ExactRail

ExactRail would like people to know that while they did have products made at the AFFA factory, they don't believe that it's closing will be a major problem for them. The HO scale GSI bulkhead flats were completed and are waiting to be shipped from there to the states:

They also are showing off their new Jonestown Autoflood II Hoppers in N scale:

Walthers

Walthers announced several new products this morning including:

HO scale loading ramps:
 

An HO scale Cross-Dock Truck facility:

The Thrall Rebult 40' Well Car and a new tooling Thrall 5-unit articulated 40' well car:

They also announced a 60' Plate F high cube boxcar, and the first run is already sold out, so check with your hobby shop to see if they ordered extras:

An HO scale coal platform is also on display, but it took a bit of damage in shipping:
 

Modern Shopping Center II in HO will be joining Modern Shopping Center I:

Walthers developed an RPO Baggage Car for the George Washington passenger train, and tooled it up with both roof styles - they will be releasing it in schemes for all the railroads that used it - Santa Fe, Illinois Central, Denver & Rio Grande Western, Great Northern, Milwaukee Road, New York Central, Soo Line, Southern Pacific, and Union Pacific. There will also be an unlettered Pullman Green car available:

Finally, the Walthers Product manager is a Walking Dead fan, so just in time (for Halloween) to be featured on your post-apocolyptic layout - HO scale Zombies:

Tangent Scale Models

Tangent Scale Models has announced it's first N scale model, the Bethlehem 3600 cuft Quad-Hopper:

ESU-LokSound

While this isn't exactly a new announcement (and they have a 350 unit backorder), I was able to use the new ESU CabControl II throttle, which features a large knob, and Android based touchscreen, and 4 assignable buttons:

Note: Don't try to take a selfie with a Canon 70D and a 50mm lens in inadequate lighting...

Bowser

Bowser is still pushing ahead with the RS-3 project, and they had several test shots on hand to show off:

Athearn

Athearn didn't have any new announcements for this year's NTS, but they had a nice display of their new Norfolk Southern SD60E #6920 in the Honoring our Veterans paint scheme, as well as UP 1943, the Spirit of Union Pacific SD70ACe, and NS 911, their First Responders unit:
 

Digitrax

Digitrax has new signals out for their signalling system, in both HO and N scale:

They have also recently released the BXPA1 LocoNet DCC Auto-Reverser, featuring Detection, Transponding and Power Management:
 

Atlas

Atlas is not as significantly affected by the AFFA factory shutdown as many first thought - they have several factories they use now.

Shown at the NTS were an HO scale Greenbrier TBOX "Grid Side" 7550 cf high-capacity boxcar:

and an N scale 4180 cuft Airslide Hopper:

Kato

Kato had it's new HO scale Superliner II Transition Sleeper on display:

Kato also had the body shell of their upcoming UP 1943 "Spirit of Union Pacific" SD70ACe locomotive on display:
 

Mt. Albert Scale Lumber & FastTracks

Tim Warris, the founder of FastTracks, also purchased the Mt. Albert Scale Lumber company and has been working on introducing new products.

One of the first of these is "The Lumber Store" which is something of a scratchbuilder's dream. It's a circular rack equipped with tubes labeled in the scale size of the lumber they contain. There are different versions of the Lumber Store, both for different scales and for different sizes of lumber. The one pictured starts at HO scale 1x2" or so and goes up to at least 4x2", others have larger sizes of lumber. When you order the Lumber Store you get the rack and many bags of scale lumber to fill it.
 

Also coming from Mt. Albert Scale Lumber is "The Last Resort Chair Co." a factory that builds the chairs seen below:
 

On the FastTracks side, QuickSticks Laser Ties are now available for O scale #10 turnouts:

Also available is a FastTracks jig for building an O scale #10 turnout. For ease of shipping it comes in two pieces:
 

InterMountain

InterMountain is affected by the AFFA factory closure, however they state that they have factories bidding for their business, and have recently certified two new factories.

The 4740 cuft Covered Hopper model is much further along than it was when we first saw it last year:

All of the GP16 paint sample models are at the show:
 

The SD40T-2 project is not affected by the factory closure as tooling is not complete, so it's tooling is still in Colorado:

Micro-Trains Line

Micro-Trains had a couple new announcements at the show. The first is of interest to collectors, the Thomas Kinkade Freight Series, which will feature double-door boxcars with the doors replaced by a transluscent sheet that the painting will be on, and LED lighting inside.

