Over the River and Through the Woods…

Happy Thanksgiving and welcome to the Holiday Season! As this is being written, cash registers are ringing madly away as the great retailing race starts toward the end of the year. Meanwhile, your Module Coordinators have started the clock on preparing for the Amherst Railway Society Show in January. We have only a short time left to prepare for the largest show and layout of the season and a lot to discuss, so we will get right into it!

UPDATE!!! Schedule for 2005 – 2006 Season

This year’s schedule has been finalized. Since Pepperell and Bedford are over, we have removed them from the list. What remains is our schedule for the rest of the season. Save the dates now so that you don’t miss an event!

December 3-4, 2005    NMRA HUB Division Great Marlborough Train Show, Marlborough, MA

    (Setup December 2 after 2:00PM and December 3 before the show opens)

January 28-29, 2006    Amherst Railway Society Big Railroad Hobby Show, West Springfield, MA

    (Setup January 26 and 27, 2006)

February 26, 2006    Worcester Model Railroad Club Annual Show, Auburn, MA

    (Setup February 26 at 7:00AM before the show opens)

March 19, 2006    NMRA Little Rhody Division Show, West Warwick, RI

    (Setup March 18 after 10:00AM)

We have solid invitations or contracts in hand for each of the shows listed above. We look forward to seeing you (and your modules) at the shows!

2006 Big Railroad Hobby Show – January 28-29, 2006

It is the end of November as this is being written and January looms in the not so distant future. Preparations are already underway for the largest show of the season – the Amherst Railway Society’s Big Railroad Hobby Show. As in past years, the Show will be held in three buildings (Better Living Center, Young Building and Stroh Building) of the Eastern States Exposition Fairgrounds in West Springfield, Massachusetts. The Show will be January 28, 2006 from 9:00AM to 5:00PM and January 29 from 10:00AM to 5:00PM. Setup will begin on Thursday, January 26 starting around noon or 1:00PM. There have been a number of policy changes this year that we will outline below. Some of these changes are due to changes made by the Big E Management and are outside of the Control of Amherst Railway Society or the Amherst Belt Lines. The Amherst Railway Society has made every possible attempt to minimize the impact of these changes.

1. PARKING: Parking will be free on Thursday and Friday. On Saturday and Sunday, the Big E will charge everybody entering the fairgrounds for parking at their standard rate of $5.00 per day, assuming you don’t leave the fairgrounds! Hang tags will not be available this year. The Amherst Belt Lines is considering the possibility of reimbursing module owners or individuals participating in the setup, operation and breakdown of the Amherst Belt Lines layout for the parking fee, up to $5.00 per day of the Show. This refund of the parking fee would be made only upon the request of the driver. In order to minimize the impact on parking, we would ask your cooperation in considering if you really need your car on the property for one or both of the show days, or if you can find an alternate means of getting to the Show such as walking from the hotel or car pooling. Details will be provided at the Friday night meeting.

2. BUILDING ADMISSION: Badges are REQUIRED for entrance to the buildings all days!!! This is a MAJOR change in policy. On Thursday and Friday, you will not be permitted in the building without your red Amherst Belt Lines or Amherst Railway Society badge, an Exhibitor’s badge or similar club identification badge. On Saturday and Sunday no one will be admitted without a badge or proof of paid admission. This means that if you do not have a badge when you approach the entrance doors during the Show, you must pay admission and get a wrist band to enter the building. THERE WILL BE NO REFUNDS OF SHOW ADMISSION BY EITHER THE AMHERST BELT LINES OR THE AMHERST RAILWAY SOCIETY FOR INDIVIDUALS WHO DO NOT HAVE BADGES BEFORE THE SHOW! If you do not have a badge, please let Sudro or Alan know IMMEDIATELY so that we may get badges ordered. We will attempt to get your badge to you prior to Thursday. If you arrive at the building on either Thursday or Friday without a badge, call one of the Module Coordinators on their cell phone and we will send someone to get you – cell phone numbers will be distributed closer to the show date by email. If you come to the Show without a badge on Saturday or Sunday, you will have to pay admission as there is no time to send someone to the gate during the Show. We will have a small quantity of Exhibitor badges (10) that we can use for last minute participants which we will distribute without charge – after those ten are gone, Exhibitor badges will be charged $8.00 each for last minute badges.

