Although there is a real Prosperity, WV (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prosperity, West Virginia), the 1:48 rendition of its downtown on the new Duckunder Terminal Railway is a product of our imagination (George Lasley's and mine). Coal tipples (not pictured) are never far away from either end of the town's lone main street:
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Looks great Will.
Good to see you again last week too!
I really enjoy seeing your modeling, Will.
Downtown is shaping up. I would love to see some more photos.
Will, I live in Beckley, WV and Prosperity, WV is basically part of Beckley now. I love your vision of what downtown would have possible looked like in that era. Though I now call WV my home instead of VA, you have a good feel and eye of what this area is and war just a few decades ago. Great work and I hope you post a video when completed.
Well done!
Peter
Really nice work, Will! Enjoy seeing your pictures of your new masterpiece.
Art
Well done Will!!! It was good to see you!!!!
Looking forward to seeing more photographs. Please keep us posted.
Thanks, everyone, for your compliments. With apologies for the delay replying, I have been in meetings since early this morning and could not respond until now.
While I appreciate your praise, I do not have, never had, and never will have the modeling skills to create that streetscape and others like it. That is 100% George Lasley's work, and George deserves all the credit.
Sure, George doesn't work for free, but that's not the point. I may OWN the layout and all the fine details on it, but the realism is due to George Lasley's astonishing skillset.
My strength is designing the layout and envisioning its scenes and transitions. George and I then confer on my ideas, and he often contributes refinements that ofttimes get incorporated into a scene. I frequently add finishing detail touches such as little people, vehicles, and props of all kinds. But it's George who makes everything look so real to begin with.
George Lasley is a rare talent in our hobby, a giant. How many of us can achieve the level of realism that he does? Very few in my experience.
In addition to his skills, he is a warm and funny person with an encyclopedic knowledge of N&W and Virginian rail history.
I am very lucky that George is my friend.
So once again, thank you for your kind remarks. I cannot take credit for George's work. Thanks to George, walking into my train room every day is like a wondrous time machine that takes me back 70 years to the era when steam still held sway on the Norfolk & Western.
Thank you, George! Beautiful work!
Will,
Wow, that's a lot of great photos. I will need to spend some extra time going through them. Thank you for the construction photos. It is so good to see how others built things. Don't be surprised if I come up with a question or two as I look over the photos in finer detail.
George,
The modeling is great!
Thanks to all of you and especially Will.
A few notes on the structures. The bank is DPM parts with a Grandt door. Slocombe and Grainger is an Ameritown reduced to 2 stories with an interior added. The hotel and Erwins are Evergreen siding with Tichy windows, etc. Again the store windows have an interior. All the buildings are flats about 1" deep. Since Will made the photos last night I weathered the fronts this morning and stained the wood sidewalk. The first of 2 mine tipples (Polecat Peerless) for this scene is almost finished and the second (Klyde Klinker) is well underway.
Hope this is of interest.
George Lasley
Will nice job. It wasn't easy placing those beautiful model on the layout. 
But seriously folks, where have I heard that before. I've only talked to Will on the phone but he's one of wonderful people in this hobby. Wish he would come on the forum more. Don
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