With many of you recovering from York last week, I figured this week we could share our finds/purchases from York. Please feel free to share your purchases which will help many others justify their excessive spending LoL.
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I hope everyone that went had fun!!! I sure did!! My two days at York were extremely productive. I have a more detailed write up with individual photos in My Layout Remodel thread so if you’re interested, check it out please.
Here’s my Thursday haul:
Here’s my Friday haul:
Already looking forward to the spring!!
My only purchase but probably the biggest in the last 8 years or so. The Lionel "Spirit of the Century" set. It's been on my want list for a while but never saw it at the right time or right price. Just Trains had it and, well, now they don't. LOL!
@Richizzle07 posted:With many of you recovering from York last week, I figured this week we could share our finds/purchases from York. Please feel free to share your purchases which will help many others justify their excessive spending LoL.
Hilarious meme. Sharing to our Facebook page!
Didn't make it to the show this year but I'm excited to see what you all scored!
Picked up a Legacy DD35A and a set of five Rocket Booster Expansion cars. I'll use the booster cars to expand the rocket booster, I already have the Lionel expansion buffer pack cars. The rocket booster train will be more prototypical with ten booster sections, I just have to find another UP ES44AC to have enough locomotive to pull them.
Just realized I can copy and paste my entire post including photos so here’s my York experience with individual photos and my purchases.
FALL YORK 2023 PURCHASES!
My fourth time attending the EDTCA York show was a success! Many items on my lists were crossed off and like always items I didn’t even know I needed we’re purchased. My mom came along for the adventure again and we decided to stay at a hotel because we were also going to visit my aunt down by York. I highly recommend staying at the Heritage Hills resort. It’s a very nice golf resort with great prices and in a better part of the York area. Only about 17 minutes from the fairgrounds which beats driving two hours home and two hours back again the following morning.
First I’d like to give a shout out to the OGR members I made purchases from on Thursday and Friday. Thank you goes out to Charlie @cpowell, Nathan @Nathan B, Ben @bluelinec4, Carl @CMW623, Bob @RRDOC, and Walter @Walter Matuch. It was great meeting everyone!! All your items came to a good home and entered a growing collection. Thank you again!
My Day 1 started Thursday morning with what was supposed to be a 2 hour drive. Well, traffic was horrible and it took over 2 1/2 hours. Got there late, but made some exchanges and then went to buy tickets. Great service as always! After getting our tickets, the shopping began. I purchased several rolling stock, a few small structures, street vehicles, accessories, an engine, and even more rolling stock. Like always I tried to bundle buy so I can negotiate a better price. (Always see some cool things in the parking lot)
First up are some Menards cars I grabbed at a great bundle deal. The seller even had Menards bags for me to put them in. LoL! It’s the little things that make a purchase perfect.
Next up, I purchased a custom building from the nice gentleman in Silver Hall along the wall. I buy at least one building from him every York. Very nice little details! He does really nice work! Here’s the little garage I bought.
I saw an amazing deal on a bundle of 5 packs of Life-Like Accessories. I negotiated every purchase except this one. Price was incredible!
Here’s all the street vehicles I purchased at different locations throughout Thursday.
I’ve been getting a Strasburg item every once in a while and picked this small Strasburg crossing shanty up from a forum member.
There was also a large Menards bundle that came from that same forum member.
All these remaining items came from a mixture of the show and from forum members. It’s the beginning of my Norfolk Southern First Responders collection. I also added it to my Nesquik collection.
accidentally double bought PRR Rotary
Here’s my overall photo of my Thursday purchases. The edited MTH car is a political car, so I’m refraining from posting it. (There’s two cars that I accidentally put in the Friday photo: the Menards flat with the Cat loader and the CSX coal hopper)
Day 2 (Friday) was packed!! This was probably the busiest day at York I’ve seen yet. The lines for food were even really long. It’s great seeing this type of turnout because it shows the hobby is alive. My purchases consistent of more rolling stock, shelves, and pins for my badge holder, along with a magnet for the fridge.