The layout is required to be checked in at the Show Office prior to unloading and prior to individuals or vehicles being admitted to the building. Check-in will be done by one of the Module Coordinators, so if you get there before any of the Coordinators, please wait until one arrives.

3. MODULE ARRIVAL: As in previous years, our goal is to have all modules in the building, on their feet and in position by the close of the day on Thursday. The building is closed at 11:00PM, but we encourage you to get to the Better Living Center as early as possible. If you are unable to get to the Show site on Thursday, please let Alan know when you notify him of the availability of your module so that he may plan accordingly. If you have not made prior arrangements for Friday arrival, or do not call one of the Module Coordinators on Thursday (cell phone) and do not arrive by 11:00PM on Thursday night, we will redesign the layout to close the gap and your space will not be available when you arrive on Friday. We have a large number of people involved in the setup of the layout on Friday and waiting for a module to arrive on Friday so that we can continue setup is not a good use of our time.

4. MODULE PARTICIPATION: Our space this year will most likely be the same size as last year; we continue to grow even though our space does not! If you have a module or module set that you want to display in the layout this year, let Alan know by not later than December 17, 2005 . If you have previously notified Alan, please send him a reminder before December 17 to confirm that he has your module in the layout. Notification can be made in person at the HUB Show, by email, voicemail, and telephone or ‘snail’ mail any time before December 17 . We will not assume that your module is coming so you must contact Alan by December 17 . (What was that date again?)

5. NEW MODULES: If your module(s) have never been in an ABEL layout before, please make a point of bringing that to our attention when you notify Alan that you want to include the module in the layout. You must send Alan a track plan and industry list (name of industry, what car types serve the industry, length of siding in 50 foot car equivalents) so that he can get it drawn in the database. New modules also require an inspection and wiring harness before being placed in the layout. Ideally, we would like to inspect any new modules before they arrive at the Show site. If we are unable to inspect your new module beforehand, please come to the Show site as early as possible so that we can make the inspection and install the wiring harness. We will supply the wiring harness.

6. MODULE CHANGES: If you have made significant changes to the track arrangement or electrical system of your module since the last time it was included in the layout, please follow the directions above for “NEW MODULES”.

7. MODULE REPAIRS: We will not repair modules at the Show site! If repairs are required, the owner will have until close of setup Thursday night to make these repairs or the module will be removed from the layout. The Module Coordinators reserve the right to make repairs to the mainline tracks during the course of the Show to keep operation flowing smoothly on the layout.

8. INDIVIDUAL PARTICIPATION: If you would like to help out with the layout and do not have a module, please do! We always need help with setup, operation and breakdown of the layout. If you plan to participate let one of the Module Coordinators know so that we plan accordingly. If you need a badge, let Sudro or Alan know as soon as possible.

9. FRIDAY NIGHT MEETING: A meeting of all operators and module owners will be held on Friday night to discuss operations and special instructions for the layout. The agenda will include operating rules, special instructions for the layout, DCC regulation and more. As with last year, pizza will be served.

We are looking forward to another great year in West Springfield and another great layout. Remember that the deadline for module notification is December 17 . We want to see you there!

The Show Season So Far…

September found the Amherst Belt Lines going full circle in the show circuit. After a long sabbatical from the Varnum Brook Elementary School in Pepperell, Massachusetts as a show venue, the Pepperell Siding Model Railroad Club returned their show for what they hope will be the last move of the show for some time to come. The Belt Lines assembled a generous 20’ x 32’ layout that ran well throughout the show day. Setup progressed in reasonable time, and the layout was up and operating before we left for the night. The crew spent the night in Nashua, New Hampshire with the usual late night bull session following dinner.

