Amherst Railway Society
Newsletter

From the Treasurer

All donations to the Amherst Railway Society may be tax deductible.   As Amherst Railway Society Inc. is a 501 C(3) tax exempt organization, your donations (of either cash and/or property) may be deducted on your Schedule A, Form 1040 of your Federal income tax.  Consider the Amherst Railway Society in your estate planning.  Your gifts can be restricted or non-restricted (you can pre-determine how you want your donation used).  Upon request, and proper documentation of course, the Treasurer will issue you a letter to be used as justification for you tax deductions.

From the Clerk

The amount of the dues has not changed in a couple years, so the rates are due to reviewed. Now is the time to think about renewing. Currently, the rates are: Free for Full Time students, 1 year for $20, 3 years for $50 and 5 years for $80

Student memberships require the name of the school, and the class/year in addition to the student contact information

2009 – 2010 Meeting Topic Review (average 80)

• Sep Maine Central Railroad – George Melvin (no attendance recorded)
• Oct Roots on the Rails - Charlie Hunter (76)
• Nov announced as Railcar Futures, actually was (80) NYC subway system – Richard Solomon
• Jan Life of the FL9 – Bob LaMay (93)
• Mar Members’ Night – various members (82)
• Apr Rail Trail Update – Craig Della Penna (69)
• May announced as Railcar Futures, actually (approx 75) was Some railfan pictures by Phil Johnson

Report of the Nominating Committee 5/16/2010

The Committee presents the following slate for consideration at the June meeting:

President: Sudro Brown
Vice-President: Tom Laware
Clerk: Bruce MacCullagh

Board of Directors:
Joe Albano
Alan Rice
Peter Veneman

Respectfully submitted,
Sy Berger
Dick Joyce
Tom Lowry

From the Librarian

Just a short note to remind everyone that all VHS Tapes and DVD's are to be returned to the library at the June meeting. This is so they may be inventoried, and repaired, relabeled, if necessary. At this time, steps are being taken to get the inventory process automated, so it is very important that we have as accurate an inventory as possible. If you are unable to attend the June meeting, perhaps you could give any Tapes or DVD, you have to return, to a friend to bring to the meeting, or even mail them to me.

Thank you in advance for your attention to this matter.

Bruce Hoffman, A R S Librarian...

From the Trip Committee

upcoming trip by Massbay to the Valley Railroad on June 19

Persons interested should call 978-470-2066, or send e-mail to: trips@massbayrre.org. No calls after 8:00 PM Eastern Time, please.

I need help with making arrangements for more trips.

As you travel around this summer, please support local railroad museums by visiting and spending a few dollars there.

Everyone is watching money this year and these folks all need visitors and their donations. Be sure to mention that you are a member of Amherst Railway Society.

Near here is the Shelburne Falls Trolley Museum, which has an original SFTM 114-year old trolley running on the original tracks. SFTM will be having their annual Trolley Fest on June 26.

Message from the Amherst Belt Lines:

From the Caboose – the Year in Review
This has been a great 2009-2010 season for the Amherst Belt Lines! It started in July last year with attendance at the Hartford National Train Show of the NMRA® where a few of our modules received awards and recognition. It continued with our regular series of shows in Pepperell, Massachusetts (Pepperell Siding Model Railroad Club), Bedford, New Hampshire (Bedford Boomers) and Marlborough, Massachusetts (HUB Division of the NMRA®) – all terrific shows – to finish out 2009. Our own Railroad Hobby Show in West Springfield started off 2010 and was the venue for one of our largest layouts to date with numerous new modules by long term and new, or relatively new, associates. While we have been using radio cabs for some time now, 2010 proved to be a landmark season where the all three of our shows, including the Railroad Hobby Show, were exclusively wireless for mainline operation! We finished our year with shows in Worcester (The Worcester Model Railroaders) and Shirley (The Nashua Valley Railroad Association), Massachusetts. All-in-all, it was a great season and we look forward to doing it all again next year – without the National Show, of course!

Our thanks go out to all of our associates who have participated in setting up, operating and breaking down the layout this past season. It is because of you that the layout is what it is, and that the Belt Lines continues to grow.

While our show attendance may be on hiatus for a few months, now is the perfect time to start planning and building your own module! If you are interested in operating a large and variable modular layout, and displaying your own modeling efforts, see Sudro, Clark or Alan and we will be happy to ‘sign you up!’ Remember, you don’t need a module to participate with the group!

