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The Mid-South Division held a Fall Meet on November 6, 1999. The meet was the first (and only) ever held in Fayetteville, TN. and featured a "railroad tour" of the long abandoned Winchester and Alabama, Middle Tennessee and Alabama, and Duck River Narrow Gauge routes. The depot structures at Kelso and Belfast are still standing and in reasonably good shape, making for some pretty fair photo opportunities. (see photo's page).
The price of admission was to bring a model (scratch or kit, finished or unfinished) for show and tell. This activity turned into a series of nice extemporaneous clinics in response to questions from the group. We now know, for example, how to manufacture some very realistic trees, thanks to information provided by Ed Gardner.
A second mid-South meet was held on July 15, 2000. We got together at Chase, AL. for a ride on the North Alabama Railroad Museum trackage (formerly N. C. & St. L., now called the Mercury & Chase RR) and a dutch lunch to follow. The price of admission this time was to bring a railroad artifact for some more show and tell. Mike Crutcher showed an N.C. & St. L. tool box and Stoney Gray demonstrated a B&O nail puller. Paul Patterson collects license plates and brought a number of rail oriented designs such as a Texas RR Commission plate and other RR plates to show. Mark Campbell had located a very interesting 1870 report from the State of Tennessee Legislature on the reconstruction of the N. C. & St. L. after the Civil War. Tom Bailey brought a nicely polished brass Pullman Lantern.
Attendance picked up some for this second meet. The group decided to proceed with the creation of a web site as a means of reaching people outside the present organization. The Mid-South will investigate the degree of interest in the construction of a modular layout. This question will be revisited at the next meet.
Present plans are to hold the next meet in the spring or early summer of this year at the Cowan Railroad Museum, which is located at a great train watching site (pusher operations on Cumberland Mountain) on the CSX mainline at Cowan, TN.
Check back in the Club News section for further news and contact information on our next meet.
Thomas E. Bailey
Division Superintendent
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