Milwaukee Trainfest

The long running Trainfest at the Milwaukee County Fair Grounds, located in West Alice, is a completely different type of "show" than the York event. First, Trainfest is open to the ENTIRE public, especially kids. Second, in addition to all the various dealers, there are TONS of operating layouts from as small as Z gauge, all they up through O scale, to 1 1/2" scale ride on trains. Third, typical of Wisconsin, beer and brats can be purchased ON SITE for lunch!

Thanks.  Guess I was looking to see if there was a goodly mix of O gauge trains and accessories not just a few tables,  and the rest being predominately HO or N tables.

York was meant to be a swap meet for the TCA Eastern Division.  Lots of dealers attend.  You can find a lot of product at York, new and used.  I have been to Trainfest several times.  There is new product available from the more local LHS shops.  You won't find a Trainworld, Nassau or Charles Ro there.  It is an all-scale show.  You won't find much, if any, used / collectible stuff there.  For that, I recommend the Great Midwest Train Show that they hold almost monthly in Warrenville, IL.  Still, not as much tinplate as York and it is an all-scale show.  Get there early before stuff sells out.

George 

rrman posted:

Thanks.  Guess I was looking to see if there was a goodly mix of O gauge trains and accessories not just a few tables,  and the rest being predominately HO or N tables.

There is a lot of O at Trainfest from dealers.  Maybe there was some used stuff for sale, now that I recall.  Trainfest usually posts a list of their vendors on their website.

However, these shows don't compare to the amount of product available at York from what I saw a few years ago.  Trainfest is good for getting ideas for building your layout, because you can see these layouts all set up.  They advertise about 50 operating layouts of all-scales.  Don't discount what you can learn from the HO operating layouts though.

I drive the hour and a half from the Chicago area every year to attend Trainfest. Totally worth it in my book. I use this event to get ideas for the layout and load up on scenery supplies. There are several o gauge dealers that sell locos and cars, just not the main focus at this show  

They will update their website prior to the event with all of the vendors and manufacturers listed. From memory here are the O scale folks that set up booths and layouts: OGR, MTH, Lionel, Atlas O, Bachman O, Ross Custom Switches, Scenic Express, Woodland Scenics, NJ International, Chicagoland Hobby, Milwaukee Lionel Railroad Club, LCCA, TCA Midwest Division, Evan Designs, Kalmbach Publishing, TM Books, Model Tech Studios, Chooch Enterprises, Z Stuff for Trains, Caboose Industries, Kadee, Layouts by Cardiff  

I'll edit this post later with a few that I'm missing and post some photos. 

If you plan on coming reach out to the Milwaukee Lionel Club and arrange a visit to their clubhouse. They are amazing hosts with a first class layout that has to be seen. 

bigtruckpete posted:

If you plan on coming reach out to the Milwaukee Lionel Club and arrange a visit to their clubhouse. They are amazing hosts with a first class layout that has to be seen. 

 

Will definitely keep this in mind.  Just talked with Caboose Hobbies in Cedar Falls IA and she said it was worthwhile trip. Plus LCCA has some interesting convention in Kansas City in late July  (In fact when I contacted them they still had my old lapsed membership number!). Certainly beginning to turn my head from TCA meet now with two closer one-two day drives.  

We've (wife and I) attended two Trainfests (West Allis, WI) and two Big E's (Mass.) over the past dozen years or so.  We've also attended York meets twice a year for the past 10 years. 

So, in answer to your question, I'd recommend going to Trainfest at least once to make your own evaluation.  It'll clearly be a less expensive trip (not counting train purchases, of course!) than going to York, PA.  But we found the show to have its own attraction for a model railroader.  Besides, it's folly to think that observing other scales...products, layouts, operation, techniques, etc...holds nothing of value or application to the O3R/O2R end of the hobby.  We enjoyed the layout displays at Trainfest in particular.  Although it was many years ago, one chap had a l-o-n-g narrow trolley layout that was simply a work of art, for example.  I don't recall the scale, and I have no interest in a trolley-only layout myself.  But, the structures, scenery, operation?.......absolutely exquisite!

Big E?   Also a huge event worth going to at least once, if you live some distance away.  We'd go again for sure were it not for the fact that it occurs in January, one of the WORST times of the year to be traveling through western New York into Massachusetts, coming from Michigan!!!  And, now, of necessity must plan to include the use of an RV when travelling to these shows......another downer for travel in winter!

The changes (decline?) occurring at York have my wife and myself thinking about looking at alternatives more seriously.  IOW, even though York is a unique concentrated event for toy trains/tinplate, maybe to breathe some fresh enthusiasm for 'train shows', in general. we need to plan to travel to new shows....at least once....maybe even farther afield! 

