Amherst Railway Society

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The Amherst Railway Society is a society of railway enthusiasts in the Amherst, Massachusetts area. The society puts on an annual big Railroad Hobby Show at the Eastern States Exposition Fairgrounds in West Springfield, Massachusetts in late January or early February every year.

They also have a modular HO scale subdivision, the Amherst BElt Lines, which uses ABEL as the motive power markers.

The Amherst Railway Society has about 500 members who share some aspect of railroading as a common interest. Monthly meetings cover current topics in railroad news and offer slide shows, movies or a prominent speaker on a railroading topic. The Society also sponsors and participates in several train train trips each year.

The annual "Amherst Railway Society Railroad Hobby Show" has become the biggest railroad show in the Northeast. In 1993 and 1994 the Amherst Railway Society received the Walthers Showmanship Award for sponsoring the event. As a member of the Society you are entitled to receive a free admission ticket for one day of the show. (Members who work at the show can come both days, as well as Thursday and Friday to set up.)

Proceeds from the show are used to promote interest in railroads. Donations have been made to various railroad museums, historical societies, restoration projects and scholarship funds. Organizations that have received donations include: the Fall River and Old Colony Museum, the 470 Club's Boston and Maine diesel locomotive restoration project, the Boston and Maine Historical Society, the Chester Foundation Station Project, the Wiscasset Waterville and Farmington Building and Car Fund as well as trolley museums in Shelburne Falls, MA, Warehouse Point, CT, Branford, CT and Kennebunk, ME.