…continuing
with the recent visit by our friends Bruce and Margaret from the St. Louis
Missouri area.
The
ladies were going shopping…ARRRG! What
could Bruce and I do…where could we go that would be fun and interesting? Remember the model train layout that we
visited in Oak Ridge Tennessee? I
decided that we’d go a bit further this time…to check out a much larger layout
in Crossville Tennessee. Crossville is about
an hour from our home and we had lots of time before the ladies would return.
The first
unusual fact about this model railroad club’s layout is that it actually occupies
a large space in a local enclosed mall. The
Crossville Outlet Center isn’t huge but it features a Maurice’s store, Legg’s
Hanes Bali outlet, Rack Room Shoes, a Vanity Fair Outlet, Dressbarn, a gamer’s
store, and several more local operations including a church.
Customers
certainly don’t have a hard time finding their way to the Crossville Model
Railroad Club’s presentation of “The Wonderful World of Trains”!
We
happily entered this adult/childhood fantasy land! FYI, the exhibit is open to the public
Tuesday – Friday and Sunday from Noon until 4 pm. Saturday’s hours are from 11 AM until 4
PM. Best of all, although the club does
appreciate donations, admission is free!
This is a
large space with 5 different model railroad scale layouts covering over 4,600
square feet. Scale models included are G
(the largest), as well as O, HO, N and Z.
FYI, if you have children, ‘Thomas the Tank Engine’ and his friends are part
of the operation.
The room
at the back left center of the photo houses the Upper Cumberland Railroad
Society Museum…with lots of railroad artifacts and memorabilia. I didn’t take any photos of it because I was
too busy checking out the model railroad layouts…and I forgot!
If you
like dioramas, there are plenty of them here for you to marvel over and
appreciate. This photo show a military
base complete with a guarded gated entrance, a water tower and a ‘rail gun’
along with matching rail cars.
Note the
different levels involved in this complex layout. There are things to appreciate in every
direction. I personally like this little
town laid out along the tracks.
The
Crossville Model Railroad Club was founded back in 2001. Membership has reached 65 over the years
since. Members volunteer over 7,500
hours of their time to operate the public display, run the trains, and repair
the existing layout. I’m guessing that a
lot more time is spent building new scenes and related equipment as personal
fun projects as they’re a bit tied down with visitors in-house.
The first
inspiration Bruce saw regarding improvements or additions to his own
multi-level home model train layout was this nifty airport. It’s interesting to note that this big model
railway operation features no less than 23 airplanes and 9 helicopters in the
various vignettes.
Bruce’s
career was in safety, accident prevention and loss prevention. He was completely ‘taken’ by this HO gauge fire
scene with the burning building and the flashing lights. Another project for his home based model
railroad! Warning to Margaret... He's going to need more room!
Just for
your information response to this fire was prompt with structural damage being
held to a minimum by the fire department.
However the impacted structure was the regional office for the Internal
Revenue Service and “unfortunately, most of their records were impacted!”
Of
course, my favorite locomotives are the old fashioned steam types…so I was
partial to this scene showing a train passing by a railyard full of iron ore
rail cars.
The Club’s
“HO” layout is the biggest and most detailed with 4 operating mainlines… They
are the “Southern”, “Norfolk and Western”, “Tennessee Central”, and the “Louisville
and Nashville” railroads. Between them,
they have 742 feet of track in the layout.
This 2
level scene with the road above the town along the rails is a perfect example
of a model railroader’s creative mind. With
a ‘gentlemen’s club’, a pawn shop, tattoo parlor and a liquor store this
obviously isn’t the best side of town.
However, local authorities are trying to clean it up with a raid on that
strip joint/gentlemen’s club. They even
have a police dog helping them!
This
roundhouse reminded me of the one that existed in my hometown of Jackson
Michigan when I was a youth… That town was ‘hopping’ in those days, both as a
rail hub and as a manufacturer of auto parts. Also note the coaling tower and water tank, both
a necessity in the early days of railroading.
Reality
is that America loves beef! This appears
to be a busy stockyard attached to a processing plant… “Swift Products” refrigerator
cars await the finished product.
