The March meeting of the South Mountain Division (SMD) will be held on Sunday, 09 March at Jane and Pete Clarke’s home in Damascus, MD. The event officially starts at 2:00 PM with the business meeting starting around 2:45 PM.
Don’t forget that the 9th is the first day of Daylight Savings Time for 2025 so be sure to set your clock ahead an hour Saturday night.
Pete and Jane are rather narrow minded (HOn3 narrow that is) and have a very nice operational layout based on the East Broad Top Railroad. This layout has been featured in Great Model Railroads and is well worth your time to visit. Jane and Pete have provided the following information for your edification.
We model the East Broad Top Railroad in 1926. The EBT was a narrow-gauge line that ran from coal mines in the Robertsdale area of the mountains to an iron furnace in Orbisonia/Rockhill Furnace and then up to Mount Union where there was a coal cleaning plant, refractory brick plants, and an interchange with the Pennsylvania Railroad. By 1926 the iron furnace was long gone, but on our version, it has been re-opened by the current owners, the Madeira Hill Co.
The furnace consumes large amounts of coal (which needs to be coked first), limestone, and iron ore. Its output is pig iron which is then taken to Mt. Union. This has added a great deal of operational interest to the railroad. The fact that the iron furnace has reopened created a renewed need for iron ore and limestone. Both those had been mined along the Shade Gap branch of the EBT. So, the Shade Gap branch, which had fallen on hard times since the furnace closed in 1908, has been rebuilt. In Shade Gap this line serves limestone and iron ore mines. In Neelyton (the end of the Shade Gap branch) it serves the ganister mine for the refractory brick plants in Mt. Union and a lumber mill. Both towns also get miscellaneous freight and have coal dealers for home heating.
The layout is in a 20’ x 26’ basement and is fully scenicked. It’s early fall, so it’s still warm in the valley but cold on the mountain. Both of us work on models. Jane scratchbuilt the Orbisonia station and roundhouse and Pete the company store and houses in Robertsdale. The excellent models of Ewings Mill and Neelyton station were built by Frank Benenati. Other structures are kits (many by White Ground) or kit-bashed. There are still models to be done, but there’s at least a stand-in for every structure so the layout looks complete.
Following the meeting Pete (or Jane) will provide us with an update on the status of the other EBT.
Please email southmountaindiv@gmail.com to obtain the street address.
Note: Park on the street or driveway and enter through the front door. Unfortunately, our basement is not handicapped-accessible
