First off, I have NEVER EVER had to park all the way out by Padonia road - before you even go through the fair gates!
Then when I got inside - even in the wide spaces it was as crowded and as hard to move as the ratherly poorly organized Allentown Ag Hall shows. I mean it seemed like wall to wall people! And that was at about 10am. It never died down the entire time I was walking around. Howard wasn’t kidding, this IS the bigger show compared to October.
Picked up a few things I needed, no huge bargains, but I can’t complain. Broke down and bought a P2K S-1 from Skeet Kemmerer, he’s had it on his table the last two shows I’ve seen him at so I just said what the heck and bought it - not the super bargain I got on eBay from MB Klein when I owned this one before (snuck in on an auction where no one had seen it and got it for $20 I think). Picke dup a few TCS decoders, one for the new S-1 and one for my GP7. T-1’s both, no harness, I really don’t mind soldering. ANd some supplies for the installs - kapton tape and heat shrink and a set of Labelle oils. And a #11 bulk pack of Kadees to swap out the miscellaneous not nearly as good couplers in these locos and the stack of kits I have to build.
One disappointment - MB Klein didn’t bring their stuff, they had a table which just directed people to their shop. Oh, and not one of the DCC dealers had any golden-white LEDs, so my locos will be light-less for the time being.
I actually was through and out quicker than usual - left about 1. And didn;t feel like I rushed through, I walked the entire floor at least twice, just didn’t spend as much time watching the layouts - it seemed to me most of them were having issues and not too many trains were moving.
I used to sneak the vehicle to the little parking lot behind the light rail stop and use the walkway to get into the midway/buildings that way years ago.
I recall the days when it took 6 hours to cover the entire show at times down there. Im firmly convinced it is one if not THE top show to go to on the entire east coast. I suspect the economy would drag things down just a little bit these days but people will never stop going to these big shows up there in Timonium.
I’m just getting more selective these days. As few as a coupel of years ago I would get through the entire place once and have time to visit a few selected vendors from that first pass before they started kickign people out. I no longer make even make even a quick curiousity stop at any of the hi-rail tables, and make very cursory glances at the peopel with mostly old Tyco and AHM stuff - if I see a P2K or Branchline or Accurail box I’ll take a quick look, otherwise it’s right on to the next table.
I am kind of kicking myself for not buying the one guy out of his 5 Accurail Reading USRA 55t hoppers - I was following one of the 3 car sets on eBay and some dope bid it up to $40 now with a day left, all because the seller put ‘rare’ in the description. A the $9 each asked at this table I probably could have turned them around for a profit. People are nuts sometimes.
Paul is going in for knee replacement surgery this week. He has a hard time getting around. Since he is the one who sells at the show, he decide\d to print up the 10% off coupons instead.
I know Paul for many years and wish him well this week and hope his surgery goes according to plan.
I was at the FCMSE layout almost al day and the crowds were huge until about 1:30 or 2:00. Then things thinned out a little. You could tell how crowded things were by how loud the circus wagon sounded. There was a circus layou setup layout near us that played calliope music, which after the first 15 minutes started getting to you. When the crowds were the heaviest, the music faded away.
I thought the number of venders was a little down from prior years, but I found a number of items that I was looking for.
I expect things to be a little slower today and will probably be dead this afternoon.
I had a table at the show for the first time. Been at some smaller shows in Virginia but this was my first BIG show. I was the one with the Virginia Midalnd logo. I enjoy doing them because I get to meet a lot of interesting & informative people and get to get rid of my excess of HO things. I did pretty good yesterday and I even bought my wife for her 1st show. She did not mind it at all. I even got a few things that I needed for my layout yesterday. It was very crowd till about 2PM. Most of my sales came before 1PM. I only had 2 sales after 1:04 PM. We left about 4:45. Overall I was very pleased with it. Sold alot of stuff I could not have sold else where. This show is probable the 2nd best show behind the West Springfield show last weekend. I might have check out WS one year.
I went with my kids yesterday. It was crowded when we first got there. The parking lot was full. But they also had a craft show going on and a blood drive. There were some really nice modular layouts there and the circus train layout looked really nice. It was a good show and we all had a good time.
I went this morning. My first time on Sunday. Place seemed empty - I parked in about the 4th row at 1005 and had no line to get in the door. I enjoyed being able to wander around without the crowds. I noticed there were some empty tables, but seemed like a goodly number of vendors. I may just go on Sundays in the future and avoid the Saturday crowd.
I went today saw some good stuff, but not any kits i was looking for (walthers flood coal loader) and more importantly I fianlly found PPLX bowser hoppers!
