The 2025 March O Scale Meet in Chicago was fantastic! There were tons of nice models calling my wallet. I had a great time, sold some of my surplus models and brought home some new-to-me models.
Here are a few more images of the models that were on the tables at the show.
I wanted to buy this nicely built MKT boxcar, but the table holder was nowhere to be found. I circled back many times on Sunday and never saw them.
These three RS-3 were built up from Kemtron kits. They were fantastic! They got a lot of attention during the show. What I thought was as nicer than the models was the gentleman behind the tables who built them, Richard Rusnak.
That brings up the thought that the show was not all about the models. It’s about the people and the models. Like Rob Adams and his son John.
Once all the models were packed in the car it was time to think about the ride home. I did split the drive home in two on the return trip.
Funny thing, I sold a good portion of what I brought to the show, but the car seemed to have just as many models in it going home, maybe more than what I had brought out with me.
One of the best sites to see at the show was Kadee displaying and selling products at the show. Traffic was steady in front of their table, every time I went by they had guys buying, asking questions and generally checking out their products. We need more manufacturers in O Scale 2-rail and we need them coming out to our major show of the year to meet us at our best.
Next up, some offerings from Atlas O Scale being displayed on Bob Lavezzi’s tables. Mostly modern offerings and a re-release of the former Weaver War Emergency 52′ Gondolas. Atlas O is very good at decorating their cars.
This was a photo of what Rich Yoder brought of his imported truck line. Only a few left.
No, I won’t talk about MMW. Except to say, he was at the show. Until he ACTUALLY imports anything more than sample models, I won’t consider that company to be an importer. Scammer maybe? Thankfully I was not suckered into making deposits to him for models that are more than 10 years “in-production.”
Next up will be the models from the contest display and some more from the tables.
Current view on the workbench. I have a CN 50 ton flat car model from Nice Fish Model Company. It didn’t make the journey to NJ very well.
For some reason it was shipped inside a printed box. As I opened the box I heard sounds, not a great sign. Then I saw parts.
Turns out it was just the trucks. Disappointing? Yes, but not the end of the world. The trucks appear to be Intermountain side frames with Protocraft Wheelsets. The 3D printed bolster were the weak link. That does not speak well for 3D Printing.
I will need to take a closer look at the draft gear. This appears a little misaligned.
Nice model, I’ll let you know more of what I think when I can look at it more thoroughly. First impressions are not the greatest based on condition of what I received. Fancy box to ship the model in that did not do its job to protect the model in transit. That does not speak well of the engineering behind this.
Sometimes a simple solution works. Small bubble wrap around the model and then larger bubble wrap around that has worked well for me in the past.
Sometimes you have to look closely and sometimes you don’t. This recent listing on the auction site for a RY Models PRR H21a Quad Hopper Car is actually kind of funny.
First, the model is a triple hopper not a quad. Rich did import triple hoppers, but this is not one of those imports. As I type this, the auction is up to $79, that is a lot for what this model is.
Look closely at the grab irons on the car. They are flat not round wire like the better brass imports.
Looking at the underside of the car you can see that it is actually a Weaver 70 ton offset hopper car that someone put in the wrong box.
More and more collections are being sold by people that do not know about O Scale models, this is happening more than it should. It starts with boxing the models correctly and it winds through to knowing what a model is, no matter what is written on the box.
The new owner is going to be very disappointed when this model arrives. If the auction closed today they would be paying $79 plus shipping for a model that often will not sell at a train show when priced at $20. But they will have a nice RY Models box to put it in.
Sorry for the site being down over the weekend. I was reviewing some things within the admin tool for the site and followed the wrong advice. Turned out that created a conflict with a plug-in, which created a fatal error on the site.
Trying to correct that took a little work. Let’s just say that now I know more about editing the database behind the site. Conflict resolved.
I’m back on track and the site is working again. It was a very frustrating couple of days. Back to modeling.
With a nor’easter coming into the area dropping snow, our offices were closed today. Almost felt like a little kid again wanting to go sledding.
This morning the workbench is full of models that were sprayed with Dull Coat on Saturday. The weather was nice enough to paint in the garage. Go figure.
I needed to seal the decals on my friend’s H21. I went through on shot gloss coat and dull coat on a few other models, 17 more actually. Most were cars I either picked up recently and updated the weight dates but others were lettered in recent months.
I’ve seen a lot of different things on eBay over the years. Never saw something like this before. Described as “heavily damaged” brass Overland cabooses. Looking at the details and they appear to be LV North Eastern cabooses. What a shame. These images lifted from the auction.
This morning I was studying diagrams and photos to try to see if I could find a simpler way to construct one of the Reading signature covered hopper cars, the LOb. I was looking to see if I was missing an option of a way to build them.
I opened one of the scans of a Reading Company builder’s photo of the LOb. When I noticed how banged up the ribs were. The ribs were reclaimed for 18 year old 70 ton quad hopper from the HTl and HTn classes. So they were not new. But look at the dents in the ribs.
Then I noticed a couple of things that made me laugh a little.
First, check out the bottom of the closest rib, it’s not cut square to the side of the car.
Next, check out how the board in the tack board on the frame is larger than the hold downs on either side. Would we consider rebuilding those details if it came out looking like that? Most of us would.
Next, look at the class stenciled on the car, “LOb”. The “B” is slightly lower than the “LO”. Even the stenciled built date doesn’t exactly line up level. As O scalers, we do not have as many options for decals as the smaller scales do. We often have to letter a car from bits and pieces of decal sets for different cars. Splicing a class together is common. I know I would have kept fussing with this one to make it line up better.
I will admit to looking at what hits the auction site. I have picked up a few things there over the years. Ok, more than I want to admit to, but this auction this week really amazes me. A Golden Gate Depot PRR 10-6 Pullman Factory painted sold for $1731.00.
Someone REALLY WANTED this one. I hope they don’t change their modeling focus in a year or two and try to sell it for this price.
We have all watched auctions that the seller set too high a starting price for something and then it sits on the auction site for months while everyone waits for the seller to lower the price. We all also know folks that have no patience and go after some of that overpriced stuff just because they think they may never see another one and they have to have THAT one.
This one started at a reasonable price of $100. I know I watched it with the thought of turning it into something other than PRR if it stayed low enough. It didn’t.
To put this into context, the new B&O 10-6 Pullmans that Golden Gate Depot has on their website currently are priced at $349 each.
This was not an accident. There were 29 bids on this car. I don’t get it. It’s not a set of cars. It was ONE car!
I’m happy for the seller, we all know the background in the images. Here are some of the images of the car from the auction.
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.
