History Fridays: 2006 Willimantic Train Show

Stu Dom tests the new Staging Yard at the Fall 2006 Willimantic Train Show.

For a 20 year period - starting in 1994 and ending in 2013 - the club would display layouts in support of the Connecticut Eastern Railroad Museum's semi-annual spring and fall shows. This was a fun show for the club as it was close to our home base and supported a nearby railroad museum.

One of the more memorable year's for the club at this event was the fall of 2006.  We were in the midst of a massive rebuild of the HO layout and had - accidentally - double booked the show weekend - committing to the show in Willmantic as well as supporting A Day Out With Thomas at the Valley Railroad in Essex, CT.  This created some logistical hurdles but actually gave us a lot of incentive to use the weekend as one last hurrah for our old layout and have a test run for some of our newest modules before the 2007 Railroad Hobby Show.

The activity for the weekend started on the prior Wednesday evening setting up the old modules at the Valley Railroad - where we would operate for two weekends.  On Saturday morning of the weekend of the show, most of the club members met in Essex to help ensure operations were off to a good start at the Thomas event before a smaller group traveled over to Willimantic to set up the new modules for a test run at Windham High School for the show on Sunday. Sunday, the club members were split as one group was once again at Essex for the day while the other crew went to Willimantic to shake down the new modules.

We were able to test run the club's new Staging Yard as well as the Delany Yard complex and Brookside Farm modules. The show in Willimantic ended at 3 pm and the layout was quickly broken down and then hauled over to Essex. After the final train returned at the Valley Railroad, the club members spent a long Sunday evening taking down and setting up a larger layout for the following weekend in Essex with several modules which had spent the day operating in Willimantic.

While it was busy, playing the double header was a fun experience for the club and most likely a one time occurrence as we generally don't have eight corners available at any given time. The Willimantic show, unfortunately, has most likely come to end as the person in charge of the show passed away a few years ago. While it was there, it was certainly fun for the club and provided some great memories.