Overview of the Piermont Division of the Western Maryland

This is Howard Zane’s HO scale model railroad layout, a masterpiece that features the 1955 Western Maryland railroad. His Piermont Division is considered a great artistic achievement in the modeling community. The colors, textures, scenery, and structures were all artfully and methodically placed and with incredible detail.

Zane has a background in sculpting, designing and painting, which has helped him in his modeling. He is also a partner of the Great Scale Train Show. To him, the Piermont Division of the Western Maryland has meant hours of modeling fun and the ability to create a window into a period of history in which Zane wishes he could be. He told Allen Keller that it is his dream to be in the 19050’s on a porch, playing the banjo, and watching the trains go by on the Western Maryland.

The Piermont Division is a 27×27-foot basement layout with a spline roadbed and an open grid benchwork. The track plan calls for trains to move through some scenes more than once, but with the use of different tracks.