conrail interchange.
This track is where Conrail and Chessie exchanged cars on the
East End. Conrail was the government subsidized company
that took over several northeast railroads including Penn
Central, New York Central, Reading, Lehigh Valley, and
others. The Conrail interchange is seen here with very
dark ballast. The second element is the Frog Hollow
Industrial Track. This track generated covered hopper
loads.
The last noteworthy part of my model of
Martinsburg is the Continental Brick plant. It is
represented as a flat building on the backdrop. It
generates loads of bricks in boxcars.
Below is the prototype map of Martinsburg.
Below is the graph paper plan I made to model
the same area. Don't mind that the words are upside
down. The tracks are oriented the same as the map
above. Since there are tracks on both sides of the main
lines, it is a little confusing arrangement. Starting in
the upper left is the Conrail Interchange Track.
Below is the Martinsburg control panel.
It shows the tracks I modeled.
Below is the west end of the Martinsburg
section of the layout. The two mains come in from the
left. The Contrail Interchange Track is along the
backdrop with the dark ballast. The Fines Track, serving
Consumers Fuel (the track with the WM hopper on it).
Consumers Fuel is just a cardboard mock up at this point, the
finished model is shown below.
Below is A&E Alignment. It's not
rail served but is prominent in the Consumers Fuel and Freight
Station parking lot.
Below is the main part of the yard, looking
back to the west. The passenger station will be where
the red XCTO knife is, the baggage shed that sits next to it,
is in place. All of the cars in the parking lot are for
the passenger station. The blue C&O U23B and blue WM
GP9 are on No. 1 Main. The blue B&O caboose with
three boxcars is on the Eastbound Siding. Half off the
frame, the blue B&O GP30 is on the Pay Track, which I use
as a programming track for my DCC system. It is
electrically isolated from the rest of the layout with plastic
rail joiners.
Below is the east end of Martinsburg.
The Chessie locomotive is on the Eastbound Siding, waiting to
come out on the mains. The two mains are with the light
ballast. The track along the backdrop, with the darker
ballast, is the Westbound Siding. The track crossing the
road on the lower left is the Frog Hollow Industrial
Track. The foundation for the Fruit Exchange building is
installed, but I haven't made the rest of the building yet.
Below is my flat rendition of Continental
Brick. The real Continental Brick is on the other side
of the tracks, but I positioned it in the corner here to add
some operating interest. I scratchbuilt the loading
platform, so it has some depth.
I added a few blown up photos of the real
roundhouse buildings and added them to the backdrop. The
right roundhouse burned down in the 90's, so I just replicated
the left roundhouse for the photo and added a roof that
resembles the original. They were different in real
life. The passenger station is not in place at this
time. It will site right in front of the red caboose.
Below is the East Burke Street
underpass. The blue house was a well known landmark in
this part of the yard, as were the two billboards, which still
stand today. The blue house has been resided with tan
siding.
Below is the North Queen Street
underpass. Consumers Fuel, the Freight Station and
A&E Alignment are up the hill on the road on the left side
of the photo.
Below is a collection of power at
Martinsburg. The three on the left are on the House
Track awaiting their next assignment, likely as helpers.
The three in the back are on the Westbound Siding. The
three sided stone wall in the hill is an odd feature of the
area. I don't know why it is there. Perhaps that
was where the signal was originally.
Below is a view of the yard and passenger
station. The baggage shed is the small white building
close to the camera. Blocked by the passenger station is
NA tower and the Fruit Exchange. The second photo is the
other side of the passenger station. The parking lot
always was full in Chessie Era photos. Also the phone
booth and newspaper stand were prominent in 1982 photos.
Below is the only industry that uses coal on
my layout. The Consumers Fuel Company is on the Hines
track at the west end of town. It was active until the
early 90's. The trestle part was being torn down in
2022.
Below is my kitbashed Freight Station.
It sits next to A&E Alignment and Consumers Fuel. It
was closed in 1982, so I just have it as scenery. Note
the boarded up windows.