Wordless Wednesday: Heroes and Legends

Exhibitor Thursday: 1/87th Vehicle Club

The 1/87th Vehicle Club.

Exhibitor Spotlight Name: 1/87th Vehicle Club Years at the Show: 6 Display Style: Display Type: Modeling Club Present Location: Mallary Complex Website: 1/87 Vehicle Club

A spinoff from modeling railroads in HO scale is the 1/87 Vehicle Club.  This group focuses exclusively on HO scale vehicles - from cars to trucks to construction equipment. At the show, members of the organization display an astounding collection of vehicles in the Mallery Complex.

One of the neat features of the display is the modular layout called Route 87. The modules feature a continuous HO scale roadway instead of the usual railroad mainline to showcase the club member’s various projects. The scenes ranged from country roads to a divided highway to city scenes to big road construction projects.  Just like their railroad counterparts, there is a lot of detail and even some lighting and animation to capture the viewers attention.

To learn more about the club, visit their website at: www.1-87vehicles.org

One of the many Route 87 modules on display at the show.

Wordless Wednesday: Trailers

Layout Update Mondays: Layout Operations Review

The A-team (Andrew and Amanda) operate the Tribute to Springfield layout.

One of the things we like to do in the club is have a post-show review about what went well and what didn't go so well to help us improve our modular layouts. As this was the first go around with the Tribute to Springfield layout, I figured this would be a good time to review how the layout operated.

The layout was designed to be a switching game. Basically, the idea is that a pair of cars have been dropped off on the interchange track next to Memorial Avenue and need to be spotted at specific locations at either the loading dock and/or Young Building. On the surface that seems simple, but the plan is deceptively complicated. I decided to let several club members give the operations a try during the show to see how long it would take to move everything around.

In general, it took most members between 30 and 45 minutes to solve the puzzle.  The faster times tended to operate at Lionel speeds...so with a bit more training to run things at a prototypical pace, I could see this exercise lasting at least an hour. 

Track capacity chart.

The downside was that I only had a handful of members available to try the game.  With the show open for 15 hours, this left a lot of downtime.  I ran through the game a couple of times on my own to fill the gaps but there is only so much switching I can handle when trying to interact with everyone at the show.  This was good to know and made me realize I will need to add an automatic back and forth circuit so that some trains can always be moving on the railroad.  This shouldn't be too difficult to accomplish but it will certainly improve the show operations.

History Fridays: 1987 Railroad Hobby Show

The club's HO layout at the 1987 Railroad Hobby Show.

As many who have been following the blog know, my connection to the Railroad Hobby Show has been as an exhibitor with the Mohegan Pequot Model Railroad Club.  In just over a year, we will be celebrating our 30th anniversary at this event.  So, as a lead up to the 2017 show, for the next year during History Fridays I will take a look back at all of the different modular layouts we have displayed each year at the show.  Amazingly, no two years have been the same and we have always had new modules at the show.

The club was first invited to the Railroad Hobby Show in 1987.  At the time, the club only had an HO scale modular railroad - as the other scales were still a few years away.  The club setup a 16'x24' layout which included a variety of scenes from a big city to scenic countryside.  The layout also included the club's first staging yard iteration - a U-shaped version with a total of ten staging tracks.

A number of the modules appearing at the show would make return trips to Springfield for many years - like Bert's Yard and the Country Running modules.  However, information on a few have been lost to time - meaning they probably only made this one trip to the show.

The club was fortunate that one of our charter members, the late Jan Luth, was wise enough to take about a dozen photos of this show - including of the club's layout - so we have a record of what happened during our first visit to Springfield.

Exhibitor Thursday: Dry Hill Model Railroad Club

Dry Hill Model Railroad Club.

