Division members met in-person at the home of Andrew Dodge near Olney, MD. 14 or so were present. After admiring Andy’s new layout and socializing, the Superintendant welcomed everyone and called the business meeting to order at 2:40 p.m.

23-3.1​Paymaster’s Report: Paymaster Ray Price reported the SMD bank balance was $3,332.91. That reflects his purchase of the gift certificate from Mainline to be raffled off at the April mini-con.

23-3.2​Clerk’s Report (Meeting Minutes): The attendees dispensed with the reading/summary of the minutes (previously distributed by e-mail). As there were no comments or corrections, per Roberts Rules of Order, the draft minutes, as submitted, were approved by acclamation.

23-3.3​ Superintendent Bob Johnson thanked Andrew Dodge for hosting.

Old Business:
22-10.5​Mini-Con 2023 – the second Saturday in April – April 8, 2023: Mini-Con Chair Grant Berry apologized for delays in getting event news to members. He has been battling “long Covid” (not contagious). He reported the following:

• The building will open at 7:00 am. He encouraged members to arrive at 7:30 or 8:00 to assist with set up. He’ll bring coffee and donuts for early helpers.
• Speakers and modular layouts can come as early as 7:30 to begin their set up.
• The event opens for the public at 9:00 am.
• The “informal clinics” should start promptly at 9:00 am.
• He expects to have 17 vendors and 17 informal clinics. Per past Mini-Cons, the informal clinics will be in 2 groups and will cycle on and off (alternate).
• An N-scale modular layout should be there.
• The food vendor plans to open for business at 10:30 am and stay the rest of the day.
• There will be a very short break to allow folks to grab lunch (but not be a “lunch break”). While attendees eat, there will be a panel of subject experts who will take questions from the audience. Bring your questions!
• Once the panel is done, there will be one more cycle of informal clinics.
• The Mini is expected to end around 2:00 pm.

22-11.4 SMD Summer Trip in 2023: Jane Clarke agreed to provide Wheel Report Editor Polimeni with more details of the proposed SMD visit to the East Broad Top Railroad this summer. This led to some general questions about current happenings on the EBT:

• Steam locomotive #16 is up and running. #16 pulled all the trains in the “Winter Spectacular” event 3 weeks ago.
• All 4 new passenger cars were in use at that same event.

New Business:
23-3.4​The Superintendant apologized for the confusion that led to the cancellation of last month’s meeting.

23-3.5​Wheel Report Editor Alex Polimeni apologized for not getting a newsletter sent out in March. He got busy with other concerns. He reports that the April issue will have double the content. His intent is to produce the newsletter 10 times a year. Since the division shuts down for June, July, and August there’s no reason to produce one in June or July unless there’s some time sensitive event that members need to know about. The August issue will contain news of the new year about to start.

23-3.6​Meeting Schedule: The Mini-Con will be the April meeting. The May meeting will be adjusted to May 21 (the third Sunday) due to Mothers day. That will be the last meeting of the SMD “year.” The division does not meet in June, July, or August

Adjournment: The Superintendant accepted a motion to adjourn at 3:20 pm.

The next meeting will be on May 21st at Rich Randell’s home near Gettysburg, PA. Rich models the Milwaukee Road in “O” scale and has chosen to focus on the town of Avery, Idaho – a somewhat unusual approach to modeling. He will present a program detailing the problems and rewards of focusing on such a limited area. Members will be reminded by e-mail.

Following the meeting, host Andrew Dodge spoke on his general modeling thoughts (always have more than one thing going on so when the paint is drying, you can work on something else, among other things) and converting his layout from its former Colorado theme to the current New England theme. What an interesting layout concept – essentially two separate railroads that don’t connect except by car float.

From the Desk of the Superintendent

The monthly meeting of the South Mountain Division (SMD) will be held on Sunday, 21 May at the home of Rich Randall in Gettysburg, PA. Please note that the May meeting will be held on the third Sunday of the month to avoid a conflict with Mother’s Day.

Rich models the Milwaukee Road in O scale and has chosen to focus on the town of Avery, Idaho. He will present a program detailing the problems and rewards of focusing on a limited area.

Additional agenda details will be provided in about two weeks but for now plan on being there.

The usual admonition is still in effect — If you are ill, have symptoms of COVID-19 or have been recently exposed, we would ask you not to attend.  Otherwise, everyone is welcome.

Turnout for the SMD meetings, including the April Mini-Con, has been very good. Let’s keep up the trend and have an even better turnout to close out the year.

