Club History

The History of the Midsouth Railroad Club.
Our club was conceived and hatched as most have done over the years, by losing its home. Having bounced around and hoping that this last location was finally "it", our dreams were dashed again after completing a 10' X 60' benchwork beauty. In the spring of 1995, a group of 7 started meeting in member's homes to make a plan for the next attempt at layout building. One of those early pioneers owned two rental buildings in Baton Rouge and plans were made to use one of the un-occupied suites in his warehouse/office metal building. The warehouse portion was closed in, a suspended ceiling was installed, walls sheet-rocked and painted, drop-in fluorescent lights wired and that was the beginning. As seen on the layout link, an area 40'x 25' for the track work, a 12'x12' office and a 5'x6' bathroom fill out the 1000 S.F area. Our theme depicts the general route of the Texas & Pacific line from Addis, Louisiana (across the Mississippi River from Baton Rouge) to Shreveport. A visible staging yard at New Orleans and one in Texarkana, tie into the respective ends of the sceniced portion. The code 83 flex track mainline has 7 passing sidings with Tortoise powered Atlas super "6" turnouts. We have 0ver 1224' feet of track, which includes some code 70 and code 75 used on two branch lines, and code 83, used everywhere else. We are expanding! See Expansion Link on the Home Page. After 3 years of trying to install, maintain and replace block rotary selector switches, a concentrated effort was made to research DCC and it's potential. NCE was found to be the answer to our needs and the decision was made to fund the project and move into the 21st century. We have 9 throttles that are currently plug-in type with plans to advance to radio control, as funding becomes available. NCE has been one of the best moves we could have made because of the learning curve for visitors takes about one minute to get them operational. We use Phil Chambers' RailOp at pmchamber@attbi.com for dispatching on a Pentium 3 computer and will eventually tie in the passing turnouts to the central dispatch point in the office. Our communications utilize the Radio Shack headsets/handsets that are very economical for a club our size. Meetings are every Tuesday with operations quarterly. Visitors are welcome but we ask that you contact our Webmaster for verification for your visit. If your club operations group would like to arrange a special operating weekend session, please contact the Webmaster . We would like a minimum of 6 persons. Please come visit our dream.

The History of the Midsouth Railroad Club.

Our club was conceived and hatched as most have done over the years, by losing its home. Having bounced around and hoping that this last location was finally "it", our dreams were dashed again after completing a 10' X 60' benchwork beauty. In the spring of 1995, a group of 7 started meeting in member's homes to make a plan for the next attempt at layout building. One of those early pioneers owned two rental buildings in Baton Rouge and plans were made to use one of the un-occupied suites in his warehouse/office metal building. The warehouse portion was closed in, a suspended ceiling was installed, walls sheet-rocked and painted, drop-in fluorescent lights wired and that was the beginning.
As seen on the layout link, an area 40'x 25' for the track work, a 12'x12' office and a 5'x6' bathroom fill out the 1000 S.F area. Our theme depicts the general route of the Texas & Pacific line from Addis, Louisiana (across the Mississippi River from Baton Rouge) to Shreveport. A visible staging yard at New Orleans and one in Texarkana, tie into the respective ends of the sceniced portion. The code 83 flex track mainline has 7 passing sidings with Tortoise powered Atlas super "6" turnouts. We have 0ver 1224' feet of track, which includes some code 70 and code 75 used on two branch lines, and code 83, used everywhere else. We are expanding! See Expansion Link on the Home Page.

After 3 years of trying to install, maintain and replace block rotary selector switches, a concentrated effort was made to research DCC and it's potential. NCE was found to be the answer to our needs and the decision was made to fund the project and move into the 21st century. We have 9 throttles that are currently plug-in type with plans to advance to radio control, as funding becomes available. NCE has been one of the best moves we could have made because of the learning curve for visitors takes about one minute to get them operational.
We use Phil Chambers' RailOp at pmchamber@attbi.com for dispatching on a Pentium 3 computer and will eventually tie in the passing turnouts to the central dispatch point in the office. Our communications utilize the Radio Shack headsets/handsets that are very economical for a club our size.
Meetings are every Tuesday with operations quarterly.

Visitors are welcome but we ask that you contact our Webmaster for verification for your visit.

If your club operations group would like to arrange a special operating weekend session, please contact the Webmaster . We would like a minimum of 6 persons.
Please come visit our dream.