NVRRA

12/14/2025

Well it’s a snowy day, and this a trend that’s been floating around Facebook that seemed to fit today perfectly!

Thanks to everyone that came by to our last open house of the year yesterday! We had a great time as always!

Westbound passing under Snyder’s Bridge.

12/06/2025

Come down and visit us at the Hub Division’s New England Model Train Expo in Marlboro, MA. We have some gently used model trains for sale, as well as information about our club and layout in Shirley, MA.

Find us next to Around The Layout Podcast!

Show hours are 10a-4p today and tomorrow!

12/03/2025

Few more pictures from Saturday’s Tour de Chooch open house. O’Conner orchards has been upgraded from a plywood mockup to a fully detailed building, including lights and a detailed interior office (you’ll need to talk to see in!).

We’ve posted about Snyder’s quite a bit over the past few weeks. Here is the weathered bridge installed, with the first of several revenue trains running beneath it for the first time. Soon trees and some pavement will wrap this scene up.

12/02/2025

The only remaining work here is basically ballast. The members have really done some amazing work to bring this to life! Here’s a before and after of the changes to Roberts Mountain this year. The fire tower in both the pictures is in the same place, just a little more difficult to see thanks to the many trees!

The mountain is removable, so the first picture shows it sitting on the benchwork in Ayer while being worked on, for ease of reach.

12/01/2025

Handful of pictures from our Tour de Chooch Open House this past Saturday. What an amazing turnout!

11/30/2025

For us, Tour de Chooch 2025 is over. We had an amazing turnout, so good it may have been one of our busiest open houses yet! Thanks to everyone coming to check us out, a well as visiting other layouts on the tour.

Remember, the tour continues today until 4p, with the available layouts listed on www.tourdechooch.org

For those of you that couldn’t make it to visit us yesterday, dont worry. Your next opportunity is only two weeks away! We will be open again on December 13th from 10a-3p for another public open house.

The 2025 Tour Loading Schedule… = Wheelchair AccessibleTap date for map of all showings on that date. Tap railroad name for directions. The tour consists of model railroad open houses across Massachusetts and New Hampshire. It is like a train show that only displays model railroads.

11/25/2025

Making foam disappear and freshening other areas up before this Saturdays Open House. We have been busy making trees and bringing realistic scenes to life in upstate NY! The bridge at Snyders is recieving some final touches this week before being installed on the layout.

Open Saturday, 11/29, 9a-4p!

11/25/2025

Today was a very productive day installing the next phase of our CTC signal system. Block detector boards and switch machines were wired as well as the cat5 cables pulled for the next section. Special thanks to members Ted, Larry M, Dan F and Bruce H for helping make today successful! Shout out to Signalogic Systems Inc. for getting us the parts and pieces to make this happen.

Now to work out a few kinks…

Don’t forget our Open House this Saturday for Tour de Chooch, open 9a-4p on 11/29.

Check out www.tourdechooch.org for more info!

11/22/2025

We’d like to announce the debut of our new website!

www.nvrra.com

We are still adding content, but you will now easily be able to find:

Open house announcements
Membership information
Club information
Calendar of events
Show information

Also, members only section with access to:

Connect with other members
Operations sign ups
Meeting minutes

Take a look around and let us know what ya think!

Don’t forget, on the website you’ll see a flyer for our Tour de Chooch open house! Next Saturday 9-4p.

11/02/2025

***OPEN HOUSE***

Come visit us as part of “Tour de Chooch” on Saturday, November 29th! See the progress on the layout and all the great things that make model railroading fun! We will be open 9a-4p.

Tour de Chooch is a self guided tour of model railroads in Massachusetts, New Hampshire and southern Maine. Visit their website at www.tourdechooch.org

10/22/2025

Snyder’s Bridge continues to come to life. The rear foam was installed around the bridge foundations and contoured to match the surrounding scenery. The wood in the background will become the facia attaching to the bridge abutment, then blended into the existing facia.

A few layers of cork was used to build up the location of the former westbound mainline. The screws are temporary while the glue sets. Once dry, the screw will be removed so it can be sanded smooth to match the roadbed on either side.

This tells the story of why this track was removed, no clearance undeder this railroad-owned structure!