I'm not feeling the enthusiasm, here, nor on the other threads in the York sub-forum, that I used to read from post-York posters. What's happened?
FrankM
I wouldn't quite know where to start, Frank! I love this hobby and expect to be involved with it in some compacity until the No. 1 Dispatcher upstairs decides my time is up. I also thoroughly enjoy attending the York Meet, and I'm happy to say that my bride enjoys it as much (or perhaps even more) than I do because she enjoys meeting and talking with the people there. We plan to continue atttending whenever we can, and certainly for as long as I am associated with the magazine.
As for possible improvements to the meet: Well, that kind of depends on an individual's perspective. My days of heading home with a car full of trains are pretty much over simply because I truly do have most all of what I want and need. But there is still more on the way for me because I have a number of preorders in the hopper. These days, I have a semi-formal "deal" with the wife whereby I can buy all the new trains I care to so long as I sell-off enough excess to pretty much defray the cost. Works okay for me! That being the case, York, for me, is primarily a recruitment effort for the magazine and, best of all, a social gathering where I get to share time with fellow hobbyists AND with the folks who supply the products I buy.
My own personal druthers, if I was pressed to express them (which I frequently am), would be, in light of evolving trends in the hobby and the industry in recent years, to see the Eastern Div. scale back to a once-a-year event--preferably held in October. I also would probably recommend that it be further scaled back to a two-day event, although that might not be necessary if it became an annual rather than a semi-annual event.
At the same time, I do reqognize the original purpose of the event which dates back many years. It was designed/intended to be a destination for toy train COLLECTORS to gather together for the purpose of buying/sell/trading trains and exchanging information and ideas to perpetuate that aspect of the hobby. That certainly worked well enough for a long time because the O and Standard Gauge segments of the hobby, as far as new product was concerned, was pretty stagnant for a couple of decades or so. Then came the 80s and 90s, and a dramatic rebirth of the hobby. At that point, a couple of things happened. Manufacturers, old and new, jumped on the bandwagon with new products and new texcnologies that couldn't even be dreamed of in the so-called "Golden Years of Toy Trains" in the poswar period. Concurrently, more hobbyists became interested in actually "playing with" the trains they had or were planning to acquire. Some developed an insatiable appetite for product, and in many ways that hunger for something new continues to this day. So, the manufacturers and suppliers to the hobby appeared front and center at York and similar events. Nowadays, so of those industry folks believe that going to York is like "preaching to the choir," and to a large extent they are right. BUT...and this is an important "but"...it is a very important choir because many of these TCA members are the very foundation of the hobby. Anyone in the industry has to be kind of careful about overlooking or alienating that choir!
Anyhow, these are just some preliminary thoughts. I could go on for many more paragraphs, but someone is knocking at my front door. Gotta go...for now.