Scattered Thoughts . . .

Autumn scene, N scale, at the Rutland Train Show. Sheila and I drove down to Rutland on Saturday to attend a very small train show. This show is an annual event hosted by the Rutland Railway Association and the Rutland Railroad Museum. We've been to this show in previous years so I was aware it was a small show, relatively speaking. Compared to the Amherst Railway Society's show in Springfield, MA every year, all shows are small but this show in Rutland is so small that it only requires about an hour of time. The main reasons for attending the show in Rutland yesterday were, first, to get out of the house for a welcome change in scenery. My health has really limited my ability to get out of the house and socialize. I often go a few weeks looking at the same walls all day and all night so our primary reason for wandering down to Rutland for this show was to get out! The next reason for heading to the show was simply because we enjoy model railroading and enjoy viewing

January is always our "train show month".  This is when we head down to Springfield, Massachusetts every year for the largest train show in the northeast.  Actually, I would not be surprised if this is the largest train show in the country every year.   The Amherst Railway Society's Annual Railroad Hobby Show is a very large and amazing event which is not only a lot of fun all weekend long, but it is also a very productive fundraiser.  The primary beneficiary of this fundraiser is always a children's hospital.  Since we have been attending the show I believe the Bay State Children's Hospital has been the recipient each year. Additionally, a dozen or two historical railroads and railroad museums receive proceeds each year as well.   In the years we have been attending the show, I believe we have seen between 50,000-60,000 visitors at each show.  Considering the problems we had this year in finding hotel accomodations, a few months in advance, I suspect this yea

We're always on the lookout for events providing us with a good reason for short little day trips. My health really hinders all of us far too often so, when my health is relatively stable, we like to have an on-going list of events to choose from to keep life interesting and fun. This past weekend, we traveled down to Rutland, Vermont for a little train show which turned out to be quite nice.  The proceeds from the show went to the Rutland Railroad Museum. We will have add this museum to our on-going list of events. We have been to so many train shows in the past few years that were at 'national level' that this small regional show seemed too small to us.  It wasn't as small as it seemed though and we have definitely been to smaller shows.  It was, however, a bit short on working model railroads for people to view.  They had a few small modular layouts but we were left wanting to see more.  Of course, there may never be enough working model railroads! We're u