Shoup's Run: Buchanan:
1 - Passenger Depot 1 - Crusher & Tipple, Iron Ore
Prototype: Coles (EBT) (kit) Freelance (scratch)
2 - Enclosed Water Tank 2 - Car Scale
Prototype: Coles (EBT) (scratch) Freelance (kit)
3 - Mitchell Supply Co. 3 - Engine House
Freelance (kit) Freelance (scratch)
4 - Parsons' Machine Shop 4 - Yard Office
Freelance (kitbash) Freelance (scratch)
5 - Russian Orthodox Church 5 - Locke Implement Co.
Freelance (kitbash) Freelance (kitbash)
6 - Company Houses (duplex) 6 - Passenger Depot
Freelance (scratch) Freelance (kitbash)
7 - Crappe Fuel Co. 7 - Freight Office
Freelance (scratch/kitbash) Prototype (EBT) (scratch)
a - Site of Future Ore Mine 8 - Feed & Seed Co.
Freelance (TBD) Freelance (scratch)
Back to CONSIST
The Cumberland & Susquehanna was chartered by a group of Washington, DC area investors to connect the Rockhill Iron and Coal Company's Broad Top coal field -- served by the well known East Broad Top Railroad -- with eastern markets. The C&S reached Neelyton by means of steep grades and a long tunnel through Tuscarora Mountain. The exorbitant cost of such an engineering feat was mitigated by the unexpected discovery of new, clean burning semi-bituminous coal deposits near the tunnel's east portal. The Tuscarora Mining Company was quickly formed and C&S rails reached the new mining town of Coalmont in 1882. This development and the coming of the Western Maryland Railway to the Cumberland Valley, rather than any connection with the EBT, proved to be the C&S's salvation, for the EBT had little interest in handing its coal traffic over to a competing line. Today, the C&S ships cleaned and graded coal to northeastern markets over the Western Maryland/Reading Company route through Shippensburg, Pennsylvania and is an important source of high quality coking coal for the blast and open hearth furnaces of Lower Path Valley.
It is also very likely that outside interests had a hand in capitalizing the new company. Railroad industry analysts doubt B.S. Schlingermann's repeated claims that the SGRR's price tag was within the means of his Shade Valley Development Corporation, relative bumpkins by any stretch of the imagination. And the cost of motive power, rolling stock, and fixed facilities (the SGRR had no engines or rolling stock of its own) would certainly have been beyond the willingness of even the most cynical Wall Street speculator to finance. It is interesting to note that the Western Maryland AND the Reading were, by this time, garnering a great deal of coal traffic from the C&S at the Lurgan interchange, near Shippensburg, a route that would become an important outlet for the B&SGE.
So called because it was a pathway to important passes, or gaps, used by 17th Century pioneers moving west, Path Valley opens into the southern end of the broad Cumberland Valley, itself a northern extension of the more familiar Shenandoah Valley -- an important link between the industrial Northeast and the agrarian South. In 1907 it was home to the Cumberland Valley Railroad and the Western Maryland Railway, both of which connected with the B&O and Norfolk and Western at Hagerstown, Maryland. The CVRR had a meandering branch line -- the South Penn, so named from the branchline's original charter under the defunct South Pennsylvania Mining & Iron Compnay -- that left its mainline at Marion Junction, penetrated into the south end of Path Valley, and extended to the then sleepy hamlet of Richmond Furnace.
Richmond Furnace, therefore, became the ultimate goal of the B&SGE. This wide spot in the road had once hosted a short-lived anthracite fired iron furnace (thus its name). But by the time the B&SGE came on the scene, the furnace was long gone and the village served only as a railhead for several local lumber companies and as home to the CVRR's ice house. In fact, the only thing in Richmond Furnace that interested the B&SGE was its standard gauge link with the South. However, newly discovered deposits of high grade hematite iron ore along the B&SGE's route and the availability of good coking coal from the Tuscarora Mines served by the C&S cast Richmond Furnace in an entirely new light. Industrial revival would arrive on the B&SGE's narrow rails.
Construction in Path Valley began with the Lower Path Valley section, starting with a C&S/B&SGE interchange yard at Spring Run. Grading and track laying proceeded at a rapid pace over easy grades and reached Richmond Furnace in March 1909. The Buchanan Branch left the main line at Sweetwater (renamed Buchanan Junction) and passed through Cowan's Gap to reach the ore mines at Shoup's Run in Allens Valley near the present Civilian Conservation Corps work site. By 1912 construction crews finished the Upper Path Valley division between Tuscarora Valley Junction and Spring Run, completing the B&SGE's mainline.
