 Hello and welcome to the Birmingham District Model Railroad. This is the entry to the Model Railroad and shows the area that we call the Steelworks, which is modeled after Fairfield in Birmingham, Alabama, about 1928. Nearby is a coal branch, which represents an opportunity to provide coal, one of the key ingredients to make iron, which in turn is used to make steel. The railroad continues into the next room through a hole in the wall, but before we leave this smaller room, this is the staging yard, where trains begin and end their journeys in the Birmingham District. The staging yard has 12 tracks, and it too passes through a hole in the wall, going into the larger room. As the railroad has become more complete, we've run out of places to put things, and so this area, unfortunately, has become one of the last stacking spots on the railroad. The small yard that you see here represents a yard that serves the Steelworks, which is in the adjacent room where we just were. And then as we pan, we come toward downtown Birmingham. In 1930, the main lines of the Southern and the Allen End through downtown Birmingham were grade separated, which is very popular in that period, and we're representing that here. Along the central portion of this wall, we're representing what became the elevated Allen End Terminal, and there'll be a long passenger shed at this point, where Allen End shared their main line serving the station with the Southern Railroad. On the lower level in the foreground of this part of the film is what we call the downtown staging yard, which represents several areas near downtown Birmingham. Continuing along the area now in the foreground, we'll represent a Coke byproducts plant, and the adjacent Coke plant, where coal is turned into Coke, a fuel for blast furnaces, is represented here. These mock-up models are based on typical Coke furnace operations. This particular one was located at Republic Iron and Steel in Birmingham. The main line continues along the wall, and in the background is a long branch line that will go to Red Mountain, which occupies the central portion of this room. Following the Red Mountain branch, which will be the source of iron ore for our blast furnaces, we're on the south side of Red Mountain now, and our main line as well as our branch line wraps around the end of this peninsula, and the mining areas on Red Mountain on the north slope will be represented where you see the ore cars on sightings. There'll be at least two mine tipples and probably three along this area. This is a view of a typical train leaving Woodward Iron tipple on Red Mountain. In the lower part of the railroad, in the foreground, we're now on the yard lead, so we're in the yard limits. This will pass through a short tunnel under Red Mountain, and in the background you see the yard lead bearing off to the left and going through the hole in the wall. So now coming full circle, we'll re-enter the front room of the railroad and take another look at the staging yard. We have a small control panel here that enables us to manage key turnouts and crossovers on the yard throat as well as a couple on the main line. There will be a turn table to turn our locomotives when trains begin and end their trip. And then we'll have, as stated earlier, a 12-track staging yard where trains begin and end. And adjacent to that, where we started is the steelworks. Hope you've enjoyed the tour of the Birmingham District Railroad and visit us again for more information as we continue to make progress.