New Birmingham Terminal Division Layout (sort of)

Guys,

This is a long story with no short version, so here goes.

Six years ago my wife Marsha wanted to move to the country, near Mount Vernon Iowa, and since I loved her (and still do) more than our layout, I dismantled it and moved with her. Fortunately, Mike Condren had captured photos on his website http://condrenrails.com/railroad-pages.html and Bill Schaumburg had visited and photographed it for our article in the November 2003 RMC, entitled "Birmingham 1950." You can see it at http://www.bhamrails.info/.

For the next four years I planned the new layout and saved funds for lumber and other materials. In addition, I prepared the basement with lighting, etc, and finished my backlog of rolling stock projects (I have learned that you can't do both rolling stock and layout projects simultaneously.) My friend and artist Dick Schultz, a CB&Q modeler with a layout himself who painted the backdrop on our old layout, helped me with the planning. The new layout was going to be a variation of the old Birmingham theme, the main difference being that my primary yard would no longer be the huge East Thomas Yard, but rather the old downtown Ninth Avenue Yard that served until East Thomas was built in 1909. This would relieve the operators from the overload of having to dispatch and receive mainline trains as well as perform local industry and transfer switching. It would also enable me to have a smaller engine facility to host what Don Wirth called "little engines" that he remembers from visiting Birmingham with his dad as a child.

With plans in hand, I intended to start construction in 2008, when we had the disastrous Cedar Rapids flood that destroyed 4000 homes and much of downtown. For the next year we were consumed with helping friends recover. Also during that year, Dick completed a three-year project of building totally from scratch a magnificent museum masterpiece HO model of the old Cedar Rapids Union Station, from the original 1898 plans. He had intended to display it permanently in the Cedar Rapids Historical Society, but as a result of the flood they have fallen on hard times financially and cannot accommodate it. Since the station (six feet long) is too large for his layout and doesn't fit his CB&Q in western Illinois theme, Dick offered to let me incorporate it into our layout if I wished. Even though it destroyed my "purist" Frisco and Birmingham concept, how could I say no to that?

Soooo, now I have significantly modified the layout design to feature the station as a focal point of interest and operation. To do so, I have created a fictional suburb of Birmingham called Camellia Park, home to the famous Camellia Park Raceway (where one can regularly see racehorces like Gallahadion and Sea Biscuit -- I knew you Frisco guys would approve.) This union station functions much like those of Englewood, Illinois and Covington, Kentucky and Arlington, Virginia in that it funnels passenger trains into the main downtown stations, and it also serves as a set-out destination for business cars, charter sleepers and horse cars. Can you imagine the Kansas City-Florida Special and Sunnyland calling here?

To date, I have integrated the five saved sections of the old layout and the Camellia Park Union Station into the new layout structure. Although it will be several years before significant operations can commence, I wanted to let you see where we stand in the accompanying photos.

In addition, as a final accommodation to motivate myself to tear down and move, I am planning a G scale "social running" layout in the adjoining area that will feature trains of the Mopac, Cotton Belt and Rock Island in a late 1960's setting. The G layout will be called the Arkansas and Memphis Railway Bridge and Terminal Company (the actual prototype name of the company that owns the Mississippi River Harrahan bridge at Memphis.) This will let me do something "different."

So that's where we are to date, and the reason that I have not been regularly contributing to this wonderful Frisco forum that we enjoy.

Ken McElreath

 

Inspirational! and welcome back (so to speak).

Thanks for being a great American and helping folks get back on their feet after the flooding.

 

Ken,

That station is outstanding!

Only got to see you layout once and during the power outage during the visit with Jan Jester way back when.

 

Ken-Always nice to see and read about your fine modeling and THANKS for the link to the Birmingham Rails website--There's a goldmine of information there!

Tom

 

Looks great, Ken. As to the large scale, there have been some very good offerings of Frisco equipment this past year.[ hint,hint!!]
Keep up the great modeling
Dan

 

Hey Ken,
I'm working on the Bham Belt as well as 9th Ave yard during the 40's and 50's. Been doing alot of research on that area of town and the Team Tracks around 1st Ave South, both jobs of mine has me working in those areas. I have Sanborn maps and a few pics that might help. Let me know.
Oh yes, maybe you can help me as well. I have a thread on Bham Loco's, wonder if you can give me some input on that.
One more thing, still got those plans for 9th Ave Yard? May I use them? Looks like you got a whole new city to build.
Later
Jason Ross
Bham AL
Bham Sub-Div and Belt RR

 

Jason,

The schematics for the Ninth Avenue Yard are posted somewhere on this forum, but I can't find them right now. They showed the old roundhouse and all facilities very well. They are the old Sanborn maps of the area. My version is actually quite close to the prototype.

This yard remained in service until the late 1960's as a downtown switching, local industries and interchange yard, so it is ideal for my purposes. I plan to run transfers from the East Thomas Yard, and the Birmingham Belt to feed the local industries.

Another outstanding reference book for your consideration is "Street Railways of Birmingham," published in the 1990's. It has great diagrams and information on the Birmingham Belt Railroad as well. You should check out John Stewart's excellent Birmingham Rails website and acquire a copy of Birmingham Rails to complement your reference sources.

Ken McElreath

 

A couple of days ago, I found an old MR in my collection that has an article and track plan for Birmingham. I am currently in the hospital [ leg surgery, again! ], but plan on seeing if Kalmback will let me post the article here. I'll git 'er asaih!! [ as soon as I'm home! ]
Dan