Arriving at the Train Show

Every year, the Amherst Railway Society's Railroad Hobby Show starts with a rather high-pitched steam whistle blowing in the distance when the doors open. This year, the steam whistle was from a real, life-sized narrow gauge steam locomotive!

We parked in a sea of cars and then started our trek toward the four huge buildings housing this immense train show. Typically, this can be a brutal, bone-chilling walk but, compared to our weather in Vermont, the weather in Springfield this year was quite mild in the upper 30's which allowed us to dress relatively lightly. This makes a tremendous difference while walking around indoors all day long. 

Between the four buildings showcasing this train show, Boothbay Railway of Maine, set up some temporary narrow gauge tracks and one of their steam locomotives. Throughout the show, we would hear this locomotive's steam whistle blowing... we could even hear this whistle blowing while at our hotel a couple of miles away... boy, that is a nice sound!  

Saturday morning had arrived and the biggest train show in the US had begun...