But, if you choose to do so, yourself, I'd suggest keeping an open mind about what to expect, don't expect the show to be on a par with York's special schtick, and try to find the positives in the new experience. 

Just a thought.

KD

A pal of mine went last year and said it blew his mind. It was, he said, orders of magnitude larger than the NMRA national train show later that same year.

He told me anything you could ever want in the hobby is there. Heck, he even found a ET&WNC RR t-shirt for me at that show!

I have been to swap meets that are scale/gauge specific, general train shows and the worlds greatest hobby on tour.  Buy far my favorite (and my 5 year olds) is Trainfest.  Not where you are gunna go to find that hard to find item, but where you can enjoy what toy and scale trains are meant to bring out in people!  

A good video covering the last one...

http://youtu.be/MNLunWypNFE

Most the big deal manufacturers are there too. 

Ben

I love seeing the big standard gauge layout that SGMA has at Trainfest.  It is awesome.  

I also saw the trolley layout.  It was a smaller one a year ago, but had a fully operational catenary system and custom laid switches in the street bed.

Hot Water posted:

The long running Trainfest at the Milwaukee County Fair Grounds, located in West Alice, is a completely different type of "show" than the York event. First, Trainfest is open to the ENTIRE public, especially kids. Second, in addition to all the various dealers, there are TONS of operating layouts from as small as Z gauge, all they up through O scale, to 1 1/2" scale ride on trains. Third, typical of Wisconsin, beer and brats can be purchased ON SITE for lunch!

I never heard of  the Milwaukee County Fair Grounds being located in West Alice??

I have heard of them being located in West Allis, WI.  

Casey Jones2 posted:

Hot Water posted:

The long running Trainfest at the Milwaukee County Fair Grounds, located in West Alice, is a completely different type of "show" than the York event. First, Trainfest is open to the ENTIRE public, especially kids. Second, in addition to all the various dealers, there are TONS of operating layouts from as small as Z gauge, all they up through O scale, to 1 1/2" scale ride on trains. Third, typical of Wisconsin, beer and brats can be purchased ON SITE for lunch!

I never heard of  the Milwaukee County Fair Grounds being located in West Alice??

I have heard of them being located in West Allis, WI.  

Picky, picky, picky.    Good old spell check strikes again.

Casey Jones2 posted:

Hot Water posted:

The long running Trainfest at the Milwaukee County Fair Grounds, located in West Alice, is a completely different type of "show" than the York event. First, Trainfest is open to the ENTIRE public, especially kids. Second, in addition to all the various dealers, there are TONS of operating layouts from as small as Z gauge, all they up through O scale, to 1 1/2" scale ride on trains. Third, typical of Wisconsin, beer and brats can be purchased ON SITE for lunch!

I never heard of  the Milwaukee County Fair Grounds being located in West Alice??

I have heard of them being located in West Allis, WI.  

OMG - who really cares =  West Allis  -OR-  West Alice =  we knew what he meant.  So, if in print it is West Allis = if on the phone you'd never be able to tell the difference.  If one must nit pic - must be a nursery school position somewhere!

Hot Water posted:

Casey Jones2 posted:

Hot Water posted:

The long running Trainfest at the Milwaukee County Fair Grounds, located in West Alice, is a completely different type of "show" than the York event. First, Trainfest is open to the ENTIRE public, especially kids. Second, in addition to all the various dealers, there are TONS of operating layouts from as small as Z gauge, all they up through O scale, to 1 1/2" scale ride on trains. Third, typical of Wisconsin, beer and brats can be purchased ON SITE for lunch!

I never heard of  the Milwaukee County Fair Grounds being located in West Alice??

I have heard of them being located in West Allis, WI.  

Picky, picky, picky.    Good old spell check strikes again.

Even pickier. You won't find any Milwaukee County Fairgrounds in West Allis. Trainfest takes place in State Fair Park, home to the Wisconsin State Fair. That's fairly important if you are using Google Maps or other GPS devices to get directions to the venue, which is roughly at 84th Street and Greenfield Avenue.

Most of Trainfest is in the Wisconsin Exposition Center, a large building roughly equivalent to the Orange Hall at York. But the past two shows also added more layouts and dealers in a second building, the Wisconsin Products Pavilion, slightly further north within the fairgrounds. There is a shuttle service offered for those who don't want to walk between the two buildings.

The spelling of West Allis is noteworthy if you realize the city's connection to its most famous business. West Allis originally was essentially a company town for Allis-Chalmers, the farm tractor and implement manufacturer.