Missouri, Kansas, & Texas Railroad along the Missouri River by Cathead - 1/87 (HO) scale - model railroad with steamboat

[Cathead]

While I'm most known on MSW for my scratch-built Missouri River steamboats (see signature links), my interest in transportation along the Missouri River extends to that great rival of river traffic, railroads. So I'm taking a break from steamboat modeling to build at least one module of a possibly larger model railroad depicting the route of the Missouri, Kansas, & Texas railroad along the Missouri River valley in central Missouri, ca. 1900, complete with at least one river scene featuring a contemporary steamboat.

 

MK&T passenger train along the Missouri River, ca. 1900 (State Historical Society of Missouri):

This will be a typical build for me in that it'll be laced with details of local history and geography that set a context for the models. As a former model railroader who transitioned to shipbuilding for a while, I'm finding that I miss the ability to set models in their full context. Most ship models end up sitting passively on a shelf, while a model railroad allows one to actually operate the model realistically through an entire landscape. As a geologist and naturalist who's lived in this area for almost 20 years, I have a strong connection to the Missouri River valley, having extensive experience hiking among its hills, birding within its floodplain, biking along its corridor, and paddling beneath its bluffs.

 

Mrs. Cathead on a shared river trip; these are the same bluffs shown in the next photo below:

 

The Missouri River's route through central Missouri is far more scenic than outsiders with a "flatland" view of the Midwest might suspect. The river follows a 1-2 mile wide gorge lined by limestone and dolomite bluffs towering up to 300 feet over the floodplain. Rail lines built along this corridor were forced to hug the valley walls by the huge river's constant meandering, making their routes often look like overdone model railroads with straight bluffs absolutely dwarfing the trains below. The Missouri Pacific built up the valley's south side in the mid-19th century, while the MK&T (more commonly called the Katy) built down the north side in the 1890s.

 

MK&T main line squeezed between tall limestone bluffs and the Missouri River, ca. 1912, same bluffs as above (State Historical Society of Missouri):

This project has been in the planning stage for several years, and directly influenced my last steamboat build, the Peerless, a small steamboat that operated on the lower Missouri River between St. Louis and the small central Missouri town of Rocheport. I built that model at the common model railroading scale of 1:87 (HO) to allow for its possible future inclusion on a diorama or layout depicting this region.

 

Historic photo of Peerless (State Historical Society of Missouri) and model version for comparison:

The immediate focus of this build is the scenic river town of Rocheport, framed to west and east by some of the most dramatic bluffs anywhere along the lower Missouri, and home of the only tunnel anywhere on the Katy system. This was a major river port in the pre-Civil-War era, and was the upriver home port for Peerless during its 1893-1903 operations on the river. The Katy built through Rocheport in the mid-1890s, meaning the two co-existed for nearly a decade, the perfect hook for a steamboat-and-railroad enthusiast.

 

Rocheport in the early 1900s, as seen from bluff tops to east and west (State Historical Society of Missouri):

Today, Rocheport is a popular tourist town, known for its B&Bs and nearby vineyards, and brought to prominence by its central location along the 240-mile Katy Trail. This is Missouri's cross-state rail trail that follows the old MK&T line (abandoned in the 1980s), and is the longest continuous rail trail in the country. I've cycled the entire length, but like many people, am always drawn back to Rocheport's incomparable scenic setting. The trail also makes modeling the MK&T in this area particularly attractive, since the right-of-way is unusually accessible!

 

Rocheport tunnel and river bluffs (same bluffs as other photos) along the modern Katy Trail:

There's a lot more background information to share, and construction has already started, so this log will work to catch up on past progress while continuing to explain the design, purpose, and context of the project. It's going to be wordy for a while but there's also lots of neat imagery to share. I didn't initially intend to track this with a build log, looking forward to being freed from the tyranny of photography, writing, and reporting. But I'm finding that I miss the community that develops around a build, and I think there's a really neat historical story to tell. And writing about one's work can sometimes help clarify or altering thinking about a project in ways that being too lone-wolf can miss. So welcome aboard!

 

One more historic photo, and three shots of the layout underway.

 

 

 

Edited Saturday at 07:05 PM by Cathead

[JacquesCousteau]

Looks like an interesting build, and a good home for the Peerless!

[Paul Le Wol]

Eric, this is going to be a great project to follow. Three of my favorite things; boats, trains, and boats with trains! You know it’s funny that I’ve heard that old Taj Mahal song about the Katy hundreds of times but never realized what it was about until after reading your introduction. Looking forward to this.

[Keith Black]

Eric, thank you for sharing this project. I look forward to following this epic journey. 

 

 What is the layout length? 

[Cathead]

Keith, I'll give a lot more details of the full layout plan in a future post, but the Rocheport section measures about 2'x11'.

[Canute]

Great start, Eric. I'll be following this project.

[Literalman]

I don't think it was mentioned in the posts above, but Katy was a nickname for the Missouri, Kansas & Texas, based on the KT part of the initials. Maybe this was stated in plain sight and I just didn't notice …

[Cathead]

I mentioned "Katy" as the railroad's nickname but didn't give the backstory. The official story is that the company's stock symbol was KT and that's where the nickname came from, but I personally think it also just developed organically because it's so obvious.

[lraymo]

Eric, this is great history along with your project, and I'm glad you decided to share it!  I've been to Rocheport several times to ride the Katy trail (but I've never done the whole thing! I'm impressed with anyone who's done that!)

Love your layout, and looking forward to watching the build!