2012 O Scale National, Parsippany, NJ – News | Modeling the Reading in Proto48

A view of about half the vendor hall

The 2012 “O” Scale National convention was held at the Parsippany Hilton Convention Center, Parsippany, NJ. It was Hosted by the New York Society of Model Engineers. The convention featured over 300 dealer tables, 30 clinics, a model contest, a couple of bus tours and a number of home and club layouts.

What a difference a year makes, this year’s convention was well attended, well organized, and a good time. The NY Society were great hosts, announcing the beginning of the clinics and just being helpful. The Models on display were in a bright room. One thing that could have helped the ease of their viewing, the tables could have been a little higher like they are at a prototype modelers meet. I’ll post photo’s I took of the models tomorrow.

The availability of Proto48 parts was limited to a one dealer selling San Juan trucks, Rich Yoder selling P48 trucks and Steve Grabowski selling some loose wheelsets. That was disapointing and it teamed up with the P48 clinic being canceled because the speaker was not at the show. We missed a chance to show and talk about P48 products at this National.

There were a lot of “New” O scale items at the show as well as a lot of older models to choose from in the vendor halls. Here is a breakdown of the new stuff I saw:

Rich Yoder had pilot models of his announced ATSF Bx-3,-6 boxcars and SK-2 Stock Cars. He also had painted pilot models of his USRA 70 ton triple hoppers.

Bob Stevenson showed an updated Baldwin CNJ Double ender kit on his table. It was an upgraded version of the older LWS kit. He was also showing a C&NW 4-6-0 kit ready to ship.

Rails Unlimited had new resin models on their table of a C&O/NKP ’32 ARA Boxcar with radial roofs. They also had new MILW Road stock cars available.

Southern Car & Foundry was not at the show, but Caboose Stop Hobbies had his line of kits on the shelf including the new ATSF Bx-12 extended height boxcar, which managed to come home with me.

Key Model Imports had the pilot model for the SP AC-12. Stunning model, but thankfully not something I need for my railroad based on an estimated price around $6K.

Atlas O had some redesigned 2-rail trucks that people were talking about (shorter, more prototypical bolsters). Not something a P48 cares about, but the O scale crowd liked it.