Started off with picking up 15 used Glenn Snyder shelves from a forum member. These shelves are gorgeous!! (No individual photo)
Following that I picked up a bundle of 10 MTH PRR Streamlined passenger cars from another forum member. These are really very nice, a couple of doubles but hardly noticeable in a long train.
Next up are two custom painted Hess Ore cars by RGS. I grew up collecting the Hess trucks so I figured I’d grab some rolling stock. These were also purchased from a forum member.
I finished my Simpson’s cars collection! Grabbed the last two cars I needed.
My Nesquik collection grew some more also.
I also picked up a Norfolk Southern First Responders Bay Window Caboose. My First Responders train is growing!!
There’s a few pins and a magnet I bought but no individual photos of these items. There’s also two more MTH political box cars I bought that I’ll refrain from posting and I’ll edit them out.
Here’s my overall photo of my Day 2 purchases (the CSX and flatcar with the loader were purchased Thursday, just made the wrong photo)
My overall York experience was great as always! Staying at a hotel didn’t make it so rushed so everything was nice and relaxing. Only downside was the car fills up really fast. LoL! I’m already looking forward to the spring show. Let the countdown begin!
Thank You to everyone that makes this amazing show possible!
Holy cow! You single-handed insured the meet will go on for at least a couple more years! 
What locomotive will you be pulling the PRR streamliners with? Be aware that some die-hards will tell you that the Pensy never had any vista domes because of the numerous low tunnels in their system!
I'm either the person with the most self-control or the biggest tightwad, I'm not sure which.
The only thing I bought was a LPG tank car from Trainz, which I actually had ordered online a couple of weeks ahead of York and picked up at their booth at the show. Oh, and I bought a soft pretzel and a soda. 
Of course, we did drop a few grand this fall ordering our Atlas track and Ross switches, and we still have to buy a whole lotta wood for our benchwork, so there is that...
Great buys everyone!
That’s a really nice set @MartyE!
@gunrunnerjohn posted:Holy cow! You single-handed insured the meet will go on for at least a couple more years!
I try to do my part in supporting the hobby LoL. I missed several train shows this season so I had some catching up to do.
@c.sam I have no idea yet actually. I’m open to suggestions since I’m still learning.
Nice haul @RailRide! I was talking to the gentleman with those track cleaning cars. I’m definitely getting one in the future.
@chessiechick you get a pass since you purchased all the track and switches. Taking in the entire train atmosphere is well worth it alone.
@chessiechick posted:I'm either the person with the most self-control or the biggest tightwad, I'm not sure which.
The only thing I bought was a LPG tank car from Trainz, which I actually had ordered online a couple of weeks ahead of York and picked up at their booth at the show. Oh, and I bought a soft pretzel and a soda.
Of course, we did drop a few grand this fall ordering our Atlas track and Ross switches, and we still have to buy a whole lotta wood for our benchwork, so there is that...
Funny thing, I saw that same car at Uncle Jack's That may have been Thursday, since I remember it being gone the next time I looked through his booth.
---PCJ
Four early K-Line (U. S. made) hopper cars and a curious tender. Postwar shell, prewar trucks, and a home made wooden frame.
Rio Grande 2379 F units. These are reproduction shells on MPC frames.
Early K-Line hoppers made using Marx tooling. These were American made.
Not a big haul this time. I came home with my first New Legacy steam engine. And I have to say it won’t be my last. Great running engine. Plus I picked up several Atlas freight cars too.
This is my big haul! Saving up for all the steam about to arrive from Lionel!
Prewar Flyer O 504 diecast L&NE gondola. This came from the TCA deaccession table.
Not much as I’m not in the market any longer in acquiring toy trains except seeking certain pieces. Found it at York.
