The May meeting will be hosted by Jay Beckham who lives near Berkley Springs, WV. Contact southmountaindiv@gmail.com for the address and directions. As always, the meeting will start at 2:00PM.
Jay’s Layout, in his words:
My layout concept is to model, in O scale, the Chicago, South Shore, and South Bend Railroad in the 60s, the time I first saw it in person. I have always had an interest in traction, and interurbans in particular. It was the railroad I modeled when we first moved into this house. Then, for a period of time, I changed to modeling the PRR. Now I am back to the South Shore. I am trying to use as much of the old layout as possible as far as track design but a mid-western railroad is certainly different from the PRR that I was modeling. We have redesigned the CTC to suit the South Shore. Trying to use as many of my many buildings, most of which were scratch built. Also have corrected most of the track to a 60” minimum radius and from #5 to #6 or larger turnouts.
Following the business meeting Jay will be presenting a clinic addressing the use of AI in model railroading.
This will be the last meeting of the 2025 / 2026 program year.
2026 – 2027 SMD Meetings
It is not too early to start thinking about next year’s meeting. If you would like to host a meeting next year let us know now. Volunteer now to get your choice of months to be the host. We have already received an offer to host the October meeting so we only need 8 more of you to take the plunge.
