C&O James River & Allegheny Subdivisions

Witness that railroads, roads, and homes competed for level ground, which has always been at a premium in these West Virginia hills and hollers, as a string of empty hoppers rumbles past Lester Mitchell’s mercantile on Hencoop Hollow Road. Not only can you can pick up a tin of tobacco, a bottle of Pepsi, or a pack of chewing gum, but Lester can outfit you with your essential hunting and angling supplies. If he doesn’t have it, how badly do you really need it?

West Virginia is wild country, defined by dense woods, fast running brooks, steep hills and deep valleys. It was a civil engineering challenge for railroads to penetrate into the wilderness in the 19th and 20th Centuries, but they went, undeterred, in pursuit of coal to fuel a nation.  One of those railroads was the Chesapeake and Ohio, an outfit that would sustain a reputation for doing things well, until it was merged into successively larger systems that ultimately effaced its character. Mike Burgett and his crew of highly skilled modellers have built a home layout depicting the C&O James River & Allegheny Subdivisions that not only captures the scenic wonder of West Virginia, but also embodies the C&O’s penchant for doing things well.