So that's why they were in a hurry yesterday!

Their truck went by me on I-81 in Virginia yesterday.  I wondered where they were going.

I spent today watching a 4-unit set of Alcos work Tobyhanna on the Delaware-Lackawanna.  They were planning to go to Slateford for the first time in a minth or so.  But they were only to Pocono Summit by sundown.  Oh well.  It was a beautiful day with some snow on the ground.  I don't recall ever seeing a 4-unit set of Alcos working. 

Tomorrow, Springfield!  Rough life....

Scott Chatfield

Anthracite RR Historical Society in Young Bldg. tables D&E

The ARHS has some nice laser-cut structure models in HO. These are based on stations and towers that were common on the Lehigh Valley RR, the Reading, etc.These are well-done kits that are not widely known. Stop by if you can.

Sorry you couldn't be here!

It's a great show to attend! I did try to scout out the crew from M-R-H, but to no avail. I think many out of town vendors were coming in late. The modular layouts are always great to see. East Coast Circuits is in the Better Living Section Section 40. Thanks to your posting in the new products section in the January issue we've had a number of inquires!

Thanks again Jeff!

Neal

You had to remind me

Drats Jeff,  I had plans and reservations to attend the show, but I forced myself not to think about it after surgery in December. Now with your reminder I too have to suffer through the videos.

Friday update

It's been a long day but the MRH booth is ready for the doors to open in the morning. Here are Les, J.F., and Victor setting up one of the video monitors earlier.

Many dealers are ready for the crowds. This is a look down the aisle right in front of the MRH booth.

The modular layouts were taking shape in the Better Living Center. Several layouts built in different scales will be running this weekend.

I'll post more after tomorrow's busy day!

Eric

Woohoo!!

Was wondering when I'd see a post on the ARS show.. I'm going to be there both days, and for at least one of them I'll bring along my scratch-built trolley car I just finished most of the work on. I'm going to try to hunt down an O scale traction layout and see if they'd be receptive to allowing me to pose my car on their setup, and maybe if I'm lucky, see if they'd run her for me! I have yet to built a trolley layout at home.

Simply cannot wait to go this year, I've been attending this show since I was a little kid, and have many fond memories. Though I'm sure it will come eventually, I currently have not missed a single show that I can remember, since I first started going when I was.. oh I don't know, maybe around 6 years old? It's one of my all time favorite events of the year, and I fought very hard with my parents to make sure we always went, and stayed as long as possible!!
Sorry you can't make It this year Jeff, I'll try to grab some pictures of my favorite sights while I'm there and post 'em when I get back!

Tip of the hat to Virtual Railfan

I had many a pleasureful time using the Virtual Railfan web cam from Laramie Depot last year to view the Spike150 and BigBoy/LivingLegend action. I'm happy to see they are showing the Amherst Show.

I captured this during the return of Big Boy from Spike150 in May:

Ready for action!

Product announcements at the Show

I've had two released show up in my email this morning. 

The first: Tangent Scale Models has available (at the show and to ship) it's first caboose model, the International Car Co. B&O I-1 Steel Bay Window Caboose. First delivered in 1965 to the B&O, they survived through to the CSX era. During that time they underwent many upgrades and modifications, and more than a few paint schemes, including the Chessie "Safety" schemes. Tangent's first run includes six schemes and two undecorated kits. The undecorated kits are the "Pyle" Marker Lights for the 1968+ era caboose and the "Box" Marker Lights for the 1979+ era caboose. For information see   https://www.tangentscalemodels.com/icc-bo-i-18-steel-bay-window-caboose/

The second: ScaleTrains.com is announcing two new models. The first is the Pullman-Standard "Backpacker" 5-unit articulated well car set. The first run will feature the original TT/Trailer Train logos and lettering, with two road numbers also featuring "K Line" logos. The car bodies are die-cast metal and feature stainless steel see-through walkways, wire grab irons, and trucks with rotating bearing caps. These are a Rivet Line product. 

The second item from ScaleTrains.com goes with the first - an early 40' standard-height corrugated shippping container. Suitable for the late 1970s/early 1980s, it features square side corrugations, smooth rear doors, and two logo panels. For information on both models visit k https://www.scaletrains.com/ 

Or if you are in West Springfield today, visit both booths and see them in person. 

Something real

Walking between the Better Living Center and the Young buildings, I was pleasantly surprised to find something very cool under steam.

Yes, a real, live steam loco. Monson Railroad #3, a two-foot gauge beauty.

Eric

Attended today (Sat)

Attended today,my third time. Spent about 5 hrs,did not get to see everything I wanted to,but most. Picked up one of the Tangent cabooses. Crowd seemed thinner than in my past visits,although still big. The aisles seemed wider also. I hope not because there were fewer participants. That’s just the impression I got,but I could be way off base too. Still the biggest and best train show I’ve attended.

Tom

Boxcars of the 1970s

North American Railcar was displaying new HO and N scale boxcars. First up were these National Steel Car 5092 cu. ft. combo boxcars in 12 roadnames. 

 

Equally impressive were a few Pullman-Standard 5077 cu. ft. single door boxcars. The prototypes were first built for Penn Central, Chicago & North Western, and Railbox. 

Paint, lettering, and details will follow several prototypes with six road numbers available for each. Again, the models are coming in HO and N scales.

More to come!

Eric

Narrow gauge

San Juan Car Company displayed new Conoco tank cars test shots. These have the taller dome. Here are the On3 models.

