NC&StL Nashville Division

The St. Louis RPM meet was last weekend in Collinsville, IL.  I drove up on Friday morning with fellow NC&StL modeler Mitch to join in the festivities.  It was a great RPM meet.  Lots of good clinics, tables full of well-done models, and a well-organized event.

John Golden and Dan Kohlberg and Lonnie Bathurst are to be congratulated for a very successful event – and thanked for doing this as a labor of love (they run the St Louis RPM as a not-for-profit event).  They put on a solid two days of RPM goodness. To cap it off, they had a drawing for door prizes that resulted in every attendee who hung around until the end of the event walking away with something – I scored two Accurail MoPac 55 ton hopper cars – woohoo!  I’m already looking forward to the next St Louis meet.

Here’s a post from Model Railroad News with a summary of the event and some event photos.  Here is a photo archive from John Golden, one of the event organizers.  And here is another photo archive from Perry Lambert.  Lots of good stuff to look at in those photo archives.

For me the highlights of the event were:

1.  Finding some great new NC&StL steam engine photos – Jay Williams had quite a few that I’ve never seen before – I picked up a great one of an NC Russian Decapod, two different 4-6-0s, a nice L-1 Mikado, a J-1 4-8-2, a couple of J-2 4-8-4s, and a couple of nice J-3 4-8-4s.  All are locos that ran on the section of the Nashville Division I am modeling during the time frame I’m modeling.  The photos will help with weathering and detailing my steam loco fleet.

2.  A great bonus picture is a good shot of one of the NC’s 36 foot boxcars in the “stripe” paint scheme.  The picture has a Soo Lines sawtooth single-sheathed boxcar in the foreground but the NC shorty is right next to it – you’ve got to look at everything in these photos, not just the “featured” item.

3.  Universally interesting clinics, but I particularly enjoyed hearing Chuck Hitchcock and Keith Jordan speak about their layouts.  The clinics by the Kohlberg brothers on their ICG layout and Rob Adams on Keokuk, Iowa were good too.  For me right now these talks by other layout builders on how they planned and built their layouts, did their prototype research, selected the pieces they were going to model (or not), where and how and why they made choices on how to “fudge” the prototype, etc. are the most valuable.  They are also something that there is not as much of at events more focused on narrower topics (particular freight cars, industries, etc.).

And, it’s only two months until the Naperville (or whatever it’s called now – Lisle?  Chicago?) RPM meet, which is the main event for RPM modelers, at least in the MidWest.

The NC&StL had two streamlined (or semi-streamlined) steam locomotives.  Both were home-built – the NC was a frugal railroad.  However, the NC did feel the need to stay up with the times and other railroads were introducing streamlined passenger equipment and sleek passenger locomotives.

The first NC homebuilt streamliner was really a pretty homely effort. Pacific (4-6-2) number 536, class K2D, was given streamlined shrouds in the NC’s West Nashville Shops in 1940.  She was streamlined to pull the Dixie Flagler passenger train, an all coach Chicago to Florida train. While 536 was really pretty ugly (you should see a profile shot) her paint scheme foreshadowed the famous Yellow Jacket scheme of the NC’s great class J3 4-8-4s.

On her first day of service she struck a vehicle at a road crossing which wiped out her streamlined pilot.  A standard pilot as shown in this photo replaced the streamlined one.  This streamlining job only lasted until shortly after the start of WW2 in Dec. 1941.  536 was returned to her standard configuration for the war. She was scrapped in 1949.

The second home-built was a much more successful effort.  The entire consist of the “streamlined” City of Memphis was existing equipment that got styled by the NC’s Nashville Shops.  The engine was Pacific 535, known as “Marie”.  Marie was also a class K2D Pacific built by Baldwin in 1913.  After World War 2 ended railroads started marketing their passenger service again and spiffing up their trains so the NC put together a streamlined consist for the City of Memphis.  Marie was streamlined as well as mechanically upgraded with new cast cylinders and forward frame section as well as roller bearings.  She went into service in 1947 and was scrapped in 1949 as the NC rushed to replace steam with diesel.  The City of Memphis eventually was pulled by one of the NC’s GP7’s that were equipped with steam generators and painted in the blue and gray paint scheme.

Been a while since I’ve posted anything about my model railroading efforts.  I got more than a bit buried in teaching this past two months or so.  I teach entrepreneurship (on a part-time basis) at a local university and had three grad classes this past semester.  I don’t think I’d ever had more than one grad class at a time before – handling three classes was a real learning experience for me.  Plus, one of the classes I’d never taught before.  It all worked out well and I really enjoyed all three of the groups of students.  But it did soak up all my spare time and energy for a couple of months.

Despite the above, I did get a few things done.  In particular I came up with a track plan that I like better than any of the others that I’ve designed.  I’ll share some of the new design over the next couple of weeks.  If this plan works out I can start building the first town almost right away.

