CUMBERLAND, Md.  - The fascinating history of the world-famous Horseshoe Curve near Altoona is the topic for the upcoming meeting of the Western Maryland Chapter, National Railway Historical (NRHS).  This meeting will be held at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, February 20, in the community meeting room of the South Cumberland Library, located at 100 Seymour St.  The NRHS meeting is open to the public, and the library building is handicap-accessible through the Pennsylvania Avenue entrance.

Guest speaker will be Dennis P. McIlnay, author of the regional best-selling book, The Horseshoe Curve: Sabotage and Subversion in Railroad City (Seven Oaks Press, 2007).  With 5,000 copies sold during the past six months, this book recounts the founding of the Pennsylvania Railroad and the building of the Horseshoe Curve over the Allegheny Mountains in 1854.  This famous railroad engineering achievement, which handled numerous trains each day, became the target of Nazi saboteurs during World War II. The Horseshoe Curve tells the true story about the FBI's arrest of suspected Nazi sympathizers during the war, including 225 people in Altoona.  Dennis P. McIlnay is professor of management at Saint Francis University.  He lives with his wife, Kathy in Hollidaysburg, Pennsylvania, just ten miles from the Horseshoe Curve.  He will be available to sign or sell copies of his new book at the conclusion of his meeting in Cumberland.

Members of the Western Maryland Chapter usually meet together on the third Wednesday of each month, and receive a monthly newsletter containing information about chapter activities, current railroad news, and local railroad history.