Category Archives: Train Show

TCA Eastern Division York Train Meet – October 2024

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Today, I attended my fourth TCA Eastern Division York Train Meet (aka York). They are growing on me. Do these shows hold much interest for a Proto48’er? Much more than I use to think.

While there are very few 2 rail O Scale models on the tables, compared to the number of 3 rail models, there are some. Sadly, I did not see any Proto48 models on the tables, but I really did not expect to see any. I did see more 2 rail models than I really expected too.

There was a vendor in the Orange Hall with both a number of Atlas O 2 rail freight cars and locomotives. I saw 4 SW-9’s, a half dozen ALCo C630’s, an ALCo C425, an ALCo RS-1 and some more modern EMD units. All at very good prices. Some were very tempting, but I didn’t want any more era sliding. I need to stay focused on my 1952 modeling period.

There were some 3 rail models for the Reading fans out there. This MTH FM TrainMaster is nice. Not a finely detailed as a Car & Locomotive Works model, but not near the price either.

There was a 3 rail SGL set on a table. Thankfully, I’m fine with the one I have. Mine is already converted to Proto48. I just need to find the time to install the DCC into it.

Atlas had a pair of new models on display at the show. First is an Atlas Master 73′ Center divider flat car. It was a very nice looking car. It will appeal to the modern modelers. The thought the graphics on the car were very nicely done.

Next is an Atlas Premier PS-5344 box car.

I was disappointed to see that Atlas’ new locomotive releases have DCS installed instead of DCC as the recent F7 runs had. Why can’t the manufacturers stay with industry standards like DCC? I wonder how a DCS release would go over in HO? And yet we in O scale have it shoved onto us. When it is not supported they will came back and say something like, there are no more 2 railers out there.

On to a more pleasant thought. This was a model on the Altoona Model Works Table. I liked it.

And let us not forget that this show is just a couple of weeks before Halloween.

Strasburg O Scale Show – October 2024

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Today, was the October 2024 Strasburg O Scale Show. As always, there was lots of buying and selling going on. At times the crowds thinned down, but I can say the sales from the tables were steady throughout the day.

The day was full of surprises. There are different things on the table than normal. Check out this model above. I’ve only seen a ship on a table once before in Chicago. For the Erie fans out there, three Stillwell cars together on a table.

That was nice to see, but the surprising thing was the models were on Fred Stillwell’s table. And yes he was related to the namesake of the prototype cars.

There were some very nice models including some rare like this Kohs PRR K4 with the front end throttle. Or like the Lykin’s kit-built model of a PRR X60.

There were plenty of fine models in the show. Here were some more from John Dunn’s collection.

It was a good show. My table kept me rather busy and I only got through the full show a couple of times.

It was good to see familiar faces and some new ones. There was also plenty of talk of the friends that were no longer with us.

TCA Eastern Division York Train Meet – April 2024

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Today, I attended my third TCA Eastern Division York Train Meet (aka York). Do these shows hold much interest for a Proto48’er? More than I use to think. The image above shows one of the five halls. While there are very few 2 rail O Scale models on the tables, there are some. Here is a USH PRR I1 with a price of $450 on it.

Having come from the Chicago March Meet which had just over 300 tables of 2 rail O Scale and the Strasburg O Scale 2 Rail Meet with over 90 tables of 2 rail O Scale. This show is massive. They even have a shuttle bus for getting between the Halls.

The show had newly released Atlas-O models. The Atlas site had indicated that the non-powered units did not ship with last month’s powered unit shipping. But there was one of the new unpowered Reading F7’s on the tables. I will post more about these in a couple of weeks.

There were guys selling custom weathered cars at the show. This example of an Atlas-O Trainman 70 ton triple hopper wearing the as-built 1956 paint. This weathering is heavier than I prefer, YMMV.

There are a number of tables of vendors selling trucks and automobiles. These models don’t care how many or how far apart your rails are.

I saw an interesting pairing on a table a CNJ Trainmaster and a CNJ Heritage unit. Kind of a sharp contrast. I have to say that I saw examples of the later Trainmasters from Lionel and MTH which both looked very nice.

The 3 rail Trainmasters almost looks like a better starting point than a Sunset brass model. Both were nicely painted, just have to fix the pilots and convert them. Not sure I really want to add another project to the list for models out of my era.

This was an interesting car on a table. Way too modern for me, but it is amazing what they are producing in the 3 rail world.

This was my third time attending a York show. I had dismissed this show in the past. Now I look forward to it. I didn’t buy a lot, couple of freight cars, a couple of automobiles, and some tools. It was a great day not to be at work and see some friends in the halls.

