HARM Switch List - March, 2026

Welcome aboard The HARM Switchlist, the monthly online bulletin of the Harford Associates for Railroad Modeling—where serious operations meet good company trackside. Each issue keeps members in the loop with a quick, friendly read: Pick-Ups looks back at the highlights and happenings from the past month, Set-Outs flags the upcoming sessions, events, and opportunities you won’t want to miss, and the YardMaster Report spotlights a member, organization, or manufacturer helping to keep the hobby rolling. Whether you’re here for the timetable precision or the coffee-and-conversation crew, grab your orders and let’s get to work.

Pick-Ups

• Alan and Scott attended the Amherst Railroad Hobby Show the weekend of January 24. Due to the impending snowstorm, the weekend was cut short and they only attended the show on Saturday. Walking into the Amherst Railway Society Railroad Hobby Show for the first time was honestly overwhelming—in the best possible way. The sheer size of the show, packed with operating layouts, vendors, and crowds of enthusiastic modelers, made it feel like the Super Bowl of the hobby. They especially enjoyed seeing the different scales in action and talking with friendly exhibitors who were eager to share tips. It was a full day of inspiration, but it may be a few years before they venture back there again.

• Running our T-Trak modules at the Great Scale Model Train Show in Timonium was a fun and rewarding experience. Bill M., Alan, and Scott handled the setup for the January 31–February 1 weekend, arranging the modules into an eye-catching T-shaped configuration that came together smoothly thanks to the modular design. Once trains started rolling, the layout drew a steady stream of interested visitors. It was especially enjoyable coordinating operations with fellow modelers and seeing how the combined modules created a seamless, lively railroad, leading to plenty of great conversations and new ideas for future setups. Many members also visited the train show over the weekend to gain inspiration for the various modular layouts or pickup supplies and equipment for their own model railroads.

Set-Outs

• On Thursday, March 12, 2026, Scott W will be making a presentation to the Oxford Area Historical Association about the “Railroads of Oxford”. The presentation will be at 7 pm at the Ware Presbyterian Village (1162 Kensington Lane, Oxford, PA 19363) in the Auditorium at Vista Ridge Pavilion. Before the presentation, the Ware Village Model Railroad Club will be open at 6:30pm.

• HARM is pleased to host the March 28, 2026 NMRA Mid-Eastern Region Chesapeake Division meeting at the Perryville Railroad Station and Museum. The program will feature presentations by members along with tours of local layouts, making it a great opportunity to share ideas and enjoy some outstanding modeling. If you’re interested in giving a presentation and/or opening your layout for the tour, please let us know—we’d love to include you in the day’s lineup. Doors open at 9:30am, meeting is 10am-noon, open houses from 1-4pm.

YardMaster Report

• The National Model Railroad Association (NMRA) is the world’s leading organization dedicated to advancing the model railroading hobby through standards, education, and community. Founded in 1935, the NMRA develops widely used technical standards and recommended practices that help ensure equipment from different manufacturers works smoothly together. Beyond standards, the NMRA offers a wealth of resources including clinics, conventions, publications, and the respected Achievement Program that recognizes modeling skills.

The Passing of HARM Co-Founder and MMR #35

David E. Renard

January 9, 1936 – April 7, 2025

In Memoriam: David Renard, MMR #35, passed away on April 7, 2025. To the model railroading community, Dave was a Master Model Railroader. To us, he was a mentor, a friend, and a storyteller whose legacy will continue to roll on-car by car, mile by mile.

Dave Renard was a passionate model railroader from his teenage years and co-founded the Harford Associates for Railroad Modeling, HARM for short. He was particularly proud of earning the designation of Master Model Railroader (#35, 1971) from the National Model Railroad Association. Dave has won multiple awards for his models over the years from the NMRA and his work has been featured in the Railroad Model Craftsman Magazine on several occasions.

Dave’s personal railroad, the Sylvania Central Railroad was begun in 1965 and he continued to work on and improve his layout for over fifty years until the railroad was dismantled in 2017. The modest sized layout (approximately 10’ x 20’) allowed Dave to create a railroad with a level of intricate details that would rival and surpass museum quality displays. Everything featured on his railroad, from the structures to the track itself, was all built by his own hands; he was a master of scratch-building. Dave also put considerable work into several iterations of a club layout located on a local Army base, The Tidewater & Allegheny. Over the years, Dave built numerous structures, rolling stock, locomotives, and custom trackwork for members of our local model railroading club and community. Many pieces of his work continue to serve on layouts around the country.

Throughout his model railroading career, Dave was a member of several related organizations. His first experience with a club was in Pennsylvania at the Greater Abington Township Society of Model Engineers (GATSME). Shortly after joining this club, he got involved with the NMRA by attending Mid-Eastern Region conventions, where he began entering models for judging. These experiences led him to becoming a judge and gave him the opportunity to closely study some fine models and techniques, which in turn added to his modeling ideas and skills. A move to Edgewood, MD had him discover a small model railroad club where he worked as an environmental engineer at Edgewood Arsenal. Throughout this time, he continued to attend regional and national conventions as well as heading out on rail-fanning trips with friends. Through his MER membership, Dave held many different officer positions, including Editor of The Local (newsletter), Regional Contest Chairman, Regional Secretary, Vice President, President and National Trustee, and Eastern Vice President. His membership in the NMRA helped facilitate him being able to take his family to all 50 states, partially to attend NMRA conventions.

