Western Maryland Railroad Dutch Lines
The model railroad is set in the early 1970’s around the time of the consolidation of the B&O, C&O and WM into the Chessie System. Fred Eisen loves the Chessie System paint scheme and the ability to have locomotives from all three railroads on the layout but his heart is with the WM and he is thinking of backdating to all WM power.
Layout
The layout is double deck connected with a helix approximately 21’x19’ with 10’ long by 1’ wide staging yards in an adjacent aisle way. There are four railroads represented on the layout. The WM, Ma & Pa, Penn Central and Reading. The layout has four staging yards (Baltimore, Hagerstown, Harrisburg and Mount Holly) with a mainline connecting Baltimore and Hagerstown. The backdrop was painted by my good friend and golf pro Pete Chapin. The track plan and DCC bus lines were designed by my friend Chris Moran, unfortunately Chris passed about a year ago. I used plenty of modelers license and really just used the town names and tried to use one actual name of an industry located in each town. The remaining industries are named after my round robin friends and family members.
Operations
There are two interchanges one with the Penn Central (in Hanover PA) and one with the Reading Railroad (in Gettysburg PA). There is a WM branch line that runs from Porters Sideling to York PA. At last count there were 40 industries served by 20 scheduled trains. Lincoln Yard is located in W. York which is served by the M&P and WM. Lincoln Yard is really the heart of the layout as most of the switching occurs in York. Four trains serve Lincoln Yard: The WM serves about half the industries in York with the Ma & Pa serving the remaining. There is a WM switching move that serves the industries within and adjacent to Lincoln Yard. A train from Lincoln Yard to Hagerstown is the last train of the day with the inbound train from Hagerstown starting the day. The Penn Central line runs between Harrisburg staging and Frederick MD and serves the Glatfelter paper plant in Spring Grove PA. and an interchange track in Hanover with the WM. The Reading line is very short, running from Mount Holly staging to Gettysburg where it interchanges with the WM. One of the hottest trains on the line is the WM Stone Train running between Bittinger and Baltimore to serve the Bethlehem Sparrows Point Steel plant. JMRI is used to generate switch lists. It’s a great program but I am still learning how to use it to generate traffic. Operating sessions with my round robin group are held about every 5-6 weeks.
Layout Gallery
