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.

Railfan Report – EBT 11 Sept.

An EBT Excursion

From Bob Johnson; Images submitted by Jane Clarke, Denny LeFevre, & Bob Morningstar

On Friday, 11 August a group of SMD  members and their guests visited the East Broad Top Railroad (the real one – not Jane and Pete Clarke’s model thereof) for a very  interesting and informative day of  railfaning. The turnout was small but  those who participated had an interesting time. The group started out with a  walking tour of the remains of the coal  mining area around Robertsdale led by our own Pete Clarke. This gave a solid  understanding of how the mines operated.

 

Following a quick pizza lunch (provided by  the SMD) the group drove to Orbisonia, PA (bit of an issue with road closures) for a guided tour of the facilities. At Rock Hill highlights included the freight house, round house, mail shops, and a look in the door to the remains of the foundry. Then the crew rushed off to ride a train pulled by some smoky old steam engine; the newly restored number 16.

 

 

 

 

On our return to Rock Hill we then rode a trolley and toured both the trolley barn and the trolley restoration shops. It was a good day with fine company and beautiful weather.

 

 

URGENT UPDATE re: East Broad Top RR trip

NEW DATE: Friday, 11 August 2023

I have been informed by Jane Clarke that the trains on 16-28 July will be pulled by the diesel instead of #16. Since one of the objectives for this excursion is going to see the, recently returned to service, steam locomotive it will be necessary for us to reschedule the SMD event.

Per Jane, the advance ticket sales for the 4 August are already almost sold out, so I have moved the SMD event to Friday, 11 August. In order to ensure that you can get a ticket to ride I am asking everyone to purchase their tickets online as soon as possible. When ordering get combo tickets for the 1 PM shop tour and 3 PM train. Use the link below.

TICKETS

In addition to the Robertsdale visit and pizza lunch, the SMD group will be doing all three Rockhill Furnace activities (EBT ride, EBT shop tour, & Rockhill trolley ride). Please purchase an “All Aboard” combo ticket package to stick with our group. Reminder, when ordering get combo tickets for the 1 PM shop tour and 3 PM train.

Combo Tickets

This package includes tickets aboard our one-hour, steam powered train excursion, our one-hour guided tour of the EBT’s remarkably intact belt-driven machine shop complex, and general admission tickets to the Rockhill Trolley Museum.

All other arrangements, schedules, etc. remain as originally announced so we will see you at Robertsdale on the morning of 11 August. The tickets for the Robertsdale museum area tour can be purchased on the day of the event.

I sincerely apologize for any inconvenience, but I am certain that at least 99% of us want to see #16 in action.

As before we ask that you notify me as to why and how many (including guests) are planning on attending so that we can make the lunch arrangement (which are still on the Division’s dime).

Bob Johnson, 2022-2024 Superintendent

SMD Business Meeting – Sunday, 15 May, 1-5 PM, Greencastle, PA

Alex Polimeni, superintendent

Hey, folks!

I’m writing to invite you all to our May business meeting tomorrow, May 15th, at the historic High Line Train Station depot in Greencastle, PA. You read that right: for the first time since March 2020, we’re back in person! The address is

1-75 S Jefferson St, Greencastle, PA 17225

Literal, physical, actual doors open at 2pm, with the business meeting to follow by 2:30pm. Refreshments will be provided and, in lieu of a clinic, in-person socializing at the station is welcome until 5pm. I want to take a moment to give a big shout-out to Bob Morningstar for securing this opportunity for us!
In other news, big changes are coming to the South Mountain Division in the ’22-’23 season. Taking things from the top…
… I am stepping down from the Superintendent’s desk once more. I never intended to return to it this quickly, and it’s simply not a good fit for me right now. Fortunately, Bob Johnson has accepted a membership nomination to become our next Superintendent; please join me (hopefully, literally!) in giving Bob a big hand as he takes the Super’s chair.
Harvey Heyser and Ray Price have both graciously agreed to serve another year as our Clerk and Paymaster, respectively. With assistant Super Mike Shockey acting as our Nomination Chair and only one candidate per position, I expect to elect the current slate by a motion of acclamation in lieu of a voting election.
Furthermore, with Wheel Report editor Tom Fedor retiring from more than half a decade with the Division, I’ve volunteered to fill his shoes through our ’22-’23 issues and- as you likely already know- Grant Berry has replaced Pete Clarke as our MinI-Con Coordinator, with one successful Mini already under his belt.
Looking down the line, I’m excited to see a post-pandemic SMD begin to get under steam. Judging by conversations I’ve had with folks over the last 6-12 months, I believe there’s a real appetite for what our Division can bring to the table!
If you have any questions/concerns re: the meeting, email me at southmountaindiv@gmail.com.
See you all soon,
Alex Polimeni
Superintendent
*SMD has the station from 1-5, so I plan to arrive early with bottled water, soda, coffee, donuts, snacks, etc. as our “host” for concession boxcar purposes.
** Due to technical problems, the draft March meeting minutes will not be prepared for approval until our September meeting.

EBT Post Office Pushcart

From Pete Clarke

It’s quiet right now in Robertsdale, PA. But the mail train will soon arrive. So the post office clerk has positioned the pushcart into the spot where the crew will offload mail from the combine. The clerk will then push the cart over to the Post Office building, and toss the mail through the window. Every time he does this  chore I’m sure he asks himself, “why could  they bother to lay this track, but not bother to put in a door!”

That’s the way it was on the EBT. That’s the way it is on Pete and Jane Clarke’s HOn3 EBT as well.

  • Thank you to Wade Woodcock for the 3-D printed “Old Post Office” kit. Frank Benenati assembled the structure.