Updated Locomotive Roster

The things you do when you can't start building a layout just yet.... you think about your locomotive roster a little bit too much.

I had been dissatisfied with the old locomotive roster, which put most of the locomotives in a three-digit series of some kind. After adjusting the overall, system-wide mileage for the KY&N, I realized that I actually needed to increase the size of the overall locomotive roster. Once the roster was adjusted for size, it no longer made since to keep the whole roster in three digits. I only have a handful of units numbered, so I may as well make the change.

After going through several versions of the roster inspired by the Chessie System, Chicago and North Western and the Southern Railway, I settled on this new roster.

Like many roads in the 1970's the oldest first generation locomotives were at or near the end of their service lives. Many of the F units are on the dead line, some of which would be   A large contingent of GP7's and GP9's which effectively ended the steam era on the KY&N continue to soldier on after 20 plus years on the job, nearing the necessity for a significant rebuild program. A large order of new GP40-2's is on the horizon, which will eventually cause the retirement of most of the ALCO's on the roster by 1980.

New Home, More Space, Big Plans

My wife and I closed on a home back at the end of June. Yes, it does have a basement! Finally, after several years of inconvenient or inadequate space, the Kanawha, Youngstown & Northern has a home.

As you can see, the basement is a blank slate. This part is about 22'-4" x 36'-0", the previous owner built an addition off the adjacent corner which resulted in a second space about 16' x 39'. The two parts aren't directly connected, except for a narrow passage way next to the stairs, but should be accessible for staging and a recreation room for the kids. Eventually, that space could be part of a significant expansion of the railroad.

There is a bit of work to do in the basement before building benchwork. There is a large coal stoker furnace in the basement that is unusable and takes up a large piece of real estate, that will have to be disassembled in place and hauled out piece by piece. There are also a couple of non load bearing walls that need to be removed or relocated. Ssome of the wiring in the basement is suspect, but I will have to reconfigure the wiring for all new lighting anyway.

I have started on a track plan, I believe I have settled on a plan for the first (lower) level, the second (upper) level is still a work in progress. Check it out! (click to enlarge)

Hopefully I will be able to provide more updates this winter when I start work on the basement issues and transition into benchwork.