Have ever gone a train show and didn,t have a good time?

The only one I didn't like was a few years ago.

They had it setup so that you had to do the "Toys R Us" forced marketing walk.

You had no choice but to walk through a circuitous path that took you through a gauntlet of stuffed animals, and all manner of totally non-train related items before getting to the exhibit hall/train area.  It was quite annoying, given what one had to pay to get in and pay to park.

The only time I feel let down is if I'm looking for something in particular, especially if it's an item I've seen a million times before at a million shows, and I don't come across it this time. Or, I see something on my wish list or my Holy Graille item after I've spent my budget. The only bad thing is when I run across a vendor who apparently studied inter-personal relations under Leona Helmsley , but they are few and far between.

Jerry 

I have enjoyed each and every show and meet I've ever attended.  Even the ones where I came home with nothing.  I enjoy looking almost as much as buying.

Andy

Sure, but the number is very small compared to most where I had a very good time. This would never be a determent to me. I just would not go back to the few that weren't worth the drive.

Sure, been to plenty that have been total wastes of time. 

No!

Happy railroading,

Don

Sure, I've had run ins with horrible vendors, people with no situational awareness (I've seen people walk right into support columns at shows a couple of times) and the guy at Timonium that had a real affinity for young guys, let's just say (I actually pulled out my leatherman tool and told him I was going cut it off right there if I saw him do that again, and I did report him to a cop).

Then, there's the hygiene issue so many train fans have. the stench can get pretyt bad at those things. Not to mention all the people who didn't get enough attention as children.

I have to agree with Juniata.I always find people to talk with and I enjoy being around the shows.SO WHAT if I don't find anything to buy.As for the outrageously priced things..Let em keep it!Nick

Every April & October I have a terrible time at the York meet. Nobody goes there anymore because it's too crowded.

Haven't really had a bad experience at a train show that I can recall. I will say I have had a lot more fun at train shows since I've switched to three rail O-gauge!

Thanks, Yogi...I mean Eddie.

I get frustrated when a show bills itself as having all gauges (Z, N, HO, O and G) and when you show up there's one guy selling a few beat up O items, one LGB engine and lots of HO with a smattering of Z and N.  And, there are many people selling nothing but non-train items.

I know the show organizers don't control what train items will be brought for sale.  But, I make a note not to go to those shows again. 

Always have a good time even if I leave with nothing; which is rare. I can always replenish my smoke fluids. Having my dear spouse acting as an extra pair of eyes just adds to the enjoyment. High priced junk I bypass so it's a non issue with me.

Jim McC

I have found every one of the many shows I've been to entertaining, which is the main reason I go. If I find something to buy, that is a bonus extra.

My closest show is 3 hour drive....I always find a way to have a good time.

It's trains after all.

And now my grandkids like going....so much more.

Do I always find great deals? no.....

But I always have a good time.....grumpy vendors and wild kids don't bother.

The only show I really didn't have a good time at was a show in a small hotel conference room in the Biloxi area several years ago. There wasn't much room for anything and there wasn't much for sale. I think we stayed about 15 minutes. This is when I learned to call ahead before attending a show I haven't attended before.

There was one instance when I drove all the way down to Fairhope AL, which is over three hours away, and found a sea of people and cars and the chaos of trying to fit thousands of people into a small town for a major event. I was so frustrated that I just kept on driving to Keesler AFB to watch the Blue Angels without even attending the show.

Fortunately the local show in Dothan is a very good show and I don't ever recall having a problem at the shows there. Courteous vendors, several layouts, plenty of stuff for sale, well behaved children and adults. (It is this coming weekend , first show of the year for me.)

No

after years of attending it now about the people and not so much what i did or did not buy

Once. It was a 3 hour drive, 95% H.O., the isles looked like a cattle drive with no cowboys, and my Achilles tendons were nailed so many times by strollers that I stopped counting. Really made a lot of the TCA Eastern rules for York make sense. 

Gilly

No.  

(Really, always enjoyed it at least a little bit.)

Nope

The most what I have run into is vendors chunks of rust.Or there the guy who has post war trains and wants off the wall prices.The last show I went to was a vendor who had to have.The bigest scale trains I have ever saw.And they were in good condistion.I was temped to buy a locomotive.And I don,t have any s scale trains.Rember I,m an o gauger.As far as hygiene I have not ran into that siteration.People seems to be pretty good about being clean.I did have some good deals and some nice vendors.I gues its a mixed bag you got the good,bad and the stinky.

No I have not.  I always go with friends and / or family, so I try to make it quality time regardless of what the show may or may not have.  Most people you see are enjoyable to meet and talk with.  You might find something you don't like or agree with, but the tender is always at least half full.  That's the way it should be with toy trains. 

