Overview of the Chicago, Indianapolis and Louisville

This is the Chicago Indianapolis at Louisville Railroad, or as it's commonly called, the Monon. This end scale railroad is owned by Lance Mindheim, who is also a custom layout builder. The railroad runs through Monroe County, Indiana in 1955. On line industries are limited, yet Lance and his friends can have full timetable operating sessions that last for up to three hours. Locomotives and cars must stand up to that kind of action. That requires mechanical dependability. Track work and turn outs have to be reliable. Lance says all these conditions are now possible with N Scale. Hi, I'm Allen Keller, and this is Lance Mindheim, the man who built the N Scale Monon. Lance, why did you decide to model the Monon? Well, Allen, I grew up in southern Indiana and Bloomington was my home town, and Monon ran through the Bloomington area and it's just a railroad that has a lot of Indiana hometown appeal. The Monon takes up 20 by 20 feet in Lance's basement with two staging yards extending into another room. The bench work is L girder with sply and road bedding cork. The scenery base is styrofoam. We'll begin our trip from south staging.