mainegardenrailwaysociety2023

MBRE has announced two new excursion trains. May 11 -    Pemigawasset Rocket Excursion on the Winnepesaukee Scenic Railroad sponsored by the Mass. Bay Railway Enthusiasts, departing at 9:30am from 154 Main St, Meredith, NH 03253. Options include bus transportation from Boston to Meredith and the B&M Railroad Historical Society at 1pm at the Plymouth Depot. For details please visit http://massbayrre.org/Trips/PemiRocket.htm , call  978-470-2066,or send e-mail to  trips@massbayrre.org . June 15 - Green Knight Train on Vermont's Washington County Railroad sponsored by the Mass Bay Railway Enthusiasts. Departs at 10:30am from the Amtrak Station at 102 Railroad Row, White River Junction, VT 05001. There is an option to connect via bus from Boston. For details please visit http://massbayrre.org/Trips/GreenKnightTrain.htm ,  call 978-470-2066,or send e-mail to trips@massbayrre.org .

  Today's Jumble Puzzle is about model trains   Thanks to Art Handman

The annual Touch-A-Train event will take place at Downeast Scenic Railroad in Ellsworth on Saturday, June 9 th . The hours are 9am-Noon with a train ride at 12:30pm. New this year is Maine Central Steam Locomotive #470. It is being restored by New England Steam Corp. at Downeast Scenic Railroad. You can see the 470 and an operating model railroad in the 470 Restoration Building located near the Touch-A-Train station platform. MGRS will have an operating layout in the restoration building, courtesy of Art Shean whose grandchildren live in Ellsworth . See 470 as it is being restored.   Caboose rides! For details please visit http://www.downeastscenicrail.org/ride/rides-and-events and click on View Event List.

Terry & Sue  Norton's latest development is a Garden Railway Campground for mobile trailers on their layout in Eliot. It all started with a trip to California and visit to Upland Trains where they found some very nice camping trailers. The web site is  http://www.uplandtrains.com Campground Overview Trailer Sites in old Quarry near the railroad line BAR Locomotive rolls by the Clubhouse Clubhouse and Picnic Area On the way to the Boat Ramp and Marina Terry also set up some new businesses to service the Campground Trade. They were purchased from the builder who was from Massachusetts. Woodman's of Essex This is an excellent model of a well-known seafood place in Essex, MA. You can see them on the web at  http://www.woodmans.com/restaurants/ In addition to dining Terry also brought in a large stable so the tourists can experience horseback riding from the Old West right there in Eliot, Maine. Warner Stables The real building is also in Essex, MA. The roof on the left si...

This year the Candy Cane Train ran on the Amtrak Downeaster  with a round trip from Brunswick to Portland and back. This train is fun for children of all ages, and is the primary fund raiser for Tri-County Literacy in Bath, Tri-County Literacy Web Site The fun starts when children and parents arrive at the Brunswick Visitor Center, which is also the Amtrak Station. Here they can pick up their tickets, drink hot cocoa, listen to stories read by Mrs. Santa Claus, see model trains, and enter raffles for books and a model train set. Model train layout Polar Express and Freight Trains roll through Town The layout and the rest of the station is crowded until its time to board the train Then everyone heads for platform... Amtrak Conductors greet the passengers On the train small groups of children have stories read to them. There are cookies, songs from the Noreasters Chorus, fun with the Elves, and a visit from Santa!!! Here is a video of the Candy Cane Train rolling out of Bru...

Dennis and Carl have proposed a club trip on the Mount Washington Cog Railway this coming September. The Cog is a three hour guided round trip to the top of Mount Washington and back with a one-hour stop at the top of Mount Washington. More information can be found at http://thecog.com/ The trip will be a topic at the Annual Outing and Meeting on July 16. If you are interested, please contact Carl or Dennis.

The Candy Cane Train took over 2,000 passengers from Bath to Wiscasset and back on December 12 and 13. Sponsored by Tri-County Literacy, the train ride includes reading books to groups of children, a visit from Santa Claus, and Elves in  every car. There is also an operating model railroad display in Bath Station. WMTW Channel 8 did a story on the future of the Candy Cane Train that can be seen at http://www.wmtw.com/news/future-of-candy-cane-train-up-in-the-air/36948214 Maine Eastern Engines 764 and 488 Boarding by the Bridges Remembrance during the holiday season

"Covered Wagon in the Snow",  s Photographer's Special on the Conway Scenic Railroad, sponsored by the Mass. Bay Railway Enthusiasts. The trip runs from North Conway to Notchland & Return featuring ex-Boston & Maine F7A 4266. This trip offers coach seating, premium seating and other options including round trip bus service from South Station in Boston and Anderson RTC in Woburn to North Conway and return for this trip. For details, prices and to order tickets please visit Covered Wagon in the Snow on MassBayRRE Web Site  or call 978-470-2066

Canadian Pacific Holiday Train 2015 - click on Watch Our Video Trackside View of Holiday Train 2014 rolling through Montreal Thanks to Rick Hills of the Maine 3Railers for these terrific links

Thank you Tiny for making the Reservations, Thank you Carl for handling the money, Thank you Barry for the Idea!  And most of all we need to thank each other for supporting the MGRS Day Outing on the Conway Scenic trip to Crawford Notch.  It turned out GREAT!  I do not know the exact count but between 30 and 40 of us enjoyed the trip together.  I just took pictures like everyone else did and it was not an attempt to document the event.  To see pictures I took please click here: Select "Slideshow"    It was fun, I haven't been on a train ride picnic for a long, long time and it was a beautiful area to enjoy with friends.

