Amherst Railway Society

The Amherst Railway Society has about 500 members who share some aspect of railroading as a common interest. Monthly meetings cover current topics in railroad news and offer slide shows, movies or a prominent speaker on a railroading topic. The Society also sponsors and participates in several train trips each year.

Every February the Society presents its annual "Amherst Railway Society Railroad Hobby Show" at the Eastern States Exposition Fairgrounds in West Springfield, MA. This show has become the biggest railroad show in the Northeast. In 1993 and 1994 the Amherst Railway Society received the Walthers Showmanship Award for sponsoring the event.

Proceeds from the show are used to promote interest in railroads. Donations have been made to various railroad museums, historical societies, restoration projects and scholarship funds. Organizations that have received donations include: the Fall River and Old Colony Museum, the 470 Club's Boston and Maine diesel locomotive restoration project, the Boston and Maine Historical Society, the Chester Foundation Station Project, the Wiscasset Waterville and Farmington Building and Car Fund as well as trolley museums in Shelburne Falls, MA, Warehouse Point, CT, Branford, CT and Kennebunk, ME.