Thee official name of the West Virginian Railway Company

 
 
 
 
  A big malley battles the mountains with a trainload of freight.  

The Mon Valley Railroad Club formed in 1987 with just a handful of members. The group has grown to more than 25 members and has nearly 2500 square feet of basement with in downtown Morgantown, W. Va. Meetings are held each Thursday night at 7:00 p.m., under the Black Bear Cafe at 128 Pleasant Street. Parking is available in the small parking garage beside the building, or just up the street behind the bank. Visiting model railroaders and interested hobbyists are welcome to drop by on Thursday evenings. Be ready to help with a current project.

 
 

Open House weekends ahead!

The Mon Valley Railroad Club of West Virginia will be open for visitors during our annual open house weekends in December and January. Make plans now to visit Morgantown and see the largest model railroad in the area.

The doors open from 10:00 am to 4:00 pm, Saturday December 13, and from Noon to 4:00 pm, Sunday December 14. Admission is free. The club is located at 128 Pleasant Street in downtown Morgantown, W. Va. in the basement under Black Bear Burritos. Another open house will be held the weekend of January 10th, 2009.

In addition to the operating model railroad, the open house will feature a white elephant table, giveaways, demonstrations, refreshments, and more activities all through the day.

Come join the fun as the Mon Valley Railroad Club of West Virginia celebrates more than 20 years of railroad building.

In November, the Mon Valley Railroad Club will display a 12 x 28 foot HO scale portable model railroad at Mountaineer Week in the Shenandoah Room of the Mountainlair on the WVU downtown campus. Mark your calendar for November 14, 15, & 16 to see our HO scale model railroad at the Mountaineer Week festivities.

In a way, this image sums up much of our club layout, a mountain railroad with a long, sinewy mainline. This is the newest part of our layout, a rebuilt Horseshoe Run Grade. In July 2006, we removed the original 3% grade to rebuild with a longer and easier right-of-way. The new Horseshoe Run Grade is now double tracked and brings our railroad down the mountain on a 2% grade.

This image was taken after several work sessions. The mainline is now ballasted and scenery forms are being installed.

Scenery is taking shape on Horseshoe Run Grade.

I tried to take the above image at the same angle as this image in order to illustrate the progression of work on this new part of our layout.

More details on this major upgrade can be found here. To give you some perspective, the red EXIT sign in the distance is about 20 feet from the camera.

New and improved Horseshoe Run Grade.
 
 

Clubmember Gary Deavers is a huge fan of interlocking tower plants. He has added an interlocking plant to ease train operations into and out of the St. George yard. Gary based this functioning interlocking upon the plant once used by the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad at D Tower in Grafton, W. Va. It works great to control the turnouts and signals as trains enter the St. George yard. The plant is separated from the rails it serves, so the tower operator depends on phone contact with the switch crews to set up the running routes.

New and improved west end interlocking at St. George, W. Va.

Go to the Layout page for more images of our project.

Our group has abided by two missions over the years.

  • to build an HO scale model railroad that none of our members could build alone
  • to learn from each other in order to advance individual skills and abilities.

Drop a line at 43admin@hansmanns.org for more details, or if you are coming through town and would like to visit. We can't guarantee a visit, but we will try to have the door open for you.

Check out our latest special project, HO scale hopper cars painted for the Morgantown & Kingwood.