Great American Train Show

[Anonymous]

Did anyone go to the GATS at Indianapolis this weekend?? If so, was anyone as disappointed as I was??? I traveled 180 miles thinking there would be a good selection of dealers and displays. Well, the layouts were great, but where were all the 0/027 dealers? I saw maybe a handful. But it was mostly "N" and
"HO" scale dealers and displays. The "O" scale layouts that were there were great. But as far as dealers go, they were few and very far between. And a lot of the dealers that were there were toy dealers and didn't even have anything to sell that had to do with toy trains. Last winter when the show was at Indianapolis, you could barely move around in the building because there were so many dealers. Has something changed to make 0/027 dealers not want to come to the show and sell their wares?? Are there better train shows other than GATS?? Let me know!!!! Bummed in southern Indiana

[Wdlgln005]

There seems to be a problem with GATS not being as great as they used to be. Paying for downtown parking + price of admission can get expensive and not fun if your scale isn't represented. I'd love to check out the Nscalers there especially if they had a supply of Atlas VO-1000's. Could you tell if most dealers were from a day's drive of Indy? There may be a problem with some dealers going to one show & not another. Other train shows may be in smaller arenas and rely on LHS for support.

[Roger Bielen]

Would it be possible that dealers from the Indy area would be at York?

[SPFan]

The GATS show in Rochester, NY two weekends ago was about half the size as previous years. Only one hall vs two, and there were not any other large meets to compete with in the area. There are couple of local meets that are considerably larger and half the admsission fee so that was most likely the last GATS show for me.

[chemung]

The GATS in Omaha,Neb. on Sept. 27/28 had very poor selection of O,maybe two dozen items.Almost all HO & N.

[Anonymous]

From a dealers stand point, Gats asks too much $$ to be in their show. The price of the booth, the table(s), the chairs and yes, even the electrical hook-up if you have to have one, all these costs are way above any of the other shows. Its not worth the cost of the show, to the sales generated.

By the way, if you can help...
I am searching for images of older living rooms, kitchens, bed rooms, drug stores & pharmacy interiors. These images would be best if they if they could have come from homes/stores that appear to have been in the 40's & 50's. Color images would be best. We have had several requests for this type of image in our program for model railroaders. These photos would be included in a new version of our computer CD program "Window Works". If you have such images, please email them to: [e-mail]

Thanks,

Jensen

www.windowworks.theshoppe.com
...photo interiors for model buildings. See OGR Run 196--SMOKE SIGNALS

[Anonymous]

Hi,
I recently attented one of those shows in baltimore. This was a big show, but like it was mentioned, it was mostly HO, n and very little 027. We spent too much money between admission and food. There is another train show called Greenbergs, which is mostly 027, with a few others mixed in. Look for that show.

[lionelsoni]

Greenberg is no longer owned by Kalmbach. See http://www.greenbergshows.com/background.htm for its recent tangled history.

[marxman]

I noticed the same at the Spokane, Washington show in June. I was very dissappointed as there were only a couple of dealers selling 027 trains. It was 99.5 % HO & N scale. In years past it used to be about 50/50 between HO/N and 027, not any more.

[Anonymous]

We have one here every year in Southern California at the Pomona Fairground. I have never found many bargins there and the amount of O Gauge stuff gets smaller every year. The thing that I don't understand is why they schedule this show during the same week end as the big Cal Stewart meet in Pasadena. They seem to do this every year for the last two years or so and I hear they have the same thing planned for next year. It seems to me that this would be detrimental to both shows.[?]

[Dr.Fu-Manchu]

I attended the show in San Mateo, Ca. I was able to find a lot of O-O27 items. also a
nice parts dealer (Electric Norman) Don't give up hope.
Dr.Fu-Manchu