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Southern New England Model Railroad Club
A Brief History
The club was started informally, in 1990, by a few O Scale modelers. The first modular layout constructed was 45’ X 21’ and was displayed at the Amherst “Big” Railroad Hobby Show in 1991. The group slowly grew until, in 1994, it was Formally established as the Southern New England Model Railroad Club. The layout grew to 81’ X 33’ and continued to be a prime attraction at the annual show through 2013. Meanwhile, the layout won “Best in Show” and the “Chairman’s Award” at the 2009 NMRA National Convention in Hartford, CT. During those years, it had become too large to set up in our regular quarters. For both length and width, modules had to be removed in order to operate the layout on our premises. Thus, began discussions for a permanent layout and the need for a track plan.
Financing the club has been done in several ways. In addition to regular membership dues, we have conducted an annual train show in the New England Fall Foliage season focused on O scale. We are fortunate to have our layout located in the basement of a church and where church officials allow us to use their hall for model train dealers during the show. We also mustered the energy and resolve needed to organize and host four O Scale National Conventions in 1998, 2008, 2013 and 2017. A surprise source of income came our way on one occasion when we were asked to construct two small Lionel 3-rail layouts that would appear in the movie JOY that starred Jennifer Lawrence and Bradley Cooper with the scene filmed in Haverhill, MA. The layouts appeared in two storefront windows at either side of a central entrance and yes, we would not be averse to doing that type of project once every few years. Of course, we leave our donation box in view during events such as Tour de Chooch on the weekend after Thanksgiving and more importantly, that event has served to recruit several of our newer members but let’s get back to talking about our layout.
Our room of 2700 square feet contained one area that was not occupied by any part of the modular layout and with a completed track plan drawing, construction of the permanent layout began there. That area now contains steam and diesel facilities, freight and passenger yards and a passenger station modeled after the prototype in Springfield, MA. Construction in that area was labeled as Phase 1. In subsequent phases, the permanent layout grew and the modular layout shrank. Using John Armstrong’s “mushroom” design, there are multiple levels operated from separate aisles without running the trains through the same scene twice. Control is walk-around radio DCC by NCE. Railroads from coast to coast are represented and steam to modern-day diesels as well. A wide variety of industries call for a wide variety of freight cars. Although the club was formed by a group of seven members, we now have a total of twenty- seven members. You might wonder how we found that many O scalers in the area. Truth be told, some work in other scales at home but have been attracted to our club for a few key reasons – our monthly operating sessions, relatively modest annual dues and a chance to try a different scale without a significant investment.
The layout can probably be described as 75% complete. Some additional benchwork will be followed by track and electrical work for track power, turnout control and signals. There are a great many structures on the layout but still room for more. There is finished scenery in some areas but plenty of need for still more of that. Prospective members can bring their skills to any of those tasks or work with current members to get further along the learning curve associated with any of those aspects of model railroading.
A Brief History
The club was started informally, in 1990, by a few O Scale modelers. The first modular layout constructed was 45’ X 21’ and was displayed at the Amherst “Big” Railroad Hobby Show in 1991. The group slowly grew until, in 1994, it was Formally established as the Southern New England Model Railroad Club. The layout grew to 81’ X 33’ and continued to be a prime attraction at the annual show through 2013. Meanwhile, the layout won “Best in Show” and the “Chairman’s Award” at the 2009 NMRA National Convention in Hartford, CT. During those years, it had become too large to set up in our regular quarters. For both length and width, modules had to be removed in order to operate the layout on our premises. Thus, began discussions for a permanent layout and the need for a track plan.
Financing the club has been done in several ways. In addition to regular membership dues, we have conducted an annual train show in the New England Fall Foliage season focused on O scale. We are fortunate to have our layout located in the basement of a church and where church officials allow us to use their hall for model train dealers during the show. We also mustered the energy and resolve needed to organize and host four O Scale National Conventions in 1998, 2008, 2013 and 2017. A surprise source of income came our way on one occasion when we were asked to construct two small Lionel 3-rail layouts that would appear in the movie JOY that starred Jennifer Lawrence and Bradley Cooper with the scene filmed in Haverhill, MA. The layouts appeared in two storefront windows at either side of a central entrance and yes, we would not be averse to doing that type of project once every few years. Of course, we leave our donation box in view during events such as Tour de Chooch on the weekend after Thanksgiving and more importantly, that event has served to recruit several of our newer members but let’s get back to talking about our layout.
Our room of 2700 square feet contained one area that was not occupied by any part of the modular layout and with a completed track plan drawing, construction of the permanent layout began there. That area now contains steam and diesel facilities, freight and passenger yards and a passenger station modeled after the prototype in Springfield, MA. Construction in that area was labeled as Phase 1. In subsequent phases, the permanent layout grew and the modular layout shrank. Using John Armstrong’s “mushroom” design, there are multiple levels operated from separate aisles without running the trains through the same scene twice. Control is walk-around radio DCC by NCE. Railroads from coast to coast are represented and steam to modern-day diesels as well. A wide variety of industries call for a wide variety of freight cars. Although the club was formed by a group of seven members, we now have a total of twenty- seven members. You might wonder how we found that many O scalers in the area. Truth be told, some work in other scales at home but have been attracted to our club for a few key reasons – our monthly operating sessions, relatively modest annual dues and a chance to try a different scale without a significant investment.
The layout can probably be described as 75% complete. Some additional benchwork will be followed by track and electrical work for track power, turnout control and signals. There are a great many structures on the layout but still room for more. There is finished scenery in some areas but plenty of need for still more of that. Prospective members can bring their skills to any of those tasks or work with current members to get further along the learning curve associated with any of those aspects of model railroading.