Chicago Show 2024 – On the Tables

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The show always starts with high hopes. We all have things on our “Have-to-Have” and “Want-to-Have” lists. We always hope one of those models turns up on a table for us to buy.

I have a number of those models that I’m on the look out for, this show did not have any of my “Have-to-Have” models, but it did have a lot of really nice models available. I thought I’d share a few that that I saw at the show.

Bill Yancey had this nicely built SC&F kit built up on his table for sale with Protocraft Proto48 trucks for less than the kit originally cost. That one came home with me.

Bill also had some really nice structures on his table.

Not my era for modeling but this was on Bill Davis’ tables.

The Pacific Limited 1932 Seaboard car was also on Bill’s tables. There were three additional examples of this model on other tables at the show.

I’m not a big fan of the cement canister cars, most were in dedicated service and would not be seen on other roads. Bill Davis had this pair of Parri built cars. They were not the only example of the Parri built cars at the show. They did look nice.

Jim Canter had another example of a the cars this one imported by RY Models.

Greg Stone had some nice cars on his table also.

Tom Mapes had two sets of Key PRR models. An AA set of E8’s and an ABA set of E7’s. Those models made it all the way to late Sunday morning. While I was talking to Tom around the end of the show, the E8’s went to a new home.

There were a number of models in the show for us East Coast modelers. This example of the Golden Gate B&O Columbian set for example. A few years ago, when I was considering modeling the Reading line in NJ, I would have gone after this set.

Dan Mason had a nice OMI CNJ caboose on his table.

There were a total of three Westside PRR H6sb’s in the room. This one was the cleanest one, a little tarnished. I had one of these but sold it back at the O Scale National in NJ. They are a really nice model.

There were a pair of Pecos River Brass Contrail GP-15’s on Dave Vaughn’s tables.

There were even some Reading models in the room.

The nice thing about the show is there is always more stuff to look at than you can imagine.

TCA Eastern Division York Train Meet – October 2023

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Yesterday, I attended my second TCA Eastern Division York Train Meet (aka York). I had always thought that as a Proto48’er that these shows held little to no interest for me. I can say, I was wrong. While there are very few 2 rail O Scale models on the tables, there are some. I came home with two “new to me” brass cars from both the Spring show and now the Fall show.

In addition there were some building manufactures there, tool suppliers and also people you haven’t seen in ages. One them was Robbie Kimmey, who I used to see over at Fran Pfiel’s house. It was really nice catching up after almost 20 years. Robbie is shown here with John Dunn.

The York show is big and there are many halls. Below was just one hall and I was standing about half way inside the hall.

Altoona Model Works was there displaying their model offerings. I always liked their Brewery complex model.

As I said there were 2 rail models in the show. Here is an image within the Trainz display. Nothing on the table for a Reading modeler, but still great to see nice 2 rail models being offered for sale at what I always thought was a 3 rail tinplate show.

After walking around the show it was nice to go out for a nice dinner at the local Hoss’s Steak and Sea House. Walking into the lobby you are quickly reminded that we are in York, PA, the home of the Harley Davidson assembly plant.

Strasburg O Scale Show – August 2023

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On Saturday, the August Strasburg O Scale Show was held. Attendance on both sides of the tables seemed to be down a little. Some of the usual faces we see were not there, but there were a number of new faces in the room. There were even some younger people in the room.

After the show I had a conversation with Rich Yoder about attendance. Rich mentioned that attendance was actually up over the April show. He mentioned that even though a number of the regulars were not at the show, there were enough new attendees to actually increase the number of people through the door.

Rich Yoder had a some trucks on his table. The inventory is dwindling, if you need something from him don’t wait. He might already be sold out. He did have a few Proto48 trucks on the table but they are in very short supply.

I did get the chance to see and meet a new vendor at the show. Chris Coarse of Conowingo Models was there with his line of kits on display. It was a pleasure to meet him at the show and see a nice new line of models entering the O Scale market.

Bob Heil was there representing Sunset and golden gate Depot at the show. He had some B&O models that were made from older Mac Shop kits but they represent the B&O cars that Golden Gate is about to import.

The car on the top is a Golden Gate car from a previous run. Bob mentioned that these are about to go into production.

TCA Eastern Division York Train Meet – April 2023

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Today, I attended the TCA Eastern Division York Train Meet. So you might ask, what is a Proto48 modeler doing at a TCA Train Meet? Truth is, I was having fun.

