On April 20th, 2008, NELUG put on a small display at the Hooksett, NH Lion's Club Model Railroad Show at Cawley Middle School in Hooksett, NH.  The display included a small town, farmland, a country fair, and several new and returning trains.

Though cows appeared all over the layout, a few stayed in the farm to keep the ostrich and giant bunnies company.  Indiana Jones made a heroic appearance on a WWII themed train, narrowly escaping his foes by hanging onto the back of a German caboose.  In another nod to history, a short Rutland train made its way quietly around the tracks, hauling marble, and occasionally Storm Troopers (We have a loose sense of history).  As in the past, visitors were treated to a drive-in movie of themselves, thanks to a hidden camera aboard the mixed freight train on our third loop.

The crowd at the show was enthusiastic and friendly, as were our hosts, The Hooksett Lion's Club, making for a great weekend of railroading.

Photos of the show may be seen in our gallery.

We once again had a fantastic time showing at the Greenberg.  Once again we were in the Fez room which makes for an interesting environment.  We are away from the hussle and bussle but it is a much more comfortable space.  We seemed to have a ring of chair around the layout throughout the show and at times crowds were 3 or more deep around the entire layout.

There was an engine with a camera in it which was a big hit and the Duplo Shark attack was also quite popular.  The ammusement area had a couple of new rides and the Medevil Fair is getting bigger and more popular.  There were a couple new Skyscrapers as well which always makes for interesting changes/challenges with the skyline.  The residential area was also packed with interesting things.

To view an entire gallery of images please click on the image to the left.

For the seventh year in a row NELUG has displayed a layout at the Great Train Expo (formerly Greenberg train and toy show) in Wilmington MA. As has been the case for the past couple of years we once again had our largest layout ever at 13'x26'.

This layout had 4 operating loops on the tables, another loop operating as a subway line, and our longest run of Monorail track seen to date. The amusement park has continued to grow and remains a strong focal point of the layout. The inner city while smaller included a river and one of our best town/residential sections.

The show itself appeared to be quite the success with more attendees than we could remember seeing for several years. There was even a vender selling significant amounts of LEGO for the first time including 9v train accessories.

From a club perspective setup was pretty intensive and brought us to our limits. We probably won't expand the layout significantly again until we become comfortable with this layout and have more help during setup. We also kept pace in being one of the quickest to clear out at the end of the show in less than 2 hours.

Our outside loop was bumped and derailed several times and one boxcar fell to the floor (twice) and needs a bit of repair. Thankfully it is LEGO so repairs should be relatively easy.

Please visit our gallery for the layout by clicking on the image in this article.