So, I drove 120 miles, one way, today to go to the 2023 Harrisburg All O Scale Meet…
Then I remembered it was April Fools’ Day.

All kidding aside, this is and was a small show. Even though the show was promoted as an “All O Scale Meet” featuring “O Scale 2 Rail – O Scale Traction- Proto48 – On3 On30 – On2 – On18” the dealers were split about 60-40 narrow gauge to standard gauge.

I didn’t see ANY Proto48 at the show.
But I did see some 3 rail and a bunch of tables with S Scale parts.

The O Scale 2 rail dealers were the same dealers I would have seen at Chicago two weeks ago (if I had gone this year) and at the Strasburg Show two weeks from now.

One dealer I had not seen before was Les Davis, who had some absolutely wonderful 3D resin printed figures. That was one of the highlights of the show for me. I did bring home a few of the figures.

Getting the chance to speak with Les at the show was great. It turns out these figures are scanned from real people, mostly his friends, and reduced down to O Scale size. It took a while for that thought to really sink-in with me. Later, I realized, that opens up the possibility of being scanned and an O Scale version of yourself being placed your railroad or in your favorite locomotive. Kind of a cool thought.

Continuing with the 3D printed thought, Dylan Lambert had a sample of the the B&A passenger car and lots of his PCC car drives at the show. So I guess the drives covered the part of the O Scale Traction in the promotions.

There were a couple of table of buildings for sale. But there wasn’t a lot of movement on these tables. Same thing with the one vendor with built up trees and tree building materials. While I thought his prices were very good for the high level of quality of his trees. He seem to have the same amount on his table when I was leaving the show as when I arrived.

After I left the show, I had to sneak over to Enola. I used to shot on the overlook bridge a lot back in the late ’80’s. They have since rebuilt the bridge with openings in the fence on the bridge. It was nice to be back there and catch a couple of trains coming into the yard. I always liked the overhead angles that this location provided. Now with the fixed positions to see through the fencing, the views are a little more restricted than I remember.

Late today I received a message from my traveling companion for the day, “the dealer table sales for the show were up 50% over last year.” Wow, now I’m really glad I did not go last year. I thought this was a small show this year.

So the big question of the day, how was the show? I did buy from three different dealers today. Two of which, I would have seen two weeks ago in Chicago, if I had gone. I think next year I’ll just make sure I go to Chicago and buy from them out there.

April Fools’ Day joke or O Scale Show?
They worked out to be about the same today.

Your mileage may vary.