Large Scale Central

Bitg Train Show, Ontario CA

Well, the diminishing vestige of the once great Queen Mary is on soon at the Ontario Convention center:

http://www.bigtrainshow.com/

Check the list of exhibitors, Bachmann is not coming? Hmm… also no Crest-Electronics or PolksGenerationNext.

May 21-22…

Anyone going?

Greg

Greg,

I planned on going to promote the 2016 NGRC but then I found out it is the same weekend as the huge Bay Area Maker Faire. The Bay Area Garden Railway Society is invited each year to run our Live Steam layout and we attract a ton of curious onlookers. It is a great event and we think we can get quite a few of the people in attendance to attend out National Convention… Or at least get them to come out for the Saturday public day. To that end we will be handing out 1000’s of 2 for 1 coupons for the Saturday Large Scale Train Show (Coupon can be downloaded here)

I wish it was a different weekend so that I could go. The 2016 NGRC will have representatives there from the Del Oro Pacific Modular Group and MovieMix Productions. Hans from Gold Coast Station will have one of our USAT prototype Convention Cars in his booth and will be taking names for anyone interested in purchasing one but who cannot attend the convention. He and I worked a deal where he can buy any extras of the 200 that do not sell to attendees. I’m not sure how many, if any, that will be… We’ll see…

Russ Miller

NGRC 2016 Chairman

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Greg Elmassian said:

Well, the diminishing vestige of the once great Queen Mary is on soon at the Ontario Convention center:

http://www.bigtrainshow.com/

Check the list of exhibitors, Bachmann is not coming? Hmm… also no Crest-Electronics or PolksGenerationNext.

May 21-22…

Anyone going?

Greg

Greg,

It’s really sad to see this Granddaddy of train shows reduced from its “Glory Days” to this pathetic status. I looked at the registered vendors on the site and noticed a couple of the old timers still attending. It kind of shows the slow demise of the garden train industry and the hobby…(http://www.largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-cry.gif)

I used to be a regular attendee, but haven’t been in 4 or 5 years. Not attending this year either.

I may drive the 2 hours up there, but dunno… I’m kind of feeling like you.

Greg

I went to the first one in Ontario, and was disappointed then. I understand the problems of the Queen Mary for vendors, but it was popular with the public. The new location may be great for vendors, but not great enough for them to come to the event. People stayed away in droves. Don’t think I’ve been back since then. When it went “all scales,” that was enough for me.

When it went “all scales,” that was enough for me.

Yea, I hope the ECLSTS doesn’t go that way

well I’m scheduled to be there. But with the Door Hollow guys not going this year, being there with no back up support is going to be tough. Due to the clutter in my garage blocking the usual layout I’m also probably taking the two G pizza microlayouts I took to the last GTE. That worked out alot better for me solo.

As for the show, I was rather disappointed by the decline in vendors over the last couple years. I understand that there simply isn’t enough base anymore for a Queen Mary type G only show. The diminished pages of advertisers in GR is proof of that. But it doesn’t help that the vendors that do show up now are almost all selling used stuff.That’s expected with the O guys, but the HO stuff showing up is often old Tyco bottom dwellers. Also theres also always the couple guys who do have used G but it’s always old Big Haulers for LGB prices. Hans and BridgeMasters are the only ones I have bought from at last shows. I need some N stuff but I’m not confident I’ll find what I want there nor if I do find it, whether its going to be in running condition. Train shows are a huge crap shoot.

Tyco bottom dwellers??? Hey! I run a Tyco train on the NMRA set up at the shows here.

Maybe that’s why some of them don’t seam to like me very much.

Victor, I have a lot of N stuff from 20 years ago, barely run, I never had a layout.

for you, such a deal…

Most of the stuff is collectable, but I removed the price stickers from the boxes early on, before this stuff was being collected, so it kills the collectable value.

Let me know, I have a spreadsheet…

Greg

Greg Elmassian said:

Victor, I have a lot of N stuff from 20 years ago, barely run, I never had a layout.

for you, such a deal…

Most of the stuff is collectable, but I removed the price stickers from the boxes early on, before this stuff was being collected, so it kills the collectable value.

Let me know, I have a spreadsheet…

Greg

Hi Greg if you have anything that might work on an 8 inch radius (no joke) , I’m interested (http://www.largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-wink.gif)

Getting ready to set up tomorrow, will be taking the two G micro pizzas, stop by if you are coming this weekend

I’m going only because I have free tickets and I’m about 15 mins from Ontario. The vender list gets smaller each year but its still a good place to find a deal or two.

This year is going to be rough with no back up from the Door Hollow crew, so anyone wanting to stop by and hang out and give me a chance to make a pit stop will be appreciated

Wow blow out prices on used and nos g at BridgeMasters. Like NOS Aristo. A1s $125, NOS U25s $150 and a C16 NIB $150, used stuff fer cheap! I gots me a Bmann saddletanker $50 been wanting for that for years. Hans is blowing out lil big hauler sets for $79. He says he bought out the lot if them. So it looks like thats the end of them. Speaking of ends. You read it here first.Someone here(g vendor) told me bitterly that Bachman is ENDING the Spectrum line. They are keeping the Big Hauler line for now but Spectrum will not resume production. Dang!

Wow, I’m happy for your good fortune there.

I guess there’s a place for Bug Maulers and starter sets, cheap money makers.

See any used classic flat cars, w or w/o reels? fer cheap? No wait … I have a truck repair…

John

BridgeMasters has bunch of flats for sale, look modern maybe Aristo or USA …$15 each, I’d give them a call

Bridgeworks & Gold Coast was the only venders with some deals, everyone else wanted full retail. Overall this was the smallest show I have seen and will also be my last. Its just not worth the drive.

Bob Russell said:

Bridgeworks & Gold Coast was the only venders with some deals, everyone else wanted full retail. Overall this was the smallest show I have seen and will also be my last. Its just not worth the drive.

Bob what was your impression of attendance? The GTE in Costa Mesa was bonkers crowded and that was a rainy weekend. Today os like alot lighter attendance than I expected, I expected a big crowd like last year, hope tomorrow is better. If tomorrow is lighter than today thats going to be bad for the vendors that showed up.

Vic and Bob, and anybody who’s interested, last November 1st the retail economy took another nosedive similar to the cliff we fell off the first week of September 2008. The people who own the country have sucked another 30-40% out of the economy, but you have to be directly affected to be noticing because the stock market is hanging in there, which, as ridiculous as it sounds, is the only barometer most people pay attention to. And the housing market is fooling a lot of people into thinking things are okay. Things aren’t okay. Unfortunately, I have no choice but to notice (painfully) since I’m at ground level.

(I mixed enough metaphors there to qualify for a job as a baseball manager!)

.

Vic Smith said:
… Speaking of ends. You read it here first.Someone here(g vendor) told me bitterly that Bachman is ENDING the Spectrum line. They are keeping the Big Hauler line for now but Spectrum will not resume production. Dang!

Vic, I think we had better wait until there is some official word on the subject. How many times have we heard rumors, someone said that they heard from someone else that heard…