AM Tours

Joe Sullivan’s Gainesville & Tennessee Subdivision (of the Louisville & Nashville Railroad)

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The G & T is a hypothetical L & N (Family Lines) branch line in North Georgia. The layout is built on two levels with storage above and below and some staging below. The layout features point to point operation (reverse loop to reverse loop for open house). The grade change between levels is mostly exposed (with a passing track) on a peninsula. The railroad serves carpet factories, a paper mill, a marble yard and chicken feed dealers along with typical industries (most structures are not yet in place). Operations feature mill turns, locals, through freights and interchange traffic with other L & N lines, SCL and Southern Rwy. Scenic terrain and trees are mostly complete, track is ballasted, most cars are weathered, many locomotives have sound, much work yet to be done on structures. The layout features fall foliage. The creeks have sound (Cicada and bird sounds coming). Twilight/evening lighting on one section. Turnouts are mostly Tortoise powered with controls (some dual) with LEDs on the fascia. Yard control panels are in place and there is a large combination panel for the Coosawattee Yard/ Staging Yard towerman.

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The layout depicts the PRR Middle Division with horseshoe curve, Altoona yard, and station. It is set up for freight and passenger operations. The era is the fall of 1945 to 1959.

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When designing this layout, the objective was to explore different geographies, different areas and a blend of industrial settings that reflected my interests. From a beautifully detailed steel mill to the waterfront River Street, in Savannah, each viniet tells a story of the time. Some of the top model builders and scale artists in the U.S. participated in the layouts construction, seeing its first full operational run in December of 2013. Surrounding the layout is a hand-painted mural depicting the four seasons and situated to literally extend the eye beyond each of the layouts scenic vistas. This year, we've added a new dimension to the layout, sound and lighting effects over the full layout. From the city to the country, to the mountains, sounds of activity will be felt, including a thunder and lightning storm over the mountains. In addition, hang gliders, blimps and balloons all add to the skylines activity.

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The layout has slowly expanded into four areas in its 4th home. I run a double track mainline that has a lower and upper level, plus a short middle section, for a total length of some 300 feet. A full lower and upper loop run takes about 7 minutes. The main room is 12.5 x 28. From there it goes through a wall on one end of the room to an area about 5'x5' at the bottom of the stairs, perfect for a harbor scene. Going through the wall on the other side of the harbor brings you to one of two helixes. The north 6'x6' helix hosts a ski slope. At the other end of the main room the layout also goes through the wall to access a staging yard, a coal mine, and a second helix (8'x4') which hosts a limestone quarry that I just began building last summer. This year I have added a new table that offers visitors a chance to try their switching skills on either the Inglenook Switching Puzzle, or John Allen’s Time Saver Switching Puzzle. In as few moves as possible, the yard switcher has to collect 5 of 8 specific freight cars in a specific order. The random initial arrangement offers thousands of variations to enjoy!