# Johnson City Model RR club shots.



## SRW (Jan 13, 2010)

Rainy day here. 
Took some photos in the Doe River Gorge this morning along the old ET&WNC railine and then went to the Mountain Empire Model Railroad club layout at the East Tennessee State University Campus. They're on the web under MEMRR. Haven't been there in over a year. They have a small G scale layout, and an N scale layout and a larger HO scale layout. They also rotate nice museum photos and railroadianna in their museum cases. 

They highlight the railroading around Johnson City TN. It was a hub for the Southern, the Clinchfield and the Tweetsie RRs. 
A side note of anecdotal interest; apparently during prohibition people like Alphonse Capone could ALSO read railroad maps and the location along the mainlines and at the foot of the mountains was not lost on enterprising folks like himself. The town had the somewhat dubious moniker of "Little Chicago" and supposedly Capone and some of his business associates rented apartments in the area at places like the Montrose Court apartments and in some of the major hotels to oversee certain 'purchasing and shipping interests' and from numerous accounts local distillation products from enterprising mountain folks very likely were shipped out via the railroads and undoubtedly many people were paid to otherwise look the other way as certain boxes and milk cans etc. were loaded onto trains for shipment. Even to this day folks don't wish to talk about it much or even talk about how the local taxi companies did more than just drive folks around town or deliver groceries to their kitchen door. 

anyway, if you're interested in seeing my photos of the fine work by the MEMRR club check out my photobucket;
http://s762.photobucket.com/albums/xx267/flatrat62/MEMRR layout/ 


and the Johnson Depot site is a vast wealth of interesting info on both railroads and general history of this part of the country:
http://www.johnsonsdepot.com/chicago/chicago.htm
and their homepage:
http://www.johnsonsdepot.com/index.htm


----------



## SRW (Jan 13, 2010)

I also read this book last fall called "Conquering the Appalachians" by Mary Hattan Bogart. Her father was W.C.Hattan 
Chief Engineer of the Clinchfield RR who lived in the nearby small town of Erwin TN. I found it fascinating. Apparently he also had a lot to do with laying out the downtown of kingsport TN which is referred to as the "model city", where Eastman Chemical is located and he also engineered the western part of the Western Maryland . 
The Clinchfield was one of the last class 1 railroads I believe I read and it was considered to be kind of a railroading marvel for traversing a part of the country that had up until that point remained unpassable. The trestles, tunnels and grades to this day are pretty amazing to view. I live right around the corner from a Clinchfield trestle that was built about a hundred years ago and it must be about the height of a about a four story building and gosh knows how long, probably the better part of a tenth of a mile and I watch loaded coal trains run over it every day and marvel at its ability to handle modern heavy freight trains. Hattan also engineered the tunnels of the Connelsville extension of the Western Maryland railroad which was a very difficult challenge. we think of engineers today as working in their offices and doing things with CAD but in those days they weren't paid all that well and they lived in the same rough 'logging camp' kind of conditions pretty much as the men who dug and blasted out the mountains. In bare bones shacks in the middle of nowhere. They must have really loved their work.


----------



## aceinspp (Jan 2, 2008)

Very interesting site. I'm not that far from there. I also visited the area in 98 when I was still working and hi-rail some of the RRs in the area. Later RJD


----------



## Spule 4 (Jan 2, 2008)

Interesting, did not know of the club up there, will have to check it out when I am up in God's country for work.


----------



## Ralph Berg (Jun 2, 2009)

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=19690&id=100000637950305&l=48fe577bf1
Rumor has it there was a tunnel from the Johnson Depot that ran across the street for smuggling spirits.
I have a few pictures here of the Johnson Depot as well as nearby Erwin.
Ralph



http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=19690&id=100000637950305&l=48fe577bf1


----------



## Spule 4 (Jan 2, 2008)

Posted By Ralph Berg on 07 Mar 2011 06:39 PM 
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=19690&id=100000637950305&l=48fe577bf1
... as well as nearby Erwin.
Ralph




The final resting place of Mary the Elephant, hanged with Clinchfield RR crane in the 19-teens.


----------



## SRW (Jan 13, 2010)

Ralph and Garrett, 
You've both touched upon local lore. The town of Johnson City has numerous tunnels under many of its buildings and hotels. Many of them were built to deal with the springs in the local area and the [to this day] flooding issues of the town's location. These tunnels may have been dug to sump out the basements but they also made attractive subterranean access ways into buildings that may have been used by folks to bring liquor into the hotels discretely and used to supply hidden barooms in some of those hotels and speakeasies. 
East Tennessee railroads may have been initially built to tap into the resources of the mountains, i.e. iron ore, coal and timber but one of prohibitions' greatest failings of taking taxable money from licensed distillers away from the government and allowing small time operators to make fortunes in the black market created the seed money for many modern day fortunes and those same railroads undoubtedly provided ways to ship those shadow products to the big cities. Families like the Kennedys supposedly made money initially from rum running and in this area it is also speculated that some of the seed money to start up major resort places like Gatlingburg and Pigeon forge may have originally come from moonshining profits. Prohibition may have taken profits away from the government and fueled organized crime but it also may have provided the start up capital for many businesses in regions like east Tennessee. 
Still, larger industries like the coal industry and the efforts of people like George L. Carter who developed coal fields and started the Clinchfield RR probably contributed much more to the overall development of the area. He also donated 150 acres and 100,000 dollars and his personal home here in Johnson city to the state to build East Tennessee State University. 
This part of the country has always been "wide open" in many ways. I think in many ways this part of the United States still is "wide open" to development. Not the lawless development of days past but in potential development for industries who are searching for affordable land, low taxes, cheap homes for their employees and cheap labor. Some folks have jokingly said about the region "last stop before Mexico" but if we wish to still make products and offer services 'Made in America' then this is a pretty good place to consider for industry.


----------