The founding of HARM with fellow model railroader Russ Cook allowed them to expand their model railroading influence to many other like-minded individuals. The group has been featured in several local newspaper articles. Dave also wrote two articles for Railroad Model Craftsman Magazine about the group called “In HARM’s Way”. This is a most compatible group that shares and learns from each other. As an extension of the group, Dave and Russ taught an 8-week, non-credit, evening class about model railroading at a local community college for about 25 years. After Russ passed away in 2001, Dave continued to teach the class for several more years until eventually passing on the duties to another local model railroader. Experiences in the class always included tours of the local model railroads and promotion of the NMRA. There is no way to know just how many people have been influenced in this hobby by Dave over the years through his leadership, teaching, and friendship.

In every carefully laid rail and hand-built structure, Dave told a story—not just of railroads, but of patience, imagination, and heart. He was more than a Master Model Railroader—he was a master of bringing dreams to life in miniature. David Renard was 89 years young when he passed, and with his passing a veritable library of railroading knowledge and modeling skill has been lost.

Scale Speed Calculator

A new Scale Speed Calculator is available on this website for everyone to use. Just enter the distance the train travels (in inches), the time it takes to travel that distance (in seconds) and the scale you would like to convert to and click the calculate button. The scale speed will be displayed below the calculate button. If there are any modifications or changes you would like to suggest for this new feature, please let us know (admin@harm-web.org). This new feature can be found on our Resources page or by following this link (https://www.harm-web.org/scale-speed).

HARM Member Passing

On Monday, July 29, 2024, HARM lost a long standing member of the group in Stephen Fisher. Steve had been a member since about 1992 when he lived in Hartford County, MD. He spent the last several decades of his life with his wife Charlyn in Kennedyville, MD on the eastern shore. At this residence, he built several versions of his Deep Run Railroad. From On30 to an “unusual” scale of 3/8n40. He was also a pioneer in converting his layout from running on DC track power to dead rail with batteries and wireless receivers in the locomotives. Steve was a master of scratch building structures, most often without any formal plans and just positioning walls together until they “looked good”. Much of his work has been featured in model railroading magazines and can be found elsewhere on this website. He had a wonderful sense of humor and lived life to the fullest.

Stephen Fisher Obituary

T-Trak Layout with BANTRAK

On Sunday, December 4, 2022, several HARM members coordinated with members from BANTRAK (Baltimore Area N-Trak) and the Kapuscinski family to setup and operate a good sized T-Trak layout at Roland Park Place in Baltimore, MD. Resident, Arthur Boyd was the host for the group and invited other residents to come visit the layout and enjoy the trains from 10am - 5pm. T-Trak modules come in various sizes, with the base single modules being approximately 12 inches by 12 inches. Our layout was built in a “Z” shape with 18 single modules, 22 double modules, 1 quad module, and 10 corners. The overall length was approximately 80 feet of track in each direction (double track main line). The residents and families that visited the layout were very grateful for our time and passion in model railroading. They asked many questions about the trains, buildings, and our module designs. A great time was had by everyone involved and we look forward to participating in something like this again.

Click here for a video of trains running.

A Sad Day for the Pennsylvania Railroad

On Saturday, April 9, 2022, several HARM members joined together to dismantle and remove the layout of Ken Meyer. Ken passed away almost two years ago, and his family decided it was time to move on. With reciprocating saws, drills, hammers, and various other tools in hand, the group began to break apart the layout into smaller chunks and dispose of them in a dumpster. Weeks before this, all of the structures, locomotives, and rolling stock was removed from the layout for safe keeping and possibly selling at a later date. We did carefully remove a couple of small sections of the layout for the family to keep. Ken’s layout was not complete, but depicted the Pennsylvania Railroad in and around Baltimore City, MD. The layout consisted of three levels with staging loops at each level to simulate movements to Washington D.C. and other points west. Ken was a fine builder with very detailed structures and track. You can see the complete story of the layout with pictures in the Fallen Flags section under the Layouts tab (http://www.harm-web.org/prr-in-baltimore). Ken was also active in the Pennsylvania Railroad Historical Society.

Model Railroad Open Houses 2021

Since November is National Model Railroad month, many layout owners open up their homes and clubs to the public to share the hobby. Several HARM members visited model railroads during the month in Pennsylvania, Delaware, and Maryland.These included some large and highly detailed layouts such as those by Bill Kachel and Ken McCorry. We also visited many smaller layouts to see how these had changed during our recent pandemic quarantine. At the end of the month, HARM members Ken P., Bill F, and Scott W opened up their homes to visitors. An open house is a great way to meet new people and share the hobby. If you live in the MD, PA, DE, NJ area, check out modelrailroadopenhouse.com for more information about how to participate next year. Enjoy the pictures below from our visits.

Check out some videos that one of our members, Alan F, shot at several of the open houses. Mason-Dixon RR YouTube Channel

HARM Members Participate in MER-NMRA Convention

From October 21-24, 2021 the Mt. Claire Junction MER-NMRA Convention was held near Baltimore, MD. Several of the HARM members attended and participated in the convention at various levels. During the convention, there were several layout tours in the area that we visited. The layouts were wonderful displays of the craftsmanship and skill that these modelers have developed over many years. On Friday, Scott W presented a clinic at the convention on an “Introduction to JMRI Operations Pro.” It was very well attended and sparked a lot of interest and conversation among the attendees. It just would have been nice to have about 3 hours to go further in depth and not feel so rushed. Also during the convention, Fred E. and Scott W hosted operating sessions at their home layouts. The participants had a great time experiencing different layouts and operating schemes. Lastly, Ken P., Bill F, Fred E., and Scott W. hosted layout tours. Convention participants had a chance to stop by and see the layouts in action. Overall, the convention was a success and many new friends were made. If you have the chance to participate in an NMRA convention, don’t hesitate to pursue the opportunity, you will not regret it.