Modeling the Clinchfield Railroad in N Scale

Discussion in 'N Scale' started by Joseph Toth, Aug 18, 2011.

  1. Joseph Toth

    Joseph Toth Member

    OK, what is The Trinity River Bottoms Boomer up to now? Does he want to Eat Crow again?

    Well, Andre Ming knows by now that I am interested in all scales of model railroading, from Z to G. Living in Germany I have had the opportunity to "play" with Z scale, thanks to Rainer Knoch. He owns the very best train shop in Nuremberg, where the annual International Toy Fair is held every year usually in the first week of February.

    Visit his site at www.modellbahnritzer.de and see his trains and automobiles in all scales. He speaks English too and has one of the best parts supplies of older trains in all scales as well. When Alice Morris of H&R Trains in Pinellas Park, Florida, needed some TT scale parts for a customer I met her at the toy fair and we took streetcar #9 from the train station out to his shop. She ended up stocking up on a lot of other "stuff" for her own parts supply as well!

    After I tried out the Z scale I took a look at N. I have a livingroom wall that is 18 feet in length and begging for a layout to be built to keep it company. To think what kind of Frisco coal drag I could run in Z scale behind a set of ABBA F units or a trio of SD45s has entertained my day dreaming for quite some time. At 65 I don´t really want to go blind and trying to watch a long Z scale freight wouldn´t improve my eyesight to say the least.

    I remembered the Kalmbach project layout that Gordon Odegard built in a series that ran in Model Railroader magazine and was later released as a paperback book titled "Modeling the Clinchfield Railroad in N scale".

    I secured a copy over Ebay and it turned out to be a like new mint condition copy! The Clinchfield is a 6X13 foot layout and hey guys, I got 18 feet to play with for an additional running mainline to boot! Of course I didn´t want to model the Clinchfield so I shoved a shovel of coal into the Frisco caboose stove and it started to do my thinking for me.

    Why not model the Frisco in the Ozarks? I Googled in the title of the book and up came a lot of info on the layout including some with photos besides the ones in the book when the layout was on a 2008 N scale tour in Louisville, Kentucky, taken by John Sing.

    I retired a year ago and a fixed income plus unrelated medical expenses have derailed my layout planning for now and Andre has me hooked on S scale where I am giving a lot of thought about freelancing the K&W RR featured in Weldon Hill´s novel "The Long Summer of George Adams". Google the title to find out more on this book about life in a small Oklahoma railroad town that takes place in the summer of 1952. It is a real good read!

    But I still like to flip through the pages of the Clinchfield N scale book and imigine what my Frisco in the Ozarks would have looked like along my 18 foot long livingroom wall. A connection with the old Missouri & Arkansas would have been worked in as I love this Arkansas shortline that once was.

    Any N scale modeler considering building a layout of the Frisco in the Ozarks should obtain a copy of this fine book along with Bill McClanahan´s Scenery for Model Railroads. Both are out of print and certainly not up-to-date by modern standards but both contain a wealth of information just the same and if nothing else, just fun to look at and daydream!

    Joe Toth
     

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