Cliff Powers' Mississippi, Alabama & Gulf - The Magnolia Route

[ACL1504]

Tis' I, the ACL guy with yet another layout tour. This time Pam and I were fortunate enough to get Cliff Powers to give up 3.5 hours of his June 1, Sunday afternoon and let us visit his Magnolia Route - The Mississippi, Alabama & Gulf layout. His layout was featured in an Allan Keller DVD Volume #56 and was the cover story for Model Railroad Planning 2014. You can visit the Mississippi, Alabama & Gulf here - www.magnoliaroute.com.

Cliff was a very gracious host and we throughly enjoyed our visit in seeing the layout and our conversation with Mr. Powers. I was quite loquacious upon my arrival mainly due to the fact that I didn't want Cliff  to see me drooling. One of the things that impressed me about Cliff is that he immediately made us feel welcome to his layout and he wasn't in a hurry to run me off, even with my drooling!

I believe Mr. Powers is humble to a fault and I mean in a very positive way. He was concerned that we may be disappointed with the layout after driving some 650+ miles to see the layout. Not me, how could I be disappointed? This pilgrim was visiting Mecca!!!! The only thing I didn't do yesterday was to genuflect when I left! Trust me, I wanted to and almost did! However, I did bow at one time during my visit.

Cliff is an extremely talented modeler and his work and layout are equally impressive. The layout is picture perfect but I must tell you no picture of mine can really show the quality and natural appearance of the layout.  The scenes, structures, weathering, lighting, small details and overall appearance all seem perfectly natural. I could go on but I'm guessing by now you want me to shut the trap and get to the pictures.

I do have Cliff's permission to show these photos on the forum.

The entrance to Mecca!


Mr. Cliff Powers and Pam! You don't need to see my picture.



Notice Cliff is wearing his Disney Rain Forest t-shirt!

Continued in a few.

[GPdemayo]

Come on Tom, lets get those pictures going!

[maandg]

Tom, I thoroughly enjoyed your visit yesterday.  It was a pleasure meeting you and your lovely wife, Pam.  I'm excited to see your photos!!!  Thanks for the very kind words...I'm glad y'all made it home safely!

[ACL1504]

By the way, one of the many items of dicussion yesterday with Cliff was his passion for structures and building them. I gave him the infomation on this forum so hopefully we'll see Cliff over here. I sent him the link to this thread.

I only had time to take 300 pictures and I'm not sure of the best way to show them. I thought about this during my return drive to Orlando. I decided to show them in the order as if you were visiting and looking. My first pictures will start with the lower level and go around the room and finish with the top level.

The helix in the three photos below is to the right of the entrance as you enter Mecca. The photo tour starts with the area to the left of the entrance.







Continued in a few.

[ACL1504]

Come on Tom, lets get those pictures going!

Wait, I'm answering Cliff first!  LOL!

Tom

[ACL1504]

Tom, I thoroughly enjoyed your visit yesterday.  It was a pleasure meeting you and your lovely wife, Pam.  I'm excited to see your photos!!!  Thanks for the very kind words...I'm glad y'all made it home safely!

Cliff,

Thank you for looking in, very much appreciated. We enjoyed the visit as well and I'm just saying up front I plan other Mississippi visits! Your layout is absoultely visually stunning and Pam and I appreciate you taking your Sunday afternoon to entertain us and for answering my many questions.

Tom

[ACL1504]

Okay, back to you Greg. I'm uploading more pictures now! Thank you for checking in as well.

Tom

[ACL1504]

The start of the picture tour of Cliff's Magnolia Route.









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[ACL1504]

Continuing-







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[GPdemayo]

Now you're on a roll! 

[Erieman]

Tom,

Thanks to you and Pam for going to see Cliff's wonderful layout. I look forward to seeing all the pictures you took and ... After seeing cliff's layout are you going to make your ovalex with two tracks instead of one track? Now is the time to think about what you saw and what you liked. Really appreciate Cliff letting you share the photo's with the rest of us. I will looking for more pictures any minute now. Find the easy chair, a bottle of Diet Pepsi and just keep posting. We are all ready. Thanks again. Got to get back to the station build.

Frank / Erieman

[ACL1504]

Now you're on a roll! 

Greg,

After three hours sleep in the past 38 hours I'm ready to roll into bed. See you Thursday!

Tom

[ACL1504]

Tom,

Thanks to you and Pam for going to see Cliff's wonderful layout. I look forward to seeing all the pictures you took and ... After seeing cliff's layout are you going to make your ovalex with two tracks instead of one track? Now is the time to think about what you saw and what you liked. Really appreciate Cliff letting you share the photo's with the rest of us. I will looking for more pictures any minute now. Find the easy chair, a bottle of Diet Pepsi and just keep posting. We are all ready. Thanks again. Got to get back to the station build.

Frank / Erieman

Frank,

I didn't see anything I didn't like at Cliff's! There was nothing not to like!

I'm staying with my original ovalix plan with one track. It will make for train engineers to wait for the green light.

At the present, a direct injection of pure caffeine can't keep me from bed after posting the next eight pictures.

Tom

[ACL1504]

More from the Magnolia Route.









Continued in a few.

[ACL1504]

The last four tonight.









Night Night!