The size of the show is beyond belief. One of the halls was bigger than most of the train shows I have attended, and there were 5 different halls. The biggest surprise of the day was how important the shuttle bus running between the halls actually was.

Now in reality, the amount of 2-rail models in the halls is probably closer to that of a small club show. And we won’t talk about the amount of Proto48 in the halls, none. The amount of 1/4 inch to the foot models was a different story.

There was a lot of early Lionel and Standard Gauge throughout the show. I didn’t experience any of those models growing up and they hold little interest to me, but they did to a lot of people attending.

Before the show, I wanted to go looking for building models and scenery materials for the layout. It turned out that I did learn more about some of the building models currently available that might work on the layout. And I did find some scale 2-rail scale models at very good prices.

There was some O Scale brass mixed throughout the show, but you mostly had to look very closely for it. What comes to mind was a few USH steam locomotives, some early Sunset steam and a pair of Custom Brass PRR MP54’s. There were a few brass freight cars throughout the show and one vendor had some PSC, Overland and a couple of Pacific Limited cars.

I’m trying now to have better focus and staying away from some of the nice modern prototype offerings. You can’t model everything. But there were a lot of ’70’s and ’80’s prototypes there at very good pricing just calling out to be converted to 2-rail or proto48.

I was very surprised by how much S Scale and American flyer I saw at the show. I dipped my toe into the S Scale waters about twenty years ago, but decided that wasn’t my path. It was difficult to resist some of the S scale models in the show. Even some that I have said to myself, if I were to find them, I’d purchase them.

I attended the show with John Dunn, he mentioned during the day that it was his 52 year of attended the show. It was my first time attending.

I can say the energy of the show was contagious. I see why he has attended the last 52 years. John was also great to attend the show with, as he kept explaining what I was seeing on some of the tables.

If I had gone to this show looking specifically for just 2-rail or Proto48 models, I might have been disappointed. I went with an open mind, looking for models and ideas for the layout. I found that many times over and had a great day. Now, I’m looking forward to the October Meet.

Strasburg O Scale Show – April 2023

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Today was the Strasburg O Scale Train Show. The Show was very well attended by both table holders and the walk-in attendees through the door. The traffic was steady and busy all through the morning. Which cut down on my ability to get through the hall once the doors opened to the public.

For the Reading modelers in the crowd, I did see a Gem 0-6-0 camelback model on Dave Richter’s tables. I also noticed a couple of the SGL G-3’s and an SGL add on two coach set in the room. Not sure if they found new homes or not. I will tell you a nicely painted Reading Car Works DS4-4-1000 managed to follow me home yesterday. I’ll be posting about that in the next few weeks.

As always it was great to see so many models available for sale. But it was also really nice to see and talk with so many people that we often only get to see in person at the shows. John Dunn was back at the show, now at a table.

They had a couple of clinics during the show. Kerry Kime once again gave her clinic was on making pine trees from heater filters. Kerry did a great job demonstrating haw she has made trees for their home layout using a wood dowel and cut up heater filters. She is also selling trees at her table during the show.

The other clinic was on the Blunami DCC sound decoders. I wasn’t able to get away from my table to attend that one.

After the show, we had a little adventure. We were going to a restaurant for lunch that was about 8 miles from the show. We had five cars headed out for lunch together. The guy leading the group had a different town in mind where the restaurant was. So instead of a short 10 minute drive to lunch it turned into a 45 minute drive. To make matters worse, the guy who knew where we were going managed to loose the four cars following him.

Lucky for us John Dunn remembered the town name where we were going and put that into his navigation. But it did give us a nice scenic drive on some roads without a lot of traffic.

We finally arrived at the restaurant after about a forty minute drive. Then shared in some good-hearted ribbing of the driver that lost us, we all sat down for a late lunch. It all worked out fine, lots of good stories were shared.

April Fools’ Day

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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.

Mother Seton Train Show

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I attended the Jersey Central Railroad Historical Society’s Train Show in Clark, NJ today. This show is billed as a railroadiana & model train show, or as I have referred to as a “paper show.” Lots of books, magazines, photos, slides, timetables, lanterns and memorabilia. This show was all that.

I was happy to see a number of O Scale modelers at the show that I normally see at our local O Scale shows. There were some models at the show, mostly in the smaller scales but there was one table with O Scale 2-rail models.

But that really wasn’t why I was there. I did bring home another Car Builders Cyclopedia today and a couple of new books. Some of the best purchases of the day were the photographs I picked up from Bob’s Photo. Some good reference for projects that should hit the workbench this year.