Safely back from York, I thought I would get the minutes posted before we head to the shop to unload our stuff and get back to the normal, glorious life of a train shop owner/collector/operator.
These minutes almost didn’t happen, and for two reasons.
First, just minutes before the official kickoff at 2:00pm, I was being held hostage in the men’s room at the Orange Hall for $1. For those that haven’t been to York, we have restroom attendants in every restroom that must be “tipped generously” or you feel the embarrassment of a Jerry Kimble explaining where the Atlas O track is at. While I have been using the bathroom successfully for over 60 years without an attendant, and when I do need one, I hope they are in heels! Anyone that has ever lived with a woman can safely utilize indoor plumbing without making a mess, but, well, I digress. When we arrived at York Thursday morning, I called a meeting of the attendants assigned to my closest restroom and informed them that I was paying a $5 bill now so I could use the facility freely during the three-day meet. I ran in there on my way to the Grandstand, and “my” attendants have been rotated to other restrooms, sort of like the TSA rotates those people to avoid developing relationships between travelers and friskers. I didn’t have any money with me. I leave my wallet behind for the grandstand meetings to avoid a shakedown. So here I am. These guys have no knowledge of my previous payment; and looking in their baskets there’s no $5 bill because the rest of you guys are so cheap. I texted Mrs Muffin for assistance and she replied that there’s no way she is coming into the Men’s Room at York. I begged to borrow a buck from others explaining that I was the incredibly important unofficial scribe for OGR Grandstand Meeting at two, and my notariety left them unmoved. Or they’d already been moved. Anyway, I finally grabbed a roll of paper towels, handing torn off pieces to other fellow hobbyists, whether they wanted them or not, telling them they’d better tip me or else, and I eventually collected enough change in nickels and dimes, to “bail out.”
Now for the second reason.
I am losing my hearing in my right ear. Most guys when they lose their hearing can’t hear high-pitched nagging. Me, I’m having trouble hearing old guys and that’s what we have at the Grandstand meetings. So I had to deploy my training as a lip reader. Once I started doing that, it was interesting to note what Mike Reagan was mumbling when Andy was speaking; and what Andy was mouthing when Mike was speaking, but that’s probably not news – so I will move on…….
We experienced the most beautiful weather we have ever had at York, in my opinion, so the Grandstand meeting was moved indoors in the Yellow hall again. Ed started just a touch after 2:00pm, and while he’d successfully set up the microphone system, he wrapped his leg in the cord as he introduced Rich Melvin. Thankfully, there were emergency personnel standing by – just in case – but he managed to exit stage right without a tumble. On to the meeting…
OGR Publishing – Rich Melvin
Rich announced that Great Layout Adventures Volume 11 was now available, and that OGR Publishing is now offering a line of assembled, painted and lit buildings in their Ameri-Builds series.
OGRE Modeling – Rick Baugh
Fred described and showed sample buildings lit with his new line of LED Lights that operate from 6-19 volts in 3 colors. The sample buildings looked terrific. They come 4 to a package and are available in a 3.5” bendable version, which he demonstrated creating an outdoor light, and a .5” version with a globe. He was selling them in the Scenic Express booth
Atlas O – Robert Allard
This is Roberts first time presenting at the Grandstand meeting. He is the new product development guy. He talked about the Maxi-Stack samples being in their booth and the California Zephyr announcements. He also said something about one being able to get a full set – sounds like he was referring to the announcement of previous cars being offered again. Any help here would be appreciated clarifying this. He did say that Atlas had bought the Weaver 20’ container tooling, plus the troop cars and the telephone poles. We would be seeing more about this in future announcements.
Korber Models – Rich Redmond
Rich talked about the new line of modular buildings including pre-cast concrete building designs they were showing in their booth. They have a new two-stall engine house, and have expanded their offering of building flats. They continue to offer Korber-Komplete for hobbyists that would like a custom built and detailed model for their layout.
Williams by Bachmann – Larry Harrington
Larry reminded us that they do their new product announcements in the Spring, but they had samples of most of the items announced last Spring in their booth for us to see including the NW2 in PRR, WP and B&M. I believe he said something about a scale GG-1 – help here? They have samples of the EZ Streets trucks at their booth and the two new buildings in the SceneScapes line. I believe one is an ice cream shop.
Mianne Benchwork – Tim Foley
Tim’s company builds pre-fabricated bench work and he wanted to remind everyone that their system works in 6” increments so you can really design a bench work solution that will fit any location. They system is very flexible. He also reminded us that their motorized lift gate is on display at their booth. (I tested it and it’s wide enough for fat people)
3rd Rail / Golden Gate Depot – Scott Mann
Scott reported and brought a sample of their announced 8-car Empire Builder passenger train. He also talked about partnering with an electronics firm to produce something that uses the RS232 connection to control trains. I could use some help here – I didn’t hear the details.
