HISTORY OF THE DELMARVA MODEL RAILROAD CLUB

Transcription

1 HISTORY OF THE DELMARVA MODEL RAILROAD CLUB In August of 1984, 13 men, 1 of whom is still a member*, met in the back of Bill Shehan s hobby store to discuss the formation of a model railroad club on the lower Eastern Shore. It was decided that there was enough interest and a committee was appointed, and a meeting was scheduled in two weeks. At the meeting, a temporary set of by-laws were approved, and a slate of offices was elected. They were: President - Bill Shehan, Vice-President - Bob Scott, Secretary - Don Bowen, Treasurer - Leo Stevens. When Bill Shehan s hobby shop failed, we were left without a meeting place. At this time we started meeting in various members homes. At the December meeting, Lee Melvin reported that the second floor of Camelot Hall was available. (The building we are presently in) The front part of the building was used for training migrant workers; our first project had to be the construction of the great wall to separate the 2 areas. The materials for this project were donated by Paul Jones, who owned a lumber company in Snow Hill, MD. By mid-summer of 1985, our wall was complete and we were recruiting new members. After a few years passed, the front part of the building was no longer being used for training migrant workers and this area was turned over to the club. The front room was then used to house the portable G scale layouts. Another smaller room was designated as a wood room that was used for wood storage and wood working. A small closet was also turned into a paint booth for airbrushing projects. The club had 2 portable G-Scale layouts at one time, which were available to see from around Thanksgiving to New Year s Day. One was displayed at the Dunes Manor Hotel in Ocean City, MD for 10 years. The other used to be displayed at the Ocean City Center and also at the Sheraton Fontainebleau Hotel in Ocean City, MD. Due to most of the members being unavailable to operate them, these layouts were sold and are no longer a part of the group. In the meantime, some of the members had started to build a modular HO-Scale layout. By September of 1986 we had enough modules to take them to Snow Hill,

2 MD, for their River Festival. We set them up in an automobile dealer s show room and attracted a large crowd, from which we recruited some new members. We were now an active model railroad club. This layout has been displayed at the Annual Doll, Miniature Toy and Train Show put on by the Salisbury Soroptimist Club at the Wicomico County Youth and Civic Center in Salisbury MD, the Toy and Train Show in the Seaford Fire House in Seaford, DE., at the Ocean City Airport Transportation Fair in Ocean City, MD, the Annual Amtrak Open House in Wilmington, DE, and the Ellicott City Scale Train Show at the Maryland State Fair Grounds in Timonium, MD. In 2002, those members left us to form their own club. Around 2008, the HO modules were disassembled and their buildings and other usable parts were used on the main HO layout. _ In 1985, a committee was appointed to design a large HO-Scale layout, and construction was started in the main layout room. Although it had very little scenery, in December of 1985, we had our first open house. The layout had now evolved into an L-shape with 2 proposed additions which will make it E-shaped. However, it has been decided that no additional areas will be started until scenery has been completed on the existing portions. Some spectacular scenery has been constructed on this layout. In 1997, a Digital Command Control system was installed. At that time, we had operating sessions the Friday after the last Wednesday of the month on this layout. As part of operations, the layout needed a "place" to represent. But where was this place? There were some design elements already in place that had to be lived with, a small port with a yard, a yard with a wye that had a double track main on two of the legs and a single track main on the other leg. Other design elements included a junction of two double track mains (one of the double track mains goes to the new addition which at this time was not yet built), a small quarry line with a small town and yard also a busy port with a yard. The place that best seemed to fit what we had was Parkersburg, WV, right on the Ohio River along the West Virginia/Ohio border. It appeared to have a PRR (Pennsylvania Railroad) junction across the river from Parkersburg. So after much discussion, it was chosen as a starting point. So the modeled yard would be Parkersburg and the junction on the layout would be Belpre. The existing main line was now the B&O main from Baltimore to St. Louis and PRR was given joint trackage rights into Parkersburg. Also in 1997, plans where started for expanding the original permanent layout.

