Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, April 18, 1993 TAG: 9304160441
SECTION: TRAVEL PAGE: F-7 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: CHARLES STEBBINS STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
MINIATURE RAILROAD TAKES `PASSENGERS' ON TRIP TO THE PAST
It is like a child's dream come true.A working model railroad that covers nearly as much space as a basketball court.
Not just model trains. Rail yards, roundhouses and sidings line the 3,000 feet of tracks. There also are miniature buildings of the type that once were found along railroads.
The display depicts two eras - one of an olden day of passenger trains when village centers were along the tracks and a modern day when industrial centers took over the rail side.
Promoted as the world's largest HO gauge railroad, the Chattanooga Southern is part of the Chattanooga Choo-Choo Holiday Inn complex in Chattanooga, Tenn. The complex is a virtual museum with 30 acres of restored railroad lore including the city's former train station and a number of retired rail cars converted into sleeping rooms or dining halls.
It consists of about 1,000 freight cars, 80 passenger cars and about 120 locomotives.
Also, there are three major rail yards, two smaller yards, four passenger stations and about 320 structures along rail tracks.
Not only are there buildings but also tiny figures of people who might have populated the areas.
There is an injured man with emergency vehicles at the display's Union Station.
A little farther along the track workmen are repairing a diesel locomotive while nearby a crew is doing track repair.
At one village an organ grinder with a monkey is selling ice cream outside a theater showing "Dracula."
In a clump of trees there is a moonshine still with several moonshiners resting in the shadows.
Work on the model railroad was begun in 1973 by members of the Chattanooga Area Model Railroad Club. This miniature world portrays in fact and fancy Chattanooga and the Cumberland Mountain country.
Model railroad club members have spent more than 33,000 hours building the display, said Joe Kilgore, marketing director for the Choo-Choo complex. The model has a value of about $500,000.
The whole display is 174 feet long and 33 feet wide at its widest point.
The display has mountains and valleys, all made of paper, paste and paint.
On weekdays several of the trains run on automated control. On weekends bigger displays are given by club members who take control of the trains.
Names on the sides of many of the cars and locomotives are familiar to Southwest Virginians. There is Norfolk Southern, Norfolk and Western and the Virginian.
Club members who built the display let their humor come through in full bloom.
Along the track there is the Berpp Beer Plant, a brewery owned by the Berpp Brothers, Hi and Cupp. Berpp beer is the only brew in the world with the foam on the bottom.
And there is Mount Bustmore with a figure honoring country music. Also there are offices of the Byrnes & Frye Coal Co., and the Digge & Delve Mining Co.
There's the Knott & Splynter Lumber Co., which supplies wood to the Miracle Chair Co., that markets its chairs under the slogan, "If it holds you up, it's a Miracle."
And at the end of the track is the Marble Orchard Cemetery owned by the Digge & Berry Mortuary - a reliable company that will be "the last ones to let you down."
The Model Railroad is at the Choo-Choo Terminal Station, on Market Street at Exit 178 from Interstate 24. It is open Monday through Thursday 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., Friday and Saturday 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. and Sunday from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. During the summer these hours may be extended. Admission is $2 adults, $1 for ages 6-12, under 6 free. The display is open year round.