Springfield Amherst Train Show bit of a let down

I bet it was nice to walk around without the crowds. That would have been great.

Paul

Not surprised, between the weather and COVID.

Hopefully it will be back to normal next year.

@Railrunnin posted:

I bet it was nice to walk around without the crowds. That would have been great.

Paul

Yes it was.

All pics by me cause...I was there! [along with forumite Silver Lake]

A train guy buddy of mine and I thoroughly enjoyed the show on Sunday and both of us are very happy with the boats and structures we bought there.

Lunch at the show was much better this year than prior years because there was hardly any line to get food on Sunday.

I had a blast. It wasn't as busy, which was both a blessing (no fighting through crowds) and a curse (some vendors I wanted to see were gone). Still, it was the best train show I have been to in several years.

LOL I watched the live feed. York was way more populated. Looked like a ghost show to me.

@NYC 428 posted:

Hopefully it will be back to normal next year.

Don't count on that.

Show:

I truly hate it for the vendor's sakes. They need all the good exposure and cash flow they can get.

On the other side of the coin, I can FULLY understand why some cancelled their plans to attend as a participant, both vendors and buying public.

I'm facing that here: We got a dismal forecast predicted (icing/sleet/snow). I might have enough firewood to get us through a day or so of power outage. DO I go get more firewood and not have enough cold days left to get it used before warm weather, or do I roll the dice? Same deal: Judgement call.

Given the total inability of the weather prognosticators for the past many years, I tend to think it won't be as bad as they think it could be... but do I want to roll the dice??

SO... I understand where the non-attendees were coming from in a major way.

Andre

I know that the vendors want and need more people there. I get it. But it was very nice to be able to walk around and look at things without getting sideswiped by a big-a** backpack even once.

@ByronB posted:

I know that the vendors want and need more people there. I get it. But it was very nice to be able to walk around and look at things without getting sideswiped by a big-a** backpack even once.

It's a double edged sword:

You had more comfort (one edge) but on the other side...

* The attending mfg'ers lost money. (Potential pre-orders, etc.)

* Likely the privateer tables lost money. (They don't give away tables at such meets.)

* There was less product for you to browse for purchasing on account of the vendors and privateer vendors that didn't show.

* The hosting organization probably lost money BIG TIME. (I seriously doubt the large venue $$ rent was lowered because of the attendance catastrophe.)

I think a crowded hall would have been far better for the whole of the endeavor instead you not getting inconvenienced by the crowd that's spending money and keeping the vendors/promoters afloat.

Just sayin'.

Andre