I am planning on going to the Indianapolis show tomorrow. The person who is planning on going with me has mobility issues. Does anybody know if they will have scooters or wheelchairs to rent.
THe show is at the State Fairgrounds. While it is wheelchair accessable, I don’t know if they will have facilities to rent/borrow chairs. I suspect you should call the facility directly to find out.
Hope you can make it. Weather seems to be great for a January show. I’d like to hear how this turns out. Please make a report on your experience. I may attend the Atlanta show in Feb.
I took my son to the Indy show on Saturday and we both enjoyed our time. Crowd was great and nice turnout of exhibits. Each of the ‘independent’ local hobby shops was represented as were several from Illinois, Ohio and elsewhere in Indiana. I remember displays from Atlas, Athearn, Bachmann, Kalmabach publishing, Lionel, Walthers, a couple ‘large gauge’ mfgrs, as well as a couple ‘scenery’ manufacturers (can’t remember the names!). Prices were discounted for the show and there was lots to see.
One ‘bad’ aspect…I was talking to the owner of a shop who had brought his exhibit from Ohio for this show. By late afternoon he had already counted nearly $2000 in theft (shoplifting), including a $750 locomotive. He claimed there was no security (the only security we saw were old men sitting at the entrances making sure you didn’t bring food or drink into the exhibit hall). He ‘knew’ who was doing it, said they came back twice to take more, but he was powerless to stp them without adequate security personell. As a result, he was packing up when the show closed on Saturday and not doing the Sunday portion. Sad to think that is the case and I have a feeling the miscreants weren’t model railroaders and the goods will show up on eBay.
Most train shows I see have no security inside. Just as you say a few guys at the door as you say so inside it is hard to guard against theft.
I was at the show yesterday, and the prices some of the vendors were charging would also qualify as robbery! Several booths had tables full of items “marked down” to full retail prices.
I went to it today and I think part of the theft problem may have been that compared to most shows this one had a huge amount of general public attendees (complete with some very bratty kids and badly driven uber strollers) I think though that it was a good exposure of the hobby to non-hobbyists.
In terms of quality outside of the national train show, this was probably the best show I’ve seen. Woodland Scenics, Athearn, Bachmann, Wathers, MTH, Overland, and Broadway Ltd were all on hand. Some of the dealers were overpriced but most were reasonable. I picked up a Walthers caboose for 1/2 MSRP, A proto Hopper for $4 and and a book for less than 1/2 price. So I thought I did pretty good. I long ago found that the smaller meets are better than the larger ones to find fantastic deals in, although the selection is better in the big ones.
Jim C