A Tribute to the Bolton NVRRA Layout
The Nashua Valley Railroad Association (NVRRA) is still an active club with its new headquarters in Shirley, Massachusetts. I am no longer a member of that club and left the club shortly after its move. Prior to moving to Shirley, the club was at its Bolton, Massachusetts location for approximately 30 years. During its stay in Bolton the layout was featured in two model railroading publications. Once in the late 70’s early 80s and the last time in the fall of 2002. The layout room was approximately 25ft. x 65ft. The layout had two mainlines one on a 700 foot loop and the other one about 550 foot loop.
For layout operations it was point to point with a fictional mainline running from Maybrook, New York through various New England cities and towns to Calais, Maine. The headquarters and main yards were at Nashua, NH. The layout was prototypical free-lance. We wanted protype operations but we wanted a free-lance operation so we would not be constrained by any particular prototype.
The operational era of the layout was set in the late 1980’s. This was before ditch lights and after the FREDs (Flashing Rear End Device). However during open house it was highly suggested that each train run with a caboose. During open houses operators could not walk with their trains and we relied on spotters to make sure the train was running well. If they did not see a caboose, then the layout came to a stop until the rest of the train could be found. During the last few open houses, a few members actually had operating FREDs and they were permitted, once they let the spotters know they had a FRED.
I belonged to this club for almost 9 years. I had many good times there serving as a member of the board of directors, president and operations chairman. The two decisions, one for leaving the Bolton location and ultimately myself leaving the club were tough ones. I had taken these pictures but just kept them stored on my computer not knowing what to do with them. I finally decided to make a tribute to the club. I have other pictures to post and will eventually find them and post them. Until then enjoy.
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The images in the Pennsylvania Gallery were taken in May of 2007 and May 2008. They are presented geographically from east to west. They are not necessarily in the order they were taken. Enjoy my pictures from my Pennsylvania rail-fanning trips!
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