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 an application to join us here, 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

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A Sad Note. On January 20, 2021 Bill Clark, a valued and well respected member of our club, passed away due to pancreatic cancer.

Bill had been a part of the Bristol club since 1996. His wealth of technical knowledge, his eagerness to try new methods, positive attitude, enthusiasm and interest in so many aspects of the hobby made it fun for everyone around him.

Soon after he joined the club, he became a pioneer in helping the club utilize DCC technology and assisted club members with DCC locomotive installations and repairs. He became our go-to technical expert and worked with many club members on their home layouts. His help on our last three NASG Conventions and committees was exceptional. He also became our Club Webmaster. Bill was a regular supporter at nearly all of our club train shows. We will fondly remember him sitting in his “director’s chair” inside the corner of our Club Layout during train shows as he made sure that things were running smoothly!

Bill was one of those club members who was really at the very heart of the club. His warm personality generated a positive attitude in every person he met. Bill encouraged people to join our club to learn and share various aspects of S-Gauge railroading.

Bill will never be apart from us; his fellow members of the Bristol S-Gauge Railroaders Club. We will all miss him greatly.

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.

March & April 2020 Meetings Cancelled

March and April 2020 meetings have been cancelled in response to the pandemic. Future meetings were ultimately cancelled, along with our annual picnic, due to continued issues with Covid-19 pandemic.

Click this link for the minutes from the February 2020 Meeting
Archived minutes are under the documents tab, and are available to members only.

The March 28-29, 2020, the Greenberg Train and Toy Show, Wilmington, MA was cancelled as well as the November 2020 Greenberg show due to risks related to the pandemic.

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.

2018 NASG Convention - New England S-PRESS. Click links below for pictures of the event!
Video by Pieter Ros
Lake Winnipesaukee Tour
Tuesday Layout Tour
Bristol Club 70th Birthday Party
Green Mountain RR Tour
Display Layouts
Model Contest
Banquet

History of S Gauge DVD

History of S Gauge Title
Tom Coughlan

New DVD available now! Tom Coughlan was a founding member of the Bristol S Gauge Railroaders, and was very active in the S scale community. At the 1984 NASG convention Tom gave a clinic called "The History of S Gauge" including all of the US manufacturers starting with Cleveland Models. Tom knew all the manufacturers personally, and his clinic was filled with great stories and insights. He also shows representative models from the manufacturers. Tom did not include American Flyer in this clinic, as there were, and are, several books available covering the history of American Flyer.

Bristol member Bill Morris was at that clinic, and videotaped it. He has had the original tape professionally mastered to create a 1 hour record (the entire clinic) of that incredible clinic! Copies are now available as a fund raiser for the Bristol Club, from Bill.

For information on getting your own copy of this historic DVD, contact Bill Morris.
Bill's Email is billmorris52@hotmail.com

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.

January Meeting at Haladyna's

The January meeting was at Carol and Bob's home. Bob sets up a very nice Christmas layout every year on their living room floor. This year he was running the Polar Express using its radio control throttle, an SHS MEC SW-9 with a set of Christmas cars using LocoMatic, and a late 90s AF Christmas loco pulling more Christmas cars. It is a very fine Christmas layout with a good portion of their living room dedicated to it! He also had his N scale empire in operation downstairs, and several of us were able to operate trains on it. There are a few photos of the Christmas layout, and a bunch of photos of the N scale layout in the Photo Gallery. Carol as usual was a wonderful hostess and put on a great spread. Thanks to Carol and Bob!

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