Beyond some track planning nothing else has progressed on my home layout over the past two to three months.  However, I have been getting in some layout construction work the past month or so.  My friend Mitch and I have spent two Saturdays about 90 miles from home in Cowan, TN working on the display layout at the Cowan Railroad Museum.  Cowan is a small town that owes most of its existence to the NC&StL railroad.  Cowan is between Nashville and Chattanooga and was an important operations location for the NC for many, many years.  Cowan is at the foot of Cumberland Mountain and was where the NC kept its helper engines that assisted trains up over Cumberland Mountain.  In fact, the CSX still runs helpers out of Cowan today, helping freight trains maintain their schedule over the steep grades on Cumberland Mountain.

Cowan was also the point at which the Tracy City branch line of the NC joined the NC.  The Tracy City branch separated from the NC mainline between Cowan and the mountain and ran up Cumberland Mountain on very steep grades up to Tracy City at the top of Cumberland Mountain.  The branch line was known as “The Mountain Goat” for its very steep (up to 4%, which in railroad terms is quite steep) grades up the escarpment of Cumberland Mountain between Cowan and Sewanee.  The Tracy City branch at one time generated quite a number of loads of coal, lumber, etc.

The Cowan Railroad Museum is located in the old NC&StL Cowan Depot.  A number of years back the depot was moved from one side of the tracks to the other but other than the change in location it is the depot that served Cowan for many years.  It was converted to a museum a number of years ago.  The museum is curated today by Tom Knowles who I know from the NCPS (the NC&StL Preservation Society).  I believe that Tom is one of the founding members of the NCPS and I’ve belonged to it for a couple of years now.

There is an operating HO scale display layout that models the NC line and the surrounding scenery from downtown Cowan up and over Cumberland Mountain to Sherwood on the other side.  Sherwood is where the helpers coming over the mountain cut off from Chattanooga-bound trains and/or coupled on to Nashville-bound trains for the ride back to Cowan.  The display layout has been a bit neglected for the past few years and Tom is trying to make some progress on finishing the scenery and otherwise upgrading the layout.  Mitch and I have been working on the scenery the last two times we were down.  We’re planning on going back again in late April to try to push ahead a bit farther on the scenery before the museum opens for the season on May 1.

If you’re down in the Cowan area this summer, stop by for a bit at the museum.  The old depot building itself is interesting and they’ve got a few nice pieces of prototype equipment on display.  The depot web site has much more information on the collection, directions, etc. Among the items in the museum collection are the GE 44 ton diesel switcher I’ve posted about before as well as a NC homemade bay window caboose.

I’ve really enjoyed working with Mitch on the Cowan museum layout.  It’s also whetting my appetite to get started building my own layout!

A friend passed along this message posted on an L&N Yahoo discussion group:

From: Steven Johnson <tenncentralrwy AT comcast.net>
Subject: [EllenN Railroad Modelers] Possibility of a new HO resin NC&StL/L&N caboose kit
To: ellennrailroadmodelers AT yahoogroups.com
Date: Wednesday, February 2, 2011, 7:31 PM

I have been corresponding with Jim King at Smoky Mountain Model works about
the possibility of offering an HO scale resin kit of NC&StL’s NE-5 class
steel bay window cabooses (series 90-99).  Most of these cars later went to
L&N (nos. 319-326) and wore at least a few different L&N schemes.  One ended
up on the Western Ry of Alabama as their # 128.  This car apparently still
exists in a wooded area in Sandy Ridge, AL.  I believe it to be the last
NE-5 in existence. A photo of WofA # 128 in nice red paint can be found on
page 188 of Hanson’s West Point Route book.

I need some feedback from the HO modelers on this list.  I have several
photos of these cars in NC&StL and L&N schemes, as well as the equipment
diagram drawing, but obviously the more photos and information we have to
work with, the better. If anyone has good photos of these cars in ANY paint
scheme, would you consider scanning them and e-mailing them to me?  Also, if
anyone lives near Sandy Ridge, AL, and can locate WofA # 128, we could use
good detail photos of the roof, end railings, and as much of the underframe
as possible.

Mr, King has expressed an interest in such a model kit project, so I am
trying to drum up as much support as possible.  Please let me know what
y’all think about this.

Thanks,

Steve Johnson

It would be fantastic to get a new kit of one of the NC’s bay window cabs.  As I posted a few weeks ago, modeling the NC’s caboose fleet is one of the major challenges of trying to create a prototype-based model railroad of the NC’s Nashville Division.  The NE-5 would be a great kit to have although it was a small class of cars (10 total).  I’m also told that the NE-5s were 40 feet long.  The much more numerous wood-sided bay window cabs (classes NE-6/7/8) were apparently 38 feet long and also had a different underframe.  But I’ll take what I can get.