MTH scale green 5 stripe GG1 in proto 1. NIB for an excellent price. And I picked up a few R2LC and a challenger sound board, the 24 pin plug-in type.
Already had the MTH Tuscan brown GG1, wanted the Brunswick green one. Beautifully done GG1s. 
Here's my haul from York! All box cars/reefers this time. I posted a highlights video of my show experience on the photo/video page. I had a great time and enjoyed the show!
Michael
Here's my take from York:
Monday, I went to the pre-show and bandit meets. At Sheraton I picked up a postwar 6518 transformer flat car with the original box and the seller sold it to me for less than the tag price. All four of the insulators are intact which I'm happy about. Also at the bandit meets, I picked up several of the tinplate freight cars for creating a prewar 193W set. I have the 226E from my family's collection, but it never had any cars. At the hotels, I got the caboose, gondola and flat car with the search lights. I didn't pick up the crane car at any of these locations (this will be continued in the Friday section so keep reading). At the fire hall, I grabbed 2 of the Lionel die-cast coal hoppers as I'm having a collecting spree of those. I was talking to the seller about how I have a list of what ones I have so I don't get a duplicate, which helped a lot.
Tues and Wed was spent as train rides in Strasburg and Wilmington and Western, hostling tour, and a visit to Choo Choo barn and the toy train museum. Grabbed a prewar transformer (no longer works but it has the rheostat) and a MTH Premier reefer for Buxom Melons there at the museum.
Thurs hit me the hardest: Placed an order for Trainz pickup of the TMCC Alton Limited set and 2-pack add on (awaiting for the diner car to pop up for sale), Williams Cleveland Street car, and K-Line Oppenheimer woodside reefer. It was delivered in 2 boxes; I still need to open the one box to check out that stuff (anyone who was watching a young guy pushing a giant box on the floor while holding a phone navigating the Orange Hall, yes that was me; I got a video of that in action). Got some JT's Megasteam to replenish what I went through from the last year and also got 2 bottles of the new Red Hots scented fluid. Those who wonder what scent it is: it's those cinnamon Red Hot candies is what's resembling. Also grabbed a couple of the Arttista figures from them too. When walking through Grzybowski's section, I saw the TMCC Blue Comet. @Chris1985 was there and told me to "Buy it." (Chris, if you see this I did buy it; I paid half right there on the spot and paid the rest/picked up on Fri). Also went on a woodside reefer spree. Met up with @NOT LionelLLC to check out the Metca Carnation cars. Grabbed one of each. While walking away I noticed the Pepsi-Cola reefer that was released last year. I grabbed that as well.
Fri was lighter: grabbed 2 of the Wings of Angels cars from Nassau. Also found a postwar 2560 (quick story for that is I already have one from my family's collection, but I accidentally broke the original boom and had it repaired, but I didn't like a shiny boom on original patina. So I have two of these cranes in my collection). Remember what I said about the tinplate crane car that I didn't pick up at the bandit meets for my 226E? Here's the story: wondering through Blue Hall Thurs evening right before it closed for the night, I saw one in excellent condition and the price was decent. Started back in that hall Friday morning after picking up the Blue Comet set and help with the module group power up for the day in the orange hall lobby. Two of my friends were set up selling in Blue Hall and caught wind of me checking out the crane car. They helped me out by getting a better deal for it so I have acquired all of the cars for the 193W set.
Saturday was the lightest: a 2024 calendar from Lerro Productions. Glad you enjoy the Menards cars Rich!
Great buys everyone!!! Thanks for sharing!!
And thanks again @Nathan B! I have an odd fascination with the underdog Menards. LoL Visiting the store over the summer was an experience itself!! (P.S. that blue comet is gorgeous and on my list! Great find!)
Here are the things I picked up at my first York show, it was a great time. Amazing how many great people to talk to and so many gorgeous trains!!
