Dad was a 43 year MOW employee of C&O/Chessie/CSX. Living beside the tracks, I spent days on the porch counting cars as the trains rolled by and nights listening to GP9's shifting cars in the yard. I watched dad work a lot and even road in his hi-railer, so I learned a lot about how the track worked and got to visit some very out-of-the-way places.

With two signal bridges for the double track mainline just outside my window and struggling locomotive echoes from 3 tunnels a few miles downriver, I couldn't help but practice guessing the arrival time/speed of trains 5 to 10 minutes before they reached town. The Reading 2102 ---http://wowak.railfan.net/2102.html--- and a string of old passenger cars lived beside my house during the early '70's, assigned to a short-lived "Greenbrier Scenic Railroad" excursion train here.

Train Simulator has given me a chance to see my house from the engineer's seat; the roles reversed, I'm now waving to the girl with the book on the porch. I like landscaping and love the beauty of the area so I am doing my best to recreate the Alleghany subdivision in the Chessie era for others to enjoy. Click below for the latest information...

C&O Alleghany route info [www.railworksamerica.com]