Hello, fellow freelance modelers. My name is Doug Carey, owner and creator of the HO Scale Maryland Southern Railroad (MDSO).

The inspiration for my road is the Wild Mary or Western Maryland Railway (WM). I also include the Richmond Fredericksburg & Potomac and Norfolk & Western as inspiration and for routes as well. I forgot to add that I also have the Pittsburgh & Lake Erie. The era I model is Modern. I know people think it’s boring but I love the long reefers, as well as Intermodal and unit ethanol trains.

The headquarters is located in Hagerstown, Maryland. The location of MDSO is primarily the top half of Maryland from Baltimore (Ed Lewis’ Cumberland, Utica & Toledo (CU&T) connection) to the west thru Hagerstown on the WM, I have the WM in its entirety with legs into the eastern and western side of Virginia. I also go north of Baltimore towards Delaware and the Philadelphia area somewhat, but that’s still being worked out. I also have the Northern Central north thru Timonium out of Baltimore to York, Pennsylvania to connect with the York secondary of MDSO. Going south from Baltimore I have the ex-Pennsylvania/Conrail mainline from Bayview Yard on the Northeast Corridor (NEC). Amtrak doesn’t exist and the tragic Chase accident never happened, so freight runs freely thru Washington, DC to the Potomac Yard location. From there I have connections with Wayne Dennis’ Midland Southern (Southern) and Ed Lewis’ CU&T (B&O) respectively. 

As I mentioned before I have the RF&P to Richmond’s Acca Yard where I connect with Ritchie Sharpe’s Atlantic Rail System (Seaboard System). I go back up to Baltimore headed west thru Owings Mills following the WM to Hagerstown where I also connect with a few more railroads besides the Midland Southern and CU&T there as well. From Hagerstown I go northeast towards York thru Hanover, Pennsylvania and Gettysburg. I go west too, with branches to the West Virginia coal fields and mines and Connellsville where I also have the P&LE in its entirety to Youngstown and beyond. I also have branches running to Purcellville (Washington & Old Dominion) and Annapolis, Maryland (Baltimore & Annapolis), both long-defunct railroads. I know the WM was a successful bridge road and a part of the popular Alphabet Route, but I wanted it to be bigger so I stuck with all the cities where I’ve seen my favorite railroads growing up: Baltimore, Roanoke Hagerstown, Cumberland, Pittsburgh and last but not least my hometown Washington, DC.

I started out as a what-if, if WM had survived, a modern WM if you will. Just scrolling Facebook I found the freelance page and once I got the concept of it, I was hooked. I’ve had many schemes starting out but with Ed Lewis’ help, the much-loved Flag SD70Ace nose logo meshed with the black WM scheme and the MDSO scheme was born. I’ve kept it as close with WM inspirations I can. More on that later; on the Locos. Its freelance so I can take creative license as much as I want. A modern take. I model what I see today that makes it easy for me and my pockets lol. CSX is primarily the RR here in the area so I see unit grain, auto racks, coal and rock trains. The first I tackled was grain cars. I have 3- and 4-bay hoppers currently in abundance and a healthy 4-bay unit train which was KCS inspired also. I’ve started on MDSO auto racks but I’m also acquiring racks available from other Freelance lines as well to populate my trains.

I don’t have a layout yet, but I’m building locomotives and cars until it comes. I’m currently a part of two clubs: Mead Area Railroad Society (MARRS), which is a large modular club displaying primarily at the Great American Timonium shows; and Lehigh & Keystone Valley Model Railroad and Museum, which has an intricately-detailed large layout of the Allentown, Pennsylvania area. I’ve also been blessed to run on early supporters Dale and Jason Koglin’s NS layout with sons Ethan and Evan on occasion. I also have been on Steve Johnsons’ Union Railroad layout which makes my equipment look better lol.  If you ever get the chance to see or visit any of these, do it, you will not be disappointed.

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