Layout Visit: Gary Smith, 2015 Cleveland O Scale Show

Posted on November 21, 2015 by George Losse

The second layout on our tour was that of Gary Smith. I first met Gary back when I was a part of the Cherry Valley Club. He was visiting Fran Piefl and came to one of the club’s swap meets. He wanted to go down to Pemberton, NJ to see the PRR station.

I remember driving him the twenty or so miles from the club to Pemberton during the meet so he could measure and photograph the station because he wanted to model it. I had to go see Gary’s layout to see the model that came from those efforts. I wasn’t disappointed.

Gary’s layout is plan is simple, three loops one as a fly-over, but the quality of the build is excellent. Only a couple of the scenes are completed, but they are very nicely done and the layout ran flawlessly during the open-house.

Gary is a fine gentleman and a great host, when we arrived he was letting one of the visitors test a locomotive on the layout during the open house. And shortly after we arrived he placed his Overland Reading T-1 on the layout and let some of those beautifully super-detailed PRR brass locomotives take a break. The T-1 can be seen running behind Gary in the first photo.

Layout Visit: Cleveland O Scale Club, 2015 Cleveland O Scale Show

Posted on November 12, 2015 by George Losse

We had the pleasure of visiting two layouts in the Cleveland area this year. The first was the Cleveland O Scale Model Railroad Club. They are housed in a cool looking building that almost looked like a freight house as we pulled up. They are a loose knit group that is more concerned with having fun and sharing the joys of model railroading than getting caught up in the BS of most clubs.

The railroad started out as a private railroad which they relocated to their location. They are in the process of expanding it to better utilize the available space in the building. The guys who were there that night were very friendly and are very passionate about the joy of operating their railroad.

Midwest Railway Preservation Society

Posted on November 3, 2015 by George Losse

On Friday we drove out to Cleveland for the O Scale Show. After setting up our table we decided to take advantage of the tour that Sam Shumaker had added to the show.

In the afternoon we went over to the Midwest Railway Preservation Society to see their operation. They are set up in an old B&O Roundhouse in Cleveland. One of the stalls was occupied with the Reading T-1 2100. The MRPS is renting the stall space to the group that is restoring her.

We surprised them a little when we showed up, but we were treated to a tour of the round house and the grounds outside. Turned into a very nice visit.

2015 Cleveland O Scale Show – October

Posted on November 1, 2015 by George Losse

Yesterday, the Cleveland O Scale Show was held in Kirkland, OH. Sam Shumaker continues to put on a fine show. This year Sam added some layout tours to the show for Friday and Saturday. More about those in a later post.

This show was held a little earlier than it used to be, it was held on Halloween. It seemed like the dealer attendance was down a little over last year. Might have been the early date or it might have been that it was the third show in three weeks (Strasburg and then the York TCA) and some of the dealers chose not to attend. I counted less than 90 dealer tables in the hall.

There were the usual guys selling off excess stuff what seemed to be missing were the bigger dealers from past shows like Bill Davis and P&D Hobbies. The new vendor I mentioned at Strasburg, Scale City Designs was there. This time they had a couple of tables worth of inventory from Keil-Line Products.

The good thing was, the general public attendance appeared to be steady throughout the day. I also noticed on Saturday something that has been missing from a lot of other shows, younger modelers attending the show with their fathers and grandfathers. And no they were not bored to death, they were having fun.

2015 Strasburg O Scale Show – October

Posted on October 19, 2015 by George Losse

The October 2015 Strasburg O scale Show was this past weekend. They again had over a hundred tables sold inside the fire hall. This was another well attended show. The crowd wasn’t a mad rush at the opening of the doors, instead it was a steady crowd all morning long.

There were the usual vendors along with guys selling off excess stuff. In addition there was a new vendor in attendance, Scale City Designs showing off their resin building kits and laser engraved signs. Their big news was that they had purchased Keil-Line Products. They mentioned that they are just getting started going through the inventory with the thought of putting it on their website.

For the Reading modeler there were a number of older models on the tables, including the pair of Car and Locomotive Works FM Trainmasters that were at the last show, a Weaver G-1 and a SGL G-3 with a set of eight passenger cars. Just as an FYI, the set of eight SGL Reading coaches were sold in the first five minutes of the doors opening, the two Trainmasters returned home with their seller.

2015 Strasburg O Scale Show – August

Posted on August 10, 2015 by George Losse

The August 2015 Strasburg O scale Show was this past weekend. They had over a hundred tables sold inside the fire hall. They had another well attended show. The crowd was steady all morning.

While no new models were being announced during the show, Rich Yoder did continue to show his pre-production models of the Mather Box and Stock cars. In addition, he had three gondola models for sale on his table that have long been sold out. The three gondolas were, the Virginian Battleship Gondola, a Reading USRA gondola and a B&O USRA clone gondolas with containers. (photos at the bottom of this post) While the Reading gondola looked very nice, I past of the car because of the early paint scheme on the car.

Jim Cantner was there from Indianapolis, Indiana, both with a number of models on his table and promoting the 2015 O Scale National which will be held in Indy this September. He showed me photos of a template he is working on that goes between the ties of a double track main line and spaces both an inner and outer track radii spacing both sets of ties at the same time. It was made out of Aluminum and he hopes to further develop it into a full product later this year. Since we all remember Jim’s turnout templates from a number of years ago (I know I have a number of them here) this will be something to look forward to.