An HOn3 version was also displayed.

That's a Gilpin tram car to the right. Many of the Grandt Line products are now available through San Juan Car Company.

Eric

N scale containers

Jacksonville Terminal had a variety of modern N scale containers and specialized container flat cars on display. These 20' Standard Tank Containers are their February release.

The artwork and printing is amazing. They also had samples of an upcoming release, 53' 8-55-8 containers with scheme specific details and printing.

Eric

Intermountain

Intermountain was showing their HO scale GP16 locomotives in a number of paint schemes. 

Several Gunderson 50' High Cube double door boxcars with peaked roofs were displayed. These are available in HO and N scales.

Intermountain also had new covered hoppers on hand. These HO scale 4785 PS2-CD cars are all new tooling with an early end frame variation.

And that's it for me tonight. I'll post more tomorrow evening!

Eric

Local Talent

Nick

Virtual Railfan Walking Tour Sunday

Whoopee! A few minutes of looking around with narration while walking. This is now available - was a live stream earlier. Virtual Railfan is growing. I have already checked out Kansas City, San Juan Capistrano and Cajon Pass (did Laramie Depot last year). Might be a revenue opportunity here?

Great Weekend

Had a blast at the show this year! I ended up picking up an old HO scale NW2 for $5 for my friend who does HO scale. It had the same drive mechanism as a really smooth running F3 he has that I fixed up for him. I figured I could get the switcher running, and then custom paint it for his small switching layout. I'm still working on it, but I'm getting there. Should run much nicer once I'm done doing a full service on the motor. 

I ended up getting an old HO Bowser PCC for $7, I figured it might come in handy if I ever bother to make a small HO traction layout. I was mostly looking for 1/4" scale traction, but the closest I got was an empty box for a Bowser O scale Brill Trolley. 

I did end up cashing in on some old fashioned toy train fun, though. I got two 1920s-1930s Lionel projects to work on- first, a Standard Gauge No. 10 loco (very  loosely based off of the Milwaukee Road Bipolar Electric) which looks a little dumpy, but looks to have been cared for & still runs, and second, the remains of an old O gauge set headed up by a Lionel No. 253 loco (equally loosely based on a prototype, in this case, a New Haven boxcab electric, such as the EP-2), with two coaches and an observation. It needs quite a bit of help, someone started to restore it but never got past removing all the parts from the bodies and stripping paint. Almost all the detail parts are long gone, as are the trucks & couplers from the cars. The two things that sold it on me, were that the mess included the motor for the loco, which was in good cosmetic shape and still running, and the price, an accepted offer of $30. It's very much going to be a labor of love to get everything back in one piece, but I think it could be fun to do so, too! It's been a while since I bought anything this old- there's something really charming about old fashioned tinplate trains that brings me back to em none the less. 

The layouts at the show were as brilliant as ever, and traffic was pretty strong on saturday- but sunday was unusually less busy when entering. Once I get some photos moved from my phone to my computer I'll post 'em here!!

A few shots from the show.......

 Nicest modular RR won best in show.

 2 foot gauge Vulcan 0-4-2T brought in by trailer from Maine..

Peter

The show

is always overwhelming!  The modular modular railroads are incredible!  The variety of vendors is as broad as you will ever find in reality.  The opportunity to be with old friends and make new friends is always a joy for me.

I really don’t want to underrate the rest of the modeling at the show, there were another overwhelming group of scenes that people constructed.  This one has caught my eye more than once and is my favorite.

Memories from a neighbor’s Christmas setup from my childhood to....

my newest offering of working ground lights and step lights become a part of my memories and adventures as the new moon and Venus set on an amazing show and Sunday’s weather.

Hope everyone who attended enjoyed as well as enjoyed the snippets here on these posts!

Nick

Thanks for posting the

Thanks for posting the summary of the show and some highlights.

More from Amherst!

Deluxe Materials had a wide selection of products to help you build and finish your models. Their Roket UV adhesive sets up with a UV light exposure.

Brand new at the show was their Laser-Cut Kit Glue with a needle applicator to ease the glue onto the joints.

Bowser displayed a number of new 3D printed products available through their English's Model Railroad division. Cement containers, a snowplow for Rock Island and Union Pacific F-units, icicle breakers for their H21 hopper, and speaker housings for easier sound installations are seen here.

Different specialized containers and other open loads were on their table, including Sherman tanks. All of these 3D printed loads are available in HO and N scales.

They also had a few couple pre-production HO scale GMD SD40-2f locos on display. The Bangor & Aroostook and Central Main & Quebec units looked sharp.

Eric

I went over to the Scaletrains.com booth and...

I was talking to Shane about some freight cars and engines. I asked if they had any plans on doing some 4 axle Geeps and while he didn't give me a direct answer, he alluded that one may be on the drawing board. If the Geeps they decide to make are as good as the rest of their engines, I'll be ready to buy!

Neal

Athearn

Athearn displayed new locomotives and cabooses on their eye-catching display. Athearn rep Chris Palomarez was excited about many of the new models in the Genesis line. Several HO scale EMD SD80MAC diesels were in the limelight.

 
Several new HO scale ICC cabooses were nearby. All are equipped with DCC and lights, and several will be available with sound. 

This trio of HO scale Norfolk Southern SD60E locos caught my eye on a turntable diorama. 

More to come!

Eric