BRAVING THE WEATHER - OGR at the BIG "E"

It doesn't...I was being sarcastic.

 

I don't think we have seen the sun in NE Ohio for over a week.

 

I do a lot of flying back and forth between NE Ohio and south Florida at this time of year, flying clients to their winter hideouts in Florida. On almost every trip, we fly in clear weather with only occasional scattered clouds until we get to 50 miles or so south of Pittsburgh, when the clouds roll in below us in a solid undercast. Makes for a very dull, gray day once we get on the ground.

Rich - are you a commercial pilot?  From the OGR DVD tutorials I have featuring you, I just assumed your only career was as an expert train guru/yoda.  

 

Peter

My turn for a dumb question. What is the Big E? Why do they call it that? It's not like the Big W in "Mad World" is it? Don

I was thinking the same thing, why is it called the Big E..  It's in Amherst?  Where does the E come in to play.  Shouldn't it be the big A?  

the Springfield exposition ,it started as a huge agricultural exposition . the nick name big E Has stuck with it .

techman

Yes - the Big E is short for the Eastern States Exposition which is a large state fair for all of the New England states.

Biggest fair in New England in Sept, so when ever there's a show, dog show, gun show, auto show, we locals say it's at the Big E.  "Going to the Big E train show", things like that.  It's in West Springfield, the train show is put on by the Amherst RR Historical Society

Made it down from NH today, 495 was a mess on the way down with many snowplows. I90 was clear and a breeze to drive on. it took longer then usual to drive. Due to the weather there were smaller crowds as a result..

Lionel had 3 small tables  for the kids to play with the Lionchief system.

MTH had a section of new S  gauge rolling stock, at least new to me.

Atlas seemed to have the same old stuff, Ross was selling his switches,

 Many layouts++ in all buildings.

Bachmann had all there offerings out , including displaying their new HO blue tooth system.

Charlie Ro had his huge G scale Big Boy on display for $3400!

Grabowski's had his usual wall of trains

It was worth the trip for me, the Big E parking lot was messy with slush, but that was  to be expected. Good times..

 

http://www.masslive.com/news/i..._i.html#incart_river

whoa, what is that loco on the first pic under the headline?

Yes, I am a free-lance commercial/corporate pilot. I fly four different Beechcraft King Airs (two 90's and two 200's) for 6 different owners.

Well I will be seeing you all again today at 2 today.

See you soon Nate. I am leaving in 30 minutes to pick up Eddiem.

Rusty

I made the show on Saturday, I only live 30 miles north and the roads were fine. I purchased 18 hopper and gondola cars for load templates, all but one vendor took my offer for less than the asking price. I think most of them realized that the weather was going to hurt them so best take the cash. I found most of the hoppers and gondolas I was looking for. I am the guy with the red Conway Coal hard hat back left of the photo. Sorry I didn't get to talk to all of you.

Gentlemen,

   Have a great time at the Big E and be careful out there on the winter roads.

PCRR/Dave

 

quote:

My turn for a dumb question. What is the Big E? Why do they call it that? It's not like the Big W in "Mad World" is it? Don

 

"Big E" is the nickname for the facility: The Eastern States Exposition. They have all sorts of events there, including concerts.

 

Sorry I missed the show. It wasn't local driving in Springfield that concerned me, it was the drive on 90, through the Berkshires and Eastern Upstate NY. I drive that route fairly often. I was just in Palmer a couple of weeks ago. The drive home was no fun due to snow. The worst driving on 90 was in NYS. Several cars off the road, and a couple of fender benders. Over the years, there has been a lot worse.

So just curious, how big is this show in comparison to York? 

I would say it is just as big but it is an ALL GAUGE show, and mostly HO.

 

Hey Gary, I missed being there. The picture looks great.

 

Sandjam, these are two very different shows. The Big E caters to all gauges and has several displays of prototype railroadiana. In addition - the layouts are everywhere you look and some are just massive. I spend about an hour each show just looking at the various layouts.

