Springfield Show Report

The Railroad Hobby Show sponsored by the Amherst Railway Society was held this past Saturday and Sunday. It fills four of the larger buildings at the Eastern States Exposition in Springfield, Mass.

MGRS members attending included Norm Waycott, Art Handman, Jim Jenkins, Terry & Sue Norton, David Blue, Grace Miller, Ernie Bay and Sam Carr. Mike Shipp was busy in his York Village Marketplace booth.

Once you got your ticket, the first thing you heard and saw was steam locomotive #11 from the Boothbay Railway Village. It was outside, between the buildings with steam up and the whistle blowing.

Two foot steam locomotive #11

Charles Ro had a bunch of G-Scale on display with an engine lineup in front

Charles Ro engine lineup

The New Hampshire Garden Railway Society had a big modular layout running around the outside of a 68' x 54' space.

NHGRS Switch Yard

NHGRS Work Train

NHGRS Railway Police and Emergency Services

NHGRS Military Train Video

The Central Connecticut G Scale Club also had a large modular layout

                             Central CT Turntable

 Central CT Container Handling Operation

Might grow up to be a Drawbridge

Central CT Auto Loading Facility

Drive-in Theater running Mary Poppins on a small TV

Central Connecticut Mixed Train Video

Here are a few other fun things from the show

Wind Turbine - HO Scale - Dry Hill Model RR Club

Pioneer Valley Live Steamers

Utility Company Garage - NMRA Hub Division

Thomas Layout in the Kid's Area

Videos of 2016 Holiday Train Display

Thanks to Jim Alberty from Apple, here is the video of the 2016 Holiday Train Display

2016 Holiday Train Display

Here is what Jim said about it on Youtube

Published on Jan 4, 2017

And here it is, my annual Holiday gift to the world .... every year the Maine Garden Railways Society (https://sites.google.com/a/jacksoncon...) puts a wonderful G-Scale train set in our local mall .... and give me the privilege of filming it for the purpose of making a video and writing a soundtrack ..... this year was no exception .... I started with the walk down the corridor that opens the video and then built it from there, using Final Cut Pro X and my old friend Logic Pro X .... hope you like it .... these guys do incredible work every year and it's always a blast to see children enjoy it .... happy holidays to you all ....

Members Bill and Robin Goodrich also created a video with some of their trains, trolleys, and (as always) really neat handcars.

Maine Mall Trains 2016

Items for Sale by Jim Muthig

Jim has the following items for sale. Please contact him at  jmuthig3@gmail.com or call 2072066102

USA 17024 St. Johnsbury Trailer on a Flat Car, NIB $85.00

LGB 45590 Truck Transport and Trucks, NIB, $100

USA Trains R1765 USMC Flat Car with 2 Dodge Power Wagons, NIB, $85.00 

Miniature Railroad and Village at Carnegie Science Center in Pittsburgh

I happened to find this on the Internet while looking for a model train show. Its worth a look on your computer.

Miniature Railroad and Village Web site

Here it is by the numbers

And there is a nice collection of pictures at

Miniature Railroad Photos

The Chocolate Train

Thanks to Dennis Farrell we have a story about a train in Belgium which is made out of chocolate

Locomotive and Tender

Click here for a Chocolate Train web story

A train made entirely of chocolate has set a new Guinness World Record as the longest chocolate structure in the world...        The sculpture, on display at the busy Brussels South station, is 112-feet (34.05 meters) long and weighs over 2,755 pounds  (1250 kilos).  Maltese chocolate artist Andrew Farrugia spent over 700 hours constructing the masterpiece. He said he came up with the idea of the train last year after visiting the Belgian Chocolate Festival in Bruge: "I had this idea for a while, and I said what do you think if we do this realization of a long chocolate train, you know, because a train you can make it as long as you like. "Actually it was going to be much smaller than it was, but I kept on adding another wagon, and another wagon, and it's the size it is today." Farrugia had previously built a smaller train of 12 feet for an event in Malta, which he said gave him insight about how to build this much larger version. There are two parts to the train. The first seven wagons are modeled after the new Belgian trains, and the rest of the train is modeled after the old train wagons, including a wagon with a bar and restaurant on board. Three days before the event, Farrugia transported the chocolate train by truck in 25 wooden boxes from Malta to Belgium. Farrugia said the train incurred considerable damage during the drive and several of the train's walls had completely collapsed.. Luckily, with hard work and little sleep, the chocolate artist was able to fix all the damages before presenting the train to the public on Monday. After measuring the length of the train and confirming no material other than chocolate was used, officials from the Guinness Book of World Records added a new category to the collection of world records and declared the train to be the longest chocolate structure in the world. Freight and Treasure Chest Cars Passenger Cars Flat Car and Vat Car

2016 Season Finale

After running from November 18 through January 1, the 7th Annual Holiday Train Display at the Maine Mall was dismantled and moved out today.  We started after 8am, left the Mall at 11, and finished unloading in Buxton just before noon.

