Interesting railroad, and one of those roads that no one has heard of, but would make an interesting layout. A quick glance at the history shows that the C & O took control in 1910 (if memory serves), and folded the HV fully into the C & O system in 1930. So one could model the road as an independent entity prior to 1910, semi-independent with C & O influences between 1910 - 1930, or afterwards as the C & O Hocking Division.

Depending on how the layout was arranged and the design elements incorporated, you'd have 2-6-6-2 Mallets hauling coal north of Columbus and 2-8-0, 4-6-0, and 4-4-0 locomotives working the southern end of the line. I'd be inclined to model the 1925 - 1930 period so I'd have the 2-10-2 Santa Fe's to work with. 

Looking forward to your work.

Ok, so with this as a background, or alternate history starts with two things, the New Straitsville branch and a proposed extension into Toledo.

The Straitsville Branch was one of the six or seven coal branches in the seam north of Logan and Nelsonville. In fact, at it's peak in the late 1880's, there were upwards of 10 mines along with a small marshaling yard and track scale. During the mine strikes in the late 1880's, some idiot accidentally set the mine on fire. Well, never mind the fact that most of these mines were actually one giant interconnected seam, they were unable to put the fire out and had to leave it smoldering. The fire has kept on smoldering, the estimate of lost coal as of 2012 was three billion cubic tons. Now I'm no math wiz, but taking into account the standard 70-ton and later 100-ton coal hoppers, I'm guessing that's about enough coal to last into the 70's or 80's. So in the 50's, reasonable assumption would be bursting at the seams. (Huh, mining pun.) Anyways, that would probably make up for nearly half of the lost coal revenue from the other branches. Another thing to note about the Straitsville branch, there was an iron ore deposit in Gore that was unmined, (again, why!) and a steel plant in Columbus with on-line access to the Hocking. Rather lucrative contract, I'd imagine. 

Now, the extension to Toledo. The branch was proposed during the construction of the Columbus and Toledo, but for some unfathomable reason, was never built. (Uh, hello people, the future auto parts market!?!?) So for my alternate history, let's assumed the branch was later built in the early 20's.

I'm also assuming a few other small traffic sources, pulpwood based on a photo of one of those 2-6-6-2' pulling a couple pulpwood flats, and some quarries and gravel pits from unlabeled spurs on the 50's track charts.

So, the Toledo branch is built, and management slowly starts putting up a fight with the C&O buying stock. The steel contract is done, and ore starts flowing the 50 miles from Gore to Columbus. Finally, corporate starts slowly buying K&M stock.

At this point, I need to insert a couple things about the K&M. The line went on to become an integral part of the T&OC, and then NYC hosting Chemical plants, some coal mines, and lots of heavy industry. The K&M now gave the Hacking access into Charleston proper.

So instead of freight having to take the long way from Charleston to Toledo, they can cut across the triangle on the Hocking.

With these things accomplished, The revenue did very well through the Great Depression.

Then, in the 40's, the management had an epiphany. In real life, coal drags were being hauled by double headed Mikados from Logan and Nelsonville to Columbus where the 2-6-6-2's and 2-10-2's would take over. Mind you now, the 2-6-6-2's and 2-10-2' had essentially the same tractive. In other words the articulates were being used on grades they were over equipped for. So, in our alternate history, because the Nelsonville marshaling yard was no longer needed, all coal marshaling was moved to the new yard in Logan, and the 2-6-6-2's were reassigned on coal drags from Logan to Columbus and the long stretch from Charleston to Columbus with locomotive swaps and crew changes at Athens. The 0-8-0's that had been ordered were distributed as needed. With the 2-6-6-2's bumped to coal the deluge of available Mikados replaced all the aging locomotives in branch line, and local service, locomotives were modernized, ant the old equipment was cannibalized to build auxiliary water tenders in the N&W style. Coal and water towers were minimized and outright eliminated.

And then boom, on the heels of all this came WW2, and the expense and debt was recovered in the wartime and post wartime boom. Bridges and curves were upgraded, and the Hocking took order of EMD SW7's, F7's, and RS'3. Everything North of Columbus became dieselized with the exception of a few 0-8-0's, and the Columbus to Charleston became the Hocking's steam holdout. Steam would last into 1962 (give or take a year), expiring much the same way as it did on Norfolk and Western

The auto-parts market had exploded, and there were now two scheduled fast freights serving the perishable and auto-parts market straight from Detroit to Charleston. The only stop was Columbus. A second scheduled freight also ran from Columbus to Charleston, making stops in Logan and Athens where the required cars would be handed off for final delivery on locals and way freights.

But, the good time couldn't last forever.  All the branches slowly started dying out only Monday Creek and The Straitsville branch having a steady traffic flow. Allan McClelland's V&O continued their agreements with the Hocking, routing a decent share of their coal and time-sensitive freight over the Hocking. All these factors combined to keep the Nelsonville to Charleston well-trafficked and a thorn in the side of Van Swergian's C&O

Passenger service had been steadily dropping as well leaving only a three car passenger run south of Logan (discounted in 1949, just like the real thing), and a increasingly mail and express run connecting with the Cincinnatian in Charleston and the Columbus to Toledo train. (I'll detail the passenger service in another post)

The one exception was the increasing tourist business. The Hocking had conducted a number of excursions and "farewell to steam" trips and decided to use the existing station at Logan and Nelsonville as the head of a tourist operation. One of the Mikado's and articulated, a coupe F-units, and some passenger coaches were set up on the new operation, and home based was the Logan engine terminal

The rest of the history is pretty straightforward. Most of the branches had played out in the 30's, with the river division (Logan south) lasting into the mid 60's and the Monday Creek branch being shut down in the 70's Only New Straitsville was left. The Columbus to Toledo stretched was leased to the C&O and 70's saw the arrival of GP and SD units. A few of the classic hood units were kept around for the tourist op/local service in Logan/power for mine run extras and emergencies up to New Straitsville. The B&O and Pensy lines in Athens been abandoned by the 70's, leaving Nelsonville to Athens nothing more than a bridge segment. The former K&M, like the real thing, was doing much better.

The late 70's saw the abandonment of most of the industries in Logan, with the exception of the GE light bulb plant and a few warehouses. The Roundhouse and turntable in Logan were left, but the rest of the steam infrastructure was demolished, leaving a few diesel pads in place of the stripped coal tower and mostly abandoned shops. The Toledo Coal docks and Walbridge yard were abandoned and razed. Logan had dropped to only three trains. The Columbus to Charleston through fright, Lancaster and Straitsville local, and overhead traffic from NS and the merged V&O and AM. 

The Anchor-Hocking distribution center was built, and the railroads modernized.

So there we go, ending up with the current setup. CSX runs Columbus to Toledo, a local runs from Columbus to the Anchor-hocking distribution center, a second local works Logan to Logan and Lancaster as needed, and a Mikado, articulated, and swtcher hold down the tourist op. The section between Nelsonville and the former T&OC junction is a through-traffic ghost of its former self. NS through freight now troll the old K&M and contribute to through traffic along with the merged V&O/AM. 

Alright, thanks for sticking with this and in part three we'll have a look at the specific trains and operations I'm modeling in my slice of 1954. And I promise I'll get some pictures of all this up soon.