The days all start blending into each other - and I'm a little surprised to realize that tomorrow is my last day here.
Today got really busy - I started by thinking that we just be videotaping interviews with a few select companies - I'd personally targeted BLMA, which is practically a tradition now, ExactRail, since Chris Clune was here with Blaine (rhymes with "train") Hadfield and I definitely wanted to talk to them, and Tangent, pretty much just because - they do a good interview and had a couple of new products that I think will be of interest to many modelers.
Well... that list grew throughout the day. I did get the above three interviews, and some others besides.
At NCE I got to talk to Larry Larsen, who showed us the prototype of their "engineer" throttle with a small LCD display. I asked them to simply send a couple along to Joe... I want one for Roseburg Yard. Additionally, he demonstrated a new LED lighting product, usable for areas with low ceilings or lower decks on multi-deck layouts, that allow you to set the exact lighting color and levels you want. Based on something they invented for the bottom deck of the owners layout, it has 4 selectable light level presets as well as a near infinite amount of tweaking possibilities just from fiddling with the knobs. People who have been in theater will probably think the LED light setup looks very familiar from their time on stage. Product availablity is expected to be mid-August 2010, but pricing has not yet been set. One set will cover 6 feet of a shelf-style railroad.
BLMA has announced the new 64" Trinity Reefers in HO and N, which are a very new prototype (the lot being modeled was built in 2005) which they're predicting will be available 2nd Qtr 2011. Visit the BLMA Website for more information and a video of a trip that Craig took to the Railex Corporation loading facility in California. If the cars seem oddly familiar, it's because they are the same basic car type featured in the Extreme Trains episode that had Matt Bowen on a Reefer train from Washington State to New York. BLMA is also announcing the F89J, which is still in the pipeline for it's first run, will be re-released in the original brown TTX paint scheme they originally wore. A future release will cover the 1970s yellow paint scheme as well. To answer questions I was asked to ask Craig, yes, there are plans for more figures, I think but am not positive I got a head nod on plans for vehicles, and yes, he tries to keep a regular eye on web forums and mailing lists as part of maintaining an awareness not only of how BLMA is doing in the customer's eyes, but also to gauge customer desires for new products. So keep the wish lists rolling - he's watching them.
ExactRail was not as much a product interview as it was a "who are you guys?" type of interview. I mean, both Chris and Blaine both look like they should still be in college (Chris is actually in his 30s, I didn't ask how old Blaine was), but they appear to have a solid business plan and sure seem to be executing it well.... and Chris has actually been in this industry since about age 16. I tried a new technique with this interview, to come up with the questions in advance and deliver them to the interviewees for them to look over and think up answers to ahead of time. This would avoid both the possible "deer in the headlights look" that I might get from a "what did he ask me?" question, as well as not only avoiding "gotcha" questions that they would object to, but also help me avoid the "what am going to ask them next while I try to process what he's saying now" syndrome. I love the interviews, but occasionally I do wonder what the heck I'm doing in front of a camera.... usually when I'm in the middle of one. Anyway, it worked out fairly well for a first attempt - good questions, good answers, with the only problem being that I found myself referring to the questions on the sheet of paper in my hand too often - so in the middle of the second half of the interview with Blaine, we went off script and winged the rest of it. I also asked about Blaine's monitoring of the forums and lists and it sounds like he has a regular group of them that he goes through on a regular basis, to basically keep up what I would call situational awareness of what is going on in the model railroading community as well as to see what their desires are. They consider it to be part of their customer focus at ExactRail. Oh - listen closely to Blaine at the end of this interview as he lists their accomplisments over the first year of ExactRail - the sheer numbers are very impressive.
Tangent... please give it up to the guys at Tangent Scale Models who dealt with me having a major coughing attack in the middle of the interview. Tangent announced the release of their 4th product here at the National Train Show - a standard Bethlehem Steel design open quad-hopper, as seen in coal service all over the west and mid-west. Including interior detail as well as coupler cover detail on the rotary end (no, they aren't actually rotary couplers), the cars weights are completely hidden from view, but the car is weighted to NMRA standards even empty (it comes with a removable coal load), so that DPU's can be used safely with them. This car is going to have a lot of road numbers in it's first release. They've also got new roadnames in their 70ton gondola line, with paint jobs approved by both the Penn Central and Pennsy Historical Societies. Like BLMA and ExactRail, they also keep an eye on the forums and mailing lists in order to help them provide products that are not only good, but are wanted by their customers.
On the way to the Tangent interview, we stopped at Imagine That Laser Art Products (warning, link launches sound automatically) booth simply because I insisted that the incredible laser cut wood structures they create demanded documenting. While Charlie Comstock was taping, Mike, the owner of Imagine That, and I got into a conversation about some of the things we were looking at. At that point Charlie stopped filming and said that we might as well turn this into an interview, which Mike agreed to. Mike went over several of their products features and some specifics on construction methods that I asked him about, and then he introduced us to "La Wow" (Le Wow?) an S-Scale hotel building with curved/spiral staircases (in wood) as well as simply an amazing amount of detail in all the siding, trim and accessory pieces (like patio restaurant tables). Oh, and because it was created at the same time as the recent earthquake in Quebec... it has earthquake damage on the back of it. Absolutely wild. And yes - he's going to be doing it in HO as well.
While wandering around the show waiting to do a scheduled interview, we also stopped by two layouts - a segmented (modular isn't really an accurate term for this layout) layout from a Cincinnati, OH based group which took first place in the train show this year. One of the unique aspects of this layout is that other than the yard on one side there really isn't a straight piece of track on the layout - it's all done in curves, although some of them are very gentle. Everything is aligned and supported well enough that they don't even need connector tracks between the segments - they simply line them up and the track ends are aligned and ready to handle trains.
Another layout, but Modu-Trak (I believe that was their name), was an N Scale non-N-Trak layout that seems to believe in the concept that less is more. Except in long trains - there, more is more... something N Scale excels at. Most of the scenery is understated but first rate - rolling hills along the right-of-way, static grass fields, a restrained downtown and industrial area. And they all blended from one to another. Compared to some modular layouts (in many scales) I've seen in the past where the goal seems to be to stuff as much detail and activity into every inch, this layout is positively pastoral.
Okay, I was asked by some people through various means for a few specific product clarifications and photographs from the train show - first of all, to the person questioning whether or not the new Bachmann HO scale Baldwin Modern 4-4-0 American was priced at $435, the answer is yes. For the sound version. It's $300 for the non-sound version. It's a nice looking model, by the way - we did a click 'n spin on it. Why is it that expensive? According to Lee Riley, it comes down to increasingly expensive materials, stringent product safety and environmental safety requirements (he refered me to ROHS) as well as a lot of new benefits kicking in for the Chinese workers.
Photograph time - first up, the Walthers Trinity 6351cu ft covered hopper:
Okay, we're going to be playing "Name that flatcar" I think - it's an Athearn product:
Atlas Coil Car:
Atlas Well Cars (rememeber, this is only the plastic - they're going to get covered in metal etchings):
Here's Rob from Atlas talking to "Loco Lee" - a man who can make a QSI decoder stand up and sing symphonies. He's also a man who can state, from experience, that when you are recording sound from a GE exhaust that is larger than you are, make sure they blue flag the train so you don't suddenly find yourself stumbling towards the exhaust when they add a couple of cars to the train.....
And finally, a little video for your amusement (it's still processing, but I'm going to bed):
Last note - the NMRA Banquet was tonight. Quite a few hundred people attending. We've been all over this hotel all week.
And I think I was the only person who noticed this:
Ah well. It amused the people I pointed it out to.
