The Sproul Layout
by Bill Sparkmon and Jeff Peck

A few years ago Steve Myers, a C&O modeler friend, contacted me about a portable layout that he had shown at the 1994 C&O Historical Society Conference held in Beckley, WV. He told me that he was changing to HO from N and let me know that the layout was for sale, Asking if I was interested I said yes and we made arrangements to move the layout to my mother-in-law's basement. It was a dream of mine to fill one side of the unfinished basement with a C&O empire but I never had the opportunity to get past the planning stages. I had visions of grandeur building an N-Scale version of Jim EuDaly's 0-Scale empire, but I wanted to include the yard at Handley, WV instead of Hinton, WV that Jim has. I thought that the Sproul layout would bridge the gap of having something to run my equipment on and the planning for the future layout.

The main pieces of the layout are two hollow-core doors which hold the yard tracks and the other has mountain ridges and river valley. They are connected by a piece that shows the junction of the two lines that the C&O had in the area. The branch on the inside of the river simulates the line that goes up Big Coal River to the yard at Elk Run Junction. The line across the bridge simulates the line up Little Coal River to the yard at Danville, WV. The ridge line behind the yard and junction serves as a view block to cover the return lines in the back, this is where all the controls are located. By using one of the yards tracks you can run two trains at the same time in different directions. The back area could be used like a fiddle track yard to stage coal trains to give you a sense of the daily operation of the railroad in that area. Steve included the old coal dock and turntable that were at Sproul during the days of steam.
To give you some history of the line, it took four attempts to get a line up Coal River. In l901 J.V.R. Skinner of Ohio and Senator Sproul of Pennsylvania formed the Coal River & Western to take over the two previous attempts and constructed a line up Coal River about 20 miles in distances. In 1906 the C&O floated a 3 million dollar bond issue and brought the Coal River & Western. In 1921 the C&O decided it was time to find an easier line up Coal River and they moved the track 5,000' eastward and constructed a 1,500' tunnel. These are still in service as the Coal River line is one of the busiest lines on CSX today. After reaching the area called Forks of the Coal, they renamed the area Sproul after Senator Sproul. The railroad constructed a turntable, bunkhouse, water treatment plant, an operator's shack, and a coal bunker. The railroad wanted to make Sproul a division point but the runs from Russell, KY and Handley, WV were too short and the idea was abandoned but the operator stayed. I suggest that NRSD readers wanting to know more about the daily operation at Sproul should read: A Day on Coal River by Gene Huddleston on page 338-340 in C&O Power.

I'm happy to report that the layout has found a new owner in Northern Virginia. Perhaps we'll see photos of it soon.

The Sproul Layout-An Update

By Jeff Peck


I purchased the Sproul layout from Bill Sparkmon in late 1999 and picked it up in March of 2000. That's a story in and of itself (www.nvntrak.org/events/hawksnest_2000.php if you're interested). After I got it home, I couldn't resist and set it up right away. The original owner's work had held up great - some new tracks across the sections and a track cleaning and I was in business. All I had to figure out was what direction I was going to take. After reading Gene Huddleston's story about a day on Coal River in C & O Power, I toyed with the notion of setting it in the late 40's/early 50's. A lack of decent ready-to-run N scale steam coupled with the fact I had no rolling stock from the era made me decide on the late Chessie era around the Spring of 1985. This meant that what few buildings there were on the layout had to go since the only one in 1985 left from the boom town era was a shed that stood next to the depot. I lamented this to Bill and he said it's your layout - do what you like. I figured leaving the depot wouldn't be too much of a stretch since MOW crews and the like could use it. The rest of the buildings have been removed and will be used on a future (way in the future!) NTRAK module project. I removed most of the yard tracks, leaving 2 - 1 as a passing siding, the other to facilitate 2 train operation. When the day comes for prototype operations, I will run the line as a single track like the prototype did and does. I've been concentrating on upgrading the scenery, the re-forestation of the Coal River section is almost completed, a few more bags of foliage clusters and re-hydrating the river will finish the job. After that, some minor scenery upgrading on the remaining 2 sections will be in order and then I'll add more tracks to the staging area. I will also upgrade the layout to DCC since it will allow for prototype operation without a lot of switches and wiring. I would be remiss if I didn't thank Bernie Kempinski, Bill Sparkmon and Matt Crouch for all their expert advice and especially Matt Schaefer for all his great ideas. If you're interested in modern-day operations in the area, check out the Pentrex video CSX-Southern West Virginia Coal, it covers the Coal River Sub as well as the Peach Creek lines circa 1993. Traffic in the area has actually increased over the years with a new coal preparation plant opening in 2000.

LAYOUTS