Misty Mountain Railroad
Replica
of the Union County Court House
December 21, 22, 26, 28 & 29,
2007
The Misty Mountain Rail Road will be open for one tour only
daily at 2:00 p.m. sharp. All proceeds from these tours
will benefit the Union County Historical Society. The cost
is $5.00, under 17 free.
Come out with the kids, something new every
year!
The railroad will not reopen for tours until February.
Go
south on U.S. 19/129 from Blairsville, turn left at Owltown
Grocery/BP station onto Track Rock Road, Misty Mountain
Railroad will be on the right just before Alexander's
Store.
The largest privately owned
O-gauge railroad in the country. Misty Mountain Model
Railroad is America's largest O-gauge train display -- a
3,400 square foot layout with 14 O-gauge Lionel trains
traveling on a mile of track over 12 bridges and 4 trestles
and through 15 tunnels.
The layout is a fantasy journey through sights and cities
in the Southern Appalachian Mountains. Highlights include a
6' bridge that raises to allow visitors to enter the
display and a 17' trestle recreated in Tallulah Gorge, the
deepest gorge East of the Mississippi. Some 300 pieces
from Department 56
are sprinkled
throughout communities such as Gainesville (GA), Copperhill
(TN), Helen (GA), Kennesaw (GA), Atlanta & Biltmore
Estates (NC)
Other Highlights: Georgia
Mountain Fairgrounds, Hiawassee, GA ~ Brasstown Bald
Mountain, Blairsville, GA ~ Brasstown Valley Resort, Young
Harris, GA ~ Inman Yard and Atlanta Underground, Atlanta,
GA ~ Stone Mountain Park ~ Battle of Kennesaw, Civil War
replica ~Tara, Gone with the Wind replica ~ Copperhill
Mines and TVA in Tennessee
The quiet town
of Blairsville, in the Blue Ridge Mountains of northern
Georgia, is an unlikely location to build a railroad
empire, unless you're Charles Griffin. Since he was a child
riding the Milwaukee Road, Charles has been enchanted by
trains. Now in retirement, he has turned his fascination
with trains into a hobby that has become an attraction
drawing more than 8,000 visitors from around the world to
the "O" Gauge layout he named the
Misty Mountain Railroad.
Most of us are familiar with Lionel, the dominant
manufacturer of "O" gauge trains for most of the 20th
Century. "O" gauge and O27 were for decades the most common
size trains circling the family tree at Christmas, until
they were surpassed in popularity by the smaller, less
expensive "HO" gauge. But Charles likes his trains big. And
to his thinking, big trains deserve a big layout, so that's
what he built.
His display encompasses an entire floor of a building on
the Griffin property, with a central layout that measures
72' x 55'. But the layout extends far beyond the main
display to encircle the entire room, including walls and
floor, and soars to within inches of the ceiling. This
magical display is the result of 12 years of planning,
seven years of construction and the fertile imagination of
Charles and his fellow enthusiasts -- Ken Kluth, Don Morris
and mural painter Jim Fleming.
"In building the project, we never finished one section
completely first, instead we worked continuously on the
whole layout as if we were designing a three-dimensional
sculpture," says Charles, recalling that visitors often
tell him that the entire room looks like a work of art. "We
wanted it to be different and have the layout engulf you as
you walk through it."
The Misty Mountain statistics tell the story of true
dedication and back-breaking work to bring a dream to life.
The bench work (the table, so to speak) has seven tons of
lumber and there are 6,000 pounds of plaster in the
construction of the mountains and scenery. Fourteen trains
can run independently at one time powered by eleven
transformers on over a mile of track. There are 12 bridges,
all but one handmade, four trestles and 15 tunnels. The
bench work is so strong that grown men can, and do, walk on
it. Beneath the layout are hidden trap doors for servicing
the massive electrical array of wires that help run the
trains and illuminate hundreds of buildings, signs and
streetlights.
"This is my first and my last, so I wanted to do it right,"
say Charles, who encourages everyone to give model
railroading a try. "We built this layout without any
previous experience, so don't be afraid to try and build
one yourself."
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