Roger Sekera's
Clinch Valley Lines
November 19, 2006

  Whether you're traveling from Booty to St. Paul, Virginia, with stops in Wise, you'll enjoy the scenery and the mountainous ride on Roger Sekera's Clinch Valley Lines.  Set in lower Virginia through the Appalachians, you'll cast an eye on Roger's mountainous cuts and tunnels while enjoying your cab ride on a coal train.  Several small towns shall be passed until arrival at the yard for further train breakdown, inter change assignment and operations for through service to contracted industries.

 Several aspects of Roger's unique work are demonstrated on the Clinch Valley Lines.  One is the back drops.  Ever the loving Dad, Roger's daughter started painting his backdrops one afternoon only to complete those mountains that afternoon.  Two, Wise, Virginia's own Roberts and Sons Burlap Company Mill.  This kit bashed factory, manufacturing hemp based burlap is from locally available raw materials.  Roberts Mill creates burlap curtains used to control airflow within local and other coal industry mines.  Third is the abundance of underground coal production and the several tipples present in the valleys.  Fourthly, his use of photography and the ability to cover a building with it, as evidenced in the picture below.

 The ClinchValleyLines (CVL) is an HO scale coal (40%) and freight (60%) layout set in Western part of Virginia in 1959, using for the most part the turf that once was the Interstate. CVL management is trying to get out of passenger ops. Layout is point to point and is roughly 25 x 25 with two stub end staging. First generation diesel dominates. The N&W, Clinchfield, L&N and Southern all have some trackage rights and are frequent visitors. The CVL has nine towns and 15 industries, including two sizable coal tipples or processing plants and a Burlap mill that supplies other coal heavy model railroads. Set for operations using four cycle car cards and waybills and Railcommand. All track is complete and with 50+ % of scenery.

Continuing extending a model railroad's purpose, Roger is using the car card forwarding system, having great success with operating sessions.



















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