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 a1traindude@verizon.net

# # #

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
(Only 162 Total cars available)!
Click B&M Quad Hopper Order Form to place your order NOW!

# # #

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.

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.

Amherst Railway Show - January 27-29, 2023 The Bristol Club had another successful train show attending the Amherst Railway Society event in Springfield, MA Jan 27-29th, 2023. The huge audience saw S-Gauge trains running all weekend. A new battery powered train was added to our fleet and worked at our coal dump section. Tommy got a chance to run his rocket car and surprised the crowd.
We received support from the local Pioneer Valley club and Connecticut S-Gauge clubs for set-up and teardown. A very welcome surprise was Club member, Michael Greene, who drove up from South Carolina to work the show with us.
Additional support was provided by Pioneer Valley club member, George Reneris, who loaned us his animated auto factory for our town section. The factory had lighted sign and rotating car on top. George also ran his beautifully animated Jug Band rail car, the farm animal freight car with rooster sounds and a flatcar with large animated colored snowflake and melodies.
A most disappointing part of the show was closure of the local Bernies Diner. It was alway a real treat for us to visit this restaurant during the show.

# # #

Creating an Animated Excavator

John Fucile was asked to create an animation of an excavator digging on our club modular layout. He did, and the results were outstanding:

Operating Backhoe on Club Layout, January 2016

Several people have asked how John created the animation, and he has graciously documented the process with photos and plans. Click here for the document.

Photos from Old Website

Here are the Archived Photos from the old website. They include pictures from 2000-2016.

Model Railroad Teardown

Don Haiges Layout: RIP. As we get older it's a blessing that the Lord gives us good friends to tell us to do things to which we are oblivious. So to my good friend Bill Morris, also a train guy, thanks for telling me to have my layout photographed before I tore it down. That totally escaped me. Also to my good friend Danny Oh, the videographer: Danny I thank you for taking the time to do this for me, what a great job. And finally to my good friend Craig Lentz, and also a college classmate, who got me back into trains about 10 or so years ago. He was the wiser, he sold all his trains.

Operating Session at Tommy's

A couple of friends from the Pioneer Valley S Gaugers, Steve Allen and George Reneris, dropped by the CGLR for an operating session. Tommy Robichaud acted as dispatcher and Helen Lenart and Bill Clark joined Steve and George as engineers. Check out the video above. We all had a great time!

1997 West Springfield Train Show

This is a video of the Bristol Club layout at the 1997 West Springfield Train Show. Bill Boucher brought his scratch built circus train to run on our layout. Video of his circus train starts at 2:06.

Photos from Club Members!

Photographs are one of the best ways to bring us together, and to liven up our web site! I'm always happy to post pictures if you send them to me, a1traindude@verizon.net. In addition, all club members have the ability to post pictures directly into member albums.

Here's how to do it:

1. Login to website (Only members can post pictures).
2. Click the down arrow next to your name (at the top of the Home page), select Profile.
3. Click Photo Albums under Website.
4. On the Photo Album Manager page, click Add Photo Album.
5. Fill out Album name, select availability, add description if desired. Click Save.
6. Click the pencil icon.
7. Click Add Multiple Photos (other options are explained, but this is the most useful).
8. Click Select Files to browse for photos on your PC.
9. Add titles, photographer, data taken if desired. Click Save.

And your album should be there. Give it a try, see what you think.

Photos will display at a maximum of 1024 pixels. You can upload them at full size, however, and the viewer will be able to download the high resolution original. There is no need to reduce the size of your photos, bigger is better!

Our club is pretty spread out geographically, and pictures are a great way to keep us close and in touch. Also, the pictures don't have to be current. Historical pictures of meetings, members, S gauge/scale friends, etc are welcome!

Contact me if you have any issues or questions.

This is our New Website!

We have decided to move our website to a company that specializes in supporting clubs. There are several other reasons why this is a good move for the club:

1. Several people will be able to update sections of the website. Officers can post information to their specific areas. Jim Babish will be able to post to the archives. This will help keep the site up to date, as well as easing the transition when I can no longer do the website.

2. Any member can post pictures! We can have an unlimited number of photo albums, and anyone can create them!

3. Dues can be collected on-line.

4. The package includes social networking, which may interest us in the future.

5. There are built-in financial reports for any money collected through the web.

6. Knowledge of HTML coding not required to update and maintain the sight.

7. Automatic backups.

8. Professional security. We will be able to post information that can only be seen by the members.

It will take a while to move over all the useful information from the old site, so it will stay active for a while. I will no longer be updating it, however, so please check this site for meeting information and anything current.

You will need an account and password to get into the member only section of this site. If you don't have one, please email me at hlenartre@gmail.com.

Helen