The Cleveland O Scale Show was held on November 2, 2019. I took a couple of extra days off from work this year so that I could makes some stops and explore a couple of towns both before and after the show. So you know that meant it was cold, windy and rainy on those days. It even snowed the morning of the show.

I did manage to go to the train show. It was the second year in their new location. I wasn’t able to attend in 2018, so this was a new experience for me.

It is a large room. I think there were over 100 tables in the room. Not all the tables were filled but there was plenty to see and buy. There was also plenty of room to talk to people.

There wasn’t much at the show that was screaming to go home with me. One brass freight car and some parts. That had more to do with me not wanting to bring home more projects than the lack of things of interest. My project list is too long already just like so many other modelers.

I was shown this thing at the show……

It’s just a tool… A tool used to machine my Overland T-1 drivers to Proto48. Carl Jackson, who’s doing the conversion work for me brought this with him to the show to show it to me. It is a multi-purpose tool, used to do many different steps in machining the drivers. I just thought it was so cool. I understood about half of what Carl explained.

The real good news, Carl thinks he’ll have my T-1 ready to deliver at the Chicago show in March. I can’t wait!

I did see blue sky and a little brief sunshine on my drive home. I stopped in Buffalo on the Sunday and had the chance to visit the grain elevators. It was nice to finally see them. I even got to explore a little with the 5×7 camera before it snowed again.

The 2017 Cleveland O Scale show was yesterday. It was another fine show.

Bill Davis had new brass Erie freight cars at the show. Also on his table was a very nice model but from a Gem RDG 0-6-0. They did not look this nice when they were imported. Someone did some upgrades to this model.

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.

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.

Yesterday, the Cleveland O Scale Show was held in Kirkland, OH. This show was even better than last year. The attendance appeared to be up over last year and was steady throughout the day.

The hit of the show was the Indianapolis P48 Association Portable P48 Layout. There were a lot of kids of all ages stopping and watching the action on the railroad.

The rest of the room had something for everybody, new models, used models, sample models from a few dealers, parts, paints… just about anything you could think of.

Rich Yoder had samples on his tables of his soon to be delivered Ventilated Boxcar run.

Many of the variations of this run of cars.

ACL car in one of the early paint schemes.

The C&O boxcar version.

He also had a representative model of his newly announced Mather car project. The project will include the regular height and extended height boxcars, stock cars and a reefer. Reservations are beginning and the models are due the Fall of 2015. Rich should have materials on this project on his website this week.

Rich was showing samples of his soon to be released Fox trucks.

Rich had a sample of a new PRR 2D-F8 50 ton truck. The sample had new ribbed back wheels and polished treads. He says this is how the new run of these trucks are going to come in. You’ll like the new look.

Bob Hiel had samples of the soon to be released Sunset 3rd Rail’s GM’s “TRAIN OF TOMORROW”. It is a fine looking model. Too early for my 1952 modeling era, but very nicely done. I have seen photos of this train at the Reading Trenton Passenger Station. So it did make it onto the Reading Railroad, not sure how many places it was displayed.

Bob also had a sample of the PRR P70FAR from Golden Gate Depot Model Trains.

Finally, here are some more images of the Indianapolis P48 Association Portable P48 Layout. It’s not the biggest layout but it ran great during the day. The curves are tight but that is what’s needed sometimes. It is a great example of how Proto48 can work in smaller spaces.

The GP-9 in the photo is a stock Red Caboose model with the original drive. It ran nice, slow and steady all day long.

Sam Shumaker held the Cleveland O Scale Show this past Saturday. It continues to be a fine show. I was there selling some of my surplus models and managed to come home with some new models and parts for other projects.

Sam Shumaker commentated today on the OGR Board, “We had over 200 people through the gate, up 33% from last year. We had 50 dealers and 110 tables”

I had the pleasure of talking to Lee Turner at the show. He was showing samples of his recent weathering projects and resin builds for his clients. Wonderful work!

Lee also asked me to upgrade the image I had posted a long time ago of the Rails Unlimited NKP/C&O 1932 ARA boxcar. I said I would if he sent me and image of one of his cars. Here is his photo of a car he built. Fantastic modeling and really nice photography also!

Lee Turner’s model of the Rails Unlimited NKP/C&O 1932 ARA boxcar

One of the things I have been complaining about recently was that there seem to be no new products hitting the market or even being announced. That was one of the pleasant surprises at this show, it had a little of both.

Sunset had pilot models for both the PRR L1 2-8-2 Mikado and the Erie Berkshire.

Sunset Pilot Model of PRR L1s

Sunset Pilot Model of the Erie Berk

Bill Davis had new imported Water Spouts in four different varieties with two different bases.

Bill also had a number of pairs of Kohs O scale trucks on his table. While these were not Proto48 Jim Canter mentioned that they have converted them using Protocraft wheelsets.

PRR 2D-F8

PRR 2D-F8

National B-1

National B-1

Glenn Guerra of Mullet River Model Works had some fine examples of his kits on display. Glen also mentioned that he can’t keep his new trucks in stock. They are selling out as fast as he makes them.

The Cleveland O Scale Show came right on the heals of Huricane Sandy, which was felt from New Jersey all the way to Chicago. Lots of people were talking about the storm. Surprising to hear how many were without power in the other states it hit. A number of people I expected to see at the show were not there because they were cleaning up after the storm.

For those that did go to the show, there were a lot of people selling off collections of built cars, plus a number of folks selling their own extra models. There did not seem to be many dealers with new or current stock on their tables, maybe three or four dealers. That’s not to say that there wasn’t plenty of models at good prices.

There was one new manufacturer at the show, OscaleTurnouts, Inc.™ had a display of their new O scale turnout offerings. They are built up using PC boards to keep the rails in gauge and Right-O-Way castings to make them look great. One feature I really liked, they worked out how far to extend the rail at the end of the diverging routes so that two turnout laid together will be spaced correctly for a 4 inch centerline single cross over. It said to me they have done more then just built a jig to build the turnouts in, they have designed a though out product.