any Chicago reports??

As for myself, this was my first time attending and I had a ball.  Met a bunch of new friends and brought home a bunch of goodies.  

This was probably my 10th or 15th March Meet, and I think they get better each year, especially with the new location in the Westin Hotel!

 

I pre-paid Rich Yoder for one of those super Santa Fe boxcars (second run of only a few dozen more), got one of the new Weave rib side Milwaukee boxcars, and found a brass B&O "round top" covered hopper, by Hallmark from MANY years ago, from Merlin Lauber. Was unable to determine exactly what REALLY has happened with the PRR cabin cars from Kohs! Apparently George's "builder" informed him that the cars were all finished, packed and ready to ship. George wanted to inspect them, and the builder REPORTEDLY stated that it was "too late", you can't "inspect" them now, thus George refused to pay for them. Sure sounds "odd" to this novice, but the bottom line is there are STILL no PRR cabine cars! I REALLY want one of those that were "assigned to Railway Express Agency" cars with the steam lines and steam heat coils inside. I have an old brass N5 cabin car by US Hobbies (I think), and had it custom painted & lettered for those express cabin cars, but sure would like one of those Kohs models. Oh well. 

I was so busy with the layout tour today I did not have time to edit all the pix I shot yesterday. I'll get to that in the AM.

It was my first visit as well, and I had a great time.  I got to meet some OGR members in person which was wonderful and spend some of my hard earned $$$.  Spoke with Lou Cross for a while and bought a bunch from him to replenish my stock, he is such a wonderful person and a pleasure to talk with.  Grabbed a few Weaver cars and some from Atlas, I also picked up a hydro-cal kit from Ken that is really nice.  All in all a great time and a great day.

 

Chris

Chris,

 

I'm glad to hear you got to meet Lou.  He's a lot of fun once you get to meet & talk with him.  I'll be going with him for a "Milkshake Run" this coming weekend.  It's only 3 hours travel each way but he feels it's worth it (especially, if he's not driving).  He loves his milkshakes!

 

He always has great stories about the hobby's earlier days and the people he's got to know over the years.  Also fun to hear about him growing up in Chicago, his experiences during World War II, and his move to California.

 

It's also a lot of fun teasing and being teased by him.  Some believe I go too far in picking on him but, trust me, he can take it and dish it out even better.

 

Anyway, I'm glad you got to meet & speak with him.

 

Jay

Picked up 23 KCS trinity hoppers and 4 coil cars.....now if I could just find a KCS engine!

Frank

Did Lou Cross say when he was going to be back at his home in CA?  I want to order some items from him but I haven't been able to contact him for the last couple of weeks; I just figured he was in Chicago for the O Scale meet since I saw that he was present at last year's Chicago meet.

 

Thanks!

Scott Kurzawski

Austin, TX

Scott,

 

He should be back this Thursday (he's taking Amtrak).  Try calling him on Friday.

 

Jay

 

 

 

 

....many many many thanks to you Mike!  Sheila says hi

Thanks, it was great to meet and talk with you as well.

 

Chris

Hi Jay,

 

He certainly is a lot of fun, and funny...  I only wish I could of talked with him longer. 

 

Chris

Thanks for the quick reply Jay.  I will give Lou a call this Friday.  Maybe I'll get to meet Lou at the Fort Worth Show in October.

 

Scott

 

 

Good find, thx.  Ya know, I've been thinking about getting brass engines lately.

 

I was late and missed the KCS loco on the bay the other day