Train Show Day One

We arose at 6:30am on the first morning of the train show so we could get some breakfast at The Cracker Barrel restaurant (which was nearby but due to toll roads and a crappy neighborhood that is very difficult to navigate through required an extra 15 minutes...  tolerating this little detour, however, is always a better option that trying to stomach the free inedible breakfast the hotel serves in the lobby).  Getting up at 6:30am allowed us time to get to the show by the time the doors open for the day.  

All the doors to the show open to the sound of a loud steam whistle that can be heard from miles away and we were at the ticket booths when the whistle blew.  We also managed to avoid the long lines of cars trying to enter The Big E so our timing was good and the route we chose was good.

While at the ticket booths purchasing our tickets I was shivering uncontrollably.  Nobody else around me seemed cold but I was visibly shivering.  I know I'm unable to tolerate hot weather but I don't seem to be able to handle cold climates anymore either!  I was even wearing a heated jacket and it was not nearly warm enough for me.

Anyway, we got our tickets and then headed into the first building of four giant buildings filled with model railroad layouts, manufacturers and vendors.  This allowed me to warm up again while we walked around this expansive first building.  Since I'm so vulnerable to overly warm climates, I need to dress lightly enough to keep from over-heating which then makes it difficult to stay warm when outdoors.  This is why I had a heated coat but, apparently, that wasn't effective enough.  

This show encompasses all model railroad scales up to real-world 1:1 trains and vehicles so there is a lot to see.  Here are a bunch of photos from day one of the show...

Sheila stopped at one of the food vendors to get some coffee...  where do you think this vendor is from?  (Uggg...  Boston...  I deeply and strongly hate that city and everything related to it...  I've been to Boston many, many times but never had anything better than an absolutely abysmal time.  Just hearing anyone mutter the word Boston ties my stomach in knots.)  

Aside from all the model railroad stuff, there also is plenty of real-world railroad stuff too...

This, below, is one of the award-winning long modules of the show...

This water wheel, below, was turning on this model.  I think I got a few seconds of video of it but I haven't done much with my video clips yet.  I started to sort out the video clips until I realized that about half of my videos have no audio.  So, I might not do anything with these video clips.

Sheila found a beam of sunshine...

There were a few model campfires scattered around the layouts.  The simulated fires are created using fiber optics...

While we were walking around in the first building on the first morning of the show, we heard a big crash.  It actually sounded similar like a real train wreck.  We quickly made our way toward the sound of the wreck (about 50 feet away on a different layout) and found that a large G scale train had toppled on a curve.  When it toppled, it fell onto the inside curve so it also toppled the train on the inside curve.  These are large G scale trains so it did make a loud train-wreck noise.  It took a little time to clean up this mess since both trains were long trains (which was probably the reason for this train-wreck).  

Frank and Christine, unknowingly heading toward us...

Steam locomotives and F-units like the one below have always been my favorites...  both were locomotives used during the transition period from steam to diesel so were often seen side-by-side in real life.  Honestly, I'd rather see Amtrak's locomotives look like an old F-unit rather than the ugly boxy long rectangles they use today.  It seems to me an F-unit is more aerodynamic than the flat fronts of most of their current fleet.

I need a light for my bicycle... 

This module is an outstanding, highly detailed model of an urban city scene...  one of my personal favorites of the show...

This photo, below, shows how crowded this show can get.  Getting at some of the layouts can be difficult especially for viewing some of the best modules of these giant layouts.  On this first day, the attendance was just over 14,000 visitors...

This, below, is another one of the many modules on one of the large layouts that is part of the show every year.  I always refer to this scene as Bluesville...  a fictitious town in a story written by the talented musician, Harry Connick Jr.  

In "The Happy Elf", Bluesville is a depressing town of sad, unhappy people living in the seemingly perpetual darkness of a steep, deep valley that is shaded from sunlight for entire days except for a few seconds at noon when the sun is directly overhead.  This module, below, is a nice scene, also mostly in darkness for the same reason as Bluesville, with trains passing on the bridge spanning this steep valley...

I'm not too fond of most of the attempts at modeling autumn on many model railroads but this module depicting autumn was worthy of a photo.  Most modelers tend to make their autumn colors appear almost florescent but this module was very accurate in color which was really nice to see...  plus, the colors of the homemade model trees in the foreground perfectly match the autumn background.  This whole layout was nicely done with a great eye for color, shades and hues!

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UPDATE:  I just read in the February newsletter that this module (above) won "Best in Show"!  I guess I still have an eye for exceptional work!

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Another fiber optic campfire...  a nice little detail...

There was a layout for sale at the show.  This highly detailed three-rail O gauge model railroad appeared to be 4'x12' in size.  My very rough estimate of the retail cost of everything not including all the labor involved in building this layout is probably north of a few thousand dollars...  or even north of $10,000 including all the trains and control system...  so maybe a finished purchase cost of around $20,000? 

Personally, I don't understand this business model.  I can't imagine there being a large market of buyers who want to purchase a fully completed model railroad.  The fun of this hobby is designing and building your own little world utilizing your skills in planning, model building, an eye for detail, electronics, painting, carpentry and even history (to create an accurate time period).  Of course, running trains is fun too but that is and should be the culmination in all your hard work usually over years or even decades.  

The following six photos are of this layout...

One of our friends, George, is checking out the layout that is for sale...

While George and I checked out the layout for sale, Sheila and Barb talked for a bit....

Although I had no intentions of purchasing anything at this show for a number of reasons, I have to say that I was really turned off by most of the vendors this year.  I've never seen the vendors so annoyingly aggressive in their sales pitches.  

First, their prices seemed higher than what I can get online in most cases.  Next, most of the vendors seemed pushy looking to make a sale and to up-sell whatever product you showed some interest in at the beginning of the interaction.  All I was looking for was information on these products so I can make a wise online purchase sometime later yet they were all about pushing a sale now.  I have to say that this pushy behavior really, really annoyed me and turned me off to wanting to purchase anything at this show.  And, I can be exceptionally stubborn when it comes to my principles...  I don't do business with people who annoy me.

I've mentioned this in previous blog entries but I'll mention it again here.  January is a really lousy time of the year for a train show.  We're only a month beyond Christmas and money is still tight for the majority of people.  The months leading up to Christmas is the time of year when most people are reminded of trains running under the Christmas tree sparking a desire to get busy in model railroading again.  And, perhaps more importantly, money is more readily available in the months before Christmas too...  January, not so much. 

Vendors laser-focused on pushing a sale rather than being helpful and providing information about their products was a major turn-off though and worth mentioning.  If I just glanced more closely at a particular product to learn more about it, the vendor would jump in with a price and then immediately provide a cheap sales pitch (very annoying) and then offer a lower price than marked.  I will NOT purchase anything from someone who behaves like a stereotypical used car salesman.  

There were far too many vendors of this type at this year's show and that was a major disappointment.  Hey guys, it is a "SHOW" providing you a place to highlight your knowledge, customer service, highlighted inventory, and website for ease of purchase.  Plus, who wants to walk around a huge train show carrying big train products?  I certainly don't.  It's a show so show your stuff, provide useful information, and answer questions about your products rather than being a pushy, annoying used car salesman.  Here is a word of advice to all of you pushy salesmen...  I never purchase anything from people who annoy me and a pushy salesman is extremely annoying!

Regardless of the pushy salesmen-wanna-be's, it is always nice to view all the layouts, dioramas and products!