After some 70 plus years of continuous operations, The Rail Model Club of Atlanta has moved out of its building in the Old Fourth Ward of Atlanta. The already gentrifying neighborhood had been designated an opportunity zone by the county which likewise further encouraged the frenzy of construction which had over the past five years made the location even more problematic for our membership such that we voted to sell out. MARTA’s (local transit agency) recent decision to extend their circulator light rail line up to the Belt Line via our street further confirmed the timeliness of our decision, as the parking was already untenable and will only further become expensive if not unavailable.
Other factors weighed in heavily, the building had become problematic for us with its limited stair-only access to the second floor, the layout itself needed a complete electrical upgrade and was “long-in-the-tooth” from a technology standpoint, I personally would be pleasantly surprised if I was ever able to run a schedule on as good and well designed a layout as this one was, and I will miss it terribly (though not the crawling around on my hands and knees part locating and rerailing a derailment on one of the many (approximately one-third of the mainline) tunnels on this pike …splinters and spiders you know 8^)
So adios Edgewood Avenue, we’re now in the process of locating a new building. I’d like to share the following Facebook link of a “cab ride” of the old Great Southern Lines' Wallace, Clayton and Tyler Divisions made by our club president’s (Pete Silcox) son Perry, a professional media producer who generously spent a large amount of his time filming and documenting the club during its final days of operation downtown. He shot it using a Go-Pro camera mounted on a depressed center flat pushed by a road switcher, and is lengthy as this was a very long layout in terms of route "mileage" and there is a small bit of duplication in the footage.
https://youtu.be/RA0BQXmagXQ
Nevertheless I hope you enjoy it, I sure did. On behalf of our current membership I'd like thank all our visitors, supporters and former members we've had over the years too.
Pete DeBruin
RMCA Inc.
