I live near Cambridge, England. Flying from London to Boston and touring New England next month for three weeks. I would like to see some US model railroad layouts but looking at Model Railroader it seems you guys don't have exhibitions all over the place as in the UK, perhaps because your layouts are mostly too large to transport. Are there perhaps any permanent exhibitions I could visit? Or maybe preserved railroads which happen to have a model?
The Model Railroader Magazine webpage has a section listing permanent displays and coming events, which you can search by state. The listings are at
An outstanding layout in New England is the New England, Berkshire & Western RR of the Rensselaer Model Railroad Society which is a student organization at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, NY. It is highly recommended if you can include it in your trip. Information is available at their very complete web site at
Have a good visit. Geezer
permanent
listings are
organization
recommended
Not a model, but if you should get down to Connecticut you can visit the Valley Railroad/Essex Steam Train in Essex, CT. You may also want to check out the Branford Trolley Museum in East Haven, CT (Where "Big John's" RDC seat memorial plaques are located), and Connecticut Electric Railway Association Trolley Museum, located in East Windsor, CT.
They all have web sites with exact location and hours information if you want to check them out.
Funny how so many of those place names sound like places in England, isn't it? ;^))
Len
I thought that Big John's RDC was at the Danbury Railway Museum. Did it move?
transport.
maybe
Berkshire
Connecticut
Windsor,
You are correct sir, my bad. I let the grandkids distract me and I jumped from the middle of one line on the list I made to the middle of the next. Oops!
Len
New York is in New England??? (I think people in seven states just threw up) More like 20-some miles outside of New England. New England consists of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massaschusetts, Connecticut and Rhode Island, *not* New frickin' York. ;-) On a semi-more serious note here, while the NEB&W is a first rate layout, their apparent arrogance is also of the highest order. They are great modelers...and they know it.
Paul A. Cutler III
************* Weather Or No Go New Haven *************On Mon, 21 Apr 2008 15:19:51 GMT, Pac Man posted in article ...
[...]
Please expand: collectively, or individually?
On the Bortle Scale of arrogance, with the Perfect Professor of All Model Railroad Knowledge scoring a perfect 11, how do they stack up? (Yes, since you asked, I *am* watching paint dry...)
When I had access, the pay side of their site ('Just 17 cents a day for access to our model railroad library!') had some pretty good freight car info and photos.
Unfortunately, the "exhibitions" (IOW, train shows) here in New England are in the winter. From September to April, there's at least one show per month in Eastern Massachusetts alone. However, there are no shows that I know of between April and September. The largest train show in the country (over 4 acres of display space), and certainly one of the largest in the world, is in Springfield, MA in late January/early February. The rest of them vary from the tiny (20 tables) to the large (200 tables), with most in the 100 table range. OTOH, there are several museums/tourist lines in the area that are open during the warmer weather...
In Connecticut, you have: The Danbury Railroad Museum
In Massachusetts, you have: The Old Colony & Fall River Railroad Museum
In Rhode Island, you have: The Old Colony & Newport
In New Hampshire, you have: The Mt. Washington Cog Railroad
In Maine, you have: Maine Narrow Gauge Railroad
In Vermont, you have: The Green Mountain Railroad
As for model railroad clubs, start with these links from the NMRA:
Paul A. Cutler III
************* Weather Or No Go New Haven *************
It was from their old website and webmaster when they went to a pay site and more strict visitation rules for the layout. He had some things to say about it that rubbed me the wrong way at the time. From talking with some others that have been there, I understood that attitude to be not-uncommon at RPI's HO layout. Now, if I'm mistaken, I apologize. But so far, that's my reasoning.
Oh, christ, nothing's that bad! lol BTW, have you been following along on the latest tripe from Professor Perfect on the MR Forum? Gee, I sure couldn't see that coming! Classic Bortle... Whatever happened to his promise that he would never post on the MR Forum ever again because of all the armchair model railroaders that infest that place that he detests so much?
They have great info, no denying it. However, they didn't appear to be very gracious about it at the time as I recall. Maybe time's have changed?
Paul A. Cutler III
************* Weather Or No Go New Haven *************On 4/20/2008 3:10 AM Ed Callaghan spake thus:
I notice that nobody's mentioned George Sellios' Franklin & South Manchester, which I believe is in or near Boston. It's still open for visiting, isn't it?
On Mon, 21 Apr 2008 16:44:08 GMT, Pac Man posted in article ...
Ah, thanx. My only exposure is the website and corresponding with a few members/ex-members on forums -- haven't noticed arrogance, just confidence supported by knowledge. I suppose every club has its Bortle.
I made some popcorn and poured a Smithwick's when I saw he'd responded to Zane's post. LOL'ed at his '100 hobby shops/city' and 'a hobby shop in every village' comments; perhaps such existed on planet Xordax, but sadly, not on Earth. And now his mantra is that his facts are self-evident. Self-awareness is such a terrible thing to lose.
What's a bit disturbing but not unexpected is the number of sycophants coming out of the benchwork to agree with him, unaware of the flaccid foundation of his arguments.