Micro-Trains is also branching out, introducing the Trains of Time brand. The trains they will be producing will not be N scale, or possibly any current scale (the person manning the booth held his hands apart a distance that looked close to S scale to me). Aimed at the 8-12 year old demographic, the train sets will be sold through Amazon and include a story featuring a young man named "Chance Ryder" as he travels back in time to famous train related events. The first set features the Hagenbeck-Wallace Circus Train wreck, the worst circus train wreck in US History. Chance will be a roustabout on the train. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hammond_Circus_Train_Wreck  A future story under development will have Chance chasing some famous thieves as part of a posse:

New models shown at the show are the N scale DODX Navy Flat Car with ballistic missile load, and a DODX flat car with two M1 Abrams tanks. The tank flat car load includes etched metal tie downs:

Jeff, can you get a close up

Jeff, can you get a close up shot of the grills on the Scaletrains tunnel motors.

Those grills are a personal pet peeve of mine. to be in scale, they almost need to be a corrugated steel mesh or similar

Just saw a closeup on their

Just saw a closeup on their site. Better than typical. Still looks out of scale to me. 

Roco/Fleischmann

Some interesting news for European modelers, Roco/Fleischmann is doing some rationalization of their product lines. N scale items will be under the Fleischmann name (as will the current Fleischmann line of HO track) and HO, TT, and HOe (HO on N gauge track) will fall under the Roco name. According to the lady in the display, all of their locomotives are available with one of three power options: DC, DCC, and AC (Marklin).

One of the more unique products I photographed is a model of an Austrian railroad locomotive that has been wrapped to commemorate the 200th Anniversary of the writing of the song "Silent Night" (Stille Nacht in the original German). The locomotive plays the song itself when run (I'll have to try and get video when it's quiet enough):

One of the newest HO scale models featured in the display was the DB E 60 electric locomotive. Currently in the Fleischmann line, it will be moving to the Roco label:

A new HO scale steam locomotive in the Roco line is the Class 86, available for both DR and DB. I believe this particular locomotive was mis-numbered as a Class 85:

Another new Fleischmann HO scale locomotive, soon to be Roco, is the Class 152 electric locomotive, DB Epoch IV:
 

An iconic Swiss locomotive from Roco, the HO scale Be 6/8 II, one of the locomotives known as "Crocodiles":
 

Here is a Roco HO scale French SNCF BB 26000 class electric locomotive:

Last year I showed video of a Roco HO scale modern rotary snow blower. This model goes is actually animated, the the blades lifting, lowering and spinning, and the entire cab portion of the model able to turn 180 degrees. Apparently Conrail and CSX have purchased them, so they will be available in US paint and details in the second half of 2019:
 

The original European version:

TrainTraxx

I don't have any good photos of this, but I'm fascinated by the idea - TrainTraxx has built the hardware and software to add RFID tags to your rolling stock, and wi-fi RFID readers for mounting under the track in order to track where your cars are on your layout. All of the modern railroad buzzwords are involved - Arduino, Raspberry Pi, Wi-fi, cloud...

See more at https://www.traintraxx.com/traxx-id/and I'll try and get some better photos and/or video of what the are demonstrating.

IM Tunnel Motor

That is no further along than it was in Springfield.  Sitting too high on an SD40-2 drive.

Thankfully Scaletrains will be out first and Athearn is doing an improved version.

A pet peeve of mine is fake announcements years in advance of any real products.

Out of scale?

It is physically impossible to make see through tunnel motor screens that are actually scale size.

These look awesome.  Complainers gotta complain.

Broadway ?

Jeff if you visit Broadway Ltd. please ask them about their HO SD45 announcement,

Thanks

Just walked by BLI

Nobody at the booth at the moment. I haven't been taking photos - I've been shooting video. Ken Patterson drafted me as his cameraman. Fun guy to experience a train show with.

Ken Patterson discovered T-Trak

The first layout that Ken wanted to shoot was the mass Free-mo one, so I made sure we went over to see the Lakawanna Viaduct. Ken ended up interviewing the organizer (been working on it for 2 years) of the Free-mo layout and then gentleman who built the viaduct.

After Ken shot B-roll, I suggested we go see the T-Trak layout... Ken: "What's that?" Me:"A whole lot of guys who built a layout out of foot square modules" (that's not entirely accurate, there are different sizes).

This is Ken discovering T-Trak:

We got what looked like a great interview.

Out of scale? Fri, 2018-08-10

I'd rather have it look correct than be see through.  

Ken seems like a blast

His videos are watched by thousands. Many thousands.

His post St Louis RPM meet up at his house was classic !

Looking correct?

I dunno - how does this look?