Report from the Front! Amherst Railroad Society Hobby Show


KB02

Well-Known Member
After 7 1/2 hours round trip driving, I proudly present just some of the highlights from the 2018 Amherst Railway Society Railroad Hobby Show:

Starting with 1:1 scale:














Sorry, the last one came out kind of blurry, but my head was a little blurry by the time I took this, too. A nearly 4 hour drive followed by 5 1/2 hours of speed walking trying to cover all four buildings makes for a ling day for someone with a bad back, you know?
 
Great show, thanks for the photos. That wye is fantastic, not just it's method, but it's locale as well. Prototype inspired? The Quarry is brilliant too.
 
Thanks for posting pictures, I have seen lots of pictures from some other forums, looks like a lot of good stuff coming out this year. Its a great time to be in model railroading!
 
Just got back an hour ago.
Arrived there Wednesday for 2 days of clinics (4 clinics a day Thursday and Friday). They had the biggest turnout in 30 years of doing the clinics, 72 people (ages 35 and up), we had lots of fun. The hobby is dying....lol.
Spend 5 hours Saturday touring all the buildings and returned for another 3 hours Sunday, this time to spend money and of course went over budget. Spoke to a member of the Amherst Model Train Society, almost 11,000 people showed up on Saturday and the vendors did lots of sale compared to last year (probably because of the economy). On Sunday there seemed to be as many, but don't know the numbers as I left at 2pm. I couldn't feel my legs anymore, walking on a concrete floor the past 2 days did it for me. In my opinion, they probably reached 20,000 people at the show. I had supper with different people on 4 occasion and everybody was of the same agreement, this hobby is in good health and I would say that about 75% said that the prices are about right or have no problem with the prices.

Overall, great 4 days, great people, great information and probably will go back again next year.
 
After 7 1/2 hours round trip driving, I proudly present just some of the highlights from the 2018 Amherst Railway Society Railroad Hobby Show:

Starting with 1:1 scale:

Nah, as I tell my friend who volunteers with one of the Maine 2-foot gauge reconstruction groups, "You're just modeling at 5 inches to the foot".

The jug-handle junction is on the "Narragansett Bay Railway & Navigation Company", an On3 model of an imaginary railroad in the marshes of Rhode Island. Since the whole setup is fictional, they can build whatever they like!

I think the quarry is some of Mike Tylick's work. He's been in Model Railroader quite a few times.

Oh, and that picture of the soccer game (I've seen it on previous trips, though I didn't go this year): it has a mirror down the center of the field, and it shows players who have one color of shirts on one half of the field, and players in different colors on the other side. How did he do that, I wondered? Then I realized, the players are painted one color in front, another color behind. Is that clever, or what?
 
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Jug handle junction, very apt. Mind you, you know what they say, "somewhere there's a prototype for everything".

I spotted the mirror but was too small to see the teams colors. Great idea. With the team sheds and stands seperated like that is one way to prevent the fans fighting each other. Actually they'd be fighting themselves wouldn't they.
 
I was intrigued enough by the soccer game that I took a close-up picture of it during a previous Springfield show. Note how every player has an exact match on the opposite team. This wouldn't work if there was an attack on the goal--there would have to be simultaneous events at both ends of the field!

NbkojdD.jpg
 
That's one of our oldest modules that was made by a member that predates me (~10 years in the club). We're not even sure who made it at this point.

-mike
 
BTW, this is what it looks like to setup a 44' x 44' layout at the Amherst Show.

-mike

[video=youtube;A_7dRxpMRIc]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A_7dRxpMRIc[/video]
 
Only took 3 1/2 minutes, huh? Not bad. Ha, ha!!! Seriously, though. It's a great set up.

LOTS of On30 and N scale layouts, too.

I wish I'd had time to look more at the layouts. Tons of great artwork and inspiration. But after nearly 6 hours of just trying to get through the vendors and manufactures, not only was I dead tired, it was nearly closing time. Next year I'll have to make it a two day trip. I've got friends in Hadley that wouldn't hesitate to let me sleep on their couch.
 
Thanks for posting. My travel time, round trip, would have been 6 hours. I figure 4 hours to walk thru all the buildings; I just didn't have a 10 hour day in me this year. I find the day difficult after about 8 hours.
 



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