 Only bad time I can recount was April of 2009 at the Springfield Ohio swap meet.

 It was the first time I attended Springfield without my Dad,he had passed March 8th of that year,and when a good friend of my dad's and mine were looking at some newer Lionel merchandise a fellow more less accused me of switching price tags.

 His wife was directly in front of me when I was looking over and picking up the trains and I even questioned her if the price on the item was correct and she affirmed it was.

 So my buddy and I was about to make our purchases and her husband abruptly left a customer he was talking to and snatched the train out of my hands and angrily   remarked ,"That's not the price tag I had marked on that ,I can't sale you that train !". Even his wife said ," But that's the price that was on it,I watched him pick it up ". But to no avail my friend and I put our trains we had picked up back on the table and said " No thanks we won't buy anything from you !".

 It brought the day trying to get thru the memories of my dad not being there to a bad end.I just had to leave and start my 2 1/2 drive back home disappointed

A bad time at a train show?!!  This is not possible!!  

But once I saw a listing in a model train publication advertising a show at a mall near Atlantic City, NJ, a two hour drive.  Drove down there only to find a guy with two tables of HO stuff and an N scale train running in a circle.  it wasn't a total loss, we just spent the rest of the day on the AC beach! 

I always enjoy myself at train shows, some more so then others.

I play a game I like to call "Who's that smell" I stand in a crowd close my eyes and take a big whiff and try to figure out who the stinky person is

I once drove 45 miles to a train show that turned out to have happened the previous week -- someone had printed the wrong date in the flier.  I was pretty ticked off about that, but since there wasn't actually a train show to enjoy, I can't say I didn't enjoy it. 

No, I haven't really failed to enjoy any of the train shows I've attended.

As for the stench problem, well, I can tell you folks, it's not limited to train shows.  Any kind of specialty shows seem to attract the soap-challenged.

And don't forget those that practice this...

Never, I have always found something neat, or learned something new, or met an old friend that I hadn't seen in years, or, Whatever. Being an Optimist, I have always had a great time at Train Events, Shows, Conventions....Happy Railroading...York is really getting close....

Haven't been to one in 10 years

I always have a good time at shows when I go as a buyer and spectator.  I always enjoy viewing the modular layouts.

I have had some poor experiences when I go as a seller and I don't sell very many items.  It takes a lot of work to set up and sell at most shows.  Sometimes buyers make it very challenging for sellers to be nice.  

I don't understand why buyers complain about prices.  They can always make an offer or just pass on an item.  Nothing compels a person to buy anything.  As for rusty junk, I have seen some of it sell for amazing prices.  You can never tell what what will be junk and what will be treasure.  It depends on the buyer.

Joe

I like going to shows.  I like talking to folks and seeing some train friends there.  Even if I don't find anything to purchase its always fun to see new products and club layouts.

Since O three rail mfrs. are challenged as to what to make, if they don't have old molds for it, I attend the few O scale shows I can find, and I was annoyed considerably to show up at one a few years ago north of Indianapolis to find the bleepin' thing was canceled.  More recently, I attended another O scale show near the Indianapolis airport, and the entire area was disrupted by constuction.  The normal access road to the airport, on which the hotel is located,  was blocked, all the street signs were down, and I showed up an hour late, when I should have been early.  This was no fault of the promoter, who had no idea they were going to reconstruct the area when he planned the show a year ahead, but I was ticked!

My nose must be dead...I only recall a few gaseous show attendees.

From the dealers' side of the table, in the Kane Co. toy show, but with a train item...I had a factory sealed Bilt-Rite building, once widely used on layouts, but now a collectible, and while I was serving another customer, I look over and some mental vegetable was tearing off the seal to get a look at the contents.

I haven't had too many Bad experiences, one of the National circuit shows that comes to Portland every year, I quit attending for awhile. The $7.00 admission and $8.00 parking before even walking through the door means finding some really good deals or hard to find items to make it worthwhile financially. The large national shows attract fewer of the local vendors, who tend to have better prices, and more of the professional vendors, with higher, more rigid prices. I also saw way too many of the totally not train related junk toys.

 There are several smaller club sponsored local shows that I usually plan to attend Donations, or $5.00 admission(what I usually give at donation shows) and FREE parking, plus more items that interest me, at better prices, and I see more people I know from the Hobby, an all around Win at the smaller shows for me.

 The stinky train shows must be an eastern thing, reading the forums it seems the complaints tend to increase the further east a poster lives. I have never noticed train shows having any more stinky people than society in general, and that is typically pretty low around here.