Ross Custom Switches – Steve Brenneisen
Three things:
1) Still with his (new) girlfriend (Madeline, for those keeping track). You remember last meeting she asked Andy for his Facebook name so they could connect.
2) His friend’s wife, Sue Shaw, accompanied them to York and is now caught up with the Plasticville group. He seemed bewildered.
3) He was running a show special of $300-400 off the turntables with the manual sighting.
SMR Trains – Dave Snyder
Dave showed a drawing of a 1836 B&O engine called the Grasshopper that they will be doing. A brass model for which they’ve completed the tooling, and they will be shopping at the Spring York. He also described his first laser kit, a 1850-60 prototype in 2 or 3 rail with lots of detailed pieces so it can be used to create several different versions of the car. Later, they will be doing kits for a gondola, flat, and other period cars. He is also working on a flour car, with 4 wheel trucks, to go with the Grasshopper.
Miller Engineering – Chris Miller
Chris talked about Bill B’s layout in the Great Layout Adventures 11 video showing off the many ways he used the Miller Engineering signs on his layout. He displayed a poster showing a complex downtown scene, all lit up, on Bill’s layout. He said that the new signs were Rexall; S&H Green Stamps; and Woolworths. He commented on appreciating all of the sign suggestions, and that while some people ask for modern signs like WalMart, they’re goal is to bring back signs from days gone by that invoke pleasant remembrances. Wal-Mart doesn’t exactly fit.
River Leaf Models – Andy Garcia
Andy was another first time presenter and he discussed his O scale brick buildings offerings as shown in his booth.
MTH Electric Trains – Andy Edleman
Andy reminded us the new catalog is out and we have the new tooling for the SD60’s that were previously pre-announced. They’d been in the works and they had to go ahead and get them out there. He also discussed the new digital app for DCS. Android is available for download now and IOS next week. You will need to upgrade your TIU/Remote to release 5.0 and get the WIU, the TIU’s WiFi adopter to be able to use the new DCS aps. There’s a free version; a standard version for $4.99; and a premium version that will be available next year for $24.99. He believes that we will find the ap to be much easier and faster to use versus the DCS remote, and the new ap will be much easier for them to enhance. We will see new functions in the premium version next year that we have never had in the remote. He also reminded everyone that we are ambassadors of the hobby, and he hopes that we will open up our layouts to guests and help them to use the remote ap as a way to bring more people into the hobby. In his opinion, MTH and Lionel are in agreement that this is what we need to capture the attention of new hobbyists.
Lionel Collectors Club of America – Al Kolis
The LCCA is also an OGR Forum sponsor, and Al talked about upcoming special events including the open house next Saturday at MrMuffin’sTrains; the Lionel Warehouse Sale 11/6-8 in Concord NC; and the Lionel Days event 12/5 at over 150 Lionel dealers across the country.
Lionel LLC – Howard Hitchcock
Howard agreed with Andy that offering remote control of our trains via available digital devices was the way forward to help grow the hobby. He showed the car that was produced and is being offered that was the winner of the design the box car contest. He also talked about the National Lionel Train Day of 12/05 and that there will be a special box car for the day offered exclusively through the 150 dealers participating in the train day festivities. Howard said that Lionel had bought tooling from Weaver too, including the scale rolling stock, and that they planned to use it for making additional made-in-America Lionel products.
Howard introduced Ryan Kunkle who is the new scale products manager, and Ryan talked about the Vision Line GG-1 announcement including the fact that they were making 8 different versions of the GG-1 as part of this offering. They’re planning stereo sound, with speakers in both ends, and LEDs in the pantographs to simulate sparking. He commented that there might just be matching passenger cars in the 2016 catalog. No pricing is available yet – it sounded like we wouldn’t get that until the 2016 catalog.
Next, Howard introduced Mike Reagan and Mike showed a sample of the LionChief Plus FT’s in DRG&W. These are on their way and we will have them in the shop by Christmas. He also showed a sample of the new 21” passenger cars. Mike reported that they authorized the creation of the tooling in May and already have produced 18 different body styles using this new tooling. These cars use super capacitors to keep the LED’s lit, even on dirty track, and while they don’t have passengers, it’s just four screws to drop out the chassis and add passengers. They’re never sure how many passengers are enough, so they will be offering passengers next year, and we can add them ourselves. He wrapped up by saying that the new Empire State Express cars will be shipping by the middle of November.
With that, we were a few minutes past 3:00pm, and Ed adjourned the meeting.
Any issues, gaps or corrections, please post them here. I tried holding Al Kolis’ big L neck piece up to my ear for better hearing and all I could hear were little voices singing “It’s a small world after all!”
