- Size: 12′ x 12′
- Scale: HO
- Minimum Radius: 28″
- Minimum Aisle Width: 21″ (mostly >36″)
- Designed by Dan Bourque
(Note: this track plan and description have been updated twice to include additional details provided since the first posting–thanks to coal-field guru Robby Vaughn for clearing things up!)
The Louisville & Nashville had more coal branches than you could shake a stick at, and they came in many sizes. One of the smaller branches was the Davidson Spur which left the Eastern Kentucky (EK) mainline at Lothair, KY. After crossing the North Fork of the Kentucky River, the branch split into long stub ended tracks to serve the busy tipples of Blue Grass. Blue Grass No. 4 served unit trains starting in the ’70s using a pair of Alco switchers to shuffle cars along its two long tracks. Another branch, the Buffalo Creek Spur, left the Davidson Spur just after crossing the river to serve the tipple at Fourseam which shut down around 1958, but the branch was still open for a while and home to at least one other loader along the river during the ’60s and ’70s. This compact arrangement and variety of operation makes this branch a great candidate for a single-deck, bedroom-sized layout.
The Layout
This plan captures the Davidson Spur and surrounding areas as they appeared in the late ’70s. Rather than just model the branch, this plan includes a segment of the EK main through Lothair, Kentucky. Lothair is a compact scene in an elbow of the Kentucky River, and just like the plan shows, the EK main crosses on a combination deck plate and through truss bridge before disappearing into a tunnel on the way to the main yard at Hazard, just a mile or so away. For this layout, the tunnel hides the entrance to staging, a stub-ended arrangement of three tracks about 20′ long that circle the wall and terminate under the Blue Grass No.4 tracks.
Lothair contains a short run-around track (as shown in a track diagram from 1975) and a short spur that shows up in aerial photos (I’m told it served a beer distributor). The mainline ends behind the backdrop (hidden by a contrived overpass) but provides enough of a tail track for locomotives to complete run-around moves. The Davidson Spur leaves the main and immediately crosses the North Fork Kentucky River as it does on the prototype, though the bridge had to be curved to fit the space. Once across, the Buffalo Creek Spur leaves the Davidson Spur, traverses a golf course, and disappears behind the backdrop where it reappears at what track diagrams call Barry (also knows as “Glomar”), home to a small loader (labeled “ANCO No.2” in a 1975 drawing I have, though I have no pictures of this loader). Back on the Davidson Spur, the tracks cross under KY Highway 15 and split into multiple tracks to serve the single-car loader at Blue Grass No.3 and the 24-hour unit-train loader at Blue Grass No.4 (different from the loader currently at the site), the biggest loader on the layout.
Construction would be fairly simple using open grid or L-girder benchwork anchored to the walls with legs supporting the Lothair peninsula. The area behind the river where the Hazard staging yard starts should be left open for access to the switches for maintenance and any accidental derailings. The elevations are designed to put this about chest-level for an average person, but it could be set at any comfortable height. This layout would potentially have two crews working at the same time, so DCC and walk-around throttles are recommended, though DC would not cause significant limitations.
Operations
This layout could keep a couple operators busy for an hour or two. Jobs would include unit train drop-off and pick-up, the First Creek Mine Run, and the Bluegrass mine critter operation. Bluegrass No.4 loaded on a 24-hour cycle, so a loaded train (about 22-24 cars on this layout) would be staged below (on the Lothair side) of the Bluegrass No.4 loader. To make room for the empties, the Blue Grass mine critters (a pair of Alco switchers) could first pull the loads from Blue Grass No.4 and place them on open tracks. The empty L&N unit train, powered by perhaps a pair of 6-axles or three 4-axles, would leave Hazard shoving the train with a caboose in the lead. The crew would drop the cab, place the empties in the two Blue Grass No. 4 tracks (likely enough cars to fill up the empty tracks and extend below the loader), couple up to the loads, add the cab, build up the air for a brake test and then head back across the river to Hazard.
The First Creek Mine Run, powered by a couple of Alco C420s or the like, would come out of staging with a string of empties for the Blue Grass No.3 and ANCO No.2 loaders. The crew could either take their chances shifting loads out of the way on the spur or run around their train at Lothair and shoving up the branch for easier switching. The crew would then back down the Buffalo Creek Spur to swap out the remaining empties for loads at ANCO No.2 which would take several moves due to the stub tracks. After coming back to the Davidson Spur, the crew would pick up the remaining Blue Grass No.3 loads and use the run-around at Lothair to get everything back in order, even working the beer distributor track on occasion. Finally (and only if desired), a crew could run the Alco mine critters from the little shed at the end of the Davidson Spur to cut the empties and run them under the Blue Grass No.4 loader, adding coal loads by hand and moving cuts of cars until the train is full.
Not too much variety, but enough trains and interesting moves due to stub tracks to keep it entertaining.
Things I Like About This Plan
- Unit trains and single-car loaders in a small layout
- No duck-unders
- Good number of runs for the number of tipples and tracks
- Alco mine critters in the mix!
- Some nice bridge and river scenes
Things I Don’t Like About This Plan
- Lots of fairly tight curves
- A few curved switches
- One tight (albeit short) aisle
- Limited operations variety