Tour Details

Sunday November 12, 2023

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AM Tours

11am - 3pm

Thomas Lloyd’s Norfolk and Western Railway – Pocahontas Division 1958

The layout focuses on coal operations, time freights, and passenger trains of the Norfolk and Western Railway through the coalfields of West Virginia during 1958. The N&W rostered steam locomotives until May 1960, so you can witness the final years of their use in regular service alongside the new diesels that eventually replaced them. 1958 is also the year that Management leased first-generation diesels from neighboring railroads (including the PRR, ACL, and RF&P) to help expedite dieselization, offering the railfan a chance to witness some interesting patch jobs and diesel consists among the N&W's own new diesels. The layout is designed for prototype operations to keep 12 people busy for 3.5 hours. A fast clock is used so that time freight and passenger trains are scheduled to depart based on the actual 1958 Time Table.

City: Norcross
Scale/Gauge: HO
Thomas Lloyd

While visiting our home layout tours in the Duluth and Norcross areas, consider stopping in to see the model train layout (and much, much more!) on display at the Southeastern Railway Museum, 3595 Buford Highway in Duluth, GA. They will be open Sunday 1:00pm-5:00pm. (Admission fee required!) For more information, visit their website using the link below.

Southeastern Railway Museum

Ken Stinnette’s Old Reliable

The layout is freelance based on transition era L&N and NC&STL. It is a single-track main with passing sidings and about 20 sidings for industries for operations.

City: Duluth
Scale/Gauge: N
Kenneth Stinnette

While visiting our home layout tours in the Duluth and Norcross areas, consider stopping in to see the model train layout (and much, much more!) on display at the Southeastern Railway Museum, 3595 Buford Highway in Duluth, GA. They will be open Sunday 1:00pm-5:00pm. (Admission fee required!) For more information, visit their website using the link below.

Southeastern Railway Museum

PM Tours

1pm - 5pm

Kevin Stemple’s Blue Valley Railroad

The Blue Valley Railroad is what might have been a rural town in Pennsylvania in the 60's. The layout encompasses the town along with a small yard that would be used for MOW or holding rolling stock for the local industries. The design of the layout is an outside oval with two smaller ovals inside the larger oval. All of the ovals are connected together so that trains can be switched onto or out of each loop. The layout is split into two sections the town and an industrial section separated by an open pit granite mine that has been abandoned. Scenery, Motive Power and Rolling Stock are a mixed collection of items that started in my childhood.

City: Holly Springs
Scale/Gauge: HO
Kevin Stemple

Stefan Bartelski’s Shoofly/Pump Boys & Dinettes Module

Module of a shoofly (temporary track) while a new mainline bridge is being installed across a creek. Many of structures are themed to the musical "Pump Boys & Dinettes".

City: Cumming
Scale/Gauge: HO
Stefan Bartelski

Stefan Bartelski’s The Blue Ridge Line

A representation of the Etowah Old line, from Elizabeth (Marietta) to Etowah. Set in October 1986, just before CSX transferred operations to the Georgia Northeastern RR. It also includes the Marble Hill branch line, which the Georgia Marble Railroad operated to bring marble from the Tate Quarry and mine in the valley. Currently about 60% of the benchwork is completed, with about 30% of track laid

City: Cumming
Scale/Gauge: HO
Stefan Bartelski

Tom Gordon’s Seaboard Air Line – Birmingham Subdivision

This layout is a loose representation of the most mountainous portion of the Seaboard Air Line from Atlanta to Birmingham in the late summer of 1954. It is designed for lots of industry switching and has a number of seriously modified kits and scratch-built structures. The track is a combination of flex track and handlaid industrial sidings. Locomotive power is provided by first generation diesels – with some ‘retired’ SAL steam on the industrial switching area in Rockmart. The layout is a new one (replacing a similar layout at a different location, last on tour in 2018), but it is fully functional. Fascia and backdrops have been installed, and scenery work is in progress. The physical plant is controlled via a C/MRI system, with propulsion via EasyDCC. Since this current rendition of the layout is less than 4 years old, the signal system is in the process of being installed.

City: Norcross
Scale/Gauge: HO
Thomas Gordon

While visiting our home layout tours in the Duluth and Norcross areas, consider stopping in to see the model train layout (and much, much more!) on display at the Southeastern Railway Museum, 3595 Buford Highway in Duluth, GA. They will be open Sunday 1:00pm-5:00pm. (Admission fee required!) For more information, visit their website using the link below.

Southeastern Railway Museum

CANCELLED: Peter Thomas’ Modular

Cancelled

This layout uses the TOMA approach. It rewrites history and has the railroad discussed in the newspapers of the 1920's coming to my adopted home of Dawsonville. The railroad depot is across the street from the courthouse where we got married. A scratch build challenge for the future.

City: Dawsonville
Scale/Gauge: HO
Peter Thomas

CANCELLED: Lori Thomas’ Cothran Valley Gardens

Cancelled

Background What do you do when you can't get grass to grow in your front yard? You build a garden railroad, of course! Inspired in March 2017 by a display of G-Scale trains by the Georgia Garden Railway Society at the Piedmont Division Model Train Show, Lori set about planning and building the Cothran Valley Garden Railroad. About the CVG RR This railroad travels back to late 1960's on a fictitious short line running through rural North Georgia mountains. The railroad features two ovals of track surrounded by farmsteads, a small train depot, and a magical village on the far side of the mountain. The rolling stock showcases iconic billboards of the era. The railway is nestled into existing gardens and includes scale plantings.

City: Dawsonville
Scale/Gauge: G
Peter Thomas