 I have been a vendor at several shows and the only bad experience that I really had, was selling off some of my HO collection, I had 7(I was POSITIVE of the quantity) Trix boxcars, NIB for $15.00 each (30.00 new) and later in the day one was missing, someone was pretty slick.

This February, I did go to one of the Big National shows, But my Brother in Law, Nephew (6 years old)  and my Wife's Niece's Son (10 years old) went as well. there were plenty of display layouts set up, then we went out for lunch. After lunch we stopped at OMSI(Oregon Museum of Science & Industry) and did a tour of the Submarine Bluebell, the Last diesel/electric sub the navy retired, then a visit to the ORHF(Oregon Rail Heritage Foundation) where the SP 4449 and SP&S 700 plus the little known OR&N 197 are stored and maintained. That was best Train Show Day that I have ever had, even found a few things to bring home, the Great Nephew(?) even found a MPC CN GP-9 for $30.00 at a vendor that was selling train stuff at the show for an Estate Sale, it was in Excellent cond and ran Great.

More Good Train Shows than Bad,

Doug

I can't remember ever going to a train show where I didn't have a good time.Some were way better than others,but there was always something interesting to see or buy.I collected every train item I wanted,so lately I only go to a train show every few years.The Midwest TCA Christmas show is the only show I look forward to and go to now.

Dan

quote:

The stinky train shows must be an eastern thing, reading the forums it seems the complaints tend to increase the further east a poster lives. I have never noticed train shows having any more stinky people than society in general, and that is typically pretty low around here.

Funny, I was thinking it must be a west coast thing. I've been attending east coast train shows for over 40 years, and have found that running into smelly/grubby attendees or vendors is an uncommon occurrence.

As far as high prices and junk on tables goes: just walk on by.

As far as unpleasant dealers go: walk away.

There is no train related item that I need badly enough to put up with such nonsense.

The only shows that are not worth it are what I think of as "micro-shows".  I once went to a show held in a middle school cafeteria that had 12 vendor tables, tops. I was in and out in less than 30 minutes, and that was only because I decided to make 3 detailed trips through the tables.  The guy at the door attempted to charge my wife $5 for admission, even though there was a "family members attend free" sign right underneath his grubby cash box.

Another phrase that runs through my mind at certain shows is "Wow, look at all the 'I-want-to-carry-it-back-home' pricing!".  It cracks me up sometimes when I turn a tag over on an item and see that the price isn't even in the ballpark (e.g., I'm thinking $75 and the tag says $225), and the seller leaps on me and says -- almost screams -- "I can work with you on that!"  Even though I really want to respond, "Uh, we have an 'order of magnitude' problem here, Bub, and it's not something we can 'work' on."  Instead, I usually just say, "That's ok, I'm just looking."

But please don't get me wrong: With the exception of that one micro-show that I paid $10 to get into, I've enjoyed them all.  The way I look at it:

1. Going to a train show gets me out of the house and out and around, sometimes to towns I haven't visited before
2. I get to walk around with a nice cup of coffee in my hand and look at trains.  There is NO downside to this.
3. If it's for the local TCA division/chapter, my admission fee puts cash back in the club treasury
4. I get to meet friends and ask them what they're looking for, what they bought, and what they're going to do on their layouts when they get home.  This time of year, I even like hearing people say, "What am I going to do on the layout?  Nothing!  I'm going to sit down and watch the game."
5. Sometimes I get to see things I wasn't expecting, like a table full of these incredibly cool and detailed O Scale Buses manufactured by a company in St. Petersburg, Russia.

EBay will never replace going to a show.

Steven J. Serenska

I have come to the realization that its not about the trains.

Its about the friends, the new friends you make and the comradery!!

Happy Training

Don't go to any of the large ones since the Greenburg here in NJ isn't worth the drive to work through the mops, stuffed animals and etc to find the trains.

My wife, who enjoys going with me, and I have been regulars at the Wayne show at the PAL building. Large quantity of 3 rail, not too crowded and the folks are almost all pleasant/reasonable to deal with. Often come home with something I didn't intend to--a made in USA Amtrk set with added cars fo example but it enjoyable to look and talk with the vendors. Last trip my totla purchase was some rollers for a ZW I bought at the previous meet. Are all the attendees model citizens--no but its still much better than sitting in front of the computer.

My wife has a thing for penguins and has come home with a set of salt and pepper shakers and her big find one of those roller coasters with little plastic penguins that travel around on it. Fellow had it on display only but she can be persuasive.

To complete the trip we then have brunch at the Irish pub a couple of blocks away.

Always been a low bucks enjoyable day for us.

Scotie