The other good news is that these kits may be made by Jim King of Smoky Mountain Model Works.  I know Jim slightly and have several kits that he designed and manufactured for other kit vendors.  Jim does very good work.

I wrote Steve and told him I’d take 4 or 5 of these kits.  Don’t you need a few?  If so, please let Steve know so that we can get this kit.

So how much interchange traffic did the NC really have with the IC at Martin and the GM&O at Union City?  That has been a big research question over the past couple of years and is also something that Rhett asked about in his comment to my prior post:

Did the NC&StL really swap a bunch of cars with the GM&O and IC at UC and Martin? The NC&StL had connections with the IC and GM&O in Jackson, TN, where both connecting railroads had major yards. I had always figured that those three railroads swapped cars in Jackson, particularly after the NC&StL stopped running its manifest freight from Bruceton to Hickman, KY.

Those are all good questions for which I have been chasing answers.  The answers are also somewhat central to many of my layout planning decisions, starting with what portion of the NC to model.  So let’s dig into what I think I know and what’s still uncertain.

First, a bit of background.  Let’s look at a map of the major railroads in west TN that crossed the NC (you can click the map for a larger image).

The NC’s Nashville Division is the red line that runs west from Nashville into the upper right corner of the map.  It originally ended at Hickman, KY on the Mississippi River but in 1951 the NC abandoned the line west of Union City, TN.  The NC’s Paducah and Memphis Division is the red line that runs straight south from the top middle of the map until it turns southwest at Lexington, TN from which point it runs through Jackson, TN to its terminus in Memphis.  The portion of the NC that is currently incorporated into my layout planning is the western end of the Nashville Division between Union City (the number 1 on the map) through McKenzie (number 4).

The junctions with the NC that Rhett asks about are at Jackson (number 6), Martin (number 3) and Union City (number 1).  I’m going to throw in Gibbs (number 2) since there was a junction between the NC and IC at Gibbs as well as at Jackson and Martin.  Here’s what I know or currently think about interchange traffic between the NC and IC at these locations.  I have very limited direct factual support for most of this, with the exception of much of what I’ll say about Martin.

The highest volume and most important single interchange point on the entire NC system after Nashville, Atlanta, Memphis, and Chattanooga was Martin.  There was a very high volume of traffic exchanged at Martin right up to the end of the NC.  Much of this was refrigerator car traffic coming off the IC’s high speed line between New Orleans and Chicago.  Just north of Martin at Fulton, KY (where the two blue IC lines join at the top left of the map) was the mid-point of the run from New Orleans to Chicago.  The IC’s Fulton facilities included a massive icing platform where the refrigerator cars heading to Chicago (including the IC’s famous banana trains) were re-iced.  There was also a large yard where fruit traffic, esp. banana traffic, that was not yet consigned to a final buyer was held until the fruit brokers could find buyers.  At that point the IC would route it to the final destination – which might mean heading north towards Chicago but could also mean heading back south to Martin where it was handed off to the NC for destinations in the southeast.  Some of this traffic was also apparently handed off by the IC at Gibbs.

The traffic coming off the IC at Gibbs/Martin was sufficiently important that the NC ran a scheduled through freight both directions between Nashville and Martin up until the L&N take-over.  I believe this is the manifest freight that Rhett mentions in his question.  While the NC did abandon the far west end of the Nashville Division – west of Union City – prior to the acquisition (in 1951 I think although I haven’t double-checked that recollection) the high-speed freight connection from Martin to Nashville lasted up to the end of the NC.

I don’t have much information regarding the volume of traffic exchanged between the GM&O (formerly M&O) and the NC in Union City.  I have indications that it was a reasonably busy interchange but no details.  It was also clearly not as important as the IC connections to the east at Gibbs/Martin.  My suspicion is that loads off the GM&O at Union City mostly came from the north (East St. Louis).

I have very little hard information on the volume of traffic interchanged between the NC and the IC or GM&O at Jackson.  Jackson was an important location for both, especially the GM&O.  My suspicion is that loads off those roads onto the NC would originate somewhere to the south and be heading mainly north and east via Nashville or be deliveries to industries on the NC divisions shown on the map.  Both roads had better connections to Memphis than the NC so I’m guessing the NC picked up few westbound loads from interchange at Jackson.

So – what are the implications of all of this on my layout planning?  Well, it had a pretty major role in helping me decide to focus in on the Bruceton to Union City portion of the Nashville Division.  With four interchanges – 2 with the IC, 1 with the GM&O, and the low volume L&N connection at McKenzie – the west end of the division had a lot of through traffic including a high volume of reefer traffic (I like reefers).  I had been attracted to Jackson at one time since it is the largest city between Memphis and Nashville and had a reasonable amount of industrial switching.  But the combination of relatively high volume/high priority interchange traffic with interesting online industries made the Nashville Division from Bruceton to Union City more attractive.