Open Houses at MARPM23
The owners of some of the finest model railroads in the region will open their homes for MARPM attendees during MARPM23.
Addresses and directions will be e-mailed in advance to registered attendees, or will be available at the registration desk.
Thursday September 14, 2023 1PM to 4PM
David Hughes
Western Maryland
HO
Glyndon, MD
Dave Hughes models the Western Maryland in HO scale in late spring/summer, set from 1965 to 1973. His point-to-point, two-deck layout runs from Port Covington (Baltimore) on the east end to Hagerstown on the west. There is also a continuous run provision. Scenery is 95% complete. Prototype trackage modeled includes the Tide, East, and Hanover Subdivisions. If you like eclectic diesel locomotive consists and the glory of the WM’s proud twilight, you’ll love Dave’s layout. Access is gained via swing bridges – there are no duckunders.
Don Marvel
Wilson Creek Division
HO
Severna Park, MD
The Wilson Creek Division represents late 50’s railroading in the hills of Eastern West Virginia. The railroad is proto-freelanced with settings suggested by locations in the general area. The B&O line is modeled around the town of Norton W.V., with staging toward Grafton and Charleston, W.V.
West of Norton, the line to Richwood W.V. branches off to the town of Cowen, with Richwood staging at the end of the branch. The Western Maryland and C&O connect at Norton, with their staging represented at Elkins and Durbin, W.V. Operation features substantial industrial trackage and live interchange at Norton, as well as coal and industrial traffic along the branch, including a coal preparation plant and papermill at Cowen and a connection with the NYC.
Scenery is 80% complete.
The railroad is basically single deck, around the walls of a 15’ x 22’ foot room with a central peninsula and grade up the branch. It was rebuilt for operation over the past few years and is now holding regular operating sessions. Car forwarding is by Car Cards and Way Bills with NCE wireless radio controlled throttles as well as one Proto Throttle. Ninety five percent of the locomotives are equipped with sound decoders (mostly Soundtraxx) and fine-tuned with Decoder Pro. Op sessions are held using a crew of 5 and utilize a fast clock set at 3:1. The layout room is not handicap accessible.
Jack Keene
Delaware & Hudson Susquehanna Division
O
Severna Park, MD
The Delaware & Hudson Railway - Susquehanna Division is a three level around-the-walls depiction of the D&H between the Albany, NY area and Nineveh Jct., NY, where the railroad splits with lines to both Binghamton, NY and Wilkes Barre, PA, in the 1974-75 time period.
Jeff Mutter
Erie Lackawanna Scranton Division
HO
Severna Park MD
This layout is based on the EL lines in central Pennsylvania (1975) with modeled mainline locations from East Stroudsburg west to Scranton, where there is a connection to Taylor Yard. There is also a branchline extending from Taylor to Rupert.
Train movements on the mainline are per dispatcher-controlled signaling, while the branch is TT&TO territory. HO, double deck walk-around plan, NCE Radio throttles, with Proto throttles assigned to most trains and yards. More information is on the web at: http://elscrantondivision.railfan.net.
Marty McGuirk
Richford Branch of the Central Vermont Railway
HO
Gainesville, VA
The Richford Branch is an HO scale depiction of the branchline that once ran across the far north of Vermont between St. Albans and an interchange with the Canadian Pacific in Richford. Along the way, the line meandered through several New England towns and served a paper mill and a large plywood manufacturing plant. The layout depicts a single level, single track, unsignaled line – in other words, truly branchline railroading. The railroad measures approximately 15x32 feet.
All track and wiring are completed with about 50% of the layout scenicked. Structures are mostly scratchbuilt depictions of prototype buildings.
Pete LaGuardia
New York Central Western Illinois Division
HO
Haymarket, VA
The New York Central Western Illinois Division (WID) is an HO Scale Model Railroad set in 1954. It operates from Kansas City, Omaha, and Des Moines on the west, through Moberly, MO and Hannibal, MO, to Danville, IL and Indianapolis, IN on the east. Modeled activities include a large yard and Engine Facility with an 18 Stall Roundhouse with programmable indexing servicing both Steam and Diesel. Industries include a Meatpacking Plant, Pulp Mill, Coal Tipple, City Scenery and a Port with Car Float.
Todd Hermann
Lehigh & New England
HO
Falls Church, VA
The layout depicts the Lehigh & New England Railroad's Catasauqua Branch and its interchange connections with the Reading, Lehigh Valley, CNJ, and Ironton railroads circa the summer of 1956. Thanks to its proximity to the traffic-rich cement-producing region north of Allentown and Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, this branch was one of the busiest interchange gateways on the L&NE. Those interchange operations along with local industry switching in "downtown" Catasauqua are the focus of the layout.
The layout is HO scale with the primary emphasis placed on depicting prototype scenes from the last two miles of the branch's west end as faithfully as possible. It occupies an approximately 23'x 23' area; scenery is about 50% complete. Access is via the basement stairs only.
Sunday September 17, 2023 11 AM to 2 PM
Jerry Britton
PRR Middle Division
HO
Etters, PA
The PRR’s four-track Middle Division mainline roars past Lewistown, Pa., in the early 1950s. Lewistown is the mid-point yard between Enola/Harrisburg and Altoona, and provides a junction with the Lewistown and Milroy secondaries. Standard Steel, the quarry at Naginey, and the Viscose plant contribute heavily to the 200 or so cars that flow through the yard on an average day.
Digitrax DCC, JMRI, CATS. Trackwork 90%; signals 0%; scenery 20%. Car cards/waybills.
Sunday September 17, 2023 12 PM to 3:30 PM
David Vaughan
NKP/CSRR
O
Severna Park, MD
Take three well-known heritage layouts, the most famous of which is John Armstrong’s Canandaigua Southern, cut them up, move them and combine them into a single track plan filling an 18x90 foot space. Featured in Great Model Railroads 2016 and Terry Terrance videos, much has been added and upgraded since those publications. To get to know the railroad, visitors will have the opportunity to operate trains under original Canandaigua Southern locomotives.
Sunday September 17, 2023 1 PM to 4 PM
Lance Mindheim
CSX Downtown Spur
HO
Silver Spring, MD
The CSX Downtown Spur is a twenty-by-twenty foot, HO scale switching layout based on its namesake in Miami, Florida as it was in 2007. The prototype is a 3.5 mile, stub ended branch splitting off of the CSX main near the airport and running eastward into the city. The line serves a number of food industries, scrap metal dealers, and warehouses.
Lance also has two smaller layouts, one based on the Los Angeles Junction, and the other an N scale Brooklyn Harbor theme.
Andrew Dodge
Maine Central / North Carolina Logging
O/HO
Olney, MD
Andrew has two layouts, The bigger is a Proto 48 (O scale) rendition of the Central Maine he is building by redoing his Colorado Midland. Highlights include scratchbuilt locomotives and cars, a scratch-built ferry boat and a kit- built tugboat.
He also has a North Carolina-based HO logging layout using his father's equipment from 1950-1970. This layout will be featured in an upcoming Model Railroader article.