3 These plans for expansion were a direct result of finding a "location" that the layout would represent. The HO modules were relocated in another area to make room for the new expansion, and to see what kind of room was available for it. As far as prototype operations were concerned, the layout, with the new expansion, would represent the B&O Railroad from Cincinnati OH to Grafton WV. An upper level was also planed, and this would be part of the Ohio River Subdivision from Huntington, WV to Wheeling, WV. Construction was started on the new section in One mainline was completed and running for the December 2003 open house. In February of 2004, adding the second level was approved and the backdrop for the new section was started so it would support the upper level. Construction on the actual upper level started in February In March of 2005, the West Junction track work was completed. In 2008, 90% of all track work was completed plus some small amount of scenery in two locations was in work. Work continues on the large industrial areas and on the upper level representing the Ohio River Subdivision. Prototype operations are now being held once a month, and scenery work on the new section continues, as well as scenery re-work in the port area. In early 2008, installation of DCC block detection and signals was started. Detection and signals were completed in the towns of Grosovneor, Athens, and Hamden in early 2009, and Belpre was selected next to be signaled and work started immediately after completing Hamden. To aid in operations and with the new signal system, a "tower" was built. This enabled the HO computer to be set up there with a magnetic dispatching board. The magnetic board has now been replaced with a computer based CTC panel using JMRI's panel pro program. WiFi has also been made available so trains can be controlled via one's Smart Phone. There has always been some members of the Club who were interested in O- Scale. In 1995, a small Lionel Super O-Gauge layout was replaced by a much larger one using Gargraves track. This layout also shared space with the HO layout and HO modules in the main layout room. The layout has grown and now has a large, well sceniced mountain with a log train running around it. There are 3 mainlines with and area for industrial switching. It is powered by 2 Mike s Train

4 House Z4000 transformers and a couple of smaller Lionel transformers. Most of the trains running on the layout are O-Gauge 3-rail with some O-27 on it also. In April 2009 the O-Gauge group received permission from the Club to expand into the wood room. This expansion called for the construction of a staging yard around the perimeter of the room with the use of several lift bridges and a removable bridge that is stored away during non-operating times. This staging area allows for the continuous flow of traffic during open houses and at other times. _ In 1985, we were informed of a defunct N-Scale club that had a layout in Salisbury, MD. We retrieved the layout, and eventually some of the members of that club joined us and restored it. It has grown into a large layout with very interesting scenery. This layout is also equipped with a Digital Command Control system. The layout was placed next to the O scale layout in the main layout room. There was also an N-Track Modular layout operating on DC voltage in the front layout room. In the very back of the main layout room there was also a makeshift stage that some of the members turned into a Standard Gauge layout. As these trains aged and grew in value, people became reluctant to operate them and the layout was converted to LGB G-Scale. Because there were only two members working on it, it was converted to O-Gauge Tinplate with some antique pre-wear and post-war trains operating on 3 loops of track. There is also a loop of S-Scale track and the original loop of Standard Gauge track. The layout is powered by a post-war Lionel ZW transformer and a Lionel KW transformer. About 2004, to consolidate the N-Scale display, the N-Scale modules and the Tin Plate layout swapped rooms. The Tin Plate layout was dismantled and the N- Scale modules were moved to the back of the main layout room, while the Tin Plate trains were moved into the front room, now known as the Tin Plate room. A new Tin Plate layout was constructed and consists of four loops of three-rail track on the lower level. The upper level has a loop of LGB G-Scale track and one of Lionel Standard Gauge track.

5 In 2011, the Tin Plate room was renamed the Bill Shehan Room to honor Bill after his passing in Trains that are running during the open house during the holiday season in this room typify the Lionel layouts that were popular in the big department stores in the 1950's, but on a smaller scale. Trains consist of original Lionel vintage equipment. Also, a G scale loop can be seen on the green shelf near the ceiling. The G scale train circles the entire room. There is also a "Christmas" layout in one corner of the front room that the children enjoy. It features Thomas the Tank Engine and Friends saw another change to the club. A group of members received permission to construct a small American Flyer S-Scale layout in one corner of the front room. This was our 7 th scale layout and allows the club to show off layouts ranging from N-Scale to G-Scale. Every year, the attendance at our open houses has increased. The club is very dependent upon donations and annual raffles for operating funds. We also received funds from the rental of the two G-Scale portable layouts and when our HO-Scale modular layout was used at different train shows. Charter Members Don Bowen, David Correia, Doug Crosley, Pete Genero*, Marion Kemp, Lee Melvin (R.I.P.), Kevin Morris (R.I.P), Robert Scott, Jr., William Schilling (R.I.P.), Bill Shehan (R.I.P.), Gary Smith, Leo Stevens (R.I.P.), Carl Wipprecht (R.I.P.)