Amherst Show

Model Railroader General Discussion (Model Railroader)
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Recently returned home from the the show in West Springfield. MA. Ideal New England weather today. I arrived at 10 am and the temp was a baseball score, 9F. Cloudy with little wind. Left at 2pm and it was a balmy 24F.

Picked up a couple new Tsunami Baldwin VO-1000 decoders that have not hit the “street” yet as far as I know. The SoundTraxx rep had a laptop with the sounds and a nice set of ear phones to listen to various sounds.

The Mallary building was expanded this year. This show continues to grow. A lot of nice layouts. Found some needed tools and HO rolling stock. Tough finding NYC rolling stock for the 1940s and 1950s, mainly covered hoppers and a NYC side window caboose. I will find them on the 'Net anyway. Looked like a good crowd. I probably could have found something to Rant about but could not see the point. Everyone seemd to be having a good time.

I am sure dmoore will add a lot of information and crowd sizes.

Rich

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Yes, I agree about the weather. Quite a mild New England day. [:)] I got there a little after 1:00 and shut the place down.

I’ll offer a mild rant about rude and inconsiderate people. They’re so intent on getting somewhere, or their attention is so riveted on a display that they run you over. Now, if they’d bother to say, “Excuse me,” or “I’m sorry,” that would be one thing, but the folks I’m talking about just move on, leaving your shattered toes, ribs, shoulders, or in one case, six year old son. I mean, come on, how can you NOT notice that you just knocked over a small child?!?

On the other hand, I did have a rather amazing experience. I stopped by a vendor selling DCC supplies to pick up a couple of decoders. He also had some MRC fascia plates, but they said “Prodigy Advance” on them. I asked if there was a “Prodigy Express” version, and he said there wasn’t. Then I asked about the wireless conversion kit, which he also said wouldn’t work with the Express model. I told him I didn’t think that was true, but I would go check with the MRC guys. I rounded up the kids, got them a snack and headed over for the MRC booth. Guess who was there before me, clearing up his knowledge of the MRC line? For the record, the fascia plate DOES work with Express, as does the wireless conversion.

Oh yeah, while at the MRC booth, my 6 year old started to rerail their HO loco, which someone had taken off of the track. The guy asked if my son needed help, to which he replied “I can do it!” And he could. I explained to the guy that my sons had their own HO layout. So he goes over to them and says, “Do you guys have your own layout?” And they said yes, asd started telling him all about the “cool” things they have on it. So he says, “Here, I’ll give you something for it.” And he hands them each a package of JTT Trees!

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Proof positive that model railroading leads to civilized behavior, either that or you are doing something right in raising your son (kudos for that).

I spent about 3 hrs there wandering around and hunting for vendors. Some very friendly people there with their clubs and layouts. More than willing to talk about them. I did feel that there were fewer layouts but then I wasn’t trying to find all of them (quite a number were repeats). The crowd seemed good, but as you went deeper into the show if tended to thin a bit.

The Tony’s Train Exchange booth had a major line up at their three (3) checkout points; must be a lot of interest in DCC etc. I wanted to thank them for their informative web site, but couldn’t get that close.
The CMR guys (urban models) were selling their kits at pre-increase prices. They are coming out with three sets of row houses for town or urban scenes at a reasonable price; should be available in March or late February.
Picked up some nice details items at the Model Tech Studios booth; also nice people and mom does most of the painting; seems their business has picked up as well (which is good to here).
Stopped at the Digi-Trax booth to talk about adding sound to my DCC equipped Burlington Zephyr (Con-Cor). Their video on the topic left that part out. See

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Ahhh…maybe not quite the act of kindness that you think. MRC is currently running a “give away” program to introduce the JTT tree products to its customers. Anyone can pick up a two-pack of JTT trees free for the asking from MRC for just the S/H charge. [;)]

Regarding the crowd at Springfield, I would have expected it to be even larger than it seemed to be. With the hard economic times we are currently experiencing, for many folks who have been at least temporarily forced to the hobby’s sidelines by their financial situation train shows may be their only means of hobby participation. So, I say expect many train shows to see increased sucess this year. I felt that the really (unexpectedly?) large attendance at the last WGH show (reportedly ~40,000) was a clear reflection of this, as well as its providing a cheap day out, something highly valued right now for regular (non-hobbyist) families with children.

CNJ831

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I attended the show Yesterday, 2 hour drive each way and spent 4 hours at the show. The show I thought was well attended. I dont have any complaints except for maybe baby strollers should be left at home…Especially double wide ones.

Anyway I picked up an Accurail boxcar lettered for the Gorre & Daphetid, A Bar Mills basics structure called “Revelias Shipping & Freight” Two Imagine that laser art products, a pkg of Ho pallets and an Ho milk wagon. And an JL Innovative design structure kit of O’Lary’s Garage. And a bottle of MTS Aging Solution…Like I needed that Lol… Oh it’s for weathering. Well that blew My Hundred bucks…Note too Self…Next time take Mo Money!!

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Left NJ at 5:00 AM, stopped for breakfast and entered at 9:00 AM. Walked over 5 miles, made my purchases and left at 5:00 PM. Arrived home at 9:00 PM. We just about had time to see everything we wanted. Getting ready for next year.