 

There are plenty of ogauge offerings vying for your $. If you get the chance you won't regret attending.

 

Paul

I think it's slightly smaller than york, but it's still a major event worth attending... I have been going the past 4 years.  Prices are good and most people selling negotiate fairly.  What I really like is the clinics and seminars that are put on at this show.  I went yesterday (Saturday 1/24).... and went to an airbrushing clinic which was really worthwhile.  They provide you with an HO freight car, and you get to weather it a nice Iwata air brush..... Having never airbrushed anything before it was a great way to spend an hour off my feet learning something new.  

 

I also attended a really good clinic on LED lighting.  So all in all I really like the Amherst show...  Two years ago, the company with the cloud stencils presented, I liked them so much I bought them..... I have (8)  4 x 8 sheets of 1/8 inch masonite painted blue sky with clouds that my daughter spray paints for me....   With over 70 running feet of backdrop,  purchasing preprinted backdrops was out of my budget.  

Sounds like a good show, I'll have to put it on my list for next year.  Thanks for the info everyone.

Hi Rich! thats great that you are a professional pilot as well as locomotive engineer, publisher, etc etc etc. I fly professionally as well in a Beech 1900 for a corporation out of Groton, CT.  I train at Flight Safety LGA every 9 months or so, I'm not sure If you go there as well, or ICT For the 90 and 200. I also understand that you did the voice recordings on the new 765 that I bought this year.  Finally, someone who knows how to talk on the radio...and now I understand why.  

We made it to the Big E yesterday.  Here are my observations:

• To the commenter above who said "the roads weren't bad", I'll have to disagree.  Our drive from Rhode Island which normally takes two hours took three.  The last 25 miles were going at 40mph on the Mass Pike (normally 65 mph).  
• My friend that we met up with (roommate from college) had the same experience driving in from the Berkshires in northwestern Mass.
• We went however, because we took the philosophy that we were driving into it and, if it got bad or impassable, we would just turn around.  I'm glad we made that call because, while it did get a little sketchy at the end, for the most part, it was just winter driving in New England.
• The crowds in the halls were down visibly.  Even though we got a late start, we finished earlier than last year.  We attributed this to 1) familiarity with some of the exhibitors, but more so, 2) because we could walk around and not trudge around behind too many slow people.
• I found prices to be slightly lower than last year but there were still many tinplate sellers with what I refer to as "I want to carry it back home" pricing.
• We missed seeing many of the metro New Yorkers from the forum and otherwise.
• I hadn't realized that Bill Schmeelk of LCCA fame now works for Lionel and was pleased to chat with him at the Lionel booth.  The 4-5 kiddie height tables they had set up were well used when I was there.
• MTH's Standard Gauge W&A General set was kind of "kool" for a kitschy item, if you know what I mean.
• I continue to think the world of that European Train Enthusiasts' HO layout in Mallary.
• There was a 1:1 Speeder on display in the Better Living Center hall, near Charles Ro, which we enjoyed.  It was a good photo opp.
• Speaking of Charles Ro: He had some very good "dumpster diving" boxes available again this year with very low priced odds and ends (e.g., loose O22 switch controllers in need of rewiring for $2 each).
• I only ran into one guy who was crop dusting and I had to be talked out of going up and kicking him in his rear end.  Most other people seemed to be pretty well scrubbed.  Perhaps the smellier attendees are more disproportionately scared of driving in snow than others....
• I gotta tell ya, if you're a Flyer guy, the Big E is your show.  There were more very large tables/booths devoted exclusively to American Flyer tinplate than I think is even typically seen at York.
• My college roommate is a G Scale guy and I did note, vicariously through him, that there seemed to be less G Scale than past years.
• We made one observation that comes under a heading of "dark humor":
• • Last year, the large G Scale club layout in the Mallary hall was multi-tiered with the tallest tier being close to 6' high.  By luck last year, we were there when an operator error had caused a G Scale loco to fall from the highest tier to the floor.  The club members seemed to be divided into two distinct personality types: About half were ashen-faced and reeling from the blow while the others were red-faced and rip-sh*t and looking like they wanted to punch somebody's lights out.  It was an interesting display of the diversity of human nature, if you will.
  • This year, we noted that the layout was changed and highest tier was about 4 feet.  There were very few areas that weren't protected by a table beneath the tracks.
• I enjoyed a live demonstration of how to make static grass at the Scenery Express booth.
• My personal litmus test for scenery is good water and there were several layouts this year with substantially improved water over prior years.  There are just too many exhibitors in my opinion -- for such a high-quality show -- who think that slapping aqua paint on a ripply board is good enough.
• I LOVE -- and I do mean LOVE -- the modular sections done by the children, also in the Mallary hall, not too far from the Lego layout.  There's an organized youth model railroader club and they have a module contest.  Each kid is scored and there's a winner.  My only regret is that the kids aren't there personally to be congratulated.  Some are going to be first-rate modelers a few years down the road.
• The large Maine-based HO layout in the center of one of the halls seemed to have upped their game this year in terms of the quality of the modules.  Two of their massive freightyards were stunning with rows of red/green LED switch lights that were pure eye candy.  I generally like chatting with them too; They seem like nice guys.
• I was blown away by the length of some of the trains this year, particularly on some of the N Scale layouts.  I saw at least ten 40-50 car consists.
• I enjoy stopping by an operating S Scale layout that's a pretty fair piece of modeling, but doesn't shy away from including a few Flyer tinplate accessories and trains.  I particularly enjoy the looks on their faces when tell them every year that "Flyer S is fine, but it's got the wrong number of rails."  I'm sure they see me coming and say "Here comes that 3-rail ahem-hole again..."
• We also enjoy making the same jokes every year, particularly about the fact that beer is sold in the halls at the concession stands and how dangerous that could be in the overall scheme of things.  After a couple of toots, some really, really questionable purchases could be made...
• Lastly, we were pleased to see one of the biggest human beings -- let alone biggest model-railroaders -- that I've ever personally seen at the show again.  My roommate from college is 6'7" and the people he looks up at are few and far in between.  This guy goes about 7'1" and carries 375 pounds gracefully, sort of in the way that Shaquille O'Neill does.  We refer to him as "The Z-Scale Modeler" and I am always pleased to see him back.  You can't miss him.

