Mangold to Present at February ARRC Meeting

The Feb. 24 meeting of the Akron Railroad Club will feature a program by longtime member David Mangold.

The program is titled Everything Else and will present images made in Colorado and, well, everything else. With Dave you never quite know what you will see.

Much of the program content will be on photographs Dave made between 2019 and 2020 with some images from 2022 thrown in.

The images were made before Dave began working as a locomotive engineer for the Rocky Mountaineer excursion train.

The meeting will begin at 8 p.m. in the social hall of the New Horizons Christian Church, 290 Darrow Road in Akron.

After the business meeting the program will get underway at approximately 8:30 p.m.

If Dave is unable to present, the program will be given by Ron McElrath and show footage of his first Ohio experiences in the early 1980s with a Super 8 mm camera and then a Panasonic video camera in 1987.

48 Years of Berea Railfanning to be the Program at February Railroad Enthusiasts Meeting

The February meeting of the Forest City Division of the Railroad Enthusiasts will feature a program by Mark Demaline.

Titled Six Decades of Change at Berea, Ohio,1974-2022, the program will feature trains of Penn Central, Conrail, Amtrak, Norfolk Southern and CSX.

There will be images of trailers on flat car trains with cabooses, double-stacked container trains, Detroit Edison coal trains and trains with distributed motive power.

Also featured will be right-of-way views, vintage freight cars and more.

The meeting will begin at approximately 8:15 p.m. on Friday (Feb. 17) at the Church of the Redeemer, 23500 Center Ridge Road in Westlake.

Marion Rail Group to Meet on Saturday

The Marion Railfan Society will meet on Saturday at 7 p.m. at Marion Union Station.

The program is movies made by John Edminson. This includes footage made around Dayton in the 1970s and on the Pennsylvania Railroad’s line through Bradford, Ohio, in the 1950s.

The latter film includes scene of Pennsy J1 steam locomotives hauling trains.

Following the movies, there will be an open projector for attendees to show slides or digital images.

MRS also said long-time member Gary Salzgaber died on Nov 14.  He was a fan of the PRR and modeled it on a layout that was featured in Model Railroader magazine.

RRE Christmas Pizza Party is Friday

The Forest City Division of the Railroad Enthusiasts will be having its annual Christmas pizza party on Dec. 16 in Westlake.

The event will begin at 7 p.m. at the club’s usual meeting spot, the Church of the Redeemer, 23500 Center Ridge Road.

Attendees will be asked to pay a $7 cover charge for the cost of the pizzas. Members also are encouraged to help out by bringing snacks and non-alcoholic beverages.

The program will be a members night showing of digtal images and slides. Those who wish to show should bring 25-30 images of any subject matter.

The club’s digital and slide projectors will be available for your use. Digital images should be stored on a portable USB drive. Slides can be in a carousel tray or loose and shown via a stack loader.

The next regular RRE meeting will be Jan. 20 with a program presenter to be announced.

Woods to Present at November ARRC Meeting

The November meeting of the Akron Railroad Club will take attendees to eastern mountain railroad operations of CSX and Norfolk Southern.

Longtime ARRC member and veteran railroad photographer Don Woods will present a slide show titled Go East Old Men.

The program will feature images made during a trip with his fellow ARRC member and traveling companion Dave Shepherd in 2021 to to Cumberland, Maryland, and eastward toward Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, (Rockville bridge), then westward on the Pittsburgh Line of Norfolk Southern back to Altoona and home.

The meeting will be held on Friday, Nov. 25 at 8 p.m. in the social hall of the New Horizons Christian Church, 290 Darrow Road, in Akron.

After the business meeting the program will get underway at approximately 8:30 p.m.

During the business meeting, attendees will elect officers for the 2023 calendar year. Nominations for officer positions will be taken from the floor.

The following day, Nov. 26, ARRC member Bob Rohal will host an open house at his home in Kent of his HO model railroad layout.

The ARRC also plans to hold its annual end of year dinner on Dec. 3 at the New Era Restaurant in Akron.

Attendance at the event will be limited to 40 people. No program for the event has yet been announced.

Surdyk to Present at October RRE Meeting

Marty Surdyk will be presenting the program at the October meeting of the Forest City Division of the Railroad Enthusiasts on Friday in Westlake.

Surdyk’s program is titled Ohio Central Excursions and will feature photographs made of various steam trips on the railroad back when it was owned by the late Jerry Jacobson.

The program will begin with a look at the railroad in the years right before it became the Ohio Central and include the Christmas season diesel-powered excursions from Dennison during the Genesee & Wyoming ownership era.

The meeting will begin at approximately 8:15 p.m. at the Church of the Redeemer, 23500 Center Ridge Road in Westlake.

Members are also reminded that dues for 2023 are due and are $20. They can be paid at the October meeting.

The Nov. 18 RRE meeting will feature a program by Jerry Jordak.

Nostalgia in Store at July ARRC Meeting

It will be nostalgia time when the Akron Railroad Club holds its July meeting this Friday.

The July 22 meeting will feature a program by Blaine Hays of Cleveland showing slides of railroad operations in Northern Ohio in the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s.

The program will showcase steam excursions as well as diesels and cabooses that are seldom seen in revenue service today.

The meeting will begin at 8 p.m. in the social hall of the New Horizons Christian Church, 290 Darrow Road, in Akron.

After the business meeting the program will get underway at approximately 8:30 p.m.

Marion Railfan Society to Meet Saturday

The Marion Railfan Society will meet on Saturday (July 16) at Marion Union Station at approximately 7 p.m.

Cory Behrendt will show digitized movies and videos made by Todd Miller inside Conrail and Chessie System towers in Ohio that he visited between the late 1970s through the middle 1990s.

Also to be shown are some digitized Super 8 sound movies made by Ken Bealer of Allentown, Pennsylvania, of the Tri-State Railway Historical Society’s Farewell to the CNJ excursion in northern New Jersey in November 1985.  It was the last train on the CNJ main in western New Jersey before it was severed for the construction of Interstate 78.

Following the program there will be an open projector for attendees to show some of their railroad images.

All railfans are welcome to attend MRS meetings.

RRE to See Shaker Rapids PCC Cars

The Forest City Division of the Railroad Enthusiasts will meet on Friday in Westlake.

The meeting will begin at approximately 8:15 p.m. at the Church of the Redeemer at 23500 Center Ridge Road.

The program will be given by Bram Bailey and show vintage images of Shaker Heights Rapid PCC transit cars.

The club also has announced plans for its annual summer picnic to be held on  Aug. 21 at Colony Park in Hudson.

The picnic area of the park is adjacent to the Cleveland Line of Norfolk Southern and a pedestrian overpass over the tracks is a short walk away.

NS trains in both directions can easily be photographed from that overpass.

Doubleheader at June Marion Society Meeting

The June program of the Marion Railfan Society will be a double-header with programs by Fred Ripley and Dave Oroszi.

Dave’s program will focus on the Baltimore & Ohio’s sunburst paint scheme of the 1960s and will include many engines painted in that scheme. 

Fred’s program will feature the eastern end of the former Pennsylvania Railroad’s Fort Wayne Line to Pittsburgh. He said the program will begin at Conway Yard and work into eastern Ohio.

“With an eye towards the history of the railroad, we’ll see lots of action from the last ten years of Conrail and from NS in recent years- big trains in great scenic main line settings, with lots of PRR position light signals, in all seasons and weather,” Ripley wrote.

If time permits audience members will be invited to show brief slide or digital images in an open projector format.

The program will begin at approximately 7 p.m. at Marion Union Station this Saturday.