Supertrain in Calgary is coming up and I am toying with making the 1056 KM. trip. There are no big shows on the West Coast, at least nothing like Supertrain. Am I nuts? (no need to answer)
How far have you travelled to attend a train show? Was it worth the trip and the expense? Just wonderin.[^o)]
I drove 140 miles to go to a Great American Trains Show (GATS) over in Monroeville, PA. It was worth it, as there were a number of manufacturers in attendance. Better than that was that I had the opportunity to meet and have lunch with Chip (Spacemouse) and his son, Shane.
Course that trip pales in comparison in distance to what you plan on doing, Brent. That’s a haul! [:O]
Tom
Roughly a hundred and twenty miles or so. Train shows vary, some not really worth attending and others are quite nice. It would really have to be a great show to travel 1056 km, but if you could work it in with doing other things, like a vacation I could see doing that.
Jarrell
3.5 hours each way.
5 hours from Pennsylvania to the Amherst Train Show in West Springfield Massachusetts.
Seabeck, WA to Milwaukee, WI for the annual NMRA meeting and the National Train Show. - Mike
Three and half to four hours, for the Syraacuse NY show. Customs wasn’t bad.
Two and a quarter hrs to take part in a show, as part of a club.
Dave
Went 10 times to the West-Springfield Big E train show which is 570 Km one way.
Went to Hartford Connecticut NMRA convention, 609 Km one way.
Went to Philadelphia Pa NMRA convention, 866 Km one way.
Went to Detroit Mi NMRA convention, 1054 Km one way.
And three times to the Tidewater train show in Virginia Beach Va, 1293 Km one way.
I am stretching the true a little with the Tidewater show as I alway make it coincide with my 2 weeks vacation at the beach.
Denver to St. Louis 850 miles / 1 368 km. In 1998? We were exhibitors of a modular layout. The speed limit was still 60 or 65 mph. groan. I’ve also gone from Denver to Towanda Kansas 531 miles / 855 km. It was a “prototypical” show, and I “showed” my Santa Fe #67/68 train, a mixed local daily from Wichita to Pratt KS. Then in 2011 went Denver to Phoenix for the Santa Fe Historical and Modeling Society Convention 822 miles / 1323 km.
The most I travel was around 112 miles (224 miles rt) to the National Train Show in Cincinnati.That was my first NTS…
Farthest was at the 1996 National Narrow Gauge Convention in Durango. It was my first NNGC, roughly 1,000 miles one-way. But it was part of my typical vacation back then, two weeks in Colorado, riding trains, visiting museums, and off-roading to see the rest, along with camping, radio monitoring, and general relaxing.
I’ve still got a few kits I picked up then that I need to assemble. I was just thinking about building that second PSC DL-535E I picked up then the other day…[{(-_-)}]
Knoxville, TN to Springfield, MA: don’t know exact miles but around 900+. And that was in February! Brrrrr!!
-Bob
160 miles to the National Train Show, when it was in Philadelphia, PA. This was worth it. Made it in a day. don’t know that I would do it overnight.
Otherwise about 116 to Timonium, MD. (Used to be 68 miles but I retired moved a little south). This one’s worth it, but not much more. Not as many dealers as there used to be.
OTOH I have smaller shows closer to me during the year. If I didn’t, I might travel farther.
Enjoy
Paul
Other than driving across three states to get to the National Train Show last year, I usually limit my trips to a five hour drive, one way. [8D] I have no problem hitting the road at 5:00 A.M. to go to a great train show. There are are a number of other things I do while I’m gone to make it worth while. Sometimes I visit friends, stay the whole weekend, play tourist, visit museums, go visit layouts, cruise the antique stores, or simply go exploring.
As the T-shirt says; “This IS life, this is not a dress rehearsal!” [oX)]
580 miles each way to the 2006 National Train Show in Philadelphia, and 670 miles each way to the Amherst Model RR Club’s show in Springfield, Mass. in 2013.
Both trips turned out to be worth it.
The 2006 trip was a spur-of-the-moment thing where on Wednesday my brother and I decided that we hadn’t been on a road trip in a while, so we decided to drive down to the show Friday night/Saturday morning, returning right after the show closed Saturday. Since he started from west of Chicago, his trip was more like 790 miles.
We hadn’t counted on the baseball All-Star game being played in Pittsburgh that weekend when we tried to find a hotel on the way back Saturday night. It took several hours to find any vacancy at all.
Yesterday I drove two hours (109 miles one way) to bring my T-Trak modules for a show in Albany NY. I usually go to Springield in January which is also around 109 miles. Twice I went to Alco museum in Schnectady NY with my N Trak modules for a show there, 130 miles one way. Next Sunday i’ll be in Kingston NY for a show which is 58 miles from my home.
Yes
Travelled from Canada’s Maritime provinces to Seattle, WA to attend the NMRA convention in 2004 - one end of the continent to the other. The real purpose of our trip was to take a cruise from Seattle to Alaska, timed it to coincide with the convention. Took the cruise, returned on Sunday when the convention started. Worked out pefectly! Didn’t buy much because we were flying, but did come home with a couple of contest plaques, one for a photo and one for my model railroad pass.
I’ve driven to the Amherst show in West Springfield, MA, and the NMRA show in Hartford, CT, a few years back. I’m lucky enough that these are only an hour and a half to two hours from home, all easy highway driving when the weather is good. I can day trip it easily.
I’m fortunate to have several good shows a year within an easy half-hour to one hour drive.
I did train shows pretty frequently when I lived in PA.
125 miles from Reading PA to Timonium MD…by way of Harrisburg.
I don’t do them anymore. The nearest one is Roseville CA in Nov at 140 miles. Can’t drive that far anymore and even if I could , I won’t cross the Sierra Nevada Mts at that time of year.
Mark H