The combination of high grade ore, cheap fuel, and the impending arrival of the B&SGE led to the opening of a new blast furnace and steel mill in Richmond Furnace. The Buchanan Works (named for famous local son, President Andrew Buchanan) opened in 1910 and in 1938 it is the centerpiece of the independent South Penn Iron and Steel Corporation. Understandably, Richmond Furnace has grown into quite a busy town, hosting a large foundry, produce and lumber storage and transfer facilities, and a dual gauge interchange yard.
With the above historical fiction in mind, let's look at operations on the B&SGE as they "were" in the late 1930s:
A look at the B&SGE's system map will show what an important part the railroad played in the economy of the Tuscarora Region. It connected with three other narrow gauge lines and the standard gauge Cumberland Valley, placing it in a very competitive position. Links to the Pennsylvania RR system via the East Broad Top or the Tuscarora Valley provided it with western and northeastern outlets respectively and the CVRR, at its southern terminus, tied it to the Southeast and Southwest.
But the fictious Cumberland & Susquehanna, with which the B&SGE was closely associated, was perhaps its most important link to the outside world. The C&S's connection to the Western Maryland Railway (and, via that line to the Reading) meant that the B&SGE could choose between competing Class I lines for rates on freight consigned to distant customers of its on-line industries. This advantageous position allowed it to offer affordable freight transportation to the public. In addition, the heavy coal traffic originating on the C&S and destined for the coke ovens in Richmond Furnace, coupled with the B&SGE's own iron ore traffic, provided steady, dependable year - round revenue.
Not surprisingly, the Lower Path Valley Subdivision was the busiest part of the B&SGE's system, seeing more that half of the railroad's twenty-three scheduled weekday trains. Typically, at least four extra trains daily were needed to help keep the Buchanan Works running. Lower Path Valley traffic peaked during the Fall harvest season, as surplus grain and orchard produce flowed south to the CVRR's cold storage facility at Richmond Furnace. Three long passing sidings at Buchanan Junction, Fannettsburg, and Springtown prevented congestion on this densely traveled route.
A mixed train, No. 6, departed Richmond Union Station each weekday at 6:30 AM with scheduled stops in Spring Run, TV Jct (connection with B&SGE Mixed Train No. 1), and Blairs Mills. This train made two round trips during the course of the day, terminating at Richmond Furnace as Train No. 9 by 4:45 PM. While these trains handled some coal traffic, most coal moved between Wilburn Yard and Richmond Furnace on dedicated coal trains 317 and 319, with counterparts 318 and 320 returning the empties. One engine was usually sufficient for each of these round robin services. Service to several online industries along the Path Valley Division mainline and the Buchanan Branch was handled by the weekday Path Valley Local and extras were called as necessary during peak periods. A continuous flow of iron ore was maintained by extra trains, serving the mine at Springtown, which could generate up to 700 tons per day, and two mines on the Buchanan Branch, which combined for a maximum output of 350 tons a day. The CCC camp and artificial reservoir project at Cowan's Gap often required even more extra trains. Limestone for flux was quarried along the CVRR.
The population along the B&SGE was not very mobile. Adequate direct passenger and l.c.l. freight service between Shade Gap and Spring Run -- via the C&S tunnel -- was provided by Trains 111, 112, 115, and 116 using the EBT's gas-electric M1 under a special revenue sharing agreement. This same agreement allowed the B&SGE to provide weekend service along the route Blacklog-Blairs Mills-Richmond Furnace with Trains No. 15 and 16.
Scanning my back issues of Model Railroader magazine, I came across an article in the November, 1992 issue by Jim Kelly. Titled "How to Operate a Small Layout Realistically", Jim's article shows how to develop scenario cards for each industry and use them to make up different trains for every operating session. The Scenario Card system seems ideal for use with a small layout where one or two operators are the norm and operations might be on the spur-of-the-moment more often than formally scheduled.
The first step is to list each industry and the materials it receives and/or ships. Include both on-line industries and those that rely on a local Team Track. Next, make up possible daily scenarios for each industry. These scenarios range from typical to rare and may include a number of possible days in which a particular industry receives NO cars. Make up one or more 3X5 cards for each scenario; the more common the scenario, the more cards. The table below shows scenarios for two of the Buchanan Branch's on-line industries.
| Industry | Scenario | No. of Cards |
| Buchanan Feed & Seed | Receive 1 boxcar fertilizer, 1 boxcar feed | 1 |
| Receive 1 boxcar feed | 2 | |
| Receive 1 boxcar seed | 1 | |
| 0 (nothing today) | 6 | |
| South Penn Mine No. 3 | Receive 3 empty ore cars | 6 |
| Receive 2 empty ore cars | 2 | |
| Receive 6 empty ore cars | 1 | |
| 0 (nothing today) | 1 |
No matter how many different scenarios, each industry gets 10 cards. Note that for some industries, nothing happens most days while other industries see some rail activity most days. Shuffle the cards for each industry and index them, by industry, in a small file box. Before an operating session, draw the first card for each industry. Make up your in-bound train on the staging track and fill out your switch list. Cars already spotted at industries are considered empty and will make up the return, out-bound train.