Bob Johnson, 2022-2023 SMD Superintendent

From the Desk of the Superintendent

The monthly meeting of the South Mountain Division (SMD) will be held on Sunday, 12 March at the home of Division member Andrew Dodge. The primary topic of discussion for this month’s meeting will be the SMD Mini-Con which is coming up on Saturday, 8 April.  There are still a lot of issues to finalize. We are looking to incorporate new clinics. As always, the meeting will start at 2:00 PM. Andrew’s house in Olney, MD is a bit of a challenge to find. Please contact us at southmountaindiv@gmail.com for Andrew’s directions.

There may not be a formal clinic during this meet-up. If a clinic does not come through Andrew will talk briefly about fine scale modeling. He models “O” fine scale and is known for his Colorado narrow gauge efforts. In a total change-up he has switched over to modeling Maine (not 2-footers) railroading.

The usual admonition is still in effect — If you are ill, have symptoms of COVID-19 or have been recently exposed, we would ask you not to attend.  Otherwise, everyone is welcome.

Turnout for the SMD year to date has been very good.  Let’s keep up the trend in this new calendar year.

As there was no February meeting, the January draft meeting minutes can be found here: https://portal.smdnmra.org/2023/02/09/draft-meeting-minutes-8-january-2023/.

Bob Johnson, 2022-2023 SMD Superintendent

No February SMD meeting.

I would like to offer my apologies to all of you for the Shakespearian events (The Comedy of Errors) surrounding the February SMD meeting.   The issue started way back in late august of 2022 when we were planning the monthly meetings for the 2022 – 2023 SMD year.  We had originally scheduled the February meeting to be hosted by Andrew Dodge on the 3rd Sunday of February (February 19th) to avoid any conflicts with the Super Bowl.

At the same time Jane and Pete Clarke were scheduled to host the March meeting on the usual 2nd Sunday. After some discussion we decided to flip the February and March meetings in the possible event of inclement weather in February.  Everyone was satisfied with this change so that is how the 2022 – 2023 meeting agenda was sent out to all back in September.

Unfortunately I apparently failed to make it clear to the Clarke’s that the February meeting was scheduled for the 3rd Sunday.  If I had, they would not have been able to host the February meeting due to a conflict of interest (something about a Winter Spectacular weekend at the EBT with engine 16 in steam for the first time in the tourist era).

When we sent the reminder out for the February meeting no one caught the date discrepancy.  At the last minute (like Saturday) I received two emails from members requesting the meeting date.  Things went downhill from there.  If I had let sleeping dogs lie it probably would have worked out but no – I had to try to address the issue.

Net result – There will not be a South Mountain Division in February and the March meeting will be at Andrew Dodge’s home (more on that soon).

Again, I offer my apologies for the mix-up (feel free to fire me  – but whoever starts the recall action will automatically become the new Superintendent).  If you’d like more information on the East Broad Top Winter Spectacular, click the following hyperlink.

https://eastbroadtop.com/events/winter-spectacular/

Bob Johnson
2022 – 2023 SMD Superintendent

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Hey folks,

Last week’s email [and this, now amended, post ~ed] was incorrect. The Division membership meeting at Pete & Jane Clarke’s is NOT happening on 12 February, but rather, this coming Sunday, 19 Feb., at 2pm.

Again, there is NO SMD NMRA membership meeting (Sunday, 12 February).

This decision was made all the way back during last summer’s planning meeting so as not to conflict with Super Bowl Sunday, and simply slipped our minds when we were publishing the reminder. As you all know, typically, our meetings are the second Sunday of the month, not the third.

We apologize for the confusion; we knew better and should have caught it. We hope to see you all at the Clarke’s next Sunday the 19th for the membership meeting and Mat Thompson’s clinic on the AP program’s Master Builder certificate.

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The monthly meeting of the South Mountain Division (SMD) will be held on Sunday, 12 February at the home of Jane and Pete Clarke in Damascus, MD. As per usual, the event starts at 2:00 PM with the business meeting beginning around 2:45 PM.

Pete and Jane are rather narrow minded (HOn3 narrow that is) and have a very nice operational layout based on the East Broad Top Railroad. This layout has been featured in Great Model Railroads and is well worth your time to visit. Jane and Pete have provided the following information for your edification.

