Now that pandemic restrictions are being eased and more and more people are getting vacinated, I have been seeing during the past week or so announcements for train shows being scheduled again. I’m been wanting to get to a show myself being the last one I was able to get to was the WGHS in Chantilly VA in early Feb of last year. I went there as a consolation because I missed the Feb Timonium show by getting the dates mixed up.
One of the shows recently announced is the Great Scale Model Train show that normally is held at the Timonium MD fair grounds. This spring it is now scheduled for Apr 10 and 11 and attendance only by limited advanced ticket sales with two sessions on Sat and two on Sunday.
Yes, but maybe the ticket price is partly due to the venue being different with a different rental rate - add to that fewer people for social distancing and other considerations. Not really that bad I guess. Hopefully the show will return to the Timonium Fairgrounds by fall and the price may drop a bit.
I got my first vaccine dose on Mar 10 and the 2nd is scheduled for Mar 31, so I should be fully vaccinated by show time.
I don’t remember what it was before,…$10? with a coupon, maybe 9. If you went to a restaurant, would you give the waiter a little extra these days? I’ll let you know if I go to a restaurant again.
I read that you preregister/pay $12.00 per session. For the am. Saturday session, then again for the pm. session then again the same way for the next day Sunday sessions. $48.00 if you can preregister for all four sessions. I think each session is four hours each. I think it will be in Huntvalley at a Hotel/Center, something of the sort.
I suspect that you are correct. But I don’t care for the 4 hour limit. By the time I BS with people I haven’t seen for awhile, I can easily eat into an hour or more. And I like to go through the show more than once.
On the other hand, if the number of vendors is less than what they get at the fairgrounds, maybe 4 hours is more than adequate.
If some of the forum members go to this show, a first hand report would be appreciated.
My club, the Virginia Train Collectors is holding a show May 22- May 23 2021, God willin’ and the creek don’t rise!
There’ll be 80-plus tables (we’re hoping for 100) of toy trains and railroadiana for sale. Admission price is $6 for adults, children under 12 free, and the admission’s good for the two days of the show.
The show will be held at the Westchester Commons Mall in Midlothian VA, Saturday 10 till 4, Sunday 10 till 3.
Address is 301 Perimeter Drive. (Between Regal Cinemas and Target)
Plus, there’ll be an open house of the River City Three-Railers club next door!
Right now it looks good, but check the VTC website for updates, 'cause in this day and age you never know, do you?
The good news, Mike, is that the emergency hospital that was placed in the Trainfest venue at State Fair Park (at a cost of $15 million) is being removed in a few weeks. This resolves a big element of uncertainty, but we are still waiting to hear from vendors and exhibitors. We know what it takes (in the way of ticket sales and sales of space to vendors) to break even or make a small gain with Trainfest, and we also know how little needs to go wrong to lose money with Trainfest, and I mean serious money. I suspect the vendors have their own sense of what it takes to make it worthwhile to come to Milwaukee for Trainfest. It is a high wire act to be sure. I cannot tell you when we’ll know for sure but the advertising “buys” have to be locked surprisingly early, so the decision will come sooner rather than later. And I’ll be sure to post the news here.
The idea of a ticket being good for four hours is intriguing but in my opinion you cannot really “do” Trainfest (or the NMRA national show, or I am sure Amherst) in four hours. Back before I got involved in recruiting volunteers and working at the show office, I would go both days, from opening bell to closing the doors: so, maybe, 15 hours of Trainfest (maybe 90 minutes total lost to eating lunch?) and I still missed stuff every year. And since I worked the registration desk for 5 or 6 hours on Friday’s set-up I knew where everything was, so that was not the problem.
If there is a Trainfest 2021 there will be one big difference: since we are an NMRA Division we abide by NMRA rules and last year the decree came down from HQ – no activities specificall
Even when the GSMTS is in the Timonium Fair Grounds I can make a first pass on all the tables fairly quickly. That way I have a quick survey and then can go back to tables I want to check again. My wife keeps me on the path to make sure we cover it all in one pass first. [:D]
Yes always a quick first pass though the venders to snatch and grab then a second go around to slowly look at it all and buy more stuff.
I should add I walk though the show all day, ‘‘but Dear it’s good exercise’’, up and down the same isles 4, 5 maybe 6 times. Listening to the venders. I like to close up the Shows.
One of the worst thing to experience at a train show is… the person in front of you picks up something you want and holds on to it while he heehaws around, you say to your self ‘‘put it down, put it down’’, then he buys it.[:(] Missed that one by two seconds.
My procedure was somewhat the same. Except that I would make the quick pass to see if someone had what might be on my list, note the price, and then continue on to see if the item was available somewhere else at a better price. If second price was better, I’d stop to buy. If first price was better, I’d try to find that table again. Some times that worked, sometimes it didn’t. Just part of the game.
I also started at the far end of the hall and worked toward front. Less crowded that way.