Ok, so who else is going? I’ll be there all day Saturday. Its well worth the trip. They fill almost the entire college with merchandise and modular layouts.
I have been to several Galesburg Railroad Days, however the quality of the event has seemed to have deteriorated in the last few years. My parents moved to Galesburg in the early 1970 while I was in college and lived about 1/2 block from the Burlington Depot. When I was at home, I used to go to the end of the block and stand for hours and watch the freight trains come and go.
I took my wife to Galesburg Railroad Days for a short honeymoon in 2004, right after we were married, as I did not have much vacation time due to a recent job change. My wife is very supportive of my train hobby. She enjoyed the trip.
The swap meet at Sandburg College is extensive with lots of train vendors. My dissapointment is the significant reduction of prototype equipment the event used to have. It one time they had excursion rides through the yard and tours of the shops. At the festival main location there are lots of vendors and events that have nothing to do with railroading.
We always enjoy visiting Galesburg and have been to several RR Days, but with gas at $4 per gallon, I don’t know if the trip is worh it. Maybe things have improved???
I live near Topeka KS, and Topeka used to have a large RR Days every Labor Day weekend. The event had nice displays of prototype equipment, usually they would bring in a steam engine, excursion train rides and tours of the ATSF shops. Over the years the RR Days Committee drifted away from the RR theme items focusing on carnival rides, junk vendors, country music shows…attendance dropped significantly and the event was discontinued.
You’re right about the downtown events. They have scaled back the train rides and turned it into a carnival mecha with junk vendors, but thats all downtown. I don’t go there anymore.
I’m talking about Sandburg college and the railroad merchandise/sellers.I’m there to buy train stuff. Its the only reason to go there and I find it worth the trip but only if you’re within a 2 hour drive. Its only 45 minutes for me.
The N scale convention / WGH show in Louisville are the same weekend, and as a dealer at Galesburg for many, many years, and seeing a trend in declining attendence, we made the tough decision and had to go with the big show. While I expect the local dealers and swap meet guys to be there, I am guessing that many of the larger operations have also opted for Louisville.
never have been here. have thought about it though. only about an hour drive.
thanks thats good to know. From 1 to 10, 10 being the best, what would you rate Galesburg in terms of sales?
I go to the model train show every year. I noted last year that there didn’t seem to be as many club layouts as there used to be. I hope the same won’t be true of distributors, but fear the rising price of fuel may keep some of them at home.
I heard a rumor that the gym at Carl Sandburg College will not be available this year so things could be arranged differently than we are used to.
As to prototype displays, the glory years of Galesburg RR Days were when the BN, the ATSF, Metra, Amtrak, GE, EMD, the Illinois RR Museum, Monticello RR Museum would all send stuff on display or to be run, Steam Locomotives 261 or Frisco 1522 would also visit and sometimes run down to Yates City, and Metra would run excursions out to the yard.
Those were also the days when Galesburg had two Amtrak depots, on on the BN and the other on the ATSF. How many cities that size could make that claim!
The BNSF removed some of the rails that display equipment would occupy, and unlike the BN, the BNSF is not willing to allow the main line at the depot to become single track for the duration of the RR Days. So yes it is a very different event than it was. BUT Galesburg is worth railfanning every day of the year and if this special event provides a nice excuse to go there, I’m OK with that. The model trail show at CSC is frosting on the cake.
See you there.
Dave Nelson
Well Dave we could send you to Yates city but it would take all day lol. 10 mph all the way!
And yet, not too many years ago in a driving rain storm, 4-8-2 #1522 went storming back to Galesburg from Yates City (the riders dubbed the excursion “The City of Yates City”) and I could not keep up with it going 50 mph on country roads (which were too wet and too narrow to go any faster on).
Dave Nelson