Welcome to the Bristol S Gauge Railroaders!
The Bristol S Gauge Railroaders are dedicated to S scale (1/64 scale) model railroading. Formed in 1948, we believe we are the longest running S scale club in America! We are located in Eastern Massachusetts, and also have members in Southern Maine and New Hampshire.
Members are interested in most branches of S scale, including, but not limited to, Scale, Narrow Gauge (Sn3 and Sn2), Hi-Rail, and American Flyer operating and collecting. Our major goals are to learn from each other and have fun doing it.
New Members are Welcome! We are anxious to share the fun of building and operating S scale trains and layouts, as well as collecting trains and models. There is a Membership Application to join us, or if you have any questions about the club, or want to get a message to any member, please email me at President@bsgr.us
The Bristol Club set-up our layout at the Amherst Railway Show January 25-26th, 2025. We had fun Saturday with George Reneris who brought his animated T-Rex dinosaur car, a cartoon character flatcar, his Snoopy Great Pumpkin digital display car and an exciting smoking steam engine. Gene Maag assisted George.
Dale was our anchorman at this show. On Saturday he ran his CSX diesel engine with several auto carrier cars on a long freight. Then Sunday kids of all ages were impressed with Dale's New Haven double A engines and New Haven chrome passenger set. On Saturday, Tommy ran his smoking Milwaukee GP9 diesel. As always, visitors enjoyed our camera train and watched themselves on TV as the train ran past them.
George added a fan that really enhanced the smoke!
Dale stands next to CSX engine he ran on Saturday.
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Greenberg Train and Toy show, Wilmington, MA, was held November 16-17, 2024. At this show, the
Bristol-S-Gauge Railroaders raffled off an American Flyer train set. This is the 3rd time our club has done this raffle. Each time the raffle has been open to kids 16 and under. Below are a couple photos of the drawing itself. Don Hasenzahl made sure all the entries were thoroughly shaken up and John Fucile pulled the winning entry.
All the Entries were shaken up by Don Hasenzahl and John Fucile pulled a ticket.
And the Winner was Connor! Congratulations! We hope he will enjoy running it under the Christmas tree.
We hope to see you at our next show - the Amherst Railway show in January.
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It's the start of our train calendar year! We began it with 30 members and guests attending the September 14th, 2024 Club meeting. It was a wonderful sunny day and the hosts, Tommy and Helen Robichaud, surprised us with a sale table and a variety of pizza for lunch along with Tommy's traditional chili. Trains were running on the colorful, autumn themed layout as well. Everyone was so busy catching up after the summer that we forgot to get some photos of it all. Looking forward to seeing everyone at the October meeting. Check the Club info tab and Calendar for future events.
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The Bristol Club had 11 members attending the NATIONAL S-GAUGE 2024 CONVENTION in Harrisburg, PA. We were able to display our Boucher Circus Train set which was well received. Members attended tours, train clinics, the banquet and the ever popular and fun evening auction. Below is group photo by Bill Lane of the Reading and Northern RDC tour group.
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NEW B&M Quad Hoppers for Sale!
We're celebrating our 75th Year Anniversary milestone by offering B&M Quad Hopper cars featuring the "Minuteman" herald which are being produced by American Models. These car models will be available with three different car numbers (8000, 8248 and 8323). These numbers are from the March 1929 and February 1930 range from 8000-8999. The Original 1929 quad hoppers were later "re-shopped" with the "Minuteman" herald from the 1940's.
Each car number will be available in both scale and high-rail. Due to limited quantities, we reserve the right to fill orders for either one or two cars with car numbers of our choosing. Orders for three cars will receive all three car numbers.
Photo above is similar to production car.
OFFER GOOD WHILE SUPPLY LASTS
Click B&M Quad Hopper Order Form to place your order NOW!
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Our Annual Bristol Summer picnic was held June 15th at Jack and Pat Kelly's home this year. It was a well attended event on a beautiful day. Jack showed his grilling skills using an extra large grill that could cook about 20 hamburgers all at once! Also Jack has been building a layout in his basement with the help of several Bristol members. The layout worked flawlessly and was impressive for the short amount of time work had been done on it. Further work is needed for scenery completion and we look forward to seeing more it at a future club meeting.
Amherst Railway Show - January 27-28, 2024
The Bristol Club had another successful train show attending the Amherst Railway Show in Springfield, MA Jan 26-28th, 2024. Record audience attendance saw our S-Gauge trains running all weekend.
George Reneris, a Pioneer Valley S club member, came both days to run a series of his animated cars. Both kids and adults really enjoyed the former rocket launcher car, that opened up to reveal a T-Rex dinosaur escaping! He also ran an artfully animated Jug Band rail car (5 guys moving while Beverly Hillbillies theme song played), a showroom display 50's hardtop convertible car with sound, a farm animal freight car with rooster sounds and a flatcar with large animated colored snowflake and melodies. Additionally, a Peanuts characters flat car with orange led lights displaying "Welcome Great Pumpkin" in a continuous loop. George demonstrated another fun building - his Wholesale Seafood shop. The roof has blue waves and rotating out of the waves were several fish, indicating the fish are so fresh they're leaping out of the place!
The Boucher Circus Train was on display. We had visitors who remembered Bill Boucher and others who loved seeing these colorful and cleverly crafted train cars. They were really amazed when they learned the cars were all scratch built.
Dale Hasenzahl and Tom Fuller ran our battery powered train, which was added last year. It worked very well at our coal dump section. Bob Haladyna and Tommy Robichaud brought in engines and cars to run. We received support from the local Pioneer Valley and Connecticut S-Gauge club members for set-up, teardown and some during the show.
Steve Allen, a Pioneer Valley club member, provided 5 detailed S buildings he had built - a gas station, a switch tower with men working inside, a small radio station tower, a loading dock labeled Clark's Depot, Siegerton Junction to remember former Bristol Club members Bill Clark and Rob Sieger.
Our camera car performed well and added to the enjoyment of the animation line-up. Layouts definitely add excitement to the entire show!
Click Amherst Show-2024 to see a few photos from the event.
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It was a sunny day and the Steam trains were running at the Bristol S-Gaugers 75th Anniversary party on June 25, 2023. Thanks very much to our hosts for the event-The Waushakum Live Steamers in Holliston, MA. So many of their members showed up to give us all rides thru the woods on their extensive trackage. Our food truck was Smoking 51 which served up delicious BBQ food. Lorraine Chase brought the our 75th celebration cake with train decorations. Club members brought additional desserts for us to enjoy as well.
It was also wonderful to visit with some of our former club members who were able to join in the celebration.
Just as we were folding up the last few chairs, and nearly all club members had left; we got the downpour predicted at end of the day! Click 75th Anniversary Party to see additional photos of the days events.
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Greenberg Train Show at the Shriners Auditorium in Wilmington, MA on March 25th and 26th. We had a great surprise for attendees at the show. We set up William "Bill" Boucher's Royal 'S' Circus train cars.
These colorful and intricately created cars and wagons depict actual circus train cars and have moving pieces, such as folding out bleachers. Extremely delicate, we assigned two club members, Bill Chase and Tom Fuller to set them up for display.
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