TCA Show at NC Fairgrounds Today

Lee I hope you and your wife have a great day at the show.

Maybe you will give us a full report similar to one your great stories. Thanks.

Regards, Casey

I can't make it today but would appreciate one of your reports on the show for future information.

Have a good time and a safe trip.

Larry

Ii can't make it today Lee and will miss seeing other TCA members and Forumites. In another post Don Jones reported that he would be there manning his big table. Like others I will appreciate hearing your views of the Show.

I was really encouraged by this meeting today.  This was by far the best one of the these two-a-year events I've attended.  During the recession, there were several times when the Kerr Scott building was just half full, if that, and the crowds rather thin and not that cheerful.  Today the building was filled with tables and layouts and crowds of pretty active, smiling folks, in spite of the weather.  Maybe you could have squeezed a another few seller tables in, but they had already squeezed a few in the end aisles already  . . . There was not that much more O gauge that last time - maybe 15% - 20% more for sale than in past shows, but there was a big, big uptick in the amount of S, HO, and N gauge compared to, say, two years ago.

My wife and I got there when the doors opened but it filled up quickly.   A typical, , if slightly larger crowd of guys my age who want to get there before everything gets picked over were there when the doors were opened. But lots of kids with their parents/grandparents, too.  By the time we left, the place was getting pretty crowded and getting more so.   As usual at events like this, the most fun part was just meeting and talking with friends and other forum members.  

Still, I left with just one item - less than I have ever bought - not out of any lack of enthusiasm or trying, but rather because after 7+ years back in O gauge, I've pretty much worked through all the easy-to-find items on my lists of "things I must get" - what I had today was a fairly short list of things I know are hard to find: and I didn't find any of them.  But I was not going to leave without buying something - I want to make sure I support the hobby by shopping at these meetings - so I picked up a  nice MTH depressed center Army flat car with a missile (somewhat like the Corporal) on a trailer.  It caught my eye on my initial walk through and will look good with my "War Train." 

Sounds like a healthy event for a change. Thanks for the report Lee.

Thanks Lee for the Info.

Thank You Lee.

I didn't know you lived in the Triangle, Lee. Why don't you come down to Bonsal sometime and lend your engineering talent to the rebuilding or operation of a real steam locomotive?