Our Club was founded February 1, 1950. Our first home was the Pennsylvania RR Freight Station [which sat near today's PAT McKeesport Transportation Center] until it was abandoned & demolished by PRR. The Club was in the building removing whatever items it wished to salvaged until the day before demolition, November 25, 1963.
After a couple years ’homeless', the stored items were all but lost due to extensive water damage during storage, and only one model building survived to the next club layout, a rented basement [until 1971] at the corner of Smithfield & Drake Streets in the area known as 'little Boston' until the property owner had other plans for the building.
The second (top) floor of the Coulter School, which sat very near the CSX (ex-Chessie System, nee-B&O) main line at the corner of Ninth & Tourman Streets in South Versailles Twp, was our next home during most of the 1970's (the footprint is still visible on Google Earth). It was leased from MASD (McKeesport Area School District) for $1 per year until it was condemned and demolished in 1978.
Feeling bad about the condemned bulding in Coulter, MASD then leased us the southern end of the second floor of Dravosburg's Third Street School. Consisting of two 40' x 45' schoolrooms, it was our largest-ever layout, which filled both rooms and was connected by daylighting the wall between the two rooms' coatrooms, which flanked the removed wall at the extreme south end of the building. Meetings and such were held in the spacious common area outside the club rooms (there were three other classrooms on the floor of this three story brick building). Access was by stairwell only.
Then THAT building was sold to private enterprise in mid-1985, and we were homeless, again! The new landowner demolished the building, albeit not immediately, and eventually constructed affordable, single-story, senior housing.
Much like in the early 1960’s, members with available storage space in their homes volunteered to store model buildings, some of which involve dozens of man hours, until we could figure out where we could go; the MASD, which had been very generous to our organization, was out of available space, and we grew tired of these brief stays...the layouts would just be nearing completion when we were being told we had to rip up and leave.
We continued to operate without a home while holding our monthly business meetings in the two-car garage of a member's home on Ohio Avenue in White Oak when we noticed that the Union Hall of United States Steel's Christy Park Plant, which had recently closed [as it turned out, for good, as a USS entity], was on the real estate market.
The Club did not have the assets nor the credit line to finance the affordable price, so about half the membership ponied up the cash (divided evenly) and bought the Hall, located at 2209 Walnut Street, finally back home in McKeesport, our namesake community.
It took members, most of whom had full time employment commitments, well over a year to make the property usable for Club purposes, as only a few members participated in the actual 1986-87 renovation.
The current layout was constructed between 1987-91, and was intact as built [with minor scenic and operational changes] until September 2009.
The technology was outdating itself at the time of construction, and the membership, which reached a record of near 50 members, about double that of today, had mixed feelings about the direction of our Club.
Two decades later, we are moving in a new direction and advancing our technological thought to within the alignment of the 21st century.
It is our sincere hope to celebrate our 65th Anniversary (2/1/2015) with an unveiling of a complete operational 'new' Mon-Yough Valley Railroad, as REAL railroading would have been when the Club was founded, February 1, 1950.
If you are interested in becoming a member check out the Membership page.
Google Map and directions to the club.