Here's my haul. First up, from the bandits, Strasburg Train Shop, and Lower Susquehanna Model RR Club:
For the first time ever, I found something at every bandit meet. Next up is my haul from the meet itself:
The K-Line die-cast Chessie hopper is one of the items on my "Unicorn List" - been hunting them for quite some time... Now I have two of the four!
Andy
@Andy Hummell posted:Here's my haul. First up, from the bandits, Strasburg Train Shop, and Lower Susquehanna Model RR Club:
For the first time ever, I found something at every bandit meet. Next up is my haul from the meet itself:
The K-Line die-cast Chessie hopper is one of the items on my "Unicorn List" - been hunting them for quite some time... Now I have two of the four!
Andy
That K-Line Chessie hopper is nice! Is there a prototype for that paint scheme? I have not seen a photo of one.
@Jtrain posted:That K-Line Chessie hopper is nice! Is there a prototype for that paint scheme? I have not seen a photo of one.
I'm 99.9% sure it is a fantasy scheme. As far as I know, the detailed Chessie cameo image was only ever done on 6 box cars and was determined to be too costly to paint.
Andy
I found this Scale University Drive-in Theatre kit and couldn't wait to assemble it:
I've been looking for a car dealer to sell my collection of '55-'57 Corvettes:
More Corvettes . . .
A rare find: GGD Hiawatha RPO car
Misc Rolling Stock including a K-line power car and a Weaver Brass N6B Cabin Car.
Bob
A little late to this topic, however, my 1st York was fun, even though I only spent $110, including my Forum “meet-at-York” purchases & Hobby Lobby supplies. I did not buy a “want-list” track cleaning car @ York, but found one later ($199 York vs $90 online). All the halls were almost overwhelming !
I’m still waiting for UPS to deliver my York package. It was supposed to be here Friday, then Monday. Then as it bounced around the Los Angeles/ San Bernardino area they changed the tracking number. Never saw that done before. Hopefully Tuesday will be the day!
Lionel 1688:
A case of a tender in search of a mate, this was a loco only purchase, less than the twenty dollar asking-price due to the corner knocked off the casting below the cab and a missing pilot truck. TrainWorx supplied the missing bits, and the tender came from inventory. Still need a hook for the tender's box coupler. Cleaned and lubricated, runs like a clock.
PD
@pd posted:Lionel 1688:
A case of a tender in search of a mate, this was a loco only purchase, less than the twenty dollar asking-price due to the corner knocked off the casting below the cab and a missing pilot truck. TrainWorx supplied the missing bits, and the tender came from inventory. Still need a hook for the tender's box coupler. Cleaned and lubricated, runs like a clock.
PD
Great find! That's the kind of train show story I like to see. There's a lot of "junk" floating around that can be rehabilitated and put to good use fairly easily and inexpensively.
@MartyE posted:My only purchase but probably the biggest in the last 8 years or so. The Lionel "Spirit of the Century" set. It's been on my want list for a while but never saw it at the right time or right price. Just Trains had it and, well, now they don't. LOL!
Hands down 1 of my absolute favorite dare-I-say-it "fantasy" sets EVER!! Only brought mine out to run a few months ago for the 1st time; never saw the light of day, and it ran out of the box. The red bulb in the observation car died so I have to find a replacement but other than that, I'm thrilled to see someone else has it so thank you for sharing and congrats on your find!!
@dorfj2 posted:Got all this from Trainz ( That’s Trainz with a Z )
Also picked up a couple of new bags of Lionel 919 grass in the blue hall
It was a great York - can’t wait for spring 😊👍🏼🚂
Every time I hear "That's Trainz with a Z" I think of @Chris1985 and his amazing YouTube channel.
A UPS Fiasco!
Since we moved to Southern California I’ve had all of my purchases from the TCA York Meet shipped home from the UPS tables that are conveniently provided in the lobby between the Blue and Silver Halls at the York Fairgrounds. This Meet was no exception. They securely packed each item into a box perfectly and the box always arrived home a few days later in perfect condition.
