Bill Zawacki, MMR

Bill Zawacki, MMR grew up in a suburb of Chicago, moved to Kingston, NY and then to Danbury, CT before arriving in Marietta, GA. He worked for a printer company, IBM, and Delta Airlines prior to his retirement.

Bill became interested in model railroading as he was caddying and kept his interest in the hobby as he moved and raised his family. In August 2011, Bill completed the requirements and became the third member of The North Atlanta Rail Barons to earn the award of Master Model Railroader #468. He has earned The NMRA Golden Spike Award, as well as NMRA Achievement Program Certificates as Association Volunteer, Chief Dispatcher, Model Railroad Engineer - Electrical, Model Railroad Engineer - Civil, Master Builder - Structures, Master Builder - Cars, and Master Builder - Scenery.

Bill has served multiple terms as Director At Large in the Piedmont Division, and he manages the White Elephant Sale at the Division's annual Model Train Show. Bill also assembled the team that managed the Silent Auction at each of the past two National Model Railroad Association Annual Conventions, including the Peachtree Express 2013 in Atlanta. You will also find him actively engaged in many other Division activities.

Little Towne Railroad

The Little Towne Railroad is a free-lanced railroad that has Shays, Heislers, small steam switchers and early Diesel locomotives to power the railroad. The layout is a folded dog-bone which fills an 18'x9' room and contains over 50 structures consisting of 8 Fine Scale Miniatures and many Campbell kits - some dating back 40 years. The scenery is complete with the exception of some background trees.

One scratch-built structure has been under construction for some three years, and while progress has been slow, Bill assures us that it will eventually be completed. He makes progress on it with each approaching Piedmont Pilgrimage. During the first year, the surveyors laid out the foundation strings, followed in the second year by construction of the foundation and the sub-flooring. The third year found exterior walls erected, and a truckload of plywood has now been delivered.

The village of LittleTowne contains numerous structures, all of which are built from wood kits - except one . When you have the opportunity, see if you can identify the plastic structure. The town is lighted and has automatic grade crossing gates and sound modules.

Adjacent to the layout room is the crew lounge, which is decorated to resemble the train stations of olden times. It even has a jukebox and a resident mouse! Don't feed him the refreshments!

On May 7, 2014, The North Atlanta Rail Barons gathered for an Operating Session on the Little Towne Railroad. Follow the link for details and pictures of what happened.

Layout at a Glance

Scale HO
Size 9X18
Prototype No
Locale Northeast
Era 50's plus
Layout Style Freelance
Len. of Mainline 80 feet
Layout Height 43"
Benchwork Open Grid
Roadbed Homabed
Trackwork Code 83
Turnout Min. #5
Min. Radius 24"
Maximum Grade 2%
Scenery 70% Complete
Backdrop painted linoleum
Controls Digitrax DCC
Wheelchair Accessible No

 

Photos (Click the image for a larger version.)

More pictures are coming...

Piedmont Division Logo           Southeastern Region logo           NMRA logo


  Member Index

Charter Members

The following current members of the North Atlanta Rail Barons are Charter Members of the group:

Howard Goodwin, MMR

Charlie Brown, MMR

Al Churella

Rob Dodds

Perry Lamb

Walt Liles

Jim Travis

Members

The following members have joined the North Atlanta Rail Barons during the last nine years.

Boyd Bender

Dave Butts

Brian Campbell

Steve Funsten

I. D. Jackson

Bill Mathewson

Conrad Mora

Bill Raymond

Brian Sandberg

Mark Thomann

Dean Webb

Bob Wood

Bill Zawacki, MMR

 

Former Members

Charlie Crawford, MMR was a Charter Member of NARB and former Superintendent of the Piedmont Division. He was the third member of our group to earn the award of Master Model Railroader. He is now participating in another local operating group.

Larry K. Smith, MMR was a charter member of NARB and now lives in Kentucky where he completed the requirements to become the fourth Master Model Railroader from NARB.

Louis Gomes was a long-term member of NARB, an excellent modeler, guru of the CV's and DCC decoders and wiring design. He was the group's first webmaster and is responsible for the design of our logo. Louis recently completed his education and was rewarded with a new job in Houston, TX.

Philo Hutcheson left us when he accepted a position with the University of Alabama Birmingham. He had built an excellent HO-scale railroad depicting the Maine coastline in the 1940's/50's era.

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