Wilmington Show March 2005

Eastern New England Chapter

Springfield, MA January 2010 Gallery

Our great experiment to host EuroEast 2010 was a huge success and exceeded everyone’s expectations. The event was held in conjunction with the Amherst Railway Society's (ARS) huge annual hobby show in West Springfield MA on 30-31 January 2010. Thanks to a tremendous turnout of members, we were able to provide an interesting mix of exhibits and demonstrations that generated a great deal of enthusiasm and pleasure among the many visitors to our area of this grand train show. It certainly proved that hosting EuroEast as part of the ARS show can be successful.

Melvyn Crabb traveled from his home in the UK to join us at the show. In the photo below, Melvyn (foreground) oversees the initial operation of the club layout soon after the show opened on Saturday morning.

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Thirty-seven chapter members and spouses had a busy but enjoyable weekend setting up and operating the chapter's well-known modular layout, placed this year in the newly expanded Mallary Building. We had a great time running a variety of members' locomotives and rolling stock representing various countries and eras; better yet, those who visited the EuroEast 2010 area appreciated all the hard work that had gone into the show. In the picture below, chapter member Mike Haire answers a question from an observer while operating the controls.

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Show organizers reported that over 23,000 people attended the event, and it seemed like most of them visited our EuroEast 2010 exhibits! Even more gratifying was that visitors, whether hardened railway modelers or moms with young children, all seemed to enjoy our layout as well as the unusual trains. Unusual that is, to American eyes. They also appreciated the various small scenes on the layout – the brewery with smoking chimney, the cottage garden with sunflowers and pumpkins, bathers in the river under the railway bridge, and farm animals in the fields.

Brian Ferguson of the Central New York ETE chapter came from Albany NY to exhibit his delightful N gauge layout based on the DRG in Era II. This used Kato Unitrack, which seemed to this writer as a particularly fine trackage, with turnout motors mounted within the track bed without the unsightly trackside bulges prevalent on other N gauge track systems. Brian had an impressive terminal/through station on his layout with a fine train shed.

Our two children’s' H0 layouts proved once again to be very popular with both children and parents. In the photo below, member Judy Avery is showing a youngster how to operate one of the “u-run-it” layouts. His reaction speaks for itself!

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Chapter member Lee Davy set up a small layout demonstrating digital control systems (Märklin and NMRA-DCC) in both H0- and N-scales, all driven by an ECOS control station. Lee also created the splendid ETE – EuroEast 2010 banner that so caught visitors' eyes.

Chapter members Michael Corgan and Mark Mervine gave two presentations: Michael's was on starting in modeling European railways; while Mark's was on the history and operation of France's TGV services. Both presentations were backed up by videos and were well received. We also showed a number of videos on Swiss railways. Despite the hard work, our members remained upbeat as can be seen in their smiles during this "photo op". Pictured are (left to right), Chris Koellmer, Melvyn, Royce Thomas and Kurt Hilse.

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We were delighted to welcome Gordon Davis of the Central New York ETE chapter, and Alan Todd (National President, ETE), who visited us with a number of their friends and colleagues.