Dixiana Branch, VA--10'x12' (with closet) Track Plan

Scale: HO
Minimum Radius: 24"
Minimum Aisle Width: 24"
Designed by Dan Bourque

This bedroom-sized layout represents the Interstate's Dixiana and Glamorgan Branches as they appeared in the 60s and 70s. This branch was worked by the First and Third Mine Runs, and the second Hill Crew, out of Andover. The loaders at Dixiana and Critical Fork loaded primarily "yellow balls," that is, loads of coal destined for the huge transloading facility at Appalachia. The yellow ball hopper fleet consisted primarily of old twin offset hoppers with height extensions as well as ex-Interstate rib-side twins. The loaders at Glamorgan and Holton (Addington), and sometimes the Dixiana No 1, loaded into 70 and 100 ton hoppers. Standard mine run equipment until 1965 was a single Interstate RS3. During the sixties, the Southern augmented the Alcos with its own F-units (very unpopular with Interstate crews). In the seventies, power was a pair of GP38s (or Dash-2s) with an occasional GP30 or 35 thrown in.

This layout could keep one or two operators busy for a couple of hours. The First and Third mine runs would emerge from staging to work Dixiana, Critical Fork, Glamorgan, and Holton placing empties and pulling loads. Some of the yellow balls would be left at Holton while the remaining loads went back to Norton and Andover. The hill crew would later collect these yellow balls and return them to Appalachia. One of the crews would also have to work the siding for Austin Powder, an explosives loading facility which received covered hoppers of Ammonium Nitrate.