10/29/17 - This project has now been placed on my 'Archived Project' list, which means that I am no longer hopeful of acquiring sufficient reference material to continue the development of the project. Rather than remove it from the project list, it remains listed with the hope that the 'right' person will see mention of the project and come forward with previous unknown reference materials. I often hear that other importers have produced this project why can't I? The level of detail and accuracy that I strive for are far beyond the specifications of other's projects and I will not ask anyone to invest in a model that I produce if I am not totally satisfied that I can deliver a model that I would be pleased with myself. If you can help with reference material, by all means get in touch......please!

1/01/14 - While this project site has not been updated very often in recent months, the research gathering efforts go on in earnest. While some progress has been experienced, I am not at a point where I can either say that we can move forward or that it's time to give up. I remain hopeful that we will be able to bring this project to fruition. I again ask anyone that is interested in this project to give thought to possible sources for design reference materials. I never ask anyone for handouts and am always willing to pay fair value for any materials that are offered. I feel certain that the 'stash' of materials we need is still out there somewhere and that with help, we'll locate it!

11/30/11 - It has been a long time since there has been any news about this project and particularly good news. With the assistance of long-time great supporter Jack McGarry, we have some new drawings that contribute towards moving this project forward from where it has been stalled due to a lack of reference material. As has often happened in the past, material that has come out of private collections can make all the difference in making a project doable. The new material has not been fully evaluated in terms of how far forward it pushes our effort, but any step forward is very exciting at this point. A thorough reevaluation will be done in the next few weeks and there will be a further update regarding the project status at that time.

A sincere thank you to Jack and I encourage any of you that are interested in this project to keep your eyes open looking for any material that may be of help, no piece of information is too small!

9/23/10 - As anticipated, there have been a number of inquiries about this project since the announcement of the C&O K-4 project. This project is and will be pursued until a final determination is made that either it can or can not be accurately produced based on available reference data. If I was comfortable with the amount of data available, this project would have been my first choice for our next C&O project. If you are aware of the development history of this class, you will recognize the K-4 as a logical stand in for the K-3/K3a.

1/17/10 - We're heading into a new year and spending a great deal of time reviewing projects that have been ongoing for quite some time in an effort to determine the feasibility of taking them to the production phase. The C&O K3/K3a is a project that I would most like to advance, it's a favorite and certainly deserves to be produced. In completing our preliminary CAD design for this project it has been confirmed that we lack enough detailed reference to proceed. This project will remain on our list and the effort will continue to locate what is needed to take the project to the final step. A great deal of time, money and effort has already been invested and I remain hopeful that it will all 'pay off' when the time is right. Please keep checking the project status regularly, it could literally change over night, if we locate what is needed the K3/K3a will move to the head of the production schedule. If this is a project of interest please help us beat the bushes for reference material, you will be rewarded if you are able to assist in a meaningful way!

4/20/09 - While our design team continues to struggle with a perceived shortage of design reference material, you will note that we have now included CAD drawings of this prototype within this project site. We are pursuing every avenue in trying to complete an acceptable design on a par with our usual standards. While some of out fellow importers will use material as minimal as line drawings from magazine articles as their guide for model design work, our clients have an expectation that demands our adherence to accurate standards for our development. It's often mentioned to us that other importers are able to design and complete model projects much more quickly than Kohs & Company, that is for good reason, we will not compromise our standards at the outset in an effort to get a project to market quickly. There are too many compromises that must be made during the development process of a project to start out with compromised data. In that same regard, all too often projects in the past have been done with compromised data which led to serious visible mistakes on the end product. As time goes by, those old projects are used by current importers as guides for their 'new' projects and then modelers wonder why the new projects share the same mistakes as the old ones, unfortunately it's not very complicated. Kohs & Company will continue to be slow and predictable in an effort to be true to our clients.

9/18/08 - Substantial progress has been made on this project in terms of gathering reference material, are we ready to go with production, unfortunately no. With the help of a couple of dedicated individuals we have collected all of the data that we need for the development of the two tender versions, but are still lacking in blueprints for the locomotive. We are actively evaluating what we have on hand to see what we can do to get to a design comfort zone. We want to do everything possible to get this project produced and we will continue our efforts, we will also encourage our dedicated supporters to continue their efforts as well. We have high hopes that our mutual efforts will lead to the completion of a long overdue O scale project. Please, if yo have anything to offer get in touch, we expect nothing for nothing so we will compensate contributors based on what is provided.

7/06/07 - Our efforts on this project have been very much like riding a roller coaster, with all of the ups and downs of trying to locate reference drawings for our development. At every show we attend we interrogate everyone we see that has an interest in the C&O about helping us with drawings and that will continue, we hope that this effort will eventually lead to being able to complete the project as this prototype is a favorite of everyone that we speak with. If you can help, please get in touch with us and we will certainly make it worth your effort!

7/19/04 - We are happy to announce that we have new support for moving forward with this project, we have previously explained that locating design data has been extremely difficult, but that situation seems to be improving. As we evaluate our new findings we will keep you updated and if all proves out, we will be moving this project back up in the scheduling as promised. To be clear, at this point the 'Mikes' can not replace the H-8 on the schedule as we have moved too far along with the H-8 development, but the demand is clearly strong enough to do this project as soon as possible. Please stay tuned for more details as they develop.

9/09/03 - We have the first good news regarding our K-3 project; through the effort of Jack McGarry, one of our great supporters, we have acquired a major group of reference drawings that will contribute significantly to the advancement of our design work. This is the first significant information that we have in hand and it certainly raises our hopes that we will be able to push forward with this project. I know that a number of individuals are actively seeking material to assist in our efforts and as I have always said, without our support network we would never be able top accomplish the level of modeling that we have become known for. A note of thanks also goes out to Wilbur Epperly and Steve DeLoach for their continuing efforts to locate reference materials for this project.

3/01/03 - Just a brief update to offer some encouragement to all of you that are interested in this project. We remain in hot pursuit of the information that will allow us to correctly develop this project. In addition to our own efforts, we have a couple of individuals that are turning over every stone possible trying to locate what we need. We remain hopefully that this project will not only happen, but will do so in such a way that we can be totally satisfied with the results.

4/03/02 - This project has a new position in our schedule. If you can offer any assistance in putting together a reference package for this prototype, please get in touch with us at your earliest convenience. A further update will be posted in the next few days.

12/17/01 - We have been actively seeking design materials for this project for a number of months and it has been coming together very slowly. As a result, in an effort to keep our projects on some sort of schedule, we may find that it is necessary to alter our production schedule for this project. What we are currently considering is swapping places for this project in our schedule with that of the C&O H-8 'Allegheny'. We are anxious to produce a C&O project and we have a large number of people waiting for our first Chesapeake & Ohio project so it makes more sense to swap schedule places rather than drop the K-3's to the bottom of the list and proceed in order. We will advise as the final decision is made, we will do everything possible to avoid cancelling this project as the demand and interest is at an extremely high level, we just cannot afford to bump up against known delays at the outset of the project. If you can help with design materials please get in touch!!!