Here the B&O local pulls up to the Dundon station with a string of empty hoppers for the RIch Run Mine while on the siding behind the station, BC&G # 4 sets out a hopper at Bower Coal Sales.
Dundon
This overview shows Phil's excellent model of the B&O station and the stairway to the road above. There is a hopper spotted at Bower Coal Sales in the spur behind the station. Click here for the drawing Phil created of the B&O station to build the model.
All layout photos by Phil Bonzon
Phil's done a great job of capturing the character of Bower Coal Sales. This little industry sits behind the Dundon B&O station on Phil's layout, just as it did on the prototype.
Here is a rare sight....ERC&L Shay #19 with the American log loader and bobber caboose at the Dundon station. They usually didn't wander this far from the woods! But it was prototypical as indicated by the photo to the right that Phil brought to my attention . The photo by Jeff Madden appears on page 52 of William Warden's WV LOGGING RAILROADS. It shows the American loader and a couple of flats sitting on the spur behind where the station sat. We can only speculate whether the Shay delivered the cars here!
Jeff Madden photo
DUNDON B&O Station
Here is Phil's wonderful rendition of the BC&G engine house, shops and sand tower. It is slightly compressed from the prototype due to space constraints on the layout, but it certainly captures the character of the railroad's modest facilities!
Shown here on the board on which it was built, It will one day be placed on the layout
DUNDON Engine House
DUNDON Company Store
Here are three more photos Phil took of his model of the Dundon company store, including the gas pumps, outdoor grease rack, coal chute opening and the adjacent feed storage building. See the prototype photos to appreciate how great this model is as well as the drawing Phil made to construct this model!
Here's another example of prototype modeling! Check out how Phil has wonderfully reproduced the photo provided by Patsy Baughman taken of the backside of the company store with a young man and his boat.
BOWER COAL Sales
Lower DUNDON and 'Red Row' Houses
By studying photos and through conversation with Patsy and Herald Baughman, Phil has created accurate drawings of the houses on "Red Row" across the Buffalo Creek from the Dundon shops. Click here for the prototype photos and Phil's drawings.
The young man in this photo is Roscoe Friend. Herald Baughman traded him the boat for a 22 rifle.
Upper Left - From the hillside you can see the "Red Row houses with their ramps from the road to the kitchen porches; coal chutes for easy delivery to the basement; woven wire fencing; white picket gates and a bicycle left by someone leaning against the fence.
Upper Right - Roscoe Friend's parents are enjoying the view of both B&O #82 and the Buffalo Creek from the comfort of their living room porch.
Lower Left - Phil has brought a real BC&G story to life in this scene. B&O #82 passes over the Buffalo Creek while Roscoe Friend checks on his rowboat. He got the rowboat from his buddy Herald Baughman in exchange for a 22 rifle.
Lower Right - A bird's-eye view of the Buffalo Creek bridge, the company store backside, "Red Row" and a '55 Chevy crossing the wooden Buffalo Creek bridge.
5
John Lanham House
This is another of Phil's excellent structure sketches. The sketch is of a typical ERC&L single story company house of the kind that were built in Dundon, Cressmont, Swandale and Widen. Dundon and Swandale houses had front dormers.
It's laundry day at the Lanham household. The house is sited between the Elk River and the B&O track and is conveniently located to the company story, visible in the background.
Frank Criswell 1990 photo
This is the way the former Lanham's house appeared in 1990.
You are standing on a hilltop overlooking Lower Dundon in the summer of 1958. In the distance you see the highway bridge over the Elk River, the B&O Dundon station, the ERC&L company store, B&O Buffalo Creek truss bridge and the "Red Row" company houses. Eastbound B&O #82 is arriving at Dundon. BC&G #13 is setting on its main line with loaded hoppers for the B&O interchange, waiting for #82 to clear. In addition to all this action, BC&G #4 spots two loaded hoppers at Bower's Coal Sales behind the Dundon station. To the right, "Hobo Cave" has a few "Knights of the Road" and on the end of the BC&G shop tracks sits old combine #13, now out of service and the BC&G's wrecking crane #X-5 with flat car #108
Patsy Baughman has provided names to the figures in Phil's scene of the Dundon store.
Phil is taking the concept of prototype modeling to the limit, as is evidenced by the work shown on this page! Working from photos and accounts of life in Dundon provided by Patsy Baugnman and others, Phil is recreating Dundon in the 50s in miniature. Compare the photo of Phils model of the Dundon Store, below, with the black and white prototype picture.
The MAGIC OF MODEL RAILROADING
It's a beautiful summer day as store manager N.N. Baughma greets Opal Triplett, the school teacher at the door. Les McKinney has leaned his bike against the wooden walk of the feed storage building after riding over from the Company office to deliver some mail. That's Jobe Young and his pickup stopping for $1 worth of gas, something he does just about every day! Life is good in Dundon!