The Club’s
HO display features a plethora of critters.
They include 37 horses, 89 cows, 12 dogs, 14 pigs, 7 sheep, 16 chickens,
12 pigeons, 7 deer, 5 monkeys, 6 seals, 5 bears, 2 gorillas and a lion.
Here is another
fire scene…obviously set in a different era.
There is railroad track at 3 different levels of this photo.
This
scrapyard full of scrap metal is being attended to by a large railcar style crane
that loads the scrap into the open rail car.
The
mainline railroads based on the complete HO display operate at least 15
passenger cars as well as 361+ pieces of freight rolling stock.
The
landscaping alone is amazing. Tunnels,
hills, trees, grass and everything else are a major undertaking in themselves. In addition, over 500 lightbulbs illuminate
the buildings, signs, lights, etc.
This is
the main railyard for the HO layout.
After all, the hundreds of pieces of rolling stock have to be kept
somewhere when not in use. This layout
has 6 different rail yards, with this one alone involving 72 feet of track.
This
bucolic farm scene in the mountains…complete with horses, cows and pigs…is very
nicely designed and composed. It makes
me want to visit the place!
Of
course, complex city/town scenes like this really demand a lot of pre-planning
and construction. The membership is
truly dedicated.
Just
putting together the display tables required 768 feet of 1 x 4s for table
frames and more than 1300 feet of 1” x 2” lumber for leg braces. As for the table tops, 36 sheets of half inch
plywood and half inch homosote plus 8 sheets of 4X8 Plexiglas were used.
The fun
really is in the details…at least as far as I’m concerned. Note the woman hanging clothes on the rooftop
with her child playing nearby. What her ‘husband’
is doing with his pants down around his ankles is anyone’s guess! The guy next door is just sunning himself on
his rooftop deck…
I thought
that it would be appropriate to end this portion of my post with a big circus
parade! Beyond the school bus, one
circus wagon after another is coming down Main Street past a large audience,
many of which are comfortably seated in bleachers along the route. Note the elevated trolley line at the right of
the parade.
The
complete HO layout including the circus parade features 275 structures, almost
1,400 people, 471 autos, 297 trucks, 3 scooters, 11 motorcycles, 6 bicycles and
2 lawnmowers. It also includes a ‘still’, 5 outhouses and “Jimmy Hoffa’s final
resting place”. I missed seeing that last one!
This was
a fun place to visit, at least for Bruce and myself. It’s a model railroad ‘high’ as well as a
diorama lover’s dream. FYI, we did kick
into the donation bucket.
The
Crossville Model Railroad Club and Upper Cumberland Railroad Society Museum is
located at 229 Interstate Drive just off Interstate I-40 at Genesis Road. Phone: 931-210-5050. Their website with some great photos can be
found at http://crossvilletrains.org/Welcome/.
So after
all of our ‘railroading’ efforts, Bruce and I decided it was time for
lunch. I’d heard about the Vegas Steakhouse
and Bar in Crossville, so I decided to give it a try… Bruce patiently waited
for me to take a picture.
The
dining areas are a bit dated and a little ‘cave like’, but everything was clean
and well maintained. It was well after
lunch so the restaurant wasn’t busy.
As has
happened frequently in recent times, I forgot to take photos of the food until it was too late
in my case, and just barely in time to grab a photo of half of Bruce’s Turkey
sandwich. Bruce said that his sandwich
was OK but nothing special.
As for my
French Dip/Roast Beef sandwich, it was a bit like eating over-done paper thin “Steak-umm”…thin-sliced
frozen pieces of semi-dry tasteless ‘steak’.
Without the au jus accompanying the sandwich, I would have had to bury
it in ketchup to make it palatable. As
it was, I dunked my sandwich in the au jus and then the ketchup.
To make
matters worse, our waitress had an ‘attitude’ going on! Surly would be the best description. It’s not like either of us gave her a rough
time or tried to joke around with her. She
should have stayed home for the day…or tried another line of work…like prison
guard.
Just
click on any of the photos to enlarge them…
Thanks
for stopping by to see what a couple of obsessive old guys have been up to!
Take
Care, Big Daddy Dave
