FROM THE CLERK
Please check your mailing label. Your membership expires on June 30 of the year listed on the label. You will not be able to check out items from the library, or participate in other benefits of membership after that date. Now is the time to think about renewing. Free for Full Time students, 1 year for $20, 3 years for $50 and 5 years for $80
Student memberships require the name of the school, and the class/year in addition to the student contact information
FROM THE TREASURER
All donations to the Amherst Railway Society may be tax deductible. As Amherst Railway Society Inc. is a 501 C(3) tax exempt organization, your donations ( of either cash and/or property) may be deducted on your Schedule A, Form 1040 of your Federal income tax. Consider the Amherst Railway Society in your estate planning. Your gifts can be restricted or non-restricted (you can pre-determine how you want your donation used). Upon request, and proper documentation of course, the Treasurer will issue you a letter to be used as justification for you tax deductions...
FROM THE TRIP COMMITTEE
Mass Bay RRE announces Annual Fall Circle Tour on Providence & Worcester RR
Mass Bay RRE wraps up its 75th anniversary year with a special all-day rail outing on the Providence & Worcester Railroad and Amtrak's Northeast Corridor. Saturday, October 17, 2009
Our third annual P&W 'Fall Circle Tour' will follow a unique routing that includes the Blackstone River Valley, the scenic seascapes of the Connecticut shoreline, the Thames River and the mill towns of eastern Connecticut.
Our special train leaves at 9:00 AM from the P&W's operating headquarters on Hammond Street in Worcester, MA. We'll first travel down the P&W's main line through Millbury and Woonsocket to Providence, RI, where we'll join Amtrak's Northeast Corridor for the westbound run to Groton, CT, passing through some of the most scenic coastal portions of this route. There our train will turn north onto the P&W's Norwich Branch, skirting the eastern shore of the Thames River to Norwich, CT. We'll pass through the mill towns of Plainfield and Putnam before returning to Worcester at approximately 5:30 PM. We are planning to have two or more photo stops along the way, as schedule and operating conditions permit.
Tickets are now on sale for this unique excursion. For complete trip details go to our web site:
http://www.massbayrre.org/CircleTour.htm
Telephone orders are accepted at 978-470-2066 with Visa or MasterCard between 9:00 AM and 8:00 PM Monday through Friday.
ARS members can order tickets at member prices with this form.
 SFTM Member's Day and Nickel Day—Saturday, September 26
Amherst Railway members can take advantage of Member Pricing at this event.
All card-carrying ARS members will get a free All- Day-Pass on that day.
And SFTM members get a free pass all day.
Members Day Saturday Sept 26, 2009.
The Shelburne Falls Trolley Museum will be having "Nickel Day". Here are the details:
Open to the public 11am to 5pm.
Schedule, locations and activities may change due to weather:
Special prices, all day:
* Nickel Trolley rides. Pay the conductor a nickel for each direction, just like in 1896!
* Or buy a specially-priced $2.00 All-Day-Pass (under 6 is free.) good for your
trolley, caboose, speeder and pump car rides and other activities (except lunch!)
until 5pm. Members, of course, ride free!
Pumpcar rides are too much work to give away for a nickel, and you couldn't
ride a pump car as a passenger in 1896 anyway.
Special for Member's Day (public invited), All-Day-Pass or membership required:
* All day - Caboose rides with the Trackmobile,
* All day - Motorcar ("speeder") rides.
* All day - (maybe) Miniature railroad equipment rides.
* Noon-1:00pm Member's Day Lunch:
* Cider Seasoned Pork Loin
* Potato salad
* Cole slaw or salad
* Vegetables
* Homemade desserts
* Coffee or cold beverage.
* Reservations not needed, but strongly recommended. Seating will
be limited. Prices (non-members): $13.00 for ages 13 and older, $6.00
for kids ages 6 through 12, kids under 6 is $2.00.
Member prices: $11.00, $5.00, and free.
Make reservations online at: Membership@sftm.org or leave phone
message at 413-625-9443.
Reservations should be made no later than September 22. Reserve early
to assure seating. Payment due upon arrival at SFTM.
* 1:30pm "Railroad archeology" tour to the Conway State Forest, where the
Conway Electric Street Railway met the New York, New Haven & Hartford
Railroad and the Boston & Maine Railroad. See the two bridge sites and the
new hiking bridge across the South River where the NYNH&H high bridge used
to be. Visit the remains of the Conway station grounds and the dam and
remains of the power plant on the South River. Sturdy walking shoes and the
ability to walk two miles are recommended. Steep steps lead down to the power
plant (optional). Meet at museum's Visitors Center at 1:30pm.
Special for Nickel Day, while supplies last:
* After lunch - Nickel ice cream cones, thanks to Snow's Ice Cream!
* During and after lunch - Nickel Lemonade
Shelburne Falls is having fall festival that day as well, it could be jammed!
