Chattanooga Choo Choo Layout Eviction

[dinwitty]

been there done that (club layout) old parts of layout were saved but just could not fit into new scheme. Looks like they found a new home quickly so perhaps the downtime will be on the shorter side...it'll take a little while...

[richhotrain]

Looks like they found a new home, but will need to build a new layout.

http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/local/story/2014/dec/31/model-train-attraction-finding-new-home-choo-choo/280417/

Rich

[overall]

I have gotten word that the large HO layout at the Chattanooga Choo Choo Hotel , in place since 1973, is being evicted by that hotel’s management. Apparently, they want to use the space for something else. The last day is going to be January 18^th. For those of you who don’t know the back story, Southern Railway vacated their large passenger station in the early seventies and was about to tear it down when an entrepreneur offered to buy it and turn it into a railroad themed hotel. The result was the Chattanooga Choo Choo hotel, named after the song that was popular during the World War 2 years. Back then, the waiting room was made into a dining room and coaches were renovated into hotel rooms and parked on the former passenger train ladder tracks. The hotel gave some space to an HO scale group to build a large layout as an attraction. My question is; Is this true? Since the NMRA headquarters is in Chattanooga, I feel like there should be some readers of this forum that live there and, presumably, would know the real story. Can some of you comment?