THE CRESCENT CITY MODEL RAILROAD CLUB, ( C.C.M.R.C. ) dates back to the mid 1950s when a small group of teenagers began meeting in each other's homes to operate model trains in a realistic manner.  The group expanded over the years and built several layouts based on prototypical operations.

 

In 1973, the club bought the present building on North Lester.  Many people bought bonds to gather the needed funds for the down payment.

For many years, work on the layout was slow due to the many projects to repair and renovate the building.  Over the years since purchase, the exterior of the building was replaced, windows closed in, the north wall was reworked, doors have been changed out and secured, office remodeled, central air conditioning added, a new roof has been installed, one bathroom was taken out and the other refinished including a shower and hot water heater.

 

In 1990, the final note on the building was paid, and in 1991 the last tenant vacated the downstairs room making it available for full time club use.  Some of the past tenants have included an auto mechanic, a dance school, the local fire department, and a hobby shop.  Since 1990, the layout has tripled in size. 

 

Today, the Crescent Lines has also expanded its operations to not only include our normal switching operations on the Crescent Lines, but with the aquisition of trackage and trackage rights from Turner City, the Crescent Lines were able to connect to Shreveport thru Alexandria, which gave the Crescent Lines more interchange with major railroads (KCS, BNSF, UP, NS, CSX, CN) to name a few. The Crescent Lines also aquired trackage to extend its operations to Vicksburg.  With this increased capacity, came expansion on the Cresent Lines with improved and expanded yards. Major change occured at the Crescent City McNally yard, being remodeled, and the building of the Race Street Yard, new engine and car service facilites, and the addition of a container yard. Also at the Crescent Lines division point, Turner City, came the expansion of the Turner City yard, tripling its capacity as it becomes a major interchange point for the Crescent Lines.

 

With these advance came more customers as customers are now able to ship their products across the country with the Crescent Lines interchange with other railroads.  The future of the Crescent Lines looks bright, with the aquistition of new and more modern locomotives to handle the increase in new customers and the coming back of lost customers and volume of products that are now moved across the Crescent Lines.

 

 

 

View of the clubhouse when it was purchased in the 1970's.  The tower is still standing at the new firehouse down the street.	This photo of the clubhouse was taken in 2001.