Chicago O Scale show - are you going?

We are going to be on our way to the show in 30 min eh

 

already here.... can't wait till the doors open!!!!!

Hope you visited the Sunset/3rd Rail/Golden Gate Depot display and purchased/order lots of good things.

 

I came up here with a 2 rail O scale friend to help work his table and have been here since Friday afternoon. This is the first O scale show I have attended.  Wow, this is quite a show indeed! Many beautiful trains, and  Blue  Atlas  boxes everywhere. So far I have picked up an Atlas CCC & StL  NYC box car, a bunch of detail parts by John Keil, a Weaver troop Kitchen (the frame checked out fine), an Intermountain NYC composite Gondola - 3 rail, several brass tank cars, and a very nice O scale smoke stack. O more day for go. I will post some pictures next week

 

Thank,

 

RG

 

 

Here are some photos I took at the Chicago March meet this afternoon. I took photos at tables of the model manufacturers / importers. I wanted to take more from the dealers & private sellers but didn’t since I was unsure of the etiquette. For hobbyists who have been to similar shows, do you take photos of models listed for sale by private sellers & dealers?

Here are some images from the Key Imports table. Might have been an E# model.

 

 

There was this gentleman who was offering well-detailed models of what looked like a British Steam locomotives like the one from that Sheena Easton song.

 

 

 

 

Kohs had this impressive heavy-duty Pennsylvania Railroad car. It looked a lot better in person compared to the unpainted brass versions at the Kohs website.

 

 

Kohs also had this long model of an American Steam locomotive.

 

Kohs also had some caboose models.

 

Rich Yoder had these switcher models at his desk.

 

Enjoyed talking to Erik about his progress with the SD45s. He is awaiting details on the traction motor at this time. This model was older than my current interests but I am impressed with Erik’s diligence in getting the under-locomotive details correctly. I never turned my models over to see what details were under them but Erik’s customers must be expecting a lot from this project & he is not going to disappoint them. It was also interesting to listen to his explanation on the features that make his drives more reliable & less conspicuous than competitor models.

 

Atlas has some of the models that they have already announced. They have some new car that they plan to announce soon but didn’t want to let the cat out of the bag since they were concerned that their competitors would replicate it.

 

 

I had a great time taking to Ed from Berkshire Car Shop. In addition to the vintage trolley models, Ed also had some impressive grand building sides with amazing level of detail, on display. It reminded me of some palatial buildings at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor campus. If any hobbyists are tired of models of brick-sided buildings, I would advise you to contact Ed. I wish I had taken some photos of Ed’s buildings. My words cannot compliment his offerings adequately.

 

I learnt from Norm Buckhart that Protocraft will not making any more trucks in O-Scale. He will be focusing on Proto-48. I was impressed with his O-Scale 100-ton Roller-Bearing trucks that I bought last year but they are now discontinued & won’t be re-released anytime soon. He still has around 20 pairs of the O-Scale 70-ton Roller-Bearing trucks (but not at this show) but they will also not be offered once they are sold out.

 

Tried talking to a 3^rd Rail / Golden Gate Depot representative about introducing some modern models but this person didn’t seem interested & I did not spend much time around their displays. Apparently they won’t make any more freight car models, only old passenger train models. They were also not interested in making models of any modern locomotives. They preferred to focus on models of locomotives from the 1950s.

 

Enjoyed meeting R Nelson, Mike DeBerg, Brian Huang & some other forum members with whom I had interacted on the forum but never met in person.

 

Had a great time talking to Jack (Hot Water) & got some valuable career advice from him.

 

Also enjoyed meeting dealers like Jeff (JD's Trains), Bill Davis (American O-Scale), Norm Buckhart (Protocraft) & Norm (Norm’s O-Scale) from whom I have bought models online & exchanged e-mails but never met in person.

 

Last year, I was disappointed with the lack of availability of modern models. This year I  e-mailed dealers whom I had seen last year, weeks before the show & made arrangements to buy some modern models at the show. Got great deals from Pat (P&D Hobby), Merlyn (Caboose Stop Hobbies) & Norm (Norm’s O-Scale) on modern Atlas-O intermodal models.

