It was a busy and bone-chillingly freezing Saturday at the 2026 Amherst Railway Society Railroad Hobby Show (Springfield). I was waiting in line for tickets before 9:00 AM with windchills in the negative numbers. Sunday was bringing a winter storm to West Springfield. The forecast was for over a foot of snow, so attendance was high on the day I went. However, some of the vendors decided that needed to skip this year's show.
Bachmann has a sample of their Siemens VIA Rail sets, this one in the Lumi paint scheme that was announced at last year's show. I was told these should be shipping to stores in May. I had hoped Bachmann would be announcing the Siemens passenger sets for the new Ontario Northland Northlander train sets, but it didn't happen. ...maybe next year.
Iowa Scale Engineering has been talking about releasing a defect detector for a while now. I had my fingers crossed that this show would be its debut, but all that I saw at their booth was a coming soon sign. I'll keep waiting. Iowa Scale Engineering has a great reputation for their electronics, so I look forward to the defect detector's release in the future.
Custom Model Railroads released a new high rise the week before the show. CMR is where most of my tall building kits come from. It's a little wider than most of the building on my layout. I emailed Jeff at CMR the day before the show to get dimensions for the kit to see if I could find a spot for it on the layout, but I wanted to see it in person before making a decision to buy it.
I left the show with plenty of new items. I picked up two new pieces of rolling stock. A baggage car to be used for my VIA Rail train from Montreal to Shawinigan or for The Canadian. I also got an Otter Valley gondola to go along with the MacRail cover I got at last year's Springfield show.
I got a few packs of 40' containers from a local dealer selling these Athearn sets at a pretty good price. I'm trying to focus on well cars and shipping containers for international shipping models since most everything I have for my 53' well cars are 53' domestic containers.
Logic Rail Technologies was back for the second year. I picked up the Grade Crossing Pro 2 Expander I needed for crossing detection in my Oshawa rail yard. I also picked up a second fusee to put on the tracks. Kadee is a staple in the Better Living Center, and I got the replacement couplers I'll need for when my Lumi train set arrived later this year.
Scenic Express had the ultra-fine ballast I needed and picked it up as well as a few Xuron tools at B&B Hobby Supply.
ScaleSigns was not at the show this year. Spring Creek carries some ScaleSigns stock, and I was able to get some signposts. I needed a few Canadian crossbucks and track signs, so I'll order these directly from the ScaleSigns site. Under Construction Replicas was new this year. The make scale construction site objects. I really liked the orange fencing and got a couple sets for my high-rise construction project. I also got rolls of cable and some lane dividers. East Coast Circuits was one of my first starts of the day. I had hoped to get another Walthers fire trucks, but they were out. I did get a police patrol truck for the layout.
The last stop of my spending spree was back at Custom Model Railroads. I decided to pull the trigger and get the new Continental Building. As well as the add-on 3-stories, and the lighting kits. It was the 10% discount that encouraged me to get it now.
I took some time to also check out some of the layouts along the way. Sometimes, with all the people, it's hard to slowdown to enjoy the numerous layouts. Here's a few pictures I got from just a sampling of layouts at the show.
The storm did a number to the attendance on Sunday. Many of the vendors tried to beat the storm and leave on Saturday night. The Virtual Railfan cameras showed large portions of the buildings empty. I don't know how much attendance was affected by the weather, but I'm glad Saturday had clear skies and I was able to get to the show. The 2027 Railroad Hobby Show will take place on January 30 & 31. Fingers crossed for better weather.
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