THE BEGINNING

Welcome to the permanent home of the Sebring Model Railroad Club. The club was founded in 1948 by Fritz Birichimer, who remained a member until he passed away in 1995. The club was originally known as the Salem Model Railroad Club. For many years the club was located above a two-story garage on Country Club Drive in Salem, Ohio. During that time, two layouts were constructed. In the early 70's it was quite evident that the Club needed more room for expansion. Many of the members wanted their own building and the land under it as well. This was easier said than done given the club's financial condition at the time.
 
In August 1972 one of our members, Ed Knoedler purchased a 1918 New York Central caboose in Alliance. His plan was to turn it into a hobby shop. However, he first had to get it to Greenford, a distance of 24 miles. This was the first project in which the club became involved. Moving a caboose successfully was a lot of hard work and made a lot of memories. The whole procedure was recorded on film for posterity. The caboose served its function as a hobby shop for many years but time finally caught up with it and it had to be dismantled and scrapped.


The late Paul Turner said that if the club could take on a project of that size and pull it off, then surely there were other opportunities for us as well. He suggested that the club paint houses to raise some money. The year 1973 found the members clinging to ladders putting paint to local homes. Paint jobs started coming more rapidly, more than we could handle. However, as we painted we saw our Treasury start to grow and with it, our confidence. Along with paint jobs, the men laid cement blocks, bricks, cut trees for firewood, sold railroad photos of the area, did roofing jobs and even made plaster coal loads for hoppers that the club sold.
 
Meanwhile, the club searched for some land and a building located next to or near the Pennsylvania main line. Garfield, Ohio was given some consideration and a letter was sent to the Penn Central. A return letter from them stated that they would not sell us any land in that area. Then the club learned that the former Pennsylvania Railroad Station in Sebring was vacant. This was a perfect place for a clubhouse since it was right on the main line. A decision was made to try to purchase the building. The first piece of correspondence was sent to the Penn Central on June 1, 1973, inquiring about the possibility of purchasing the station. A reply by return mail stated that the station was not for sale. More letters were sent to headquarters in New York and the Real Estate Division in Pittsburgh. No answers came. Then a few members called on John Fahnert, mayor of Sebring at that time. Our situation was explained to him and we asked him if he could help in any way. He said he would send a letter to the Penn Central on our behalf. Still no answer came from anyone we had contacted. Then a round of letters were sent to Senator Taft; Congressman Carney; the Public Utilities Commission; and to a former Sebring resident, Rosemary Woods, then secretary to President Nixon. Other letters were sent elsewhere--anything to get the Penn Central in gear and let them know we really wanted this station.
 
During this period of time, the club was working weekends to raise money. A letter was finally received from the Penn Central in early 1974 stating that they would lease the station to us for five years. We wanted no part of a lease-we wanted ownership.
 
Another batch of letters was sent to our senator and congressman, the Department of Transportation, the Federal Railroad Administration and again to the Real Estate Division in Pittsburgh. Soon after, letters started to come from the Penn Central. It was quite evident that they knew we were here and alive and determined. Then on July 10, 1974, after many letters back and forth, we finally owned a railroad station. However, we didn't own the ground it sat on-that was the next step. Again, negotiations with the Penn Central were set in motion. Meanwhile, just in case the Penn Central set a price that was too high for our means, we started to look for some land close to the Penn Central main line where we would move our station if all else failed.

Mayor Fahnert suggested that some village owned land adjacent to the tracks could be bid on, but it would have to go to the village Council for approval first. In November 1974 we went to a Council Meeting to explain our situation. We told them we wanted to buy 300 feet of village owned land next to the tracks, which at that time was a trash littered swamp filled with enormous oak trees. The land was put up for bids in the newspaper and, of course, we got it.

Next came the task of clearing and cleaning up our desolate piece of property. Litter was hauled away and 37 large oak trees had to be cut down. A futile attempt to cut one large oak tree convinced us that we were not loggers! A hardwood lumber company in Beloit was contacted and they agreed to purchase the tree trunks. They cut the trees and hauled them away in trucks and left the tops and the small trees for us to clean up. The place looked like a battlefield! In very snowy, cold weather we cut many cords of firewood, which we sold as quickly as we could cut.
 