His promises, 'facts', and logic are drawn from the same well.
I think MR is the only audience he has left. If the MR mods had any balls, he'd be relegated to donning a sandwich board and yammering on street corners.
Here's a New Haven question: Would any of New Haven's 1937 AAR boxcars (10' H, 4/5 IDE) be seen with the script 'NYNH&H' in the late '50s/ early '60s, or were they all repainted by then? If so, what's a reasonably accurate paint or paint mix for the sides?
Lordy, ain't that the truth. :-D
Heck, I started making a Grey Goose screwdriver as soon as a I saw the original post from Howard Zane. Sure enough, within 24 hours, there was a Bortle appearance (I'm disappointed that it took him so long...he must have lost his internet connection in that ivory tower of his). You know how with some folks you have to draw a pentagram on the floor to summon them? With the "Everlasting Know-It-All", all you have to do is put the word "Future" in a topic header, and he's all over it like a rash. I have a feeling that if we started a thread about using Future Floor Wax for sealing models, we'd have a visitation.
Hey, as far as we know, they could be sock puppets... What's really disturbing is that the Grand Nagus of Model Railroading actually belongs to a club...which means there must be some folks that actually want him around.
We've had our share of Bortles in our club. They don't tend to last too long (thank god). They currently infest other clubs in the area, for the most part. So we don't have to improve our own club to make it look better, we just spin off our troubles to other clubs so they look worse! ;-)
That's not a well, that's a septic tank.
Nah, they are too busy trying to get us all to sing "Kum-ba-ya" while joining hands in a circle. To be fair, they have been less restrictive than Atlas has been since the great '04 shut down, but they have a couple member mods that are trying a little too hard (mods should be seen and not heard...at least while being a mod).
Um, sure, ask me the hard ones. I think there would be some pieces of rolling stock around with the script logo in the 1950's/1960's as even some locos (like one FB-2 here, a few RS-3's there, etc.) never got McGinnis paint. But it would have looked like crap. I just tend to use boxcar red, but if you want the right color for sure, ask on the NH Forum at
Paul A. Cutler III
************* Weather Or No Go New Haven *************On Mon, 21 Apr 2008 21:46:35 GMT, Pac Man posted in article ...
[...]
No, these are some of the Nice Boyz, whose greatest aspirations appear to be starting vapid threads with oh-so-clever titles.
Scene from his club:
Vesties: Harrumph! Harrumph! Harrumph! Harrumph! Harrumph! Bortle: I didn't get a 'harrumph' out of that guy! Sycophant: Give the Perfect Professor a 'harrumph!' Newbie: Harrumph! Bortle: You watch your ass.
Yes, they appear to be hell-bent on maintaining the corporate 'fambly atmosphere' mandate, while neglecting to filter the brain-freezing stupidity (not ignorance, which can be cured, but vapid nonsense) -- a characteristic of both the MR and Atlas forums.
It's likely to look like crap anyway, once I get done with it. Oh, you mean the New Haven didn't invest much in cleaning/repainting. Yeah, I can attest to that, having ridden it between NYC and Providence many times in college during the '60s.
They're Speedwitch decals that I'm using, and I've corresponded with him previously. Really nice guy with great products. The text with the decals says 'slightly reddish shade of freight car red' -- and, as we all know, there is only one true freight car red.
I think I'll just go ahead and use the most toxic XM red I have left and add a wash of New Haven grime.
They have pills for that now.
"OvC" wrote
Ohhhh, baby; you are so talented! And they are so DUMB!
Pretty funny though.
-pete
If you get out to western Mass there is the Pioneer Valley Live Steamers. Someone is usually there on Sundays. Website:
There is the Shulburne Falls Trolley Museum,
The way I figure it, these are the types of people who don't have anyone to share the hobby with. IOW, their only hobby social interaction is via the internet, so they come up with some real time wasters like "What's your favorite engine?", "Where are you from?", and "Why is there air?" Stuff that might take 5 minutes of conversation at a club or a show (or at least as long as one can get away from such a person), but can drag on for days on a forum or group.
"What did you expect? 'Welcome, sonny?' 'Make yourself at home?' 'Marry my daughter?' You've got to remember that these are just simple modelers. These are people of the forums. The common clay of the Internet. You know - morons."
Or just about any discussion group of any kind. Have you looked around here, lately?
Invest much? Try invest any! LOL The NH entered bankruptcy in 1961, IIRC. They were lucky to get the C425's and U25B's in 1964-5.
Ted's great. But I've about tapped my knowledge out for this one. I just don't know enough about it.
Grime is good. It prevents rust. ;-)
Paul A. Cutler III
************* Weather Or No Go New Haven *************
Ed, too bad that you've just missed "Tour de Chooch". This is a weekend of visiting nice layouts in private homes. It is a semi-public event.
Contact me off list ( p e t e s k i 7 AT g m a i l D O T c o m ) and maybe soomething can be arranged for a visitor from across the pond.
There also are few Model RR clubs in the Boston area.
Peteski
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