Train Shows Like or Dislike?

[sir james I]

I have all I need  but I never get tired of seeing a train show.

[alank]

Yesterday was a beautiful winter day where the sun was out and air was cool.   For a couple of weeks I knew there would be a Train Show, but I kept telling myself I wasn't going to go.   See I don't like train shows.   I on the inside say I don't like train shows, but at the same time can't stay away from trains.   I have had toy and model trains all of my life.  I also like the real trains as that is where I say our hobby starts, it is in the blood as my grandfather was a railroader, as was his father and other members of the family.

    Now there seems to be a lot of interest in trains.   The show was well attended.    It isn't the admission price to the event that bothers me, it is the walk in the park.

    In our neck of the woods, there isn't the hobby shop anymore.   For so long in my youth you could have the Lionel Catalog and when it was your birthday or Christmas plan for what you wanted or needed for your trains.   Then came along HO and there were new dynamics in the hobby.

    When I first started attending train shows it was making a trip down to Long Island for a Greenburg show.   For so long where we live the Lionel Trains of Postwar had disappeared.   At those early shows I was now seeing trains that were in that 1956 or 1957 catalog that I could supplement my collection with.

     As time went on train shows now got closer to home.   Catalogs were more prevalent with new trains, and the train show grew to where every table was a hook, just waiting for you to take the bait, and then it was a matter of 20s, 50s and 100s.   Many time I set out with one thing in mind and came home with something else.   Many time I would stop to talk trains with the vendor only to find they didn't want to talk, only if I was buying.

     Yesterday, I couldn't stay away.   As I entered I said to the lady taking my admission I don't like train shows.  At the end of the day I had fun.   I found an item I been looking for.   I had some nice discussions with people who like trains and the hobby, and it gave me a chance to see what others are doing with their trains.

    I probably won't go to any more train shows for a while.   It seems you can find one almost any weekend, but what I have found is you have to learn how to attend them.   Where one time it gave the appearance of the trains own you, now I for the most part am still the one to own the trains.   There isn't anything I need or want or have to have.   The trains are a hobby and I work on them as I want.   The discussions and things I read about trains hopefully help me to grow.   My train watching and chasing ghost hopefully don't waste to much of my time and bring me joy.

     What are your thoughts?