| Layout | Franklin Southern – Murphy Subdivision | Owner | Mark Shifter |
| Scale | HO | Era | Proto-freelanced/Modern |
| Train Control | DCC/ Digitrax/ Wi-Throttles | Road(s) | Franklin Southern, CSX, Norfolk Southern |
| Modeled Location | Smoky Mountains/ North Carolina | Car Routing | Car Cards |
| Dispatching | Sequencing | ADA | No |
| Web Site | Facebook – Franklin Southern-Murphy Subdivision | Bring | Wi fi throttle if you desire |
| Address | Lakewood | Crew | 6 |
| % Track Done | 100 | % Scenery Done | 80 |
| Layout Size | 12' by 32' - 384 sq. ft., multi-deck | Distance from Hotel | 19 mi |
Description
The Franklin Southern is a multi-level walk-around layout in HO scale in a 12’x32’ basement room. This proto-freelanced road takes place on the old Southern Railway’s Murphy Branch, which ran from Asheville, NC, to Murphy, NC. It is a modern day, fictionalized version of this area, creating a bridge line from Asheville to Atlanta, GA, as well as local freight operations and a scenic excursion train. The layout represents a portion of this 114 mile line from Sylva, NC, to Murphy, NC, with a branch line from Sylva to Franklin, NC. This is an operations-oriented layout that depicts actual scenes in the Smoky Mountain region of North Carolina. There are many scratch-built and kit-bashed structures that represent present-day buildings and industries in this area.
The Franklin Southern uses DCC (Digitrax) for train control, with a sequencing schedule and car cards for operations. There are staging yards that simulate off-layout destinations and interchanges with the Norfolk Southern and CSX. Our crew normally includes a dispatcher, two local/ yardmaster and three road crew positions. This line has been historically dark territory and that is how it is represented on the layout. We use verbal track warrant-like instructions to move trains.
This layout has been in existence since 2016 and is about 60-70% complete with scenery.
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Copyright © 2025 Front Range Rails. All rights reserved. Last Updated: May 7, 2025
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