Yesterday, the Cleveland O Scale Show was held in Kirkland, OH. Sam Shumaker continues to put on a fine show. This one was no different.
There was a fine selection of new and used models for all price ranges. The show was well attended and had over 100 tables sold.
Even in Cleveland there was something of intrest for a Reading modeler. A Gem B8 Camelback, clean and looking as nice as the day it was imported 40+ years ago. Thankfully, someone else took it off the table at the beginning of the show. It was priced low enough that it almost made me stray from my 1952 modeling period and buy a model of a prototype that was retired in 1948.
It was very nice to see Jay Williams and Bob’s Photos at this show. We don’t always see them at an O scale show. I made it a point to bring home some photos for future projects from both of them.
I did have a funny thing happen at Jay William’s table. I was going through a pile of photos of freight cars when I saw an image in the pile that I recognized. It was an image of an H21a. I know the photo because the negative has been in my collection since the eighties. I turned the print over and sure enough it was written on the back “Image from the Collection of George Losse” in my hand writing. It is a small world.
On Saturday, I was at the October Strasburg O Scale Show in Lancaster County, PA. It was a beautiful Fall day, not even a distant memory of the Summer Show’s HEAT.
This show was missing a number of the regular dealers. I was told, some had family commitments and some had health issues keeping them from the show. Still, Rich and John put on a great show with just a few less tables. The crowd was steady all day.
I did take care of some business at the show. Carl Jackson returned my Weaver G1 mechanism back to me with the drivers converted to Proto48. I gave him the mechanism at the Strasburg August show and he returned it finished at the October show, about two months later. I’m still waiting for my T-1 drivers from another machinist for over two years now. Not only was Carl quick with the conversion but it looks great also. I’ll have more to say and post about the G1 locomotive this Winter.
For the Reading fan, there was a pair of Reading N1’s built from the old IHB 0-8-0’s (see above photo). While there were neat models they did have some inaccuracies. Considering when they were built, they did look nice. There were also number of Reading switchers on the tables at the show.
All in all, a good selection of models to choose from and a nice show.
Well, I had an image for this post…. but it must have melted.
On Saturday, I was at the August Strasburg O Scale Show and it was HOT in Lancaster County, PA.
Now if you remember the April Show, they had a little snow in the morning. Well we could have used some of that in Saturday. Even with the heat, it was a good show as always. They had 100 tables sold for the show and the show was well attended.
For the Reading fan, there was an SGL G-3 in the room and a Weaver G-1. There was also a Weaver Crusader locomotive and cars in the room. Also a couple of Reading switchers on the tables at the show. There was lot of brass models for those into that and a fare amount of parts for different projects.
I did something different for me at this show. Rather then just by a car on the table, the seller was looking to trade his car for another. Turns out, I had an extra model of what he was looking for, a few minutes conversation later, he set this car to the side and we’ll exchange the cars at the next show. That should work out nicely.
I did pass along my Weaver G-1 mechanism to Carl Jackson, so he could convert it’s drivers to Proto48 for me. He was even thinking he might be able to get it back to me by the next Strasburg Show. That would be great!
Kind of wished I’d sent my T-1 drivers to Carl. It’s been over two years since they went out and no word about when they might be ready yet.
This was the view on the drive home. Not the best of weather to be out for a train show, but the April 2016 Strasburg Show was worth the adventure. The show was well attended. The foot traffic inside was steady all day and only slowed down just before the close of the show. I even was able to get a quote from John Dunn about the weather for a Strasburg Show.
In the Proto48 crowd we missed Jim Hawk and Carl Jackson at the show, they both regularly have tables at the show. But there were a number of new dealers at the show.
For Reading Modelers, I did see a number of locomotives at the beginning of the show. There was an SGL G3 with a set of passenger cars, a couple of Weaver G1’s and three tempting camelbacks on a table just across for where we were located. All but one of these steam locomotives found new homes during the show. Fran Pfiel also had a nicely decorated Custom Brass Alco switcher in the Reading Pullman Green.
Other things of interest, there were a number of the hard to find Pacific Limited brass box cars. I saw an Erie ’32 ARA box car, a NYC USRA Design 9’4″ IH door and a half with AB brakes and Gilroy doors, A P&LE USRA box car and a couple of PRR X23 box car. There were also a number of the not so hard to find Pacific Limited cars like the H21a’s and the X23 work cars.
I also saw some Parri cars on at least three different tables. What I remember were a WM fish belly hopper car an N&W triple hopper, a PRR H35 class hopper and a PRR G22 gondola.
There was also some of Norm’s Proto48 Flex track on one table and some High Sierra Models Proto48 turnout parts. Nice to see these also find new homes.
It was great to see and talk with the familiar faces at the show, I also noticed a number of new faces in the buying crowd which was very encouraging. All in all it was another nice show put on by John Dunn and Rich Yoder.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 StationInside the commuter trainOur commuter train at the station I still can’t remember the name of
On the return trip Amtrak sat 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 timeThe two locomotives that brought us from Chicago with the Boston sectionOur Cafe carThe Boston section pulling out of Albany. Our train which will take us to New York City is on the right.
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.
