Train enthusiasts will once again flock to Palmer as the Amherst Railway Society settles into the town.
The growing nonprofit organization now has room to expand in its newly acquired headquarters at 1130 South Main St. — its first permanent home in more than half a century.
The society closed on the property Thursday. It includes a former church building that later served as a Grange Hall and approximately two acres of land.
Club president John Sacerdote said the society’s mission is to keep railroading alive in the United States — a task made easier by having a place to call home.
“Palmer is known as the town of seven railroads,” said Sacerdote on Monday, alluding to the many train services intersecting in the region during the 1930s and ’40s. “We’re delighted to be in an area that had so much to do with railroads through so many years.”
Since October 1963, the train society and its members have bounced around locations on the University of Massachusetts Amherst campus as well at the Amherst Regional Middle School.
Treasurer David Royce said the lack of a permanent space has been challenging for the society, as the club claims to have one of the most extensive railroading libraries in New England. In addition to needing a space to store that collection, the society spent two years looking for a meeting hall, an area to build trains in and enough parking to accommodate nearly 100 monthly attendees.
“There’s a big calling for this stuff,” said Craig Della Penna, a national rail trail expert and society member. “There’s a lot of memories, a lot of archaeology, let’s call it, to be rediscovered.”
The society bought the property for $235,000 from Crossway Christian Church, which had outgrown the space. Like Palmer, the building is rich in history — serving first as a Methodist Episcopal Church in Enfield in 1848, before Enfield was flooded to create the Quabbin Reservoir. Prior to the Quabbin construction, the church was dismantled and rebuilt in Palmer as the Palmer Grange Hall. The building later reverted to being a church.
The society will fund the new space with a mortgage and through donations and proceeds from its annual railroad hobby show. Sacerdote said the train show is the country’s largest with an estimated 27,000 attendees. It raises anywhere from $60,000 to $75,000 from admission and table rentals at the Eastern States Exposition in West Springfield, he said.
“People come from all over the world to that,” Della Penna said of the annual railroad hobby show.
Aside from helping acquire the old church property, those annual show proceeds go back into community education. Since 1991, the nonprofit has provided nearly $800,000 in grants to other nonprofit, railroad-related organizations.
Among those benefiting is the Palmer Library, which received money from the society for railroad education and to help stock its railroad room.
“Anything railroad, we participate in,” said Sacerdote. “We exist for camaraderie of hobby and to give away as much money as we can.”
The club has a grant program registered with the federal government, which awards grants from $500 to $3,000, as well as an annual $10,000 grant.
Sacerdote said the society’s move to Palmer will help it become even more of a hub of historical enrichment on the railway map.
Royce hopes one day soon the society’s 7¼-gauge model train equipment will come out of storage and traverse its new outdoor space.
“My mind is racing, thinking about all the things that are open to us now,” said Sacerdote.
The public is welcome to join the Amherst Railway Society in its new location on Aug. 20 from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Sarah Crosby can be reached at scrosby@gazettenet.com.