Here is the "cast" for the move out, in no particular order.....

John Middleton

Norman Waycott

Paul Corbett

Andy Hendrickson

Carl Churchill

Mac McLaughlin

Mike Curry

David  Blue

Terry Norton

Jim Muthig

Frank Howard

Mary Garland

Art Shean

Dennis Farrell

Jim Jenkins

Sam Carr and son

Ben Braithwaite

Special thanks to Casco Bay Ford for providing the cargo van for the move in and move out.

Waiting for the next run......

Rail Diesel Cars Coal and Mixed Trains roll into 2017

This past week we had the fun of seeing two Rail Diesel Cars (RDCs), also known at the Buddliner operating at the Holiday Train  Display. The Budd Corporation built almost 400 of the prototype car in four different models. They replaced the railbus built earlier by several other companies.


RDC-1  90 passenger coach
RDC-2  70 passenger coach with baggage compartment
RDC-3   48 passenger coach with baggage compartment and   Railway Post Office
RDC-4   Railway Post Office and baggage compartment only
RDC-9   94 passenger trailer with engine but no control cab

Prototype RDC

The G-Scale units are RDC-3s built by Aristocraft.  Jim Jenkins ran his RDC pulling two New York Central coaches. The unit runs smoothly and quietly. It can also produce smoke.

Pennsylvania Reading Seashore Line

RDC and Circus Train Run By

Prospective member Ed Smith came by on Saturday evening and had a chance to run his brand new Boston and Maine RDC. It looked great!!

Boston and Maine

RDC running past the Circus

A short coal train came through. It  only had  four Aristocrat coal cars. They are shorter than the Piko coal cars, but the train looked right with a steam engine, passenger car and Bobber Caboose.

Another visitor was a mixed train with two Rio Grande diesel engines.

Twin Diesel Mixed Train Runby

John Middleton has a long and narrow time-saver layout. So his buildings are also long a narrow. Since the Circus left town we had space to set them out and show their nice detail.

Specialty Fasteners Co. (Loose screws, nuts and washers)

Flavors and Extracts, Inc. (Your favorite tonics)

Add caption

Casco Bay Ford vehicles fueling up at the Esso Tank Farm

MGRS Engineers always stop at Ernie's Diner

MALL THANK YOU

Here is a copy of the email I sent out:

The president wanted you all to know that he has noticed an increase in people saying thank you to the MGRS members running trains at the mall.

Those of you that did some time at the mall probably noticed it also.

It sure is nice to get that kind of feedback.

When I was there, a number of people stated that the only reason they go to the mall is to see the trains.

We are lucky that we get to share our hobby with people that appreciate the work we do to keep the trains on track.

Thank you, Happy New Year

Terry

MGRS Secretary

Locomotives, a Coal Train and Circus Models

Members and visitors have add to the fun this week at the Mall.

Rio Grande 205 Steam Locomotive and Tender

Rio Grande 2015 Runby

Santa Fe A-B hanging out with Thomas

Coal Train from the Caboose

Coal Train m the Engine

Santa Fe Coal Drag Runby

DRG&W Mixed Train Runby

Two visitors looking at the Circus Train told us about places with circus models. They also showed us pictures and video from their cameras.

One is the Brook Green Gardens in the Myrtle Beach area of South Carolina. The web site is  http://www.brookgreen.org/

Here is one of the pictures you can see by searching for "brook green gardens model circus"

Another is the Shelburne Museum in Shelburne, Vermont on Route 7 south of Burlington. The web site is

https://shelburnemuseum.org/  

Here is one of the pictures you can see by searching for "Shelburne Museum Circus"

Moving Out on Monday, January 2nd at 9:00 am

Please help us take down the Holiday Train Display on Monday, January 2nd starting at 9am.

Ben has arranged for Casco Bay Ford to loan us a van for the move as he did when we move in.

As in the past, our job is to go from "All Aboard"

Back to empty tables....

Our last day of running trains will be Sunday, January 1st

Rolling Through Christmas

We have now run through Christmas and are heading toward the New Year. Here are some recent photos and video.


Jim Jenkins ran his Candy Cane Express Train just before Christmas

Candy Cane Christmas Express Engine

Candy Cane Christmas Express Passenger Car

Candy Cane Christmas Express Runby

James the Red Engine pulling candy in his Dump Car

LGB Tourist Train loading at North Conway

Thomas taking a well-earned break

On December 26 John Middleton brought in his "Maine Train" including Moxie and Poland Spring freight cars.

Maine Train Runby

And Jim Jenkins ran a pair of New York Central A-B diesels with five Pullman passenger cars

New York Central A-B Diesels

Pullman Passenger Car

Pullman Train Runby

Running trains at the mall

Everyone had fun running the trains. Dominic (with Ben) and Jace Morse (with me)  took the time to show Ben and me how to operate the railroad.