Bob Hazard's Crabbitt Tie and Lumber Co. HO Scale model Railroad


	The model attempts to capture the feeling of a bit of B&O mainline interchanging with a medium size logging outfit operating also as a common carrier. Its right of way followed a previous clearing into the woods for harvest by its predecesssor, grandfather to the current owner. His operation was in full swing from 1870-1880. This second growth forest is now ripe for harvest by the Crabbitt Tie & Lumber Company. Names of real locations were chosen, however I was not converned about modeling real scences within them, but everything had to be plausible and look like West Virginia in 1930. Some of the grades on the switchback going up the mountain approach 12% (12 feet of rise to every 100 scale linear feet). Rail leaving the sawmill and base camp passes through Gauley Mills and
Connects with the B&O. From here it back tracks through Braxton and onto Clover Lick to pick up freight from the industries it serves there. Both the industrial and logging product are taken to Dry Fork where it connects with the B&O. While it was clear at the outset of operations that the C&O was simply too far away to provide an outlet for C&P's production, the B&O wasn't. In 1920 the B&O and CT&L entered an agreement whereby logging trains would be allowed to ride on B&O rails. The B&O would charge no more than a maximum fixed rate for having Crabbitt's output then to Pittsburgh in return the CT&L agreed to erect a sawmill just north of the Elk River viaduct that would guarantee 30 million board feet of business to the B&O per year.
The intent of the model is to somewhat mimic the Cherry River Boom & Lumber Company which indeed did interchange with the B&O at Richwood in Nicholas County. It wasn't until 1959 that the CRB&L much reduced in size was sold to W.M. Ritter. Ritter in turn, was merged into Georgia Pacific in 1960 which remains in operation to this day. The ficticious C&P railroad owns its mountain property and runs its operations on the west side and southern extremity of back Alleghany Mountain.
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