Exhibitor Spotlight Name: Dry Hill Model Railroad Club Years at the Show: 22 Display Style: Modular Layout Type: Model Railroad Club Size: 24'x72' Present Location: Mallary Complex Past Location: Better Living Center Home Location: Montague, MA Website: Dry Hill MRC

Located in the Mallary Complex, the Dry Hill Model Railroad Club's HO scale modular railroad has become a crowd favorite over the last 22 years.  Started in 1994 as a sub-group of the Amherst Belt Lines (ABEL), the small group built one module - called Dakota Falls - which was setup inside the Better Living Center with ABEL.

Over the years, the club expanded to several dozen members and in 2008, with the opening of the Mallary Complex, branched out on their own.  Today, the layout includes huge industries like a Coca-Cola bottling plant and an Amtrak Station.  A large yard anchors one side of the layout where 100-car, multi-diesel lashups are assembled for runs around the layout.  The layout is set in modern times with models of a number of local railroads - like Providence and Worcester and Amtrak - along with Class I's like Norfolk Southern found operating on the layout.

To learn more about the club, visit the website at: www.amherstrail.org/DryHill

Wordless Wednesday: Young Building

Showtime: 2016 Railroad Hobby Show Recap

The layout setup and running during the 2016 Railroad Hobby Show.

Another Railroad Hobby Show is in the books!  Over 23,000 attendees, exhibitors, and vendors packed the Eastern States Exposition during the weekend of January 30-31, 2016, taking in the 350,000 square feet of railroading wonderment. This was probably the warmest year in the recent memory of the show with Sunday hitting a balmy 50 degrees. After last year's Saturday blizzard, this was a welcome change! 

The Tribute to Springfield layout was setup and operating inside the Young Building - next to the Mohegan Pequot Model Railroad Club's HO and G scale layouts.  For those of you following along with the blog, last week I left you with a bit of a cliff hanger - would the exterior of the Young Building model be finished in time for the show?  As you can see in the photos below (of if you were at the show) - yes I made it in time!  It was a long Monday night and Tuesday but I was able to finish painting the brick, added a few details, and even installed a few lights.

Trains running around lunch time Thursday.

While the show was open to the public on Saturday and Sunday, behind the scenes for myself and fellow club members, activity for the event starts Wednesday and lasts until late Sunday night.  This makes for a long couple of days, but it is always a lot of fun.  On Wednesday afternoon and evening, we packed up all the modules and trains into approximately 15 vehicles - including two large trailers and a UHaul truck.  It really does take about 5-6 hours to load everything to ensure a safe ride up to the Eastern States Exposition and to make sure we don't forget anything we need to keep the layout operating over the weekend!

We drove up to West Springfield, MA, on Thursday morning to unload before all the vendors are allowed in on Friday.  This gives us a chance to drive our vehicles into the building which makes unloading very easy. I worked on setting up the Tribute to Springfield first thing Thursday morning so I could spend Thursday afternoon and Friday helping with the HO layout. This year, the setup on the layouts went smoothly and we had a bit of play time on Friday afternoon.

Once the show opens, the best part of the weekend was having a chance to catch up with so many friends as well as meet lots of new people.  It was also great to meet a number of you who are following along with the blog.  I really enjoy hearing all of the stories people share with me about something the layout reminded them about.

Of course, there is always a chance for a little "business" at the show to work out future displays as well as new projects.  There are a number of future events for the layout which have been put in motion and I will hopefully be able to announce the details on the blog over the next couple of weeks.

Since I spent much of the weekend at the layout, I was only able to quickly breeze around the show and see what was new.  Fortunately, there were a lot of other people who covered the show with articles and blog posts around the web.  To get you started, check out Jeff Schultz's postings on the Model Railroad Hobbyist's website for coverage of Day 1 and Day 2 of the show.  In addition, I am starting to gather YouTube links on the 2016 Railroad Hobby Show playlist. You can peruse these links at your leisure and they will be updated over the next week or two as more people have a chance to post about the show.

Next year's show dates are January 28th and 29th, 2017.  Mark your calendars and make your reservations now!