Progress report 6/8/10

Tonight I was able to finish glueing down the Kessler & Northern District mainline trackage to a point just north of Kessler, WV.   With this addition, nearly 50 feet of the K&N main track has been installed.

The passing siding at Kessler, capable of holding a typical 24 car coal train, is a little more than halfway complete at this writing.  Once the siding is completed, trackage for the Clear Fork wye, Entrekin Farms, the still unnamed sawmill, Austin Powder, and Ajax #2 coal loadout will be installed.  All of the turnouts have been installed for these locations, with the exception of the actual wye turnout on the Clear Fork wye.

For the first time tonight, I pushed coal hoppers onto the new peninsula to test the new trackage between Raders Jct and Kessler.

Here are a few photos of the progress.

 

Raders Jct, WV, is where the K&N District mainline crosses the Nicholas, Fayette & Greenbrier's Raders Run Industrial Track.  A pair of CSXT four-axle units is staged on the stub track that goes to the off-layout location of Rainelle on the NF&G.   Hoppers are spotted for loading on the NF&G at Raders Run.  The connection track allows CSX/NF&G loads to move south to the CR&E at Meadow Bluff/K&N Jct.

After crossing the NF&G at Raders Jct, the K&N continues north along Big Clear Creek toward Kessler, WV.  The portion of the railroad between Meadow Bluff/K&N Jct and Kessler was built as the K&N Extension after the CR&E took control of the Kessler & Northern Railroad between Kessler and Fenwick, WV.

A horseshoe bend in Big Clear Creek causes the K&N to have to cross the creek twice in quick succession.  Here the creek will go from the foreground, under the K&N to the background, and then under the K&N again to the foreground.  Two of Atlas's code 55 plate girder bridges do the trick here.

This wye near the south end of Kessler, WV, will take the K&N to the Clear Fork loadout along one of the forks of Big Clear Creek.  The loadout itself will be off in staging inside the peninsula.  The roadbed curving to the left of the coal hoppers will soon have track on it, and will represent the K&N's original line from their yard at Kessler to the Clear Fork mine area.  This north leg of the wye is still used when CSX loads coal at Clear Fork to move north to the former B&O at Fenwick.   I'm thinking of making the scenery here represent an abandoned yard at what would have been the former southern terminus of the K&N.  When the CR&E built the K&N Extension, they built the straight leg of the wye in the background so Clear Fork coal could move south to the CR&E.  The mainline and siding were also built here to connect to the original K&N.

One final look for now shows the K&N mainline swinging around the curve toward the north end of Kessler Siding.   The flat area to the right will be for an Austin Powder elevator, where blasting powder is delivered in covered hoppers for the mines.  A sawmill will be in the open space behind the mainline here.  Up near the wye will be Entrekin Farms, where an occasional carload of fertilizer will be spotted.