We model the East Broad Top Railroad in 1926. The EBT was a narrow-gauge line that ran from coal mines in the Robertsdale area of the mountains to an iron furnace in Orbisonia/Rockhill Furnace and then up to Mount Union where there was a coal cleaning plant, refractory brick plants, and an interchange with the Pennsylvania Railroad. (News Flash: It was bought on 2/14/2020 and has been re-opened. Very, very soon steam will return as engine #16, which has not run since the line closed for freight operations in the 1950’s, will again pull the trains)

By 1926 the iron furnace was long gone, but on our version, it has been re-opened by the current owners, the Madeira Hill Co. The furnace consumes large amounts of coal (which needs to be coked first), limestone, and iron ore. Its output is pig iron which is then taken to Mt. Union. This has added a great deal of operational interest to the railroad. The fact that the iron furnace has reopened created a renewed need for iron ore and limestone. Both those had been mined along the Shade Gap branch of the EBT. So, the Shade Gap branch, which had fallen on hard times since the furnace closed in 1908, has been rebuilt. In Shade Gap this line serves limestone and iron ore mines. In Neelyton (the end of the Shade Gap branch) it serves the ganister mine for the refractory brick plants in Mt. Union and a lumber mill. Both towns also get miscellaneous freight and have coal dealers for home heating.

The layout is in a 20’ x 26’ basement and is fully scenicked. It’s early fall, so it’s still warm in the valley but cold on the mountain. Both of us work on models. Jane scratchbuilt the Orbisonia station and roundhouse and Pete the company store and houses in Robertsdale. The excellent models of Ewings Mill and Neelyton station were built by Frank Benenati. Other structures are kits (many by White Ground) or kit-bashed. There are still models to be done, but there’s at least a stand-in for every structure so the layout looks complete.

For the street address, please email southmountaindiv@gmail.com.

Note: Park on the street or driveway and enter through the front door. Unfortunately, our basement is not handicapped-accessible

After the meeting, Mat Thompson, MMR will present a clinic on meeting the requirements for the AP Master Builder-Cars certificate and other general information concerning the MMR program.

The usual admonition is still in effect. If you have symptoms of COVID or have recently been exposed, we would ask you not to attend. Otherwise, everyone is welcome.

Turnout for the SMD year to date has been even better than I had hoped — Let’s keep up the trend and have an even better turnout as we continue in the new calendar year.

Bob Johnson
2022-2023 SMD Superintendent

Division members met in-person at the home of Steve & Hollis King near Fayetteville, PA.  21 or so were present. After admiring the layout and socializing, the Superintendant welcomed everyone and called the business meeting to order at 2:30 p.m.

23.1–1​  Paymaster’s Report:  Paymaster Ray Price reported the SMD bank balance was $3,457.91 (the same as last month).

23.1-2​  Clerk’s Report (Meeting Minutes): The attendees dispensed with the reading/summary of the minutes (previously distributed by e-mail). As there were no comments or corrections, per Roberts Rules of Order, the draft minutes, as submitted, were approved by acclamation.

23-1.3​  Superintendent Bob Johnson thanked Steve King for hosting. Steve spoke a little about his Virginia Midland Railway: This is the 5th version of it that he has built – 3 while he lived in Chicago, one while he lived in Germantown and now this one. He told of how the V M was developed with the Virginian & Ohio of Allen McClelland and the Allegheny Midland by Tony Koester. In their Proto-Freelance world the 3 lines realized that they, like the real railroads of the time, had to consolidate to remain competitive. Together they formed the Appalachian Lines and have managed to remain financially competitive in the harsh railroad world of 1969.

Old Business:  

22-10.5  ​Mini-Con 2023 – the second Saturday in April – April 8, 2023:  The general plan was reviewed.

22-11.4​  SMD Summer Trip in 2023:  The trip to visit the EBT in July was discussed. Jane and Pete Clarke were charged with preparing a plan and cost estimate. Discussion was had about the day of the week – weekend vs. weekday trip. While a vote was not taken, it was clear that everyone present felt that a weekday would make more sense.

New Business:

23-1.4  ​NMRA annual reporting:  The Superintendent stated that it was completed and submitted.

Adjournment:  The Superintendent accepted a motion to adjourn.  The next meeting will be on February 12th at Jane & Pete Clarke’s home near Damascus, MD.  Mat Thompson MMR will speak on the Car Builder Certificate (one of the steps to becoming a Master Model Railroader).  Members will be reminded by e-mail.

Notes for the Minutes taken by Pete Clarke (with assistance from Jane Clarke) and formatted by Clerk Harvey Heyser

Following the meeting, host Steve King showed slides of his 2004 trip to China to see the last of their steam engines at work.  These were 2-10-2 and 2-8-2 type locomotives working up heavy grades with coal cars – all real, no photo run by’s.