The Amhearst Show

Model Railroader General Discussion (Model Railroader)
1

My wife and I attended the Amherst Model Railroad Society show in Springfield, MA on Saturday for the first time. We drove four hours, from south NJ, to get there.

In a word, the show was OVERWHELMING!

Parking was well directed and organized, and ticketing was easy. The line was only about three people long (we arrived about 9:30).

I showed up looking for decoders for two Heritage 0-6-0s and two Spectrum Doodlebugs, plus a few other things. I went to Tony’s Train Exchange’s booth, and was not quite so overwhelmed. They had the NCE brand decoders for the 0-6-0s, but I learned that from the NCE rep over at their booth, and not from Tony’s salesman. Tony’s did not have the Doodlebug decoders from either NCE OR Digitrax. No NCE decoders was NCE’s fault (shipping them out to the retailers Wednesday), but the Digitrax was sold out by 1:00 on the first day of the show! At least I got the 0-6-0 decoders. Tony’s booth was swamped every time I walked by, and dealing with the number of folks they did had to be tough.

I found the Doodlebug decoders from a third manufacturer (I don’t recall who right off). (I promptly fried one on Sunday, but that’s another story, and was completely my fault).

About 1:30 we headed for a food vendor to get something to eat. Lines thirty to forty people deep! Forget this!

We were both feeling the crush of the crowds so, having found the bulk of things I wanted anyway, we decided to head on back towards home and grab a bite to eat on the road.

An observation: After about 11:30, there were too many people for the aisle width. The aisles need to be much wider - we had to squeeze past people continuously. The somewhat claustrophobic feelings that ensued finally forced our early retreat.

But overall, the show was GREAT! We were certainly glad we went, even though we only did a cursory tour of all the buildings.

2

This was my first REAL train show and I was impressed. Although the vendors mostly had freight equipment, I’d go back again for the layout displays.

Great Show!

3

This was the first time that I attended this show. I was surprised by the number of people. It was actually too crowed at times to get a good look at the merchandise. I did not see many items than I could not purchase at my LHS or mail order. I also did not see many good deals, but there were a few.

I do not want to sound negative, and I probably would attend again. The next time I would show up after lunchtime because that is when the crowds started to thin out.

4

The state fire code requires 10 foot wide aisles. Nearly all of the aisles are actually 12 feet wide. If the aisles are widened any more it will take away space from dealers and layouts. If you want the wider aisles you’ll have to be satisfied with less to see.

5

Hi Mark,
I’m sorry you had less than a positive experience at the Amherst show. A couple of tips that I can pass on to you may help next time. I’ve been attending for 12 years now.

  1. I’ve found that going to the show with a buddy or even my wife makes it difficult to get around. Obviously, 2 people trying to stay together can get overwhelmed by the crowds. If I do go with someone else, we split up and meet at a predetermined place and time. This year I went alone and it was a lot easier.

  2. I never eat at the show because the food is lousy and the lines are long. I do most of my buying on Saturday between opening and 1:00 p. m. Then, I go back to my car and head just outside the parking lot to one of several restaurants. There’s a great Italian pizza/sub shop right at the entrance to the parking lot. Believe it or not, I left the show at 1:00 p.m., put all my new toys in the trunk of my car, had a nice grinder (sub) and was back by 1: 40. That break from the crowds and nice sit-down lunch enabled me to handle the rest of the afternoon refreshed. Be sure to save your parking stub for when you go back to the show after leaving for lunch.

Hope this helps.
Mondo

6

Agree, the Amherst Show was huge.

I did post my photos that I took there (179 of them) to a Community.Webshots.Com web page:

http://community.webshots.com/user/atsf_arizona_amherst_2005

In particular, Vol. 2 photographically illustrates exactly what Brunton was saying. You can see those fotos directly at the link below.

http://community.webshots.com/album/262353226vfNUNG

Regardless, the show was great. I hope you enjoy my photos, here’s one example:

Finally, if you’ve not seen the layout of the Central New York Modelers of Distinction, that is a real treat, and here are 23 photos of their modular layout:

http://community.webshots.com/album/262651300mbsHDm

Their club web site is: http://cnymod.com/

I really enjoyed myself, regardless of the crowds. Being a part of the NorthEast NTrak convention helped a great deal as parking was included and ability to take some refuge inside the NE NTRAK layout was welcome at times.

John Sing
San Mateo, CA

http://home.comcast.net/~j.sing

Modeling the Santa Fe’s Peavine Line (Ash Fork-Phoenix, AZ) in the 50s and 60s

7

This was my 4th year at the show since getting back into the hobby after retirement. The wife has always come with me, and although you have to stick together due to the crowds, she always wears a red jacket making her easy for me to spot if we get seperated. When she gets tired, she takes a seat in the stands or other seating areas while I cruise around.
I also do not eat at the show. There are far too many good resturants very close by.
The show had 10,000 people on Saturday and an estimated 6000 more on Sunday.

If you know what you want, you can get some good prices, and you can haggle to get the prices down on many items, others where there is low profit margin, you will not get the price down much or at all.

Great show, I enjoyed it very much as well as my wife ( and it sure helps to have more hands to hold the stuff ).