Some forty members of the MGRS boarded the Maine Eastern Railroad in Brunswick this Saturday, September 25th, for a spectacular round trip to Rockland. A more beautiful day cannot be imagined, nor better scenery or company. Our son even celebrated his birthday. The engine (my youngest brother told me this evening in a phone call to Colorado) is an FL9 built specially for the New Haven R.R. in 1956. It's 2000 hp diesel engine was once supplemented by an electric motor, which supplied power when the unit ran into New York City. The engineer on our homeward trip today, Leon Peaseley, says that Amtrak used this engine until it came to the Maine Eastern. Here are a few pictures of our journey on the perfect 1:1 train set. And, yes, I know who blew the horn on some of those sixty-six railroad crossings. It definitely helps to have an Iron Horse press pass. Thanks, Maine Eastern!

The Maine Eastern trip to Rockland will go across the St. George River Drawbridge shown above in South Warren Maine. Courtesy of Railpictures.net photo by Vince Hammel Jr. Remarks: Looking like a model railroad, Maine Eastern FL9 number 488 rolls train 3 across the St George River Draw Bridge on July 11, 2009.

Just finishing an Alaskan trip we started on 5/27 by taking a sleeper on Amtrak Shoreline LTD from Bos to Chicago: than Amtrak Empire Builder to Seattle Wa. From there we went to BC and boarded our Ship the Island Princess for a cruise up her to Anchorage. A couple of photos of a day excursion on the White Pass & Yukon Steam train from Skagway Ak. to White Pass Can.

(Click Pictures to enlarge) Maine Garden Railway Society is planning an outing on Saturday September 25, 2010 to get all the members together that enjoy taking a nice train ride up the coast of Maine while the weather is nice and the tourist activity is quieter. Carl has talked to Maine Eastern and has come up with the following: We will meet at the new Maine St. Station in Brunswick which was built to extend service for the Downeaster starting this summer. We will leave Brunswick at 10:20 AM and stop briefly at Bath before continuing up the coast line as we travel to Wiscasset and head up to our destination Rockland, Me. A beautiful trip that takes 1 hour and 55 minutes which put us in Rockland at 12:15 just in time for lunch. We have a little over 3 and a half hours to spend in Rockland which is perfect for a nice lunch and site seeing on a beautiful Main Street with lots of interesting shops. There is also the Farnsworth Museum which features 3 generations of famous Main...

Fall has arrived in North Conway. Above is a GP 7 diesel, arriving at the North Conway station after pulling a train full of enthusiasts on the run from Conway. The 1-hour trip costs $13.50 for coach seating, and offers views of the White Mountains an d Saco River in their autumn glory. Color should be at its peak in the next two to three weekends.

Mike and Lucy and Brandon's Acela adventure made me want to look at some of the high speed clips people have posted. . Here is 150 mph sample Wow! What a thrill it must be.

Hi Everyone, We returned today on the Acela but this train was not testing WiFi. So I am posting a short video to give an idea of the speed from home. Regards Forgot to mention how SMOOTH a ride the Acela IS!!

Hi everyone. Having decided to make a visit to the Museums of the Smithsonian,the GWRGR crew went by the Amtrak Acela. It IS as fast as they say. Photo from start of trip . Staying at the Holiday Inn Capitol one block ( 1/8th of a mile ) from the Air & Space Museum, Brandon & I are treated to a grand view of trains on 3 tracks running thru downtown on an overhead line. Short freight video. The Acela is testing WiFi on several trains and we will attemt to post a hi-speed video on our return trip tomorrow (9/6) from the train. Hope everyone is having a great Labor Day weekend Brandon , Lucy & Mike

I remember as a kid hearing a lot about White River Junction as I traveled to Vermont every summer to visit relatives. I recently got an email from a good friend who has just travelled through the area. Hi John, Greetings from VT! We took the Amtrak Vermonter out of White River Junction (aka WRJ around here) to go down to Baltimore for my mom's 80th birthday. It was a pretty good trip, and this end of it was very convenient. We arrived in Baltimore about 10 minutes late, pretty good timing for a 10 hour trip. Shuttling to the airport to grab a rental car and get to our hotel less than 5 miles from the train station took another 2 hours. :-( Aieeee.... I'm attaching a few pix from the WRJ area. It was hopping busy place back in the heyday of train travel, but things are looking pretty tired around here now. The pix are a couple of modern trains, and a couple of vintage trains. - Tom Famous 494 Vermonter at WRJ Green Mountain Freight at WRJ

Hi All, As you know we usually operate #7470 during a portion of the summer and for the fall operating seasons. This year because of the restoration of our new dining car and our goal of having it in service on the Notch Train by foliage time we have decided to shift personnel and other resources away from operating and maintaining steam this summer in order to devote more time to working on the "Hattie Evans". We expect steam to come out for the fall & winter operating seasons as normal. Best regards, Paul Here are some great pictures of #7470