When completed the layout will run point-to-point from Johnson City, Tennessee, to Cranberry, North Carolina. Hidden loops at Johnson City and Cranberry allow for continuous running and hidden staging tracks beyond Cranberry represent the Linville River Railway from Cranberry to Pineola, North Carolina.

The major industries at Johnson City are the Cranberry Iron Furnace and Harris Lumber & Flooring Company. Johnson City also has a yard and engine facility. The first stop after Johnson City is Hampton. Hampton is in a valley between two famous covered bridges, one a deck truss and one a thru-truss. There is a siding and depot at Hampton. After Hampton the line climbs serious grades through the spectacular Doe River Gorge, past Pardee Point, Hanging Rock, and the bridge, tunnel, bridge section. The gorge section is over 40' of single track mainline through the mountains. Quite a bottleneck on a model railroad, just as it was for the prototype.

The line leaves the gorge through Big Nance Cut and enters the small town of Roan Mountain, Tennessee. Roan Mountain isn't much more than a siding, station, and a few businesses, including the oft-photographed S. B. Wood Drug Store. After Roan Mountain the line gains elevation on State Line Hill and arrives at Elk Park, North Carolina. A spur track at Elk Park goes to the H. S. White sawmill. Just beyond Elk Park lies Cranberry, home of the substantial Cranberry Iron Mine. There is an upper yard at the mine with a turntable, coaling dock, and engine house, but trains negotiate a switchback to reach the lower yard and depot.

Construction of the layout started in October 2006. The basic benchwork has been completed and is a modified L-girder design using 3/4" birch plywood cut into dimensional sizes. The plan is that by the time of the Symposium, the entire mainline will be operational and scenery done in the Hampton area. Much of the work is being done by the Wednesday PM S-group.

Trackwork will be a combination of flextrack and Fast Tracks turnouts. Turnouts will be manually operated using Blue Point Turnout Controllers and various model airplane control parts. Electrical control will be supplied by EasyDCC. Mainline motive power is made up of Railmaster Consolidations. Yardwork at the iron furnace is a Railmaster switcher and an 0-4-0 Porter makes its home at the mine.