The concept of the CR&E is that of a coal hauling bridge route connecting the midwest and the southeast. Design and operation of the railroad has drawn influences from actual railroads such as the Clinchfield, the Southern Railway, and the Norfolk & Western. Model railroad influences include W. Allen McClelland’s Virginian & Ohio, Tony Koester’s Allegheny Midland, and Eric Brooman’s Utah Belt, among others.

The modeled portion on Version One of the CR&E represented the railroad between Lewisburg, WV, and Roanoke, VA. This is the west end of the railroad’s former Ridge Division, now a portion of NS’s Lewisburg-Dundee District of the CR&E Division.  Version One's construction began in March 1996 and the layout operated from 1998 until 2008, when the layout was dismantled in preparation for a move to a new home.

The modeled portion on Version Two has shifted slightly to the west, but still represents much of the same portion of the Lewisburg-Dundee District mainline.  Whereas Version One continued east of New Castle, VA, through Abbott and Catawba before entering the Roanoke staging yard, Version Two enters staging just east of New Castle.  The territory gained west of Lewisburg allows for the representation of the Kessler & Northern District, a territory of coal-hauling branchlines that connect with the CR&E mainline west of Lewisburg at Meadow Bluff, WV.  The new railroad occupies two main rooms, 11 X 22 feet in size and 15.5 X 19 feet in size, connected through a laundry room/half bath.

The railroad is set in the late 1980's to early 1990's (roughly 1989-1994), which allows the operation of a few locomotives from Norfolk Southern's predecessors Norfolk & Western and Southern Railway, as well as a large variety of CSX Transportation predecessor paint schemes.


In one of my favorite photos from CR&E Version One, an eastbound NS coal train waits in the siding at Glace, WV, for a meet with a westbound CSX empty hopper train. This was the image I wanted for the CR&E, with coal trains of competing railroads sharing track through the Appalachians.  A real life example of this can be found on NS and CSX routes near Frisco, TN, where trains from both railroads operate over both routes.






In a photo by operator Rich Main, CR&E 622 passes the tower at Shenandoah Jct., VA, where the NS CR&E Division and CSXT Shenandoah Division meet.  A sign on the tower celebrates "A Decade of Progress" in the joint operations of trains on the CR&E and Shenandoah Division.  This was a photo taken in 2008 during the final operating session on CR&E Version One.