The January meeting will be hosted by Jeff Adams and held at Western Maryland Railway Historical Society museum located at 41 N. Main St. Union Bridge, MD 21791. As a part of the meeting Jeff will lead us on a tour of the museum.
Jeff writes, “The Western Maryland Railway Historical Society is one of the few organizations of its kind to own and operate its own museum. The Museum complex consists of two buildings built in 1902, an office building and the depot, which houses our extensive collection of WM artifacts and memorabilia. There are two model railroad layouts, an N-scale layout which represents the WM East Subdivision from Union Bridge to the Twin Bridges (west of Thurmont, MD), and an HO scale layout that represents the many industries and geographical areas served by the WM.”
As usual, the meeting starts at 2:00 p.m.
Draft Meeting Minutes – 14 Dec 2025
Division members met at Rick K’s home in Martinsburg, WV. The Superintendent called the meeting to order at 2:18pm with 13 members in attendance. The Superintendent thanked Rick for hosting the Division. Rick has recently retired from a career at CSX, and is rebuilding his layout after changing roads and design philosophy.
● The draft minutes from the May, September, October and November meetings were approved as submitted. These minutes were collectively published in a recent Wheel Report.
● The Paymaster reported a current balance of $3337.66
Old Business
● Superintendent Dan Mulhearn appealed for more meeting hosts. Pete and Jane C will be our January host and Jay B has volunteered to host our May meeting, but February, March and April remain open.
● Wheel Report Editor Ron Polimeni and publisher Bob Johnson appealed for more submissions, stating that simply talking about and sharing your hobby is more than welcome.
New Business
● The question was asked whether or not the 2026 Mini-Con had been formally called off, which it has. The Superintendent confirmed that we will have a normal membership meeting in April instead.
● Alex P provided an update on behalf of himself, Bill M and Steve K regarding deciding upon a venue for the 2027 MER Convention the Division has been asked to host. Bill has drawn up a list of information but further action has not been taken at this time.
A motion to adjourn was made, seconded, and carried at 2:30. The Superintendent then yielded the floor to Rick K to speak about his model railroad.
Reminder:
SMD membership meetings are always the 2nd Sunday of the month at 2 p.m. The only exception is due to Mother’s Day in May, which will take place one week later, on the 3rd Sunday.
Please consider hosting a meeting sometime during the 2025 – 2026 program year. Email southmountaindiv@gmail.com. We try to avoid back-to-back repeat visits so if you have never hosted, or it has been a year or so since you did, give it a thought.
Hosts Needed:
As of this writing we do not have a meeting host signed up for April of 2026. Your layout doesn’t need to be large, or finished, or even operational. Without hosts we cannot hold our meetings. Repeat hosts (within the past year) are okay but we really would like to see some layouts that we have not visited for a couple of year or never seen at all. If you would like to host, or have any questions concerning hosting please contact your Division superintendent at southmountaindiv@gmail.com.
