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.

 
 

Come to Rowlesburg, W. Va. for
Labor Day Weekend 2008!

The Mon Valley Railroad Club of West Virginia will display a 12 x 28 foot HO scale portable model railroad during the Labor Day weekend in Rowlesburg, W. Va. The layout will be on display in the ambulance building near the historic Rowlesburg B&O depot and caboose.

Doors are open for visitors from Noon to 6:00 p.m. on Saturday, and 10:00 a.m to 4:00 p.m. on Sunday and Monday of the holiday weekend.

Later this fall, the Mon Valley Railroad Club will hold another open house event. Mark your calendar for December 13 & 14 to see our giant HO scale model railroad.

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.
 
 

Another quality Hansmann Production.
Direct your comments and/or questions to: 43admin@hansmanns.org
All content and images copyright 2005-2007 by EWHansmann, unless otherwise indicated..