NVRRA

NVRRA The Nashua Valley Railroad Association is a 501(c)3 group dedicated to promoting model railroading.

East Main St bridge progress in Ayer. The plans were sent to us by MassDOT, then drawn in AutoCAD to scale, which allow...
05/09/2026

East Main St bridge progress in Ayer. The plans were sent to us by MassDOT, then drawn in AutoCAD to scale, which allows us to easilly shrink it proportionally. We then printed the drawings out, made a cardboard mockup and placed it on the layout to test fit.

Now we look for feedback from the membership, then we’ll start constructing it with styrene.

Figured we give a nod to Amtrak on their Birthday. Here’s the westbound ‘Granite State’ passing through North Adams.
05/02/2026

Figured we give a nod to Amtrak on their Birthday. Here’s the westbound ‘Granite State’ passing through North Adams.

3,000 followers and we're still going strong! Thanks to all the people who followed our page, commented on posts and fol...
04/30/2026

3,000 followers and we're still going strong! Thanks to all the people who followed our page, commented on posts and followed the journey of our members on this awesome layout!

Sunday was a day for ballasting. We managed to get a handful of members together to undertake ballasting about 35’ of u...
04/22/2026

Sunday was a day for ballasting. We managed to get a handful of members together to undertake ballasting about 35’ of upper deck. That doesn’t sound like a lot, but when you have to dump, spread, shape and dress all that stone, then shoot it with wet water and diluted glue, all while standing on a ladder or scaffold, the more the better! Also, it allows us all to learn techniques together, and apply them for a consistent look across the railroad.

Out ballast comes from the same place the real stuff does, a quarry in Deerfield, Mass. We sift and separate it for traprock, ballast and fine gravel. It’s a bit of work, but it pays off with both cost savings and the look of the real thing…because it is!!

04/20/2026

This video really has a great flavor of the B&M we all loved, right at the end when the railroad was building itself back! Conveniently, it’s also where in the NER “history” starts, where we became the successor instead of GTI.

Are you interested in prototypical model railroad operations?Interesting fact, about 15% of the NVRRA membership are act...
04/19/2026

Are you interested in prototypical model railroad operations?

Interesting fact, about 15% of the NVRRA membership are actual railroaders. These include current and former track, signal, communications, freight/passenger engineers and conductors, and even a dispatcher.

These members help drive and continuously improve our operation, as well as bring a unique view that only comes from being industry experts.

If you’ve never attended a model railroad operations session, reach out here via messenger or www.NVRRA.com and come see the fun.

The pictures below are from the April ops session, where more than 50% of the attendees are professional railroaders.

This weeks changes at The Willows. Anyone who knows the B&M knows this location, where the Fitchburg and the Stoney Br...
04/05/2026

This weeks changes at The Willows. Anyone who knows the B&M knows this location, where the Fitchburg and the Stoney Brook converge.

The prototype has the original Ayer auto facility, which had been discontinued, and remained so until Arrowhead moved in to load out trash containers.

We wanted to include the auto facility on our layout, but autoracks can be unforgiving…and with the real estate we had, you could not switch the autoracks without them hitting eachother during shove moves.

Enter New England Building Products. We decided that the space we had might be better suited with a lumber and building product transload. This was loosely based off a lumber distributer in Billerica. We have a building with a covered dock that holds 4-5 box cars, and a centerbeam unloading area that can hold 4 cars.

This is an example of our need to Proto-freelance our layout, where we needed a change that offered better and more reliable operations.

We would like to thank everyone who attended our open house yesterday.If you wish to learn more about the club and membe...
03/29/2026

We would like to thank everyone who attended our open house yesterday.

If you wish to learn more about the club and membership opportunities, reach out to us through messenger or visit www.nvrra.com.

03/27/2026

Continued testing of the WirelessBilly SimHogger on DCC. This thing has some potential!

Visit us at our FREE open house this coming Saturday, 3/28, 10a-4p!

Address

Phoenix Park, 2 Shaker Road, Suite E205
Shirley, MA
01464

Telephone

978 337-1608

Website

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