The Allegheny Midland Historical Society

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The Midland Road logo copyright MODEL RAILROADER Magazine and Kalmbach Publishing Co., used by permission.

Allegheny Midland Postlude

Although the HO layout in my basement is gone, the Allegheny Midland has not ceased to exist. A short segment of the AM main line is being built as part of Allen McClelland's new Virginian & Ohio layout, in fact, and AM motive power and equipment from the 1960s and '70s will one day soon operate there. Together, we continue to develop concepts for joint AM-V&O (and Virginia Midland, Steve King's N scale railroad, the third railroad in the Appalachian Lines) operations.

But for practical purposes, the story of the Allegheny Midland is largely complete. Its roots date to 1970 when I first met Allen and Steve at an NMRA regional convention, and not long thereafter I had a chance to visit the V&O. It was at once intimidating and inspiring. One couldn't help but be impressed with the concept and execution, but I also came away with the feeling that I could build a similar railroad. Allen's now-well-known "Good Enough" philosophy was apparent.

The AM track plan was "finished" in March 1973 for a basement (and house!) that wouldn't be ready for occupation until June 1973 -- 30 years ago as of June 2003. The first benchwork was done by March 1974, but the gold spike wasn't driven until April 1981, as I recall. All track was hand-laid code 70 and 83 using a refinement of techniques outlined by Allen and his good friend Jim Paine. Regular operations didn't commence until 1983.

The railroad used Power System Inc.'s fine Dynatrol analog command-control system until it was dismantled at the turn of the millennium. PSI's infrared throttles had been adopted by that time, and I was starting to convert to Digital Dynatrol when I decided it was time to accept the challenges of a new type of railroading featuring timetable and train-order operation on my pet prototype, the Nickel Plate Road in central Indiana and Illinois. All but two AM steam locomotives were sound-equipped, which led to my current view: "No sound, no railroad!" Sound adds that much to a railroad.

The AM, often called the Midland Road to reinforce its ties to parent Nickel Plate Road, was designed as a steam/diesel transition-era railroad. I soon discovered that both brass and plastic or metal steam locomotives of that era weren't up to the task, so I moved the era to the 1960s to take advantage of then state-of-the-art motive power such as Atlas GP38s and SD35s. My brass diesel fleet was rebuilt by Cheat River Engineering, the company that also rebuilt my brass steam fleet some years later.

The railroad slowly moved forward in time to ensure that, as editor of Railroad Model Craftsman, I was "forced" to keep up to date on prototype railroading practices. I left RMC in 1981 to go to Bell Labs, and that self-imposed requirement vanished. By the time the railroad was set in the 1980s, I had discovered that many of my original objectives -- especially the one based on modeling an extension of the NKP into Appalachia -- had disappeared under Appalachian Lines paint. In practical steps, I moved the era back closer to the 1970s, then 1960s (again!) and finally 1950s when the NKP was still independent (it merged into the N&W in 1964). The clock finally stopped in 1957, as that's when the Wheeling District of the NKP, which connected end-to-end with the AM at Dillonvale, Oh. (Pine Valley yard), still used steam but also operated brand-new Alco RSD12s and EMD SD9s.

The law of unintended consequences soon caught up with me, however: Once I lost the corporate connection with the V&O and VM resulting from the Appalachian Lines "merger" in 1968, it dawned on me that it was but a short sideways step simply to model my all-time favorite railroad, the NKP. (I had been gathering data on the NKP's St. Louis Division since the 1950s and cofounded the NKP Historical & Technical Society in 1966.)

Just as my abuilding NKP layout draws heavily from pioneering design work by Bill Darnaby, a Purdue compatriot of Maumee Route fame, the AM grew from my experiences operating and writing about the V&O. To this day, Allen McClelland is one of my best friends and is at the top of a short list of people I most admire and respect for their creativity, integrity, friendliness, and helpfulness to one and all. And just as Frank Hodina and Don Daily have provided immeasureable support and inspiration for the new NKP layout, Jim Boyd provided timely and on-point guidance as the AM developed through the quarter-century of its existence. My sincere thanks to all of these fine gentlemen and the many others who similarly contributed to the railroad's enhancement.

Regrets? None to speak of, as the new NKP project is very exciting and fulfilling. Yet I would have liked to have completed and operated the new combination staging-and-classification yard at Midland, W.Va. Allen pioneered here as well when he combined the V&O's Jimtown Yard with the Kingswood Jct. staging yard to avoid having crews operate their trains into and out of a hidden staging yard. I was just about done with a similar enhancement to the north end of the AM when the curtain fell.

Questions? I'll do my best to provide accurate and timely answers to anyone who sends a question to this Web site.