Email address: amherstbeltlines@amherstrail.org

Show Schedule Update

The Belt Lines attends about six shows per year from September through April. Our schedule as we know it today is below. If you would like to mark your calendars for shows we will be attending, here are the dates for the fall season in 2010 and our start on 2011:

• October 3, 2010: Pepperell Siding Model Railroad Club, Pepperell, MA.
  
• November 7, 2010: Bedford Boomer’s Railroad Exhibition, Bedford, NH.
  
• December 4 and 5, 2010: New England Model Train Expo, Marlborough, MA.
  
• January 29-30, 2011: Amherst Railway Society, Inc. Railroad Hobby Show – West Springfield, MA.

We will publish additional details as invitations are sent to the Belt Lines.

Upcoming dates that may be of interest

• June 12-13 Pioneer Valley Live Steamers Work Weekend Southwick MA
• June 15 All materials borrowed from the ARS library are due. ARS Annual Business Meeting and Silent Auction
• June 18-20 Fathers Day weekend –Pioneer Valley Live Steamers annual open to the public weekend
• June 22-26 NRHS Annual Convention – Scranton PA
• June 25 – 27 West Virginia Rails, Petersburg WV http://www.wvrails2010.com/
• June 26 Trolley Fest, Shelbourne Falls Trolley Museum, Buckland MA.
• July 11 -17 NMRA National Convention – Milwaukee WI
• July 10,11 & 18 Berkshire Limited – Passenger Rail Service between North Canaan CT and Great Barrington MA with North Canaan departures at 10 a.m., 1 p.m., and 4 p.m., and Great Barrington departures at 11 a.m., 2 p.m., and 5 p.m. $15 Tickets will be available through the Canaan Chamber of Commerce. Service is part of Canaan’s annual Railroad Days. Money raised will be used to restore the Canaan Station.
• Aug 6 Flying Yankee Dinner Train – Lincoln NH 6:00 PM - Catered by Hart's Turkey Farm aboard the Hobo Railroad Train with Mr. Phil onboard for entertainment.
  $40 Adult, $35 Child - A portion of the proceeds will benefit the restoration project. Purchase tickets online at www.hoborr.com
• Sept 9 - 12 Northeast Region NMRA Convention Burlington VT
• Sept 21 First Amherst Railway Society meeting in the fall

Message from the Show Director:

I have very little Show data to discuss this month. I can tell you that we are in the middle of revamping the entire PR budget for the show. If you’re asking why, there are a few reasons. First, the expenses continue to grow every year, so we are doing what we can to keep them down. Second, we are always trying to keep the show fresh and attract more people. As new technology and other avenues become available to us, we are willing to consider if these new ideas will in fact make the Show a better show. Finally, we never lose sight of what we are doing and why. If we can promote railroading, have some fun doing it and allow us to raise more money for our grant program as a result, I’m all in!

By the time we return for the fall season, all contracts will have gone out to all our exhibitors and we will be well into the preparations for the 2011 Show. I can also tell you that the structure of the Show will change a great deal, including jobs and duties with some positions being eliminated and others being created because of our “new areas.” So, with regard to the Show, let me leave you for the season with this… “You ain’t seen nothin’, yet!” (The 2011 Show will dazzle you with its new format!)

Finally – and, let me say that this is my second most, favorite time of the year - it’s silent auction time…!!! As a reminder, the silent auction will begin just after set up, so come early to place your bids….We are projecting an opening at approximately 6:15 – 6:30 pm….it will begin as soon as we are set up….it will close promptly at 8:00pm and while we are conducting our meeting, we will tabulate results, allowing for pickup just afterward.

This is your chance to pick up some great stuff (many items are new), and all are at ridiculously low prices. Items include works of art, cars and locos, vintage Lionel, kits, scenic materials, books, specialty/educational magazines, throttles, clothing and more. THIS IS THE LARGEST OF ALL SILENT AUCTIONS TO DATE….we will have a great deal of fun to be sure!

I look forward to this finale…see you there!

John Sacerdote, Show Director

2010 Grants

The Society received grant requests to help fund 35 projects totaling about $1.4 million. A total of about $93,000 was requested to fund or partially fund these projects. The BOD approved full or partial funding of 30 projects for $52,988 as shown in the table below. Nineteen projects are funded at the full amount requested. The BOD asks the ARS membership to ratify their decisions at the June 2010 meeting.

Copyright (c)2010 Amherst Railway Society