 

For modelers who are into contemporary models & live close to this show, Mike DeBerg has modern Atlas & MTH 2-rail locomotives for sale at attractive prices & he will be there on Sunday also. I am sure there are older models available from other private sellers / dealers but I am not familiar with them to describe what I saw.

 

These are just my opinion,

Thanks,

Naveen Rajan

Thank you for the show report!

Excellent, coherent, well-photographed report.  Thanks for taking the time to organize it and present it so well.

Please photograph the individual tables also. 

Yea, right!!!

the UK models shown are absolutely fabulous.  i spoke to lee marsh, pictured, for a bit. a really nice guy and a true artist in the hobby. 

Nice write up. Thanks

On Saturday, March 14, 2015, O Gauge Railroading On Line Forum <
alerts@hoop.la> wrote:

The main reason that Sunset/3rd Rail/Golden Gate Depot has no interest in offering modern diesel models is because, they have already been produced by many other builders, and the market simply isn't there to support ANOTHER offering of such models.

naveenrajan Wish I could have met ya eh! 

naveen,great show report! i feel like i was there looking at the photos.-jim

Interest is relative to the number of people who are ready to make reservations.  The thread a while back regarding SD70MACs resulted in ~2 dozen potential reservations.  That's ~10% of the potential reservations necessary to do the upfront work to make them available.

 

As a modern enthusiast I cannot argue with business decisions.  There are just not sufficient 2-railers willing to fork over the $700+ for a 3rd Rail version when the MTH version is $200+ cheaper.  AND if you talk to Mike Wolf you'll find out that the 2-rail versions of everything are always on the chopping block due to lack of presales.

Very well said. 

The person from Sunset (name might have been Robert) to whom I spoke mentioned that Sunset will not import modern locomotives since Lionel & MTH sell competing models. To the extent I follow Lionel’s offerings in the last few years, they don’t make 2-rail locomotives & MTH only offers 2-rail models of select modern locomotives but not the SD70MAC. The Sunset representative’s explanation didn’t seem logical since there were multiple importers at this very show who were offering F# like Key, Atlas & that did not stop Sunset from also offering them. I was at the show with my wife & 2-year old daughter & they had parked the stroller right along the chairs right in front of the Atlas booth. I regularly took breaks from the meet to spend time with them & during those brief breaks I heard at least 2 hobbyists who couldn’t wait to get the F# models from Atlas. Someone even praised Atlas for offering F# while acknowledging that other importers were also offering them.

 

Well, like 2013, 2015 might also be another year in which I buy more die-cast models than O-Scale trains. I have preordered my modern1:48 scale Caterpillar Motor Grader from Classic Construction Models which I will be receiving in the next few months & I am considering buying a modern 1:50 scale 350-ton and / or 500-ton telescopic all-terrain crane for my diorama. I will wait until MTH releases their next Catalog at the upcoming York show & if there are no modern 2-rail models available, I will vote with my wallet.

These are just my opinion,

Thanks,

Naveen Rajan

Thank you!

... for taking the time and effort to share pics, and asking for a model that I also desire!

I will have to get my hands on a MTH version and do some heavy upgrades then. I missed out on a CN brass version just awhile ago at auction.

 I think I can most likely say that whatever you pick, seems to match my tastes!

NR,- Understand a diesel model is easily painted and repainted for many different roads.  Consequently a broad consumer base which makes it a ready candidate for the plastic mass market.

 

Steam engines frequently are very road specific,  accompanied with a somewhat narrow generational consumer partiality.   It takes a brave soul to spend all the R&D to bring in narrow sector hand made brass steam engine in 100 and 200+ quantities. Thank you Scott.

 

MTH, Atlas and Sunset each in their own way bring good stuff to the table.  No negative needed.  For different reasons I would not want to be without any of them.

Once again it was a GREAT show.  An opportunity to meet folks that you see once a year and talk to once a year.

 

All the big manufacturers were represented, the tables were packed and the deals were there.

 

To me the surprise of the show was Norm Buckhart's prospectives for new brass cars!  I'll add this to the brass thread.  Everything else was so well chronicled by Naveen. 

 

I cleared off my table and sold everything I brought... because I priced my stuff reasonable (Thanks Martin for taking that WM car and making it happen).   Of course those in fantasy world for prices carted the same stuff back home that they brought to the show.

 

The only ones that went home mad are ones that came mad. 