The drive home was actually more difficult than the drive in and it was snowing harder.  It was worse than last year.  Perhaps someone will explain to me why, every year, the 14 days leading up to the Big E show feature blue skies without a cloud anywhere, but the day of the show is invariably nasty cold and snowy.

 

If you stayed home, I hope you got things done.  If you were at all concerned about the roads, you made the right call.  For me, I'm glad we went.  There is no downside to trains.

 

Steven J. Serenska

 

Nice report Steve, thanks. (But you left out if you bought anything...)

 

Paul

Steve,

A very eloquent dissertation.

Don

Paul:

 

Hee hee, quite an omission on my part.

 

As noted above, I took delivery of a large order from Scenery Express at the show and the four-figure invoice more or less blew my budget to smithereens.  I'm psyched, however, to have gotten all that stuff and I continue to be optimistic about actually working on my layout.

 

I was ever on the lookout for good used tinplate O track, but there was precious little to be found.  Just the usual assortment of under-table cruddy O31 curves...

 

The only other item I picked up was an early 1900s linen post card of the train station in Riverside, RI.  I'm collecting postcards of scenes along the Providence, Warren & Bristol RR (in operation 1855-1983) and I found one I had never seen in 11 years of searching.  I will be getting these framed and will display them in geographical North-to-South order to show an imaginary trip from Providence, RI to the Constitution Street Depot here in Bristol.

My girlfriend bought several modeling tools from "The Tool Man" and she took a ton of photos of structures and scenes she plans to model herself.  

 

A quiet year for purchases, but no shortage of fun.

 

SJS

 

Ed Boyle was at the Big E and didn't stop by the Bachmann/Williams booth!?! Shame on you Ed!