The Cumberland Division: the"West End" Lecture Series

The Oakland B&O Museum will feature Bruce Elliott for its July lecture of the summer. It will be held at the 1884 Oakland B&O Station on Thursday, July 30th at 6:00pm.   The evening will be catered with appetizers and desserts and Elliott will begin his talk at 7:00.  

Speaker Bruce Elliott: 

Professionally; I worked for the Washington Metropolitan area Transit Authority (METRO) for 28 yrs. as a diesel mechanic in Bus Service.

In regards to railroading; I've been a model railroader all my life! I'm told I had to dodge trains in the crib. I've been in HO scale now for the past 54 years. The first railroad group that I was affiliated with was the Rockville Society of Model Engineers (Rockville, Md.) in the early '70s. In '87, I joined the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Historical Society. Over the years, I have written several articles for the B&ORRHS quarterly magazine, the "Sentinel". In 2011, I was elected to the BOD as a Director at Large, and am now serving in my second term as such. In July of 2014 at the end of the NMRA convention in Cleveland, I was appointed by the B&O RRHS president as the new Modeling Committee Chairman for the Society. This position allows me the opportunity to work with model manufacturers in the creation and development of up coming B&O models. Also, in 2014, I joined what I call a Round-Robin group of modelers in Elkins, W. Va. Its like a club, but no dues, and no real membership. Each week we get together to work on each others layout. This has allowed me to hone some of my modeling skills that had gotten rusty and to learn new skills from a group of talented men.

Most of my high school classmates received an automobile for graduation (71), I received a Nikon 35mm camera. My photographic career started in the early '60s with my father and myself taking railroad pictures in Brunswick, Md., and after receiving my graduation present and finally getting a drivers license, I spent another 20+ yrs photographing the B&O Railroad in 12 of the 13 states that it served. Today's program is a culmination of that fun !

In '03, after my retirement from Metro, I went to work for the Cass Scenic Railroad as their "Showcase" Mgr. My first agenda was to rebuild the Cass Showcase. This was done over a 3yr time period during the operating season. During construction, their were six shows a day. Trains operated for every one of them. I was asked to leave in 2011 by the (then) new park superintendent.

This left me with retirement, in which I chose to continue in earnest my production of my railroad photography into a CD format, that I started in '09. I now turned it into a small personal 501C3 business, Bruce Elliott Railroad Slides Inc. After my mothers passing, I started on a building to house my final model layout on my property in Green Bank, calling it the Pocahontas Society of Model Engineers, which is now open to the public, three days a week, by appointment only. I recently went to contract with Arcadia Publishing to write a book on the Baltimore and Ohio's "Pittsburgh Division", that is expected to be out for the 2016 holidays. The twenty five plus years I spent photographing the B&O, and other forms of rail transportation, along with almost fifty five years as a model railroader has brought me today to speak to you. 

 My talk will be centered around the Cumberland Division "West End", from Oakland to GN tower at the east end of the Grafton yards. For the most part, we will be looking at photos along the line, with personal commentary on photos. Photos are shown in chronological order, rather than by date. All seasons are represented. I frequently receive comments from folks that I've been places that they haven't even heard of or have long since forgotten about. If you're looking for pictures of CSX, my work isn't for you. Definitely things have seriously changed since when I took my photos, and today!