Meanwhile, there were offers and counter offers with the Penn Central on the sale of the property but no agreement could be reached. In late 1975, we were notified to move our station off their property. In anticipation of this, we had lined up a mover from Akron to move our station. Before anything could be done, we had to tear down the brick chimney. Many of the townspeople didn't really believe that the station would be moved until the day it was jacked, turned 180 degrees, and put into position to cross the Pennsy main line.
 
Arrangements were made with railroad officials to hold up traffic on the main line for one hour on moving day. A bulldozer was called in to build a dirt ramp just west of where the building presently sits to allow the mover to come over gradually.
 

THE HARD WORK
 

The big day came on Monday, November 10,1975. The station was sitting on dollies ready to move her 90-foot length and 87 tons across the tracks to her new home. The club members laid planks down and very slowly, inch by inch, the building started to move across the tracks. The members had to pick up the planks that the dollies had already gone over and move them into position in front of the dollies. Halfway across the tracks a vicious rainstorm let loose, turning the ground into instant mud. The ground was so soft that even the movers trucks had to be planked. It took one hour and fifteen minutes for the station to clear the main line. The building was worked onto our property and set in place on cribs set in the deep mud. All of our many years of work were for this moment and a bunch of tired, wet, muddy, dedicated and determined model railroaders shared a deep feeling of accomplishment. We had saved the Sebring Railroad Station, which was scheduled to be torn down in the summer of 1976.

A cold Thanksgiving weekend found the members pouring cement for the footers. Soon the cement blocks started to rise from out of the footers. A decision had been made to gut the station to make it easier to upgrade and this project was started also. New electrical service and plumbing were added. Outlets were installed every 12 feet and headphone hookups were added also. All of the side walls were insulated and 12 inches of insulation was put above the ceiling. Then insulation was added under the floors. A total of 6000 square feet of insulation had been used.

The club has purchased a baggage wagon and this was used as a portable scaffold. The walls and ceiling had plastic stapled to it and then drywall was installed. Two rows of lights salvaged from the old Alliance High School were installed. A new oil furnace was installed for heat. Summer came and found the members shingling roofs to earn more money to work on their station. During the summer, 350 loads of fill were dumped on the property, raising it better than three feet in most places. The building was scraped, primed, caulked, and painted in Pennsylvania Railroad colors of the 1930's. Paint chips were taken from stations in Dover, New Philadelphia, and Wooster and matched as closely as possible. A total of 35 gallons of primer and paint were used. New spouting was installed and plastic drain line was run underground. There was much work taking place inside also. A storage area was built above the bathroom. The freight doors were taken out, cut down, recessed, and reinstalled so as not to alter the appearance of the building from the outside. New windowsills and frames were cut from wood salvaged from inside the building and many other small projects were completed.

Members of the club have painted the station a few times over the years. A new steel entrance door was installed to replace the old wooden one. A new roof-an expensive and much need item--was completed in 1985. Again, club members did the work. In 1991 a much needed ramp was installed on the track side of the building to facilitate easy entry and exit for handicapped people and to allow for easy movement of the riding mower and other large equipment. Plus, it is also a great place for watching trains. The fluorescent lights that were purchased when the old Alliance High School was razed served well for quite a few years but were recently replaced with new eight foot high intensity lamps. Ceiling fans were installed about the same time to move the heat down from our 13 foot high ceilings. In the summer of 1996 a ridge vent was added to the roof.
 

THE PAST

The Sebring Station was opened for business in August 1900. In the heyday of steam there were eleven full time employees and three part-time employees. In 1955 the Pennsy did a remodeling job on the station. They removed twenty-two feet off the passenger section, which reduced the building to its present ninety feet. They also reduced the overhangs to their present size. We are proud that we were able to save the building for future generations to enjoy.
 

