A Visit To Kancity

If you listen closely to residents of these twin cities of the same name, you quickly learn that the first name is pronounced without any letter S.  Further, both names are run together.  So it is not Kan-sus Cit-y, but Kancity.

Went down there for an invitational operations meet, PrairieRail.

Just a few miles from the hotel, my travelling companion, Zoo, called out, "There's at least one Alco down there being worked on!".  Something to find and explore the next morning.

We drove into the facility the next morning and thought we'd found the elephant's graveyard.  There before us was a string of old-old locomotives in various stages of repair, rehab and repaint.   Railway Service Contractors, Inc, is a shoestring operation to work on locomotives of any vintage.  Mike Roberts, the owner, gave us permission to go in and do photos to our heart's content.

It was amazing!  First, two Alco switchers, a GE 45-tonner with side rods, a Whitcomb, a tiny other GE switcher and a few mainline locos.  Then a look at the facility.  A most basic, open-sided building with all sorts of stuff inside.  It would make a perfect model for detail hounds.  Here's what we found.