Thanks Joe,
Yes, I am aware of it. I’ve been to the Toy Train Operating Society group get togethers before, they are mostly entirley O gauge, and of that mostly prewar Tinplate and classic postwar Lionel. Nice stuff but not very helpfull for me. Dave would love it! I might give another one a try, you never know… 
The other open houses I’ve been to have been fairly limited, as they are not public shows the sellers almost exclusivly consist of a few club members selling off the stuff they dont want anymore, so its been a tad limited on selection.
The demise of the GATS was really a death blow to large public venue train shows here, it sucks because I read about thriving shows that are occuring elsewhere quite regularly, one back east is every 2 to 3 months! Says alot about the overall state of the hobby in SoCal, its here, but its not a large impact hobby like R/C or video games.
