John Plant's Hinton & Art Frankforter's CW Cabin Modules

by Bernard Kempinski updated 21 may 1999

 The following is an excerpt from an article published in April 1997 Rail Model Journal on John Plant's Hinton and Art Frankforter's CW Cabin modules.

Research

John made a trip to Hinton and the surrounding  area to take photos and obtain research material for the module. William Simonton, a noted Hinton expert, provided further details and drawings while Dorothy Jean Bowling at the Hinton Railroad Museum also provided useful information. A stop at the C&O Historical Society in Clifton Forge, VA was also invaluable for historic photos and details about the area.

Design

 
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With it's long and narrow configuration set hard between a mountain ridge and river, Hinton is an ideal prototype yard to model. The Hinton division point actually consisted of two yards. CW Cabin controlled the west end of the yard and the engine terminal area. To the east of the passenger station, around the curve was an additional yard at Avis, where freight was classified and cars repaired. To keep the module a reasonable size John combined the classification tracks into the yard in front of the engine terminal. He included 5 tracks for classification and 3 tracks for the engine terminal plus the three NTRAK lines. The yard plan closely follows the prototypical arrangement, albeit in a simplified manner with fewer tracks and crossovers. A track running behind the roundhouse can eventually connect to a staging track hidden behind the skyboards. John's design includes the large radius curve as the rails sweep past the passenger station just as seen in the prototype.


 Including the engine terminal with its large roundhouse, coal dock and assorted other structures was a key part of the design. To make the modules more transportable in his truck, the large scratchbuilt round-house required its own modular section.
John also included a significant portion of the town. While he didn't strive to make a block for block recreation of the streets, the overall impression is quite convincing. The use of some scratchbuilt structures, such as the YMCA, ice house, station, steel and concrete bridges combined with stock DPM kits (it's convenient that the town looks almost like a full scale DPM display) is quite effective.


Initially John wished to include a portion of the New River and perhaps part of the other riverbank. However, the actual river width at Hinton is about 150 meters and there just was not room on the module to make a convincing representation of the far bank.
John's Hinton module set actually consists of four sections as indicated in figure 1. The sections are dedicated, in other words they meet NTRAK interface standards only at the extremities of the complete set, therefore they must be used together in shows.
Art's CW Cabin module is a stand alone NTRAK compatible module. However, when used with John's Hinton, it provides access to the yard from the red and yellow lines. The module design features a one foot offset in an four foot module. The graceful curve complements the crossovers. A scratchbuilt model of CW Cabin stands over the tracks, providing a vantage point for employees to oversee operations at the yard. Behind the cabin the hill slopes toward the back drop. Art squeezed in the state highway along the ridge, thus providing a proto-typically correct destination for the access stairs that run up the hill.

 

Both modules use 1x4 butt joined framing with 1/4" luan plywood table tops. To make the roadbed John used a product called Vinylbed made from gray vinyl sheets, cut in strips with precise bevels on each side. While more expensive than cork, it is more durable and should not tear out, particularly at the module joints where cork roadbed traditionally tends to fail.
Mainline track on both modules is code 80 Peco. On Hinton, John laid yard tracks with code 55 Peco - however he found it hard to connect the code 55 Peco tracks between modules with pieces of sectional track. All the turnouts are medium radius (Approx. No. 6) Peco insulfrog except for crossovers which are Peco insulfrog long radius (Approx. No. 8). Although Peco switch machines are under
all turnouts, John has not finished the wiring to make the yard fully operational
Each section has an integral skyboard which provides a degree of protection when shipping. However, other modules in the New River Subdivision shun blue painted skyboards and rely solely on the ridge tops to provide a backdrop since the skyboards and diorama dividers make realistic photography difficult. Due to the width of the yard itself, there was not sufficient space to include realistically sloped ridges so John used the skyboards for the backdrop. Furthermore, the height available for the skyboards was limited by the vertical clearance available in John's pick-up truck. Art's module also includes diorama divider and skyboards designed to fit in his imported sports car.

John and Art both used Rigid Wrap plaster impregnated gauze over sculpted layers of one and two inch blue Styrofoam to build up the hills. The plaster gauze provides a solid base for the hand carved rocks. The trees are made individually from dried and dyed weeds. John's wife, Jackie, is an expert in dried floral arrangements and she contributed mightily here. She also painted the backdrop and helped weather rolling stock. John made the streets with painted Scalecrete. The water surface is Envirotex two part resin.

Structures


A great deal has been published about Hinton in the model railroad press. Many of the plans for structures are readily available.
Rail Model Journal published the station and yard plans in November and December 1990. Bill Simonton's plans for the coal station and sand house were printed in Model Railroader in September 1994. The C&O Historical Society published Bill Simonton's drawings of the Ice House in February 1996 with photos by Gary Burdette. Bill is currently drawing the roundhouse plans and he generously made a preliminary set available. The steel truss and concrete bridges were scratchbuilt based on photos. Art relied on photos for scratchbuilding CW Cabin.

In 1996 John Plant received the ConCor N Scale Award at the N Scale East Convention in Alexandria for his Hinton module set - the best module in the biggest layout ever! John in his typical modest way was the first to point out that several others contributed to his achievement through numerous phone calls, faxes, and letters. Yet John's craftsmanship, modelling talent, and perseverance were the keys to this impressive module set. The continuing good news is that John is building another module and has his sights set on Sewell, WV.

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