At the end of the show Bob Heil (the Sunset 3rd Rail dealer) came up to me and asked if I thought a Reading K1 2-10-2 could get enough reservations to meet the production number for Sunset to produce the model. I tried to do everything I could to convince him that it could. Lets hope Sunset decides to announce it and see how many reservations it can get, I know I’ll reserve a pair of them. That would take two models off my “Projects To Build” list. So if you have an interest in Seeing Sunset 3rd Rail produce a Reading K1 2-10-2 let them know about it.

2015 Strasburg O Scale Show – April

Posted on April 19, 2015 by George Losse

The April 2015 Strasburg O scale Show was this past weekend. They had 102 tables with 23 dealers and 42 regular guys selling out of their collections spread out inside the fire hall. They had their best ever attendance for the show. It’s really nice to see the show continue to grow.

No newly announced models to talk about. Not really sure why that is. Maybe being a week before the York TCA show or maybe just that there is not that much new in the O scale market at this time. We did have some new announcements at Chicago and that was just a month ago.

Other than that there were lots of models to choose from, some with real pricing which found new homes and some fine models with fantasy pricing which went back home with their original owners.

Getting to the Chicago Show

Posted on March 24, 2015 by George Losse

Not our train but a Southbound Amtrak train pulling into Trenton Station

This year’s Chicago O Scale Show started out a little different for me. My wife could not make the drive with me from New Jersey and she really didn’t want me to make the drive by myself. So to keep peace at home and still get to the show I needed a different means of travel to the show.

I have no desire to ever fly again. So, I opted to take the train out and back. This was partly due to the fact that I would not be riding the train alone. Turns out three other Proto48 modelers, Michael Rahiley, Matt Forsyth and Theo Rahak, were taking the train to the show also.

The trip started out nice enough, Michael and I got on an Amtrak train in Trenton for the ride to New York Penn Station. From there we got on the Lake Shore Limited which wasn’t as limited as the name implies.

I have photographed along the Hudson River many times. I even participated in a Day-in-the-life kind of shoot on the Hudson that resulted in some of my photographs being displayed in a Museum show back in the early 1990’s. I have also rail-fanned along there as well many times. Now I was on the train that just flashed through the scene, and the locations that I had spent time at were passing past my window.

Michael watching the Tappan Zee Bridge go past.

The layover in Albany waiting for the Boston Section of the train to come into the station

The train stopped at Albany where it was joined by the cars from the Boston train. We were also joined at this point by Matt and Theo. We all talked for hours before trying out the train diner car. That was an experience I always wanted to try. How was it? I’d equate it to a good diner back here in Jersey, not the best but not the worst either.

Matt Forsyth and Theo Rehak in the dinning car

Most of the trip west was after the Sun went down so there was not much to see out the windows. But if you have sent some time around either Matt or Theo you would know that they both can tell a colorful story. Our conversations lasted longer into the night than most folks in our car probably would have liked.

The morning brought another trip to the diner car for breakfast. Then we had the pleasure of the rather flat countryside of Indiana and Illinois to enjoy.

We arrived at Union Station in Chicago and from there caught a commuter train out to near the hotel. I have to say the commuter rail system in the Chicago area is very nice compared to some I’ve been on in other places.

Michael walking on the platform at Chicago Union Station

Inside the commuter train

Our commuter train at the station I still can’t remember the name of

On the return trip Amtrak seat Matt and Theo in the section of the train that was headed to Boston. So we ended up spending most of the trip back in the cafe car. Again many stories were shared on the trip back.

Inside the dinning car at breakfast time

The two locomotives that brought us from Chicago with the Boston section

Our Cafe car

The Boston section pulling out of Albany. Our train which will take us to New York City is on the right.

2015 Chicago O Scale Show

Posted on March 17, 2015 by George Losse

This year’s Chicago O Scale Show was fantastic as usual. It had new models, old models and models for every budget. It is THE one show each year that can’t be missed.

For me the highlight of my trip was finding four sets of Overland Reading T-1 decals. A big thank you to Jim Mucka for pointing them out to me, I had walked right by them a dozen times. They will work nicely for both my T-1’s and the K1’s I’m building. That made my trip.

I spent a portion of the day helping out Rich Yoder while he delivered his new release of the ACL Ventilator cars. I was amazed how big the line was for picking up the cars. It was also nice to see how many people were also reserving the newly announced Mather cars.

Kohs had a painted version of their PRR FD-2/FW-1 project. They looked fantastic, glad I’m not modeling the PRR anymore.

John Pautz of American With & Signal had his Proto48 turnout kits on display.

Glacier Park was there showing off their new General American Transportation Corp. Composite Gondola. I was disappointed that they had a delay in their production and did not have any kits for sale at the show. But it should not be too long before they are available.

I had the chance to talk to a new vendor at the show, Union Station Products out of Memphis. They have been producing lightweight passenger car sides in the smaller scales and are now offering O scale car sides. They were showing smooth side and fluted side car sides along with a Budd Fluted Roof Wrapper.

Proto48 PRR 2D-F8 Trucks are available From RY Models again.

Posted on February 28, 2015 by George Losse

I heard from Rich Yoder today, of RY Models. He has just received a second batch of the Proto48 PRR 2D-F8 50 ton planked trucks. They are in stock again and available on his website at $48 per pair.

I picked up some of these trucks the first time he imported them. They sold out fast.

I’ve only seen this production in the photos he sent me today. They arrive with treads polished, trucks blackened ready to install.

I look forward to seeing them in person in a couple of weeks in Chicago.

Modeling the Reading in Proto48

Modeling the Reading in the Summer of '52

Yearly Archives: 2015