smdnmra

Next Business Meeting; 11 JAN

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.

From the Desk of the Superintendent, JAN 2026

By Dan Mulhearn

Well, folks, we have arrived at another new year. It is a tradition to look back over the past year and assess our doings. It is also a time to look ahead and make plans for the coming year. While this applies to our lives in general it also is a time to assess our progress in our hobby. What did you plan to accomplish in the past year? How did you do on that score? What would like to get accomplished in the new year? There are some things we might want to get to right away, and others that might involve some long-range planning. I have an Athearn SD40-2 sitting on my table. The Soundtraxx decoder has been plugged into the Athearn board and is fully functional. The remaining chore is to solder the two speaker wires to the main board. That seems simple and something I have done before. But, soldering, for me, has a way of turning disastrous on occasion. So, some days the unit sits there and I can do whatever else I am doing and ignore it. On other days it seems to fill the table and demand I get the job done. I won’t admit how long The SD40-2 has been sitting there. But I will tell you that I sometimes kid myself that I could be President of the Procrastinator’s Society except I haven’t gotten around to sending in my dues. The point being it is a good time to give some deep thought to what your accomplishments have been. What goals in the hobby do you have; and what are you going to do about it?

Our January meeting will be at the Western Maryland Historical Society at Union Bridge, which should be an interesting venue. Bob Johnson tells me we have hosts marked up for February, March and May. We still need someone to step up for April.

This year we celebrate the 90th anniversary of the NMRA. We should appreciate the organization’s contributions to our hobby. The interoperability of the different manufacturers’ products, which we take for granted, are the result of the standards and recommended practices of the NMRA. Happy 90th birthday and many more.

2026 Meeting Hosts Needed

We are making progress on lining up meeting hosts for the rest of the program year. Current scheduled meetings are as follows.

January 11th — OPEN (Host needed)
February 8th — Dave T.
March 8th — Pete and Jane C.
April 12 — OPEN (Host needed)
May 10th — Jay B.

Thanks again to those who have volunteered to host meetings.

Anyone who could host or arrange a location for a January or April meeting please email southmountaindiv@gmail.com.

Next Business Meeting; 14 DEC

The December meeting will be hosted by Rick Keller in Martinsburg, WV.

Rick writes, “I am working on modeling the Pennsylvania Railroad in about 1952 (steam to early diesel transition). I am halfway through tearing down an old layout and rebuilding the new. The new layout is located in my basement and is housed in two rooms (one 12’x16’ and one 12’x41’). It will be a three level layout, connected with a helix, and the “L” shaped portion is nearly complete in the 12’x16’ portion except there is no scenery anywhere yet. The layout will be loosely modeled after the PRR’s Lurgan Branch which will include Chambersburg to Marion (about 6 miles) and the Mercersburg Branch, which will be the main focus. The Mercersburg Branch leaves the main at Marion and goes to Mercersburg Jct. where it split at a wye. South went to Mercersburg and North went to Richmond Furnace. Beyond Richmond Furnace was a Logging RR which I will have modeled as well.”

As usual, the meeting starts at 2:00 p.m.

Please email southmountaindiv@gmail.com to obtain the street address.

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.

Hosts Needed:

As of this writing we do not have any meeting hosts signed up for January, February, and April of 2026. We need volunteers to step up as hosts. 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.

From the Desk of the Superintendent, DEC 2025

By Dan Mulhearn

There is certainly excitement in the air as we approach the holiday season. Of course, for us, a big part of that is trains. At the Quincy Village club we are decorating and sprucing up the layouts in anticipation of our November 30th Holiday Open House. Over at the Waynesboro club we are also working on the railroad for our series of open house events in December and January. Many other clubs and museums are also in the holiday mood at this joyous time of year.

The South Mountain Division’s November meeting was hosted by Larry Daily. Before the meeting we were able to look over Larry’s Piedmont Subdivision C&O Railway layout and enjoy socializing. A brief business meeting was followed by Larry’s program on the development and “raison d’etre” for his layout. Larry extensively researched the prototype Piedmont subdivision in order to plan the layout he desired, operate the trains that ran, and construct the buildings seen along the right of way. Many of the structures on the layout are representatives of the actual buildings along the line. The overall effect is a beautifully done representation of the C&O in the 1970s. Well done Larry. Thank you for hosting.

Rick Keller has invited us to his home for our December meeting, which is much appreciated.

Pete and Jane Clarke have proposed the we consider our February or March meeting to be at the East Broad Top RR in Robertsdale, PA. They do acknowledge it would make for a long day. We would meet at the museum. Those wishing to could ride the afternoon train. Keep in mind the early season trains will be powered by the diesel. Should the members not wish to do that, Pete and Jane are willing to host one of those months at their home. We have a couple of other volunteers in the pipeline for future meetings, but it never hurts to have some players on the bench. Please let me know if you are willing to be a meeting host.

I have finally seen the new NMRA National logo. In my opinion it is crisp, clean and modern but there has been a lot of negative feedback. If you’ve not seen it the NMRA is in bold type in a squared off rectangle shape. There are two dots below each end so it forms a symbolic rail car. The plan is for each Region or Division to place their own logo in the blank space between the “wheels.” It’s OK with me but we will see if they decide to “Cracker Barrel” the new design.

To each of you, your families and your friends I wish you a joyous, peaceful and a fulfilling holiday. See you at the December meeting