This page is devoted to the characters and buildings that are part of the K< layout.
And, because EVERYBODY (including Nevada County when I registered the K< name with them) asks me, it’s pronounced “La-Turn-Oh”. I got the name from a road in my area, and based the county on Nevada County, California.
Reservoir Gardens Station Halt
Another fine product from IP Engineering, or rather, the very first kit I bought from them and assembled; a Station Halt from their Lineside Buildings range.
In-universe, this little station halt is for the resort town of Reservoir Gardens, one of the K<’s key destinations. Reservoir Gardens covers one shore of Moulton Reservoir (you might know it in real life as Bowman Lake), and grew to include permanent residents who populate houseboats.
The Dark Victorian Teal was applied over white spray paint; the “slate” roof tiles are actually squares made by my mom from Sculpey, and painted a mix of blue and dark gray. The signs are cork stickers, first spray painted black, then painted Antique Gold; the green lettering for the signs and the K< logo on the back came from G-Scale Graphics.
Joseph Steam & Sarah Felton Steam
The Steams are based on John Flint Kidder and his wife Sarah Kidder of the Nevada County Narrow Gauge Railroad. John Kidder was the founder, chief engineer, super intendant, and later, the president of the little railroad; Sarah Kidder was the first female president of a US railroad, succeeding her husband John, who died in 1901.
Now, let’s look at their fictionalizations!
Joseph Steam (1867-1949) was the Irish-American founder of the K<, who purchased its predecessor, the horse drawn Kiwi Plantation Railway, secondhand locomotive and coaches from southeastern Austria.
His wife, Sarah (1871-1949), hailed from the dysfunctional Felton family, but transformed into the K<’s first female president after her husband stepped down in 1927, becoming her vice president, then retiring in 1932.
The Steams tragically passed away within months of each other in 1949, but were present at the K<’s 1947 reopening after World War II. Joseph Steam imagined the K< as “everyone’s railway”, and that’s what it is, no matter what uncertainty the rail preservation movement faces today.
I currently have no models with which to portray them on the layout, but I have a coach named in their honor (see #1 – Sarah & Joseph on Visit The Yard).
Station Master Tarquin Parker
I got him as an unpainted figure from the Kara’s Little Kharacters range by IP Engineering (he had the “fortune” of being marketed as “Mr. Trump”!). After my standard coating of black spray paint, I gave his hat and uniform the professional coats of Liberty Blue with Red Iron Oxide trim – I had to slave away over his pasty skin, his red hair, and especially his eyes and other tiny details.
He is the head of the modest station in the middle of LeTourneau’s famous Historic Mall (based on Broad Street in Nevada City, California).
Freight Conductor Bart Colton
Bart came from Kara’s Little Kharacters under the name of Fred Mars.
His model differs somewhat from his intended appearance in the novels, as in my mind’s eye, I saw Jonathan Frakes from Star Trek: The Next Generation playing him on either the small screen, or the big one.