February Meeting:
The February meeting will be held on Sunday, 09 February, at Richard Benjamin’s home in Frederick, MD. AS usual, the meeting starts at 2:00PM.
Please email southmountaindiv@gmail.com to obtain the street address.
Richard has provided the following information about his railroad.
The Bedford Division of the PRR ran from the yards at Hollidaysburg, PA to the state line at Maryland. The Western Maryland connected with the PRR at the state line to carry freight to Cumberland, MD. At Bedford, there was a connection with the Huntington and Broadtop to move coal from the west side of the Broadtop mining operations.
The current layout models from Brooksville to the State Line in the early fall of 1949. The Huntington and Broadtop is represented as a coal mine just south of Bedford. The B&O is modeled as a parallel line that diverted at Hyndman, PA that ran up Wills Creak toward Sand Patch.
The layout is a mushroom design, so named by John Armstrong when he saw the original layout at my house in Dallas, TX. I am not real happy with the layout and I am contemplating some major revisions to eliminate a low duck under and a 2 turn helix. Currently, there is a 47” duck under, so be warned.
Note that the Everitt Railway is still operating today on some of the trackage of this division.
A short presentation of the Mushroom concept will be given as a clinic following the business meeting.
