The Railroad Hobby Show largest railroad-themed trade show in America – Jeff Gross
by Jeff Gross, contributing writer With the world returning to normal and 2023 is showing signs of optimism, the model train hobby is improving as well. This coming weekend the Amherst Railway Society will host their annual Model Railroad extravaganza at the Big E Expo Center in West Springfield Massachusetts. The Big E show is considered by thousands to be the Queen Mum of all train shows in the Northeast. There are four large buildings housing dealers and operating layouts by the hundreds. All the model trains scales are covered – from live steam to G Scale used in outdoor model railroads, Standard Gauge, which was Lionel, and Ives premium scale pre-WWII, O scale which has been popular since the 1910’s and is still growing today as a result of numerous improvements in digital control and various realistic design improvements in rail cars. HO scale is another popular scale due to the fact one can gets many trains in a small space. Then there is N scale which is current