Shelburne Falls Trolley Museum
14 Depot St.
Museum 413-625-9443
Shelburne Falls, MA 01370
http://www.sftm.org
Seashore Trolley Museum
Seashore Trolley Museum
Invites the members of the Amherst Railway Society to the ribbon cutting ceremony for the completed restoration of
Atlantic Shore Line electric locomotive #100
and the companion exhibit,
"History in Motion: Public Transportation Connecting Maine Communities"
- Visitor Center, 195 Log Cabin Road, Kennebunkport, Maine 04046
- Friday, September 25, 2009 2:00 p.m.
- Light refreshments served
- Regular interpreted streetcar rides available
- Opportunities to photograph ASL100 in operation.
If you are interested in attending, please contact the Clerk or the Trip Director by the conclusion of the Sept 15, 2009 meeting so that the R.S.V.P to the invitation has the correct number of attendees.
Disney Train Coming
Walt Disney Pictures is having a chartered Amtrak train tour the country promoting this falls release of "A Christmas Carol". The tour includes stops in Albany NY Sept 22, Boston Sept 25 -27, and New York City Oct 30 — Nov 1. For other dates see the ARS website: http://www.amherstrail.org/TrainTourPressRelease.pdf
Phil Johnson
Trip Director
 Message from the Show Director:
Summer for me is over and it's been back to work on the show for a while now.
The biggest news is that we have taken an additional 54,000 square feet of space in the Mallary Complex, putting us over 300,000 square feet of show space! The result of allowing exhibitors to grow, adding more layouts and not that many vendors, is making for an exciting venue with some changes that will be sure to please everyone.
Contracts are already out the door to over 425 exhibitors with over 20 of them new to us. Again, they are almost exclusively layouts and manufacturers. Here's a preview: there are two new layouts to the show, one scale is 7/8n2 and the other is "T" gauge (not TT that some of us remember — me included). T gauge is half the size of Z (yes you heard that right!) When I asked the exhibitor how much space he needed for the layout, he told me, "One by two." He meant 1 X 2
feet
... then he told me it was a huge layout! Enough to make you laugh out loud!
We have all new badges again, this year hanging on lanyards. Much larger, very good looking and easy to see! Once again, individual names will be printed on the badges. Badges takes me to volunteers. This year we will need a few more volunteers because of the additional set up of the Mallary Complex. If you are interested, please let us know by seeing us at the next meeting or by contacting the show office.
Admission price continues to be in a holding pattern, as do the table prices, which is making everyone happy. We had conducted a survey to our exhibitors of which more than half responded, giving us some great input for the future.
We are about to launch the ability to purchase advance tickets online by credit card within the next couple of weeks!
As we get close to the show date, we will report to you the new exhibitors and any other new and exciting ideas that will be happening for 2010. You will not want to miss some of the latest changes and additions to the show….here we grow again!!
Stay tuned!!!
John Sacerdote, Show Director
 From the AMHERST BELT
LINES…
Schools Back – Time for a New Show Season
With September comes the beginning of the Show Season for the Amherst Belt Lines. We have invitations now for all three of our regular shows for the fall and winter of 2009. Your module coordinators – Sudro, Clark and Alan – are always happy to have your help at these shows, so let ‘em know that you are ready to lend a hand! Help is always needed to operate the layout during show hours, and there is always something to do during set up and tear down. See our current schedule below; more details will be coming out in the Modular Mumblings, or talk to one of the coordinators.
National Train Show® – July 10-12, 2009
The Amherst Belt Lines can now be dubbed an “award winning” modular railroad! We are proud to announce that two of the modules on display in our layout at the National Train Show in Hartford, CT won awards. Jim Whitman won the International Hobby Corporation’s Pizzaz Award for his Summit Junction module featuring numerous lighting effects, including a burning building. The Amherst Belt Lines won Third Place in the Group Entry for Bolton Junction. This module has been a true group effort: designed by Alan Rice; built by Steve Belforti, John Bock, Sudro Brown and Clark Huber; with scenery by James Mayo. Congratulations to all!
At three days this was by far the longest and most taxing show the Belt Lines has done. There were some rough spots in the road in and out of the show, but this once-in-a-lifetime experience was worth it.
Show Schedule Update
The Belt Lines attends about six shows per year from September through April. So far we have invitations to four of the shows, including our own, through January of next year. If you would like to mark your calendars for shows we will be attending, here are the dates for the rest of the 2009:
Upcoming Meetings
(All of the rest of this year’s meetings will be at the Amherst Middle School):
- Oct 20, 2009 (Auditorium) Charlie Hunter "North America's Moving Music Festival"
- Nov 17, 2009 (Cafeteria) Dan Bigda “Morphing Trains"
- Jan 19, 2010 (Auditorium) Bob LaMay "Life of the FL-9"
- Mar 16, 2010 (Auditorium) Members Night Various short presentations
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