WGH Show in Portland, Oregon - photo's

Lionel must have had 2012 RTR catalogs available at some point, as I was heading back to my car on MAX two guys standing next to me both had the new catalog and were discussing it. When I went through Lionel's booth, I didn't even see any catalogs at all. The ZW-L prototype is impressive though though I was suprised by the overall lack of product being shown other than the operating sets in the displays. All of the other manufacturers (Atlas, Bachmann, MTH) were full of product and people. Lots of crowds and folks were buying. There were a lot of O gauge sellers with good prices although most of it was postwar or traditional sized modern (which makes sense considering the customer mix). Great show though overall.

 

Peter

Hii Peter, my son and I went into show when doors opened.  We went directly to the Lionel display thinking we would get the new catalog, but all they had were tables stacked with free 2011 RTR catalogs.  Those guys you saw leaving must know someone like a dealer.  I picked up one Lionel Army car and that's all.

 

TEX

Steve

I went to the show yesterday. Not too bad, but certainly not like Timmonium or some of the big east coast shows. Best of the day for me was Joel Bragdon's one-hour demo of his amazing, lightweight scenery and rock work. Very impressive (see photo for one of his display modules). Some nice pre and post war items for sale. Nothing much in terms of O scale layouts to speak of, but I thought there were good displays by O scale kitmakers SideTrack Laser and RS Laser. Very nice structures, well designed and beautifully detailed. 

 

Jerrman

I went today (Sunday) and attendance was sparse. Had no issues getting around in my wheelchair. The Lionel rep did tell me that the RTR and the separate AF catalogs are in the mail now. We also saw Joel Brangdon's scenery demo. Great stuff but can get spendy unless you have allot of scenery to do. I also spent quite a bit of time with Al from the Lionel Collectors Club. What I thought was really cool was a video of the IPhone app that they are working on. Looks to be very cool. Did not buy much, just some Arttista figures and a nice AF whistle billboard so that the granddaughter can drive grandma crazy. Not a bad way to spend a chilly damp Sunday!

 

My wife thought this was great. Excercise, Run your trains, and no electric bill!

 

 

Here is a close up view of the generator of all those kilowatts!

 

 

Here is a closeup view of a MTH SP large scale or G-Gauge. I am not sure if there is a differance or not but it is big!

 

 

Here is a shot of Joel Bragdon during his demo. The neat thing I found about his process was how he applied release agent into the molds and then spraypainted over top so that the mold release would not get absorbed into the casting. This would prevent the casting from being painted. Cool thing was that when the casting was removed from the mold it had absorbed the spraypaint and was pre-primered. He showed a section of rockwork that he then stood on. Since you are basically casting polyurethane it get super hard yet very light. If memory serves me correctly the scene shown above weighed about 100 poulds. It was easy to see why so many forum members use his system! Very nice person to talk to as well as was his wife.

 

It looks like this WGHS was smaller than the Oaks, Pa show a few years ago. We had at least 6 modular setups, and the crowds were too much (45,000), IMO. Roads were clogged, parking a mess, long lines at the restrooms.

Here is a link to Joel Bragdon's website.... "http://www.bragdonent.com/index.htm

You're probably right about the attendance size. Expectations were for between 20-25M visitors. Saturday was quite crowded, all aisles and booths particularly towards lunchtime. And, tons of little kids which can only be a good thing for the hobby. But, the venue, including the bathrooms, seemed able to handle the crowds well. Since Portland has an outstanding public transportation system, I suspect a lot of people used the busses or the Max light rail. It was nice to see a well rounded show like this in town as I've heard there hadn't really been a good one here for a number of years. So, the pent-up demand was likely there. The only things I would have like to see were more craftsman type sellers like the two I mentioned above (but, most of those guys are back east) and maybe a good O scale/gauge layout or two. 

 

Jerrman

Steve, It was great to meet you and your son at the show. You should be proud of him, he is a fine young man. Thank you for your kind words and stopping bye to talk trains. Thank you to all the LCCA members and families who stopped bye to visit. We hope to have future LCCA events in your area. What did you think of the LCCA minature layout which was designed and built by TW Design of Dallas TX? It demonstrates what can be accomplished in a small footprint with O-Gage track. Al K.

Jerrman, As large as the Oaks, PA show was, there were only a handful of dealers selling the type of stuff we would be interested in. The only ones actually making sales were the Thomas/toy dealers.

That seems to be the trend out west. The big shows back east like Timmonium and the Amherst shows are really huge, multi-building shows in which virtually all manufacturers show up and there's a lot of O scale stuff, despite the preponderance of HO. It's a good way to talk to the owners and get modeling tips as well as they usually have classes all day on various building techniques. As I'm into craftsman type building (both kits and scratch built), I've found these shows very instructive. Same with the craftsman building shows that take place in the fall in New England. Anyone really wanting to learn craftsman techniques would really benefit from these. (I've never attended York so I can't make that comparison). The best craftsman builders in the world attend these shows and give classes, although admittedly, there are some forum members (like SIRT, Vulcan, Avanti, etc.) who are right up there as well. I've seen O scale layouts there as well. I think even the small shows around the country would benefit from more demos and classes throughout the day. Certainly Joel Bragdon's class in the Portland show was extremely well attended (SRO), so there's definitely an interest in learning techniques. Just another way of making these shows more fulfilling and worth the trip. 

 

Jerrman