Niota to host second annual Model Train Show this weekend

Shown here, a model train layout is seen at the Niota Depot in 2018 during the city's first model train show.
Shown here, a model train layout is seen at the Niota Depot in 2018 during the city's first model train show.

The city of Niota, Tennessee, in north McMinn County this coming weekend will host its second annual Model Train Show, featuring displays of model trains and vendors offering railroad memorabilia.

The Model Train Show will be held at the Niota Depot - the oldest standing depot in Tennessee and among the oldest in the country - from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on May 4 and from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on May 5., according to Niota Mayor Lois Preece.

Activities include a lecture from McMinn County historian and sheriff Joe Guy, who will speak at 11 a.m. Sunday on the history of the Niota Depot as part of the McMinn County Bicentennial Lecture Series, Preece said.

The event is free to the public.

According to historical information posted on the property and local officials' descriptions in Times Free Press archives, the community called "Mouse Creek" in 1858 that would eventually become Niota first appeared in official war records when a Union spy reported that a Confederate company was stationed there in January 1862. Union Gen. Ambrose E. Burnside occupied East Tennessee in September 1863 and troops later occupied the rail line, including Mouse Creek.

Although Confederate troops in the last year of the war tore up the tracks for miles north and south of Mouse Creek, the depot remained in Union hands until the war ended.

To get to Niota from Interstate 75, take exit 56 and turn east on Union Grove Road and continue to a right onto U.S. Highway 11/Wilson Street. The Niota Depot, which doubles as City Hall, is at 201 West Main St., two blocks west of Highway 11/Wilson Street.

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