Overview of the Bluff City Southern Part 2

Here is a look at Allen Keller’s own Bluff City Southern model railroad featuring five railroads in the second installment of his video series. Since his part one overview in 2001, he has completed the Tennessee peninsula, so now the layout consists of three peninsulas including Bluff City Yard in Memphis, which is the main classification yard.

Each peninsula is controlled by a different railroad; in Mississippi it’s the Illinois Central, in Arkansas it’s the Frisco and in Tennessee, it’s the Southern. The Missouri Pacific and the Louisville and Nashville have trackage rights on some of the lines. The colors of the ballast and the company owned buildings in each peninsula are appropriate for each railroad.

The Bluff City Southern completely fills his 30 by 44 foot basement. It’s built on two inch styrofoam panels, each with a minimum radius of 34 inches. Each of the three peninsulas operates like its own division, though all interchange in Memphis. The tour of the railroad will begin at Jackson, Tennessee, where an IC passenger train comes from the Chattanooga and Points North staging yard.

Watch more from Allen Keller’s Great Model Railroad series in the Model Railroad Academy archives.