 

EXCELLENT show as usual and the happenin place to be in March. 

Naveen,

Reading between the lines of your comment it appears that what you REALLY want is for someone to make the SD-70MAC specifically. I assume you asked Atlas about that at the show.

Your question to me at the show was essentially "since Sunset was doing the SD-7  why not other modern diesels?" My reply was that the SD units were "first generation" diesels from the early 1950's steam era - a far cry from units built 30-50 years later.

 

Regarding my reply to you being illogical since there were other importers at the show who do diesels you mentioned two - Key and Atlas. Key is in a very different price range and target market than Sunset for identical products. Atlas did F-3 units but had not announced F-7 units when Sunset did.

 

Sunset and Golden Gate Depot appear to have found a good market with a loyal customer base for their offerings of steam, diesel, and electric power and passenger cars.

 

Although my answer to you was obviously not what you wanted to hear I will stand on the fact that it was an honest answer rather than some smoke filled words to give false hope to you or anyone else.

 

Can I say for certain that Sunset would never do more modern diesels ? No. But the plan for the next few years does not currently include them.

Had a friend pick us up some Atlas Master Line cars and other things. Almost all were at 1/2 retail. Some examples: $50 for the scale 89' flat car? $90 for one with two trailers? Sweet!!!!

 

"Of course those in fantasy world for prices carted the same stuff back home that they brought to the show." That is exactly what he said!!!

Naveen, Thank you so very much for taking the time to take photos of what you liked  and post them for us so far away from the show. It is a far greater expense to fly and  stay to try enjoy a show like this. The cost would be so high that one could use the $ to buy a $700 Sunset SD70. Isn't it true that the drive units in Sunset models are not the vertical China drives but fall back to the horizontal drives of a few decades ago, a fact that many wish for in their new O scale diesels.

I too am saddened by the fact that those companies involved in bringing models to O scalers leave it up to reservations. I agree that it is a great expense to bring a model to market but unless it comes with some guarantees of quality and scale I see no reason to reserve.   I would buy a quality product as long as there are no surprizes after the purchase like I experienced decades ago and still burned in my thick head from the SD-24s Halmark introduced as their new Korea line in the 70s. Gawd awful and it was a lot of money back then to waste on such production. Loved the SD24s and ordered 4 which then went into a drawer till I could get rid of them. Once burned and so never again.

I would think that Sunset with the SD7 has a lot of know how in the C truck and drive for a SD 70.

Now, if all these people who on this forum who attended had taken some photos would post them too for all of us at the ends of the earth to enjoy a big thank you now.

 

Phill 

 

I had planned to go to this show for 3 years now and something, work or lack of funds, always delays me.  Friday  conflict with the pump truck and concrete availability sealed my fate. Saturday found me pumping 3 foundations and 4 footings, worked from before sun up till after sundown. Today I get to follow the block truck and hope the goat can get the cubes anywhere close to the job.  Now tomorrow all these folks think there getting block laid, too bad so sad the frost is still here and mud is no place to lay a foundation usually takes a knock on the door covered in mud and a friendly May I please use your restroom to stall that mud festival. All in all sounds like a good time was had by all. Would really liked to have seen the model contest Those Schultz boys and their passenger cars always look great in photos. Would give my eye teeth to ask some questions of them. Always a bridesmaid never a bride, what good is money when I never get to spend it?

Phill,

That is correct and is a major factor in the acceptance of Sunset's diesels in the 2 rail community.

 

Thanks to all that came by the O Scale Trains table - current and new subscribers alike!

 

It was not until mid-day Sat. that I found one of the items that I was actually looking for and only by an intersection of luck and timing ...........along with the usual bag of detail parts and assorted debris.....and another hopper car,  

Dan are you going to post the photos you took during the show or are those for the May/June Issue of OSR?

Most are for the magazine. Some will appear on the http://marchmeet.net/ site.

Looking forward to seeing them and the write-up from the show.

Show pictures along with all the contest models are in the new issue of The O Scale Resource. Now on-line.

 

Thanks for looking.

Hey Dan thank you for another great issue!

What a wonderful magazine.  Liked the modeling articles, Chicago show photos, etc.

 

Also, appreciated Scott Mann's description of their Asian operation and personnel.