The May meeting will be hosted by Jay Beckham who lives near Berkeley Springs, WV, on Sunday, 19 May starting at 2:00 PM. Please remember that this meeting is taking place on the third Sunday of the month, as opposed to the normal second Sunday, due to the Mother’s Day holiday.
Déjà vu. When Jay first started a layout in his current location he was modeling the Chicago, South Shore, and South Bend Railroad in the 1960’s but later changed to the PRR theme.When you arrive at Jay’s location you will see that he is again modeling the South Shore. <https://jaysoscalelayout.blogspot.com>
Jay writes, “My new 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. 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.”
He says that he hopes to have trains running, by the time of the meeting, partly through some of the old scenery and maybe some of the new.
Following the business meeting Jay will present an overview of the prototype Chicago, South Shore, and South Bend Railroad. This line has an interesting history and parts of it are still in regular use today as a commuter line.
Email southmountaindiv@gmail.com and we will provide the street address. -Ed
Election of Officers
We will be “electing” the division officers at the May meeting.
The candidates are as follows:
- Superintendent (president) – Bob Johnson
- Clerk (secretary) – Alex Polimeni
- Paymaster (treasurer) – Ray Price
These are the only elected positions in the Division. There are numerous other unofficial positions (see listing at end of Wheel Report).
Please note that I have already announced that I will not serve again for the 2025 / 2026 program year, and Alex has stepped up to serve as Clerk, simply because no one else has volunteered. If we cannot get some new candidates for officers for the 2025 / 2026 we will be forced to declare the Division inactive.
Registration is now open for Piedmont Junction, the 2024 Mid-Eastern Region Convention, in Durham, North Carolina at the Marriott Raleigh-Durham Research Triangle Park the weekend of October 17-20, 2024, with four full days of model railroading activities.
The West Virginia Midland is a freelance HO standard gauge short line set in central West Virginia in the spring/summer of 1954. The Midland connects with the B & O at Holly Junction and the Western Maryland at Cherry Falls. Both interchanges are supported by small staging yards with represent Grafton (B&O) and Laurel Bank (WM).