Knoxville Division, L&N and Southern

[landnrailroader]

I expect to release this route in a few more months. It will be released to the "incomplete" category but it will be operable, just no interactives, and sparce details in some areas. This route started with the Corbin to Knoxville L&N line being done by Dudley Evans, who then sent it to me for tweaking. However, the track was not good, so eventually, I did all of the Corbin-Knoxville track. I regret that Kenny Eaton super-detailed that original route because I had intended it as a first phase of what I will release later this summer. With this release, I have added Harriman to Knoxville (Southern) which is also a separate route in the library as well as short portions of the 2nd & 3rd districts of the CNO&TP (Southern). Middlesboro, KY to Knoxville (Southern), Some additional trackage of both roads in Knoxville, Knoxville to Maryville (Southern) and the L&N branch to Maryville, and for real thrills, Arco Mine to Knoxville which used both L&N and Southern trackage, and also Fonde, KY to Arco Jct. which was originally started by L&N, then sold to Southern who completed it. I have also included the Cow Creek branch (L&N), Oak Ridge branch off Southern, and the H&NE to Petros, TN. I will include marker file(s) that locate mileposts, grade crossings, etc. In the case of the original Corbin-Knoxville, the interactive portion of crossing signals is absent, but the upper flasher portion exists in most cases. I have also added the L&N from Knoxville to Etowah, TN which was the southern end of the Knoxville Division of Old.

The final detail that I am adding is named bungalows at control points and grade crossings. Years ago someone created a reasonable bungalow in such a way that there are eight blanks on the image file and eight different .s/.sd file pairs, the only difference being which blank on the image is used. (Author was Teemu Sakhonen, I think) So far there are 202 named bungalows counting those present in the route that was improved by Kenny. I also have to create several voice files for defect detectors which are a issue because I have to use my older XP machine to create those and then port them over to the W-11 machine. I also have a number of slides that I took while testing the ARCO mine line and I may include those as part of the documentation. Documentation will include relevant track charts. And .kml files that can be reloaded into Google Earth if desired.

Those Bungalows are more or less correct for control points but a over-kill for most grade crossings in the south where the usual enclosure is a signal case. Also there is usually a lot more nomenclature on the outside of the enclosure than just the location name but for our purposes, I use fairly large text, 20 pt. arial font, black on white and aligned to be readible from a passing train. In cold areas of the country bungalows are more likely to be used because they may also contain internal heaters.

Jerry Sullivan

[eric]

Question.... I know that the line from Blair into the K25 and Y12 plants came off the CNOTP, but did that also tie into the Knoxville near Clinton?

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[landnrailroader]

Eric,

Yes, sorta. Blair is on the line between Harriman & Clinton but the alignment of the turnout at Blair points toward Harriman. There was no connection to the L&N but the L&N did have rights over the line through Blair to reach the Kingston Steam Plant after the nearby TVA dam raised the water over the L&N track. That was before Oak Ridge became a place. So no it was never closer to Clinton than now at Blair, and the L&N did not have a line, at least of their own. If you go to the web site of the Bradbury Museum which is in Los Alamos, there is a short video that I find interesting. The title is "The town that never was". It is about Los Alamos and at one point people are getting off of a train and the cars are obviously D&RGW and appear to be narrow gauge. Just a slight problem. The Chili line, Antonito, CO to Santa Fe died and was pulled up in 1941. Activity at Los Alamos started in early 1942.

I am including the line to Petros which lasted until the 1980s and served the Brushy Mtn. State Prison where the convicts worked a coal mine. I may have said it, but my father, as he applied the belt of education to my posterior, woulc remark that if I did straighten out, I would wind up at Brushy Mtn. I had no idea what that was until I worked for the Southern, 6/65 to 8/78.

Jerry

[eric]

Brushy is now open for tours and has a fairly decent BBQ restaurant and micro-brewery....

I've been spending a little time exploring around K25, have driven past Y12 a couple times, and found dozens of Project era warehouses still standing and being used today in north Oak Ridge.

The rails at Y12 and the warehouse area are long gone, but I was thinking it might make for an interesting "Secret City" micro-route...

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[landnrailroader]

Eric,

Yes, Secret City, it might. I have included that also in the route with all the track that currently exists. There is a truss bridge over a creek on the lead from Blair to the Y12 etc. area that is of rather unique design, or at least one not seen new these days. As I am including it, all you would have to do is create a route for it and then copy in the necessary world files. I don't believe I used any dynamic pieces.

I was born & raised to the age of 21 in Nashville. My wife has remarked that we should have moved to either Santa Fe, NM or Pagosa Springs, CO when I retired, but we did not, so this fall is likely my last trip to then narrow gauge promised land. She is originally from Burlington, NC and my late wife was from Washington, NC. They were born 12 years apart but geographically less than 30 miles. Guess I had a thing about NC gals. Well, if you come to FL, the latch string is always out for friends.

Jerry

[landnrailroader]

Friends,

Now, I think I have accounted for nearly all of the road crossings with automatic equipment etc. and the total is 264 so far. So there are a lot of bungalows. I have placed them where, according to Google Earth, they should be relative to the crossing and whoever grabs the route for further detailing should have a copy of Google Earth in their tools. I have put a marker at most locations, and plan to place more. So FLSG means that there are flashers and gates at the crossing. FLS just means flashers only. The tricky one is FLGC which is flashers, gates, and cantilevers but in many cases, there is only one cantilever so a look at the earth view of GE will tell you which side of the tracks it is on. These appear to be an older style and at least some appear to have flasher units pointing both ways. I do need to place about a dozen roads on the Maryville branch of NS, which is now a independent shortline and on the CSX connecting track. Much of the aluminum plant structures are gone but the foundation outlines are visible in GE. These were parts of a really big ALCOA plant early in WW-II. Aluminum ore can be shipped in by rail, but it takes a lot of electric power to process the Bauxite into aluminum which was essential to the air war. The NS line now ends near Lincoln road in Maryville but used to extend miles further and there were some logging lines that branched off of it. The Little River RR was probably the most famous of these and the locomotive that has been restored out west, "SKOOKUM" started out as a demonstrator to that line but the LRRR did not buy it, so it was sold to a western company.

Jerry