The Register Citizen (Torrington, CT)
Food donations roll in at holiday train show
TORRINGTON — The Torrington Area Model Railroaders held the annual train show and food drive at the Armory on South Main Street on Saturday and Sunday.
The annual event, put on by a club of train enthusiasts, is held every year to provide two days of fun for families, and to collect food for the Friendly Hands Food Bank.
Members up their collections of train sat the Torring ton Armory and turned the interior into a huge railroad track and station, just in time for Christmas.
The show featured train layouts in the two most popular scales, HO and N, according to members. A variety of trains ran all day, including 1950sera New England freight trains, coal trains that would have been seen operating in the Appalachian mountains in the 1970s and early 1980s, a train hauling 1970sera Army tanks, and modern intermodal trains that can be seen operating over the nation’s rails today. The HO layout is 45 feet by 53 feet; the N scale
layout is 28 feet by 40 feet. The layoutson display were modular, meaning they can be disassembled into sections that are easily transported. When those sections are linked together, the layouts are impressive, members said.
The Torrington Area Model Railroaders is a group of railroad enthusiasts, ages 15 to 90 from all over the state, who enjoy real trains and model trains. “One of the group’s primary missions is to share what we think is a great hobby with others,” members said. “We have a building on Lewis Street in Torrington that houses the train layouts.”
For information about the Torrington Area Model Railroaders, contact Dave Ware at 2035722226.