NRV Model Railroad Show

Jim Thompson and I had a good time attending the Neuse River Valley Model Railroad Club’s spring show . It was perfect for a cool rainy memorial day weekend in Raleigh NC.

The biggest draw was a huge modular layout in HO Scale (1:87). Modules from several chapters of the “Sipping and Switching Society” were linked together.

Here’s a link to the NC Chapter if you want more info.

These are some of the modules that we liked best:

Three modules combined to make an impressive shipyard

The Circus came to town in these modules

A few Delaware & Hudson models for my North Country friends…

And a couple of my photos of the actual trains from the early 1970’s.

Along with the American Freedom Train locomotive from the bicentennial celebration 50 years ago

Here’s the last photo from the HO layout: an impressive bridge module depicting a spot where Beth would never agree to camp.

A new club was displaying European HO models. Check out the European Train Enthusiasts web site if you model these trains.

This narrow gauge Swiss rotary snowblower wasn’t something I’d seen before.

I should have taken more photos of the extensive N scale (1:144) modular layout, but was distracted by this module using pieces from a Star Wars miniatures game.

A 3 rail O gauge 1:48 layout had some impressive scale models…

along with some fun animated scenes.

The NC Garden Railway Society displayed interesting G gauge 1:22.5 and 1:32 scale models. Beth and I were members back when the club set-up a large operating layout at the Raleigh Home and Garden Show.

I like the planting of succulents in these dioramas.

Two NC locals, out of the 400 vendor tables, stood out to me. The first was Asylum Hobbies with 3D printed modern G gauge 1:32 rolling stock.

Here are some of their 3-D printed accessory models

Though we missed the awards ceremony, we did get to see a few of the winning structure models

This HO scale boarding house reminds me of one that we used to pass when driving to Beaufort, NC.

And finally, a winning model of the Depot in Bunn, NC.

Here’s the info from the modeler…

• This model was inspired by the small depot located in Bunn, NC.
• While long abandoned, the structure still shows up in Google Street View.
• The Montgomery Lumber Company built a railroad from Bunn to Spring Hope to carry lumber starting in 1906. The MLC carried freight and passengers until discontinuing operations in 1979.
• Working with only a few street view shots and applying a liberal mount of modelers’ license, I made a rough 2D drawing using LibriCAD and then a series of 3D part models using Freecad. The model consists of 14 separate 3D printed parts.