THE PRESENT

 

The freight office is where we have our meetings but, more importantly it is the home of the Sebring Model Railroad Club and Historical Society's museum. It is where we display mementos of the past glory of railroading in America. We have many small artifacts, pieces of equipment, photographs, and documents from our local area. Our model railroad club's members are constantly on the lookout for small items that we can add to our collection.
 
We also have two passenger platform lights from the former East Palestine Pennsylvania Railroad Station which will be installed in our parking lot, along with a switch stand and a set of old Pennsy crossbucks.
 
The club purchased another 200 feet of property from the City of Sebring in late 1995. This property was cleared during the summer of 1996 and, through luck and politics, we received approximately 150 large loads of fill in the fall of 1996. We will have it graded sometime in 1997 and plant some grass.
 
Our parking lot was enlarged in 1991 and we are hoping to enlarge it again in 1997. The purchase of the additional property will allow us to have an exit to 14th Street. This should help traffic flow during our annual open house, which draws about 3000 people.
 
After upgrading our electrical service to 200 amps, a new electric heating system was installed in 1997. Gas heat was out of the question because of our location and the oil heating system had given us a lot of problems over the years. We are confident we made the right choice for the railroad because of the cleanliness of electric heat.
 

THE RAILROAD

The Sebring Model Railroad Club has, by whatever standard you choose to use, a large model railroad. The freight room, which houses our railroad, measures 25 by 70 feet Our goal is to fill as much of this space with railroad as we practically can. The railroad as it presently exists has a water level main line and two upper level main lines, each of which measures 346 feet in length. We have a total of approximately 3000 feet of track and we quit counting ties when we passed the 30,000 mark. Most of our track is hand-laid, as are the switches. There is more than 100 pounds of ballast on the railroad.

Approximately 80 per cent of the railroad is under scenery, with plans to hopefully attain 100 per cent in early 1998. A railroad of this size is a fluid thing and we have found that nothing is ever entirely completed! We are currently moving and increasing the number of tracks in our hidden staging yards. Many areas of scenery have been replaced as our talents and cash flow has increased. The city of McDonald has grown from just a few small buildings to many large and imposing buildings. It is a project that we estimate will take a few more years to complete.
 
One project that was completed in 1996 was the installation of fully operational signals of a Pennsylvania RR prototype on the double main line. These signals are fully functional and operate exactly like their larger brothers did on the Pennsy high iron. A future project is to signal the water level with target signals and to install dwarf signals in the yards, as economics dictate.
 
One of our newest projects is setting up the railroad for prototype operation. Because of the size of the railroad and the number of cars and locomotives, we are using a computer program to generate switch lists and train orders. This is another project that will take a year or so to bring to final completion.
 
The club currently rosters about 50 members. As in most clubs, we have people joining and people leaving for various reasons all during the year. Again1 like most clubs, we have a core group of members who are usually involved in everything that goes on.
 

FUTURE PLANS

Future plans are to install an intermodal and passenger yard in the location previously occupied by our oil furnace and workbench. Another area being looked at is the installation of animated models to help bring the railroad to life. At this time we are installing lights in almost every building on the railroad. Street lights will be added to the city of McDonald, the yard, the engine facility, and anywhere else that we can justify.

Another job we are looking forward to is creating a waterfall cascading under two bridges that will carry the main lines over a small gorge. This waterfall will cascade to within one foot of the floor.
 
Another small village is planned close to the location of the waterfall. Between these two areas is a small yard that will be redone soon to facilitate better operation of the railroad. We are also in the early planning stages of a "loads-in, empties-out" Coal Mine/Power Plant . This operation will greatly enhance the operation of the railroad.

In late 1993 the members of the club voted to change the name from Salem Model Railroad Club to the Sebring Model Railroad Club. Since we are located here, it just seemed the right thing to do. The Sebring Model Railroad Club is on the move, working hard to provide its members and the interested public a positive model railroad experience.
 

Many thanks to Doc Bertolini for letting SMRC scan a few photos from his collection. These photos were taken Monday, November 10th, 1975.

Photos by Don Shoup.