O scale Indy Fall Show ?

 

I don't know about any other show in the nation but, the Chicago "March Meet" sure has NOT experienced "falling attendance", especially with the move some years ago to the new location in Lombard, IL. My impression was that this year's show had a record attendance AND particapation for the Hill family. In fact, it appears to be getting bigger every year.

Hi

I agree.  I usually go every year to chicago's March meet and this year was pretty big and very crowded!   Even Atlas was back.  That was nice.  It is certainly not decreasing in size. 

Don

While not 2-Rail, we will have our layout up and running on Friday night until 9:00pm or so for those that would like to visit while they're in town......

 

 

FWIW, I have been told that the Cleveland show is also seeing growth.

Most shows have been breaking attendance records across the board in our area.

The biggest problem is that the Indy show is the time it's scheduled and the same high overpriced out of date OLD crap year after year. This taken from past post. Stephen

This is true of every show to some percentage; I'd hazard a guesstimate that even at Chicago that 20-30% of the stuff in the room has been and continues to be hauled round to shows for years to come.  There's stuff at Chicago that looks like (and smells like ) it was just literally dug up from storage in a poultry barn.  Interesting thing here is that you don't have to buy any of it, or anything at all........  It's all part of the entertainment portion of the proceedings,

That gentleman has one of the, if not the largest, O scale collection I have ever seen.

 

He has the basement of a huge ranch house filled waist high with boxes on top of boxes of top shelf brass as well as half of a two car garage with the "lesser" things he's trying to sell at shows.  And he has a good number of hand made pieces by some of the best custom builders. Not a plastic piece in sight.

 

He doesn't sell anything that he does not have a duplicate of. 

 

Being elderly he does now take to selling on eBay, though most of his sales are of PSC cars and a few diesels.

I do not know what Als present situation is but his basement probably has the countries largest inventory of new unopened brass from all the importers since the late seventies.

I have not seen Al at any shows for a number of years now. I believe the last show I recall seeing him attend was Indianapolis when it was still on the east side just off I-70. He does not attend Strasburg nor have I seen him at the Chicago show since it moved to Lombard.

I think he was at either  the Westin Lombard or Indy west 3 or 4 years ago, that's the only time I saw him in several years... or maybe it was one of the Nationals in Parsippany. He had an "assistant" whom I presume was his driving partner.  He used to do EOS meets as well as Stamford CT and Orange NJ. 

 

He's doing the eBay thing a bit now but I still don't recall seeing much of his "good stuff" there.  

 

Al was always great at allowing me to visit his place for an evening purchase when he was cleaning out PSC cars at reasonable prices... I don't agree with his general "business" acumen but it would be nice to chat with him and see how he is doing.

 

Interestingly, I think at one time many years ago he had a small shop on Alter St. in Hazleton where he sold from.