Model railroaders from 15 states converged on the Hawks Nest State Park Lodge March 26-27 for a weekend of C&O modeling. The weekend found the West Virginia hills bathed in warm sunshine for the most part. The view of the C&O Hawks Nest Bridge in the New River Gorge, 800 feet below the lodge, provided unparalleled train watching. CSX did their part by running several trains during the weekend. This year's C & O Modelers Weekend was the fifth to be held at the lodge, located in Ansted, West Virginia.

This image of a west bound empty at dusk, shot from the balcony of one of the lodge rooms, is an example of the unparalleled view from the Hawks Nest Lodge.

As with each past "weekend" the speakers were the highlight of the event. Making an encore appearance at the C & O Modelers Weekend, well known C&O modeler, Jim EuDaly was the keynote speaker. Jim treated attendees to three talks, a slide show tour of his famous O scale layout, a talk on his technique for building C & O structures and finally a clinic on color perception in model railroading. In addition to the informative talks, Jim brought along and displayed two of his scratch-built O scale buildings.

Other featured speakers included Bernie Kempinski, talking about his new N scale home layout of the Kanawha Subdivision, Frank Bongiovanni, took attendees through tuning brass steam locomotives and Karen Parker, presented information on the C&O's F unit diesels.

On Saturday Ansted Mayor, Pete Hobbs, introduced attendees to the newly finished bike and hiking trail on the old Ansted branch, which runs from the bottom of the gorge at Hawks Nest to Ansted. The trail is on the old rail right-of-way that served coal mines, mills and provided rail access to the C&O main line. Several people took advantage of the mild weather and walked the trail. Also on Saturday the staff of the Hawks Nest Lodge operated the tram, providing guests with free rides down to the floor of the New River Gorge. This is typical of the superb treatment and food the outstanding staff at the lodge provides each year.

Saturday's speakers also included Greg McCartney and Frank Crowder talking about modeling Chessie System hoppers in HO scale, Mike Burgette explained the workings of the C&O's signal system, Brian Gessel presented pointers on detailing CSX diesels in HO scale and Russ Hass showed everyone how to detail a C&O RSD 5 in HO.

Jim EuDaly displayed two of his scratch built O scale C&O structures, complete with interiors. Included were drawings and photos of the prototypes.

Again this year, there were excellent models and projects on display. Folks brought models in several scales and various stages of completion. As in past years, the exchange of ideas and techniques was the cornerstone of the weekend. Modelers interested in better ways to capture the C & O in miniature shared their thoughts with each other.

This is one of several scratch-built HO scale C&O structures built and displayed by Larry Richards.

Dick Argo displayed this HO scale Pere Marquette refrigerator car.

As if the clinics and models weren't enough, the Chesapeake and Ohio Historical Society had a sales table with tons of informative C & O material, including the Society's new photo CDs. The new CDs have hundreds of photos on selected subjects or complete C&O drawing catalogs in a modern format and at a price that makes them extremely attractive to modelers.

Also, West Virginia Hobbies, of Teays, West Virginia, had sales tables and featured many available C & O, Chessie and CSX models in all popular scales.

In the lobby of the lodge, the Northern Virginia Ntrak group had a modular N scale, operating layout running for attendees and other visitors.

This scene on the Northern Virginia Ntrak is why the group's layout is always a popular attraction at the C&O Modelers Weekend.

Congratulations are in order for raffle winners Larry Olsen, who won the Broadway Limited, DCC and sound equipped C&O Mikado, donated by Broadway Limited Imports and to Russ Miller who won the Proto 2000 C&O SD-50, donated by West Virginia Hobbies.

The St. Albans Chesapeake and Ohio Modelers Inc. (SACOM) have hosted the C&O Modelers Weekend since 2000 with proceeds going to the organization's goals of a railroad museum in St. Albans. The museum will feature a large, HO scale layout of the C&O in the Handly to Russell areas. With a reputation as a relaxed weekend of sharing ideas, meeting new friends and getting together with old pals, SACOM intends to continue the tradition next year. "Hawks Nest 05" is scheduled for April1-2, 2005, we hope to see you there. Watch this site for information as it is released.