K&T Steam Era track plan O
- Size: 20′ x 22′
- Scale: O
- Minimum Mainline Radius: 48″
- Minimum Aisle Width: 36″
- Designed by Dan Bourque
The K&T was a compact little road that ran short trains to a handful of loaders. As such it makes a great subject for a layout of modest proportions or a layout of a larger scale.
The Layout
This layout, my first attempt at an O scale layout, captures the key elements of the K&T in the 1950s when coal trains were still going as far as Oz to serve the handful of remaining coal loaders using Southern hoppers and a small fleet of aging steam engines. The idea with … Read more
Deepwater, WV is a tiny town in the middle of West Virginia, but it was home to three major railroads: the C&O, NYC and Virginian. The C&O’s mainline through the coal fields between Charleston, WV and Hinton ran along the south bank of the Kanawha River through Deepwater, and the New York Central hugged the north bank of the Kanawha on its way from Charleston to Gauley Bridge, WV and the Nicholas, Fayette & Greenbrier (NF&G) coal field … 
This layout is designed for the guy who wants to be able to run mine runs without having to reset hoppers all the time. In fact, because of the two empties-in/loads-out tipples and corresponding loads-in/empties-out interchanges, mine runs can shuttle back in forth endlessly, or you can just sit back and let trains run in a circle around the layout.
The L&N had coal branches of many sizes and varieties. The Crummies Creek Branch was one of the shorter coal branches on the Cumberland Valley Division, but it was home to several loaders all packed into a small area. The Crummies Creek Branch split from the Martins Fork main at Popeville, south of the yard at Loyall, Kentucky. It was the southernmost of the coal branches on the Martins Fork, and its profile was strange because it dropped down from the main before climbing again. Shortly after leaving the … 
The B&O’s Cowens and Pickens Subs, later the CSX Cowen Sub and most recently the Appalachian & Ohio Railroad, has always been one of the major coal branches in northeastern WV. In its current iteration (2010), the line is about 120 miles long with 153 miles of track including smaller branches, it serves seven unit train loaders, and it connects with three short lines. While most of the grades on the line are “coal train friendly” (upgrade for empties/downgrade … 
Sometimes in the coalfields, even the fiercest of competitors join forces for a common benefit. The Cherry Tree & Dixonville was formed in 1903 as a paper company owned jointly by the New York Central and Pennsylvania Railroad. The CT&D was essentially 34 miles of coal branches which extended from the PRR’s Susquehanna Extension Branch and the NYCs Pittsburg & Eastern line from Clearfield, PA, the heart of NYC coal operations in Pennsylvania. The NYC operated mine runs on the CT&D out of … 
The Adena, Cadiz & New Athens Railway was run as a branch of the Wheeling & Lake Erie, and later the Nickel Plate, N&W and NS. The line extended 10 miles from Adena to the large Georgetown Preparation Plant at Cadiz, OH where it met up with the Pennsylvania Railroad and later the PC and Conrail. The NKP and PRR worked the preparation plant jointly. Between Adena and Cadiz were several short branches and tipples, especially in the Georgetown/Hanna area. The Hanna Coal Company’s Georgetown #12 mine had 5 tipples alone … 
The heart of the WM’s coal fields was Elkins, WV. The yard at Elkins was the sending and gathering point for mine runs and locals working the four lines west including the B&O connection to Belington, WV, the branch to Mill Creek, WV, the winding line to Webster Springs, WV and the branch to a connection with the C&O at Durbin, WV. These lines supplied the WM with loads of coal and lumber products. From Elkins, the loads needed … 
This layout is great for those who like both the Baltimore & Ohio and the Western Maryland pre-Chessie and like a slow pace and lots of switching. The Western Maryland’s coal operations in West Virginia were mostly centered around Elkins, but there was an interesting exception a bit further west. The WM served three small coal branches out of the tiny town of Chiefton, WV. The interesting thing is that the WM main runs nowhere near Chiefton. Instead, the … 
Clinchcross, near Marion, NC, was a major interchange point between the Southern and Clinchfield. Besides playing host to several coal trains per day (particularly on the Clinchfield), Marion was a busy switching area for both roads. The Clinchfield stationed a switcher at Marion for years (don’t know about the Southern) to work the four-track interchange yard and industries which included a concrete block plant, a scrap dealer and a piggyback track among others. On the Southern side, the main industries were furniture plants which would see …