The Bedford Boomer's show in Bedford, New Hampshire was as fantastic as ever. The layout was a change for an away show with a 28’ x 46’ “L” shaped configuration. This year we featured Still River, Middletown/Willimantic, Colebrook, Port Arcadia, Hampshire, Beryl and Westernport and a handful of club modules. Stan Slowik took home the honor of winning the Boomer’s Edwin R. Permon Award for his Port Arcadia modules. Saturday night after dinner we headed over to Bruce Robinson’s home for a return to his Valley Junction Railroad . A great night of operation ensued with dispatching shared by Gary Munsey and Will Rice.

We'd like to thank Bruce Robinson for hosting the group at Bedford again this year. Thanks also go to everyone who participated in these shows. The list seems to get longer each year with many new faces as well. Without a doubt we will forget someone this year, so we will just give the whole group a hearty “Thanks” for your efforts in making these shows a success. We would also like to thank the Bedford Boomers and the Pepperell Siding Model Railroad Club for continuing to include us in their shows and allowing us to help them promote their organizations and the hobby of Model Railroading.

NMRA HUB Division Show – December 3-4, 2005

By the time you get this newsletter we will probably already have attended this show. We have been asked for several years to come to the NMRA HUB Division show and this year accepted the invitation. The show will be held at the Best Western Royal Plaza Trade Center on Route 20 in Marlborough, Massachusetts. The show runs from 10:00AM to 5:00PM on Saturday and from 10:00AM to 4:00PM on Sunday. Setup will be from 2:00PM to 10:00PM on Friday and will continue as early as 6:30AM on Saturday until the show opens, if we need it. The show promises to be quite an event.

At this point, the layout is set and a participants list has been sent in to the Show Committee, but come on out to the Show to see what it is all about – if you get this soon enough that is! We look forward to seeing you there.

Worcester Model Railroader's Show – February 26, 2006

The Worcester Model Railroader's show will be held at the Auburn Elks Club in Auburn, Massachusetts. This is a small one-day show that literally is only one day for the Amherst Belt Lines. Setup will start at around 7:00AM on Sunday morning and the doors open at 10:00AM. We have generally gotten trains running by the time the doors open, but it is always a challenge. If you are up for the challenge, please feel free to lend a hand. If you want to bring a module, space is very limited so let Alan know right away!

We will provide an update for both the Worcester and Little Rhody shows as more information becomes available.

Email Addresses

Do we have your most current email address? Much of our communication these days seems to be through electronic mail regarding the shows. With the exception of this newsletter (which is also sent electronically!), very little we do is through the United States Postal Service. If you have an email address, please take a moment to send the Module Coordinators a message (our addresses are on the banner of the newsletter) so that we may be sure we have your current address on record. For those of you that have addresses that don’t have anything to do with your name – like Alan’s – please be sure to include your name somewhere in the message. If you don’t have an email address, let us know that somehow as well so that we can make sure that we keep everyone as up-to-date with information as possible. Thanks!

Looking For Something To Do?

With all of the equipment we haul around to these shows, there is always the opportunity for something to break. With that in mind, the Amherst Belt Lines has several pieces of equipment and rolling stock in need of repair. If you have some time, and would be willing to take a shot returning bad ordered equipment to service, please let Sudro know. Right now we have several locomotives that require mechanical repair or overhaul. We also have some equipment that needs to hit the paint shop. As always, there is an opportunity to enhance the scenery on any of the Society owned modules in the trailer. All you need to do is ask!

Well, that’s all for this edition of the Modular Mumblings. We look forward to hearing from you soon about the shows mentioned above. Remember to mark the dates on you calendar and let Alan know about modules, attendance, etc. Especially remember that the deadline for notifying Alan about the Amherst Railway Society Show is December 17 !

Hope we see you in Marlborough or West Springfield at the very least!

Have a Happy “HO”liday Season!

Modular Railroading is Fun!

Alan, Clark and Sudro