NVRRA

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

08/23/2026

Last weekend we held our monthly ops session, and unfortunately we were not able to grab many pictures. We kept our dispatcher busy moving approximately 30 trains across the layout, not including the 5 roundtrips the MBTA commuter tains make.

Interested in operations? Reach out to us with either a message on here or visit our website at www.nvrra.com.

07/31/2026

The Nashua Valley Railroad Association will be attending the Concord Model Railroad Club's model train show on August 16th. Details below.

We will have 3 sales tables full of locos, rolling stock, buildings and more for sale- all at prices that can't be beat!

See you there!

07/19/2026

Last night we held another successful ops session which brought the NER to life. We ran 32 of the 34 scheduled trains, including testing a new method of operation for one local to improve fluidity.

Also last night was a milestone as we have finally transitioned all Control Point (CP) switches off of macros via JMRI to Signalogic Systems Inc. Staging continues to be JMRI for now, with a plan to transition that to Signalogic as well.

Final note, signals at CP-NO are coming alive, blue light and all. More on that later once the troubleshooting and shakedown are completed.

06/28/2026

Thank you to those that decided to get out of the heat for a bit and visit our club at today’s open house. We always enjoy sharing our passion of Model Railroading with both our fellow hobbyists and our community.

Thanks again, and we’ll be posting our next open house soon!

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.

05/02/2026

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

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!

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.

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.

Address

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

Telephone

978 337-1608

Website

http://NVRRA.com/

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