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Seemed like a lot of fun to me. I went with a friend this time. We spent about 4 hours there. I was dead on my feet, and I spent the last 45 minutes at an airbrush weathering clinic, as much to sit down as anything else. (The clinic was actually very good, don’t get me wrong.)

The highlight of the show for me was the Fasttracks booth. They have the CNJ Terminal set up. That’s the one with the circular freight house, surrounded by a maze of crossing and turnouts, all painstakingly hand-laid to the prototype design. Beautiful work. The freight house itself is only a cardboard mockup at this point, but Tim assured me that they do intend to build a structure worthy of the rest of the mini-layout.

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Trust me, I’m not so naiive as to think that there’s no alterterior motive in giving away product. I was kind of hoping Walthers was giving out free couplers again, but no such luck. I like scoring the free stuff. That’s one reason I go to the shows.

See he could have given ME the trees, and I would have thanked him. But by giving it to my kids, he made their day! Remember, my six year old was, up to then, having a rough day, having been knocked on his butt by a boorish cuss.

On the attendance, I can’t speak for it, but it sure seemed pretty well attended to me. I’ll be curious to see the final numbers.

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I too visited the show on Saturday from NJ and spent every minute I could until the show closed at 5pm. I left my home at about 6:45 and got there at 9:30 after picking up some friends from Connecticut. I had an absolutely wonderful time at the show. There were huge crowds everywhere but it was possible to move around. The Mallary building was a bit like rush hour in Times Square - almost total gridlock. I did go to buy much - mainly had a nice time looking at the layouts. Some of them were really very well done - especially the large ON3.

Anand

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For the record the total ticketed attendance for the two days was 21,458.

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And kids were free, so they didn’t count in the total.

My congratulations to all for a well-run show.

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… if you want to attract the next generation, start ´em young ![:D]

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Tickets are actually issued to kids to get a more accurate count.

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Oh, I didn’t know that. Thanks for clearing that up.

Of course, we’re all just kids when it comes to trains, right?

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That is down from 2 years ago when it was almost 25,000, but about what it was last year.

I can relate to that, but try being an exhibitor - setup friday evening or early saturday morning, standing on that cold concrete floor most of the day saturday and sunday, then tearing down sunday evening and heading home. [:-^] (hopefully, with a big bag of money [:D])

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You had to have missed a few tickets, I swear there were that many there on Saturday alone!!

Alan (Doc in CT) Con-Cor was there, don’t remember where but they had Aero-Trains running around in circles.

Food - Wasn’t really hungry so grabbed a preztel and a Coke. Pretzel was $3.75 and a foot long hot dog was only a quarter me…stupid me!

Kudos to the Amherst folks for putting on a great show!

Chris

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Three from my club and myself went yesterday. We got there early and ate breakfast at micky Ds before the show. (Thank God) Got in at 9:00 and left at 3. The major disappointment was no real bargains for any needed items. Most of the stuff I looked at could be had at the LHS for less money. I did grab some tweezers and some pajamas for the grand baby.

Some of the modular groups do some of the same shows as our club but there were quite a few that I have not seen before. They all did a really good job. I know the amount of work it takes to do what they do and all deserve a round of applause.

Talked to quite a few reps and am impressed with the latest projects. The BLI Centipedes and the Q2 look awesome. Talked with them about maybe doing another run of the I1sa with the long tender and original headlight position and maybe losing the train phone antenna with a 1 man doghouse. He said it will be a consideration for a future run. I told him I am taking one of mine and re-detailing it to represent a Juniata built loco.

Pete

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I’ll add one to your rant about inconsiderate folks at the show. Couple of people were wheeling those airport luggage type carts with a little container down where the wheels are. With the dense viewing at some exhibitors one’s normal sight line doesn’t pick up their little cart and before you know it you’re in “trip” mode.

As always show was a must do. Really had to hunt for good deals but showed restraint due to over patronizing of online vendors pre and post Christmas.

Again Amherst Show ducked the wrath of the Winter Storm King.

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C’mon now… that wasn’t really a rant. A true rant would have been MUCH longer. [swg]

I agree that it’s really a great show. And they did get lucky on the weather (on Wednesday, they were calling for snow…).

I’ve been finding, though, that except for the freebies you can sometimes score, there aren’t that many deals at shows any more. I did se a couple of folks offering BOGOs, and the Iwata Airbrush folks had “special show pricing”, but not much in the way of deals on most stuff. I like poking through the vendors stuff, though, on the outside chance I’ll find a deal on something out of production (Proto 1K DL-109 in New Haven livery, anyone?).

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CTValleyRR,
There were deals to be had, you just had to look for them. The New England Prototype Modelers table had some great deals, including new Atlas C425’s in NH for $60 and a Kato F40PH for $65. Another dealer in the Young building was selling new Walthers NH heavyweights for $20. A dealer next to Athearn was selling all kinds of B&M diesels for $60-$65 (E8’s, GP38’s, S-1’s, etc). And Jelsma Graphics was selling all their railroad art prints at 70% off (I picked up two NH prints for just $10 ea.). I didn’t get the chance to really dig for deals, but these are ones that caught my eye.

Edit: Oh, and Kadee was selling new boxcars for $20 ($32-$35 MSRP) and new covered hoppers for $25 ($40 MSRP).

Paul A. Cutler III