The scenarios I developed for the Buchanan Branch will normally generate no more than one train per session. But occasional extras will be required, for example when one of the iron ore mines must receive twice the number of empties that will fit on it loading track. The Scenario Card system promises to make things a little more interesting on the layout.
Many things must come to pass before the first rail is spiked down on the model Lower Path Valley Sub, not least of which is an extensive carpentry and electrical upgrade project to make the basement hospitable. The motive power stable is virtually complete and 90% of rolling stock is on hand, although most of it is still unassembled kits. A few standard gauge acquisitions are in the long range budget, as well. Over the course of an Army career that greatly restricted layout building, I have watched and waited for the right kits and motive power to be offered, focusing purchases and avoiding "impulse buys." I did that by developing -- early on -- a history, system map, operating manual to govern the entire B&SGE system and fit it into its environment, and rolling stock and locomotive rosters that are both functional and believable. To be sure, a few Colorado narrow gauge items appear, but each has a plausible audit trail.
B&SGE's small locomotive fleet in 1938 is composed of second-hand open framed 2-8-0's and K27 Class 2-8-2's with EBT 2-6-2 No. 11 on long term lease. EBT Mike's, on short term lease, make frequent appearances during the Fall traffic peak. Coal moves in EBT and C&S three-bay steel hoppers, as well as in B&SGE's own converted standard gauge wooden ore jimmies. Iron ore traffic moves in tired old wooden hoppers made to the EBT's 1874 design. EBT interchanges a lot of its box and flat cars with the B&SGE, whose own general freight rolling stock consists of home built and second hand composite wood-steel and truss rod cars. Finally, the B&SGE's limited passenger traffic is handled in second-hand wooden coaches and combines from such roads as D&RGW and New England's Boston, Revere Beach & Lynn commuter line.
On-site, library, and private research on the actual railroads that served the area, as well as study of USGS maps, coupled with the nature of available modeling details, such as vehicles and figures, led me to choose 1938 as the year. Wonderful hours spent in the Carnegie Library's Science and Technology Room in Pittsburgh will help me backdate the Walthers blast furnace and steel mill building, as will Dean Freitag's excellent book provide the modeling tips.
In fact, the research and planning of the B&SGE became a hobby in themselves. So much so that, after over 20 years as a so-called serious model railroader, my layout building skills are just now reaching maturity. The first B&SGE was a 2x6 switching module and introduced me to power routing turn outs and isolated blocks, styrofoam scenery, and structure kitbashing and scratchbuilding. It was also a test bed for my first kit locomotive, MDC's HOn3 2-8-0, and styrene craftsman style rolling stock kits and helped me realize that I like watching trains run as much as realistic operations. Therefore, point-to-point track plans without provision for continuous running are not for me in the long run.
The next phase of the B&SGE languished until my recent retirement from the Army. The current Buchanan Branch is an agglomeration of the original 2x6 module and table tops built for a spare room point-to-oval layout that never got off the ground. It is twenty feet long, with staging tracks at one end and a 4x6 oval and reversing WYE at the other. This layout is a final test bed for scenery techniques, to proof a car card waybill system (to be developed), and as a place to exercise and test locomotives and rolling stock while honing track laying and wiring skills before beginning the bigger project. So far, it has served to demonstrate that my original plan, which called for 18" minimum radius mainline curves, needed a major overhaul. That alone makes it worth its weight in gold. I've also learned the pitfalls of homasote, which acts like a sponge if not used in moderation. I had not intended to incorporate any of this current layout in the final B&SGE, but I'm now looking at using the 4x6 Shoup's Run oval on the Buchanan Branch.
And so, it goes. I'm looking forward to many more hours of fun -- and learning disguised as frustration -- working and playing on the Buchanan Branch and planning the "big layout." Now that we're finally settled in one place, I'm also looking forward to sharing my hobby with other model railroaders. One positive outgrowth of the planning stage was the coordination of actual interchange agreements with Deane Mellander, CEO of the On3 Cumberland & Susquehanna and fellow member of the Friends of the East Broad Top. We'll address differences of scale and era later, I guess! So, after twenty years in model railroading, things are just getting started and I really don't see any end in sight. Happy Model Railroading.
Visit Deane Mellander's Cumberland & Susquehanna.
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