- Size: 11′ x 12′
- Scale: HO
- Minimum Radius: 15″
- Minimum Aisle Width: 27″
- Designed by Dan Bourque
The Kelly’s Creek & Northwestern was a coal-hauling short line that ran several miles into the mountains from the Kanawha River and a connection with the New York Central at Cedar Grove, West Virginia. Like the nearby Winifrede Railroad on the C&O side of the river, the KC&NW served primarily to shuttle cars from the coal tipples to a barge loader on the Kanawha River.
The Layout
This track plan represents the KC&NW circa 1970 when a trio of small but more modern loaders was supplying the coal. The single-deck layout is compressed but still features the key scenes of the railroad including the barge operation and NYC interchange at Cedar Grove, the larger loader near Buff Lick, the tiny engine house at Ward, and the loaders at Ward and Mammoth. There was another tipple on the line on the unmodeled portion between Cedar Grove and Ward, but the tipple appears to gone out-of-service between 1963 and 1970, so I chose to omit it to focus on the active areas. The ends of the line, home to different loaders in earlier times, run off the edge of the layout to convey that there is more railroad beyond, but trains in this era rarely ventured further than the points on the layout. While it’s not generally desirable to have two lines running through a single scene, in the case of the lines extending out from Ward, it’s accurate as the two lines paralleled each other for a good distance on either side of Kelly’s Creek. The NYC interchange at Cedar Grove is functional enough to interchange a handful of cars. The NYC track closest to the foreground isn’t operational but is included to stage NYC equipment (or Penn Central equipment) and even motive power to convey a sense of the railroad’s connection to the larger world.
The layout is intended to be at eye level to enhance the feeling of railfanning and to increase the visual depth of scenes, at some places only 6″ deep. Construction would be simple as most of the layout could be supported from the walls as a shelf layout. Only the peninsula would need supports–I recommend a short stud wall down the middle of the peninsula with box or L-girder benchwork on top. Because the layout really only supports one train at a time, any control system with a walk-around throttle would work.
Operations
This layout is intended for 1-2 operators. Not much is available on the operations of the KC&NW, but there are only so many options to work the line. The crew would start at Ward picking up its motive power, either GE 70-tonner #7 in the late ’60s / early ’70s or one of the road’s two MP15DCs (#1 and #2) in the line’s later years–they were built in 1976, and the line ceased operation in 1993. My guess is the crew would head to Cedar Grove first to pick up empty leased NYC/PC hoppers from the barge loader tracks. Aerial photos indicate even the short stub track was used to store empties, so that would add a few moves to the switching. The crew would then take cuts of hoppers (probably very short cuts in the case of the 70-tonner) to each of the active loaders and trade them for loaded hoppers. Because the run from the tipples to Cedar Grove was only a few miles, it makes sense that crews made several runs instead of one big run. Upon returning to Cedar Grove, the crew would drop off the loads in the small barge yard and take another cut of empties up the creek and tie up again at Ward when the work was finished.
The crew would also need to work the NYC/PC interchange. I’m sure occasional coal loads went by rail instead of barge, but even without this, leased hoppers would still need to be swapped out for maintenance periodically, and perhaps a few cars of mining supplies made their way up the line on occasion. For variety, you could load a few bulkhead flats of pulpwood at the ends of the line. Additionally, you could run a Conrail era session with different hoppers. The KC&NW also owned two switchers in later years, so while photographic evidence suggests gravity was sufficient to feed the barge loader, you could make that a switching operation, or you could make the loaders really busy and run two trains (good luck passing!).
If anyone has better information on KC&NW operations and how they used their two locomotives, I hope you’ll take the time to leave a comment below.
Things I Like About this Plan:
- Models an entire railroad
- No need for staging
- Generous radii
Things I Don’t Like About this Plan:
- Limited operations
- NYC/PC not operational
Related Products:
Very cool. I really like these smaller prototypes that you have done. The Winifrede, this one, the St. Charles branch(realy like that one. I need to forward you some info on the Campbell’s Creek Railroad in Charleston, WV. In the end it ran short coal trains with one SW-9 to a barge loader and NYC/PC/CR interchange. It’s current terminal still exists at Port Amherst, WV. I’d love to see what you would come up with for that one in HO. Respectfully, JJH
I’m glad you like it! I’ve been eyeing the Campbells Creek, so any information would be much appreciated.
Jon and Dan, I didn’t know if you had seen it, but Dan Robie on the WVNC site has an article about the Campbell’s Creek railroad. Here’s the link:
https://www.wvncrails.org/campbells-creek-railroad.html
Seems like a lot of stuff on there, with photos and even a map or two, IINM. It’s hard to tell how many times I drove right by the place on the way to Handley, Gauley Bridge and similar places, and didn’t even know the Campbell’s Creek line even existed!
Another superb plan, Dan. I was considering modeling the KC&NW a few year’s back. We’ve moved into a condo since then, and my layout room is much smaller. But shuttling coal loads with a GE 70-tonner sure is appealing.
This one is a nostalgia trip for me. I was there in 1963 when I was a transportation trainee on the NYC. We were doing a hopper car inventory for the first hopper car inventory control system ever set up on a railroad.
On one set of sidings, we found a set of NYC hoppers so rusty that we couldn’t even find the car number on one of them. We surmised that KC had just pulled them off the interchange without telling anyone. In those days, no one kept track of individual empty hoppers. But maybe they were the leased cars you mention. Being at work and not on a railfan trip, I couldn’t ask to go look for the KC or KCNW engine house.
Thanks for sharing, Malcom! It’s always cool when someone who’s got a connection with the area comments on one of the track plans. I’ve never thought about what would happen if a railroad couldn’t even read a car number–wow that’s rusty!
Nice work. I grew up beside the KC&NW siding on the lower end of Kellys Creek in Cedar Grove. (BTW, the correct spelling of the name of the creek is “Kellys”, but the name of the KC&NW is “Kelley’s”.)
KC&NW operated four GE 70-Ton engines: 5, 7, 9 and 11. Prior to those, they operated several steam engines. I have photos of #1, #2 and #6. My grandfather was a brakeman on KC&NW #6 from before WWI through the late 40s. #6 was sold to the Buffalo Creek and Gauley in the 50s and became their #13. It is now in the collection at the Age of Steam Roundhouse in Sugarcreek, Ohio.
There was a separately owned railroad on the SE side of Kellys Creek called the Kellys Creek Railroad. (Spelled to match the creek.) It crossed KC&NW at two points and offloaded west of Cedar Grove. Both lines crossed the NY Central (K&M). Kellys Creek also used GE 70-tons, but numbered their locos with three digits, 500 and 501.
Thanks for sharing, Bob—-what a great family connection!