However, this time there was a snag. As I was tracking the package on the UPS website I discovered that it was given an ‘alternate tracking number’ and was rerouted to another UPS hub and marked as delivered. I thought my box had been pilfered.
Upon calling UPS customer service I had to battle the chatbot that couldn’t find my tracking number. Finally it transferred me to a real person, who seemed fairly disinterested in my plight. I was told the box had been sequestered for a fraud alert. WHAT?! I sent the box to myself, how could this be? They had no further information except to call the store I shipped it from. Imagine that. Customer service had no info about what was happening with my package.
So I called the store that manned the table at York. No answer, left a message. Three times a day for three days. Just a voicemail. I thought I got got! I was going to let it go until Monday but decided to try one more time today. Halfway through the voicemail someone picked up the phone!
To shorten the story a bit, they said they’ve been dealing with this issue all week. Every package that got shipped from York was flagged for fraud because of a new process introduced by UPS not too long ago. If a package doesn’t directly originate from a UPS store the package is flagged as a fraudulent shipment. The problem was this particular store or maybe most stores weren’t aware this process had been implemented. The thought is that their store account was hacked because the transaction wasn’t at the store location and they are relocated to the fraud processing facility.
The UPS store personnel at the York location was very helpful and apologetic. Yet to be determined is when I’ll be getting my York treasures. The hub it resides in may have to ship it back to the store in York, they’ll have to do the transaction again and then ship it back to me at their expense.
It seems like a good safeguard for peoples packages but they probably should inform their outlets on the way to ship items offsite.
Only spent around $50 on trains this York trip. Still had a great time. It was a mini vacation for my wife and I. Enjoyed a day of shopping the outlets in Lancaster. Plus, eating at our favorite fast food locations and the decent hotel breakfasts (Tru and Home2Suites)
Well, I got the bad news this morning. My box of trains and related items I bought at York are gone forever.
According to the guy at the UPS store that shipped packages from York, the facility that was holding the packages for fraud alerts “disposed” of the packages after an unknown period of time. No contact to the people waiting for them or to the store that shipped them. My only recourse now is a claim for the items I had shipped. However I was told to send them a list with prices directly to the store to be reimbursed for the contents. Not through the UPS website. I asked them to email me the process he described so I could have a reference to respond to and to have a record of what happened.
Apparently this happened to all the packages shipped from the York Meet. He was in the process of calling all those that shipped items from the Fairgrounds. It sounds like the store is going to take the hit for this fiasco. Now the wait begins to see if I ever get my money back. I’ll be looking for alternatives for shipping items I buy at York in the future.
Sorry to hear that. I hope they make the process as painless as can be from this point out and you get all of your money back. What a disaster.
Reproduction 2379 Rio Grande F units on Fundimensions frames/mechanisms.
@Traindiesel posted:Well, I got the bad news this morning. My box of trains and related items I bought at York are gone forever.
According to the guy at the UPS store that shipped packages from York, the facility that was holding the packages for fraud alerts “disposed” of the packages after an unknown period of time. No contact to the people waiting for them or to the store that shipped them. My only recourse now is a claim for the items I had shipped. However I was told to send them a list with prices directly to the store to be reimbursed for the contents. Not through the UPS website. I asked them to email me the process he described so I could have a reference to respond to and to have a record of what happened.
Apparently this happened to all the packages shipped from the York Meet. He was in the process of calling all those that shipped items from the Fairgrounds. It sounds like the store is going to take the hit for this fiasco. Now the wait begins to see if I ever get my money back. I’ll be looking for alternatives for shipping items I buy at York in the future.
Brian, This is unbelievable. I feel your pain on this.
Eddie G posted a question regarding UPS at the fairgrounds. I would suggest you repost your problem on that thread to increase the visability.
UPS shipped from the fair grounds. | O Gauge Railroading On Line Forum (ogaugerr.com)
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