Train show in Springfield

[jglfan]

Anybody here planning on being at the train show In Springfield, Ma this weekend? I'm headed up for Saturday, if anyone elsa is going post here, perhaps we can meet up.

Gary

[eightyeightfan1]

Gotta work Saturday, maybe Sunday.
But I think we have a "family" thing going on that day. Might miss it this year.

[Sumpter250]

Gary,
I'm lucky to get as far as Chicago these days, which is too bad as I'd like to get to some of these shows. Maybe after I win a lottery, or I get a significant income increase. Have fun, take some pics, and share with us, but most of all, have fun!

[jglfan]

Sorry, I'm a lousy reporter! I did not bring a camera either. The show was huge! I went primarily to visit my friends Blake and Jim, who were working booths there. Pete, you met both of these guys the night you visited and we operated. Blake is the fellow who painted most of my steam, he was at the show helping man the booth of the Old and Weary Trainshop. Al, the owner of the O&W store, was a very nice guy. I had dinner with him adn the owner of Bethlehem Carworks Saturday night. Interesting to hear the problems they face with getting product made, as they do the design work but not the manufacturing. Jim Harr, the other fellow at my house that night, has started his own company producing structure kits, called Stella Models. Here is a link to his website. <!-- w --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.stellascalemodels.com">www.stellascalemodels.com</a><!-- w -->

I did not spend any time looking at locos and rolling stock. Heresy, I know. I personally am not in the marlet for any and by avoiding these tables (with their huge crowds!) I was able to see every thing else easily. I went with the idea of buying only what I could use for my immediate project, the engine servicing facility. I bought windows for the roundhouse at the Tichy table. Tichy sure makes some awesome parts. I also bought one of their water column kits. However I was not able to buy a sheet of cinder block for the roundhouse extension. I couldn't believe it. The one vendor who had some sheets of brick had brick, tiles and some other item, and only like one of each! How do these folk expect to seel anything? He said he was short on time when loading the car to go to the show. Both of the LHS I can drive to have no stock and so I have had to order it and wait a week. Luckily I have other stuff to work on, but I was on a roll with the rear walls of the roundhouse.

Other stuff I thought was neat: Miller Engineering's booth. Their animated sighs are great! They had one for Westinghouse which is a company I plan to use on the layout, unfortunately I has planned on a vertical sign, and theirs is horizontal. So I was able to stay away from it, tho I intend to look into the possibility of changing my plans. I was drawn back to their table multiple times and eventually bought the Domino Sugar sign, for a rooftop. It was just to awesome to pass on. The letters in Domino light one at time, then the word Sugar. Then off and repeat. Just too cool.

There were several vendors with rock molds, some finished and ready to install. I was tempted, but the area I need these for won't be worked on for several years so I was good and walked away. I did pick up a Tsunami for a small steamer Blake will be painting soon, along with speaker and enclosure. I bought it from Tony's, and a bit later I was walking by the Soundtrax booth and I overheard a conversation about rebates, I got a $5 bill for showing my receipt for the decoder! This coverd lunch, a fried bologna sandwich. I had to try it, it sounded weird. I also talked to AJ from Digitrax for a bit, very nice guy. May pick up a UT4 throttle somday, but I need to recruit some operators before I need one.

There were a lot of layouts, some very nice. One was O scale, had a train with 6 modern diesels (sorry, I don'r know one from another, no interest in modern day) and a train of 56 hopper cars. I tell you, in O scale this was one long train! There were many very nice scenes on the various layouts, sorry but I have no pics to offer.

Gary

[eightyeightfan1]

There were a lot of layouts, some very nice. One was O scale, had a train with 6 modern diesels (sorry, I don'r know one from another, no interest in modern day) and a train of 56 hopper cars. I tell you, in O scale this was one long train! There were many very nice scenes on the various layouts, sorry but I have no pics to offer.
Gary

That could of been the Proto48 Club that are up there every year. The detailing on their rolling stock and locos, makes me salvate everytime I go. They also had(When I was there last) an operating Bascule bridge.
I hope you got to see Amherst's operating HO scale hump yard. I could stand there for hours and watch. The first year I went(maybe 1986 or 87), Conrail had an SD40-2 and caboose parked on the premisis, so folks could poke around. When the fairgrounds expanded, they took the tracks out. How unfortunate.
Anyway, hope you found some good deals while you were there.

Next time...Try the chili dog.

[jglfan]

I saw the hump yard, unfortunately I did not see it operate. They had a train in the bowl of the yard, with two locos and a string of cars, facing up to the top of the hump. I waited 10 minutes or so but never saw any movment. They may have been having some problems. I got the idea after they had sorted a string of cars they may just run down the hump, pick up the cars in one track, and start over. Anyway, it did look nice.

[Sumpter250]

Gary, I remember both Blake and Jim, tell them I said Hi! next time you see them. Since those days, I have become a member of the GC Laser team, and do design and development work, primarily. I've spent some time on the lasers, burning kits, and over in the packaging room, putting all the pieces, and instructions, in the final package.

Al, the owner of the O&W store, was a very nice guy. I had dinner with him adn the owner of Bethlehem Carworks Saturday night. Interesting to hear the problems they face with getting product made, as they do the design work but not the manufacturing.

I can appreciate, their situation. Fortunately, we do all our own design, manufacturing, and packaging, in house, which gives us better control of our product and its distribution.