GATS in Portland Oregon

[Anonymous]

If your located in NW Oregon or SW Washington, you might want to note that THIS WEEKEND is the "The GREAT AMERICAN TRAIN SHOW" in PORTLAND Oregon. It runs this Saturday and Sunday, November 13 & 14, at the Oregon Convention Center. Hours are 11:00am to 5:00pm each day. Admission - $7.00 Kids are FREE!!

Sorry if this looks like a commercai plug, just wanted to share the info in case someone from around here didn't get the word.

Past experience indicates that plenty of Lionel and other 3 rail brands will be for sale, as well as HO and N scale, and even some G. Also offered will likely be a good selection of books and railroadania. . There are usually several modular layouts in N, HO, O, and G, so train watching is everywhere.

I rarely see anything in finescale On3, but I always have fun, and Mike sure enjoys brousing through the Postwar Lionel offered by the many vendors.

Jennifer

[Anonymous]

Past experience indicates it is a waste of seven bucks.

I think GATS stands for Got Any Train Souvenirs ?

[Anonymous]

Big grins! Got Any Train Souveniers, good one! I wonder if the 'content' of the GATS shows varies greatly from location to location. Certainly the layouts are from local clubs and the vendors are usually regional. It could be that a GATS show at one place may be quite a bit different from one at aonther city. I wonder????????

Some folks might agree that GATS is a waste of 7 bucks, and please note that I mention that I have rarely seen anything for my primary modeling interests in On3. If that was my only interest, it might be a waste of time and money for me too. However, I would like to say that my husband ALWAYS finds a nice postwar Lionel car for our collection at a really good price. We are not TTOS or TCA members, so we don't go to meets sponsored by those fine associations. However, many of the Lionel parts vendors attend our Portland GATS and we use the once-a -year opportunity to purchase repair and service parts. I like to see what I am buying. Actually meeting the people and seeing the goods is nice. I always find a book or two [ or more] and sometimes a video or a magazine back issue, or a sheet of plans that my local hobby shops don't carry or that I have had a hard time finding elsewhere. Several of the GATS events here have also featured some free how-to clinics.

We live in day when a crappy meal at fast food meal can run 6 to 10 bucks a person and cup of joe at Starbucks is about $4!! For us at least, half a day of entertainment and brousing, and making some deals on parts and items that we need anyway, the show represents good value.

Attending any commercail train show or paid admission open house at a local club layout may not be the right 'cup-of-tea' for some of us. . If that's the case, go railfanning or stay home and work on the layout., or put the 'saved' admission $$ into a fund for a new model RR item. Seems ALL of us could ALWAYS use something new!

I like to see the look of wonder and joy on the kids faces as they watch the trains on the modular layouts go by. Kids love these shows!

[Anonymous]

You're right, Jennifer. It all depends on what you go there for.

It is a great afternoon for the kids, if they like trains. And it's a good "garage sale" of Lionel and non-finescale items. But to most of us - it's a traveling circus and medicine show - jam packed with t-shirts, wooden train whistles, and way overpriced HO & N. If you live in a remote area, and have no exposure to retail train stores, it's one way to see scenery products up close.

But if you go in alone, looking for good buys on HO or N scale, you'll come out empty. And $7 lighter (or more if they charge for parking).

[chutton01]

Well, my recent experience with the Greenberg Train Show at Hofstra (last Month - isn't Greenberg owned with GATS nowadays anyway) matches that of Mellow-Mike's - mostly Lionel and other O/Hi Rail stuff, geared to the collector I suppose (there was plenty of people asking 'does it come with the original box?', and you know what that means) - not sure if there was much Fine-Scale O gauge, as I am not an expert in the larger (O, G, #1) scales. Anyway, maybe 60% O/Lionel (if you needed parts, there were several vendors with large arrays); another 10% seemed to be vendors of Corgi, Matchbox, and other scale road vehicles (nomimally S scale - [:(!] If I ever seen a modern-era S scale layout that DOESN"T have streets jammed packed with vehicles, I'm going postal!); some HO tyco and lifelike merchandise (which brought back lots of memories 'Hey, the auto transport - and the floodlight car', but no desire to buy), and a few displays of interesting stuff (particularly the guys selling precast plaster landscape items - Quik Scene, maybe?), and prebuilt Walthers buildings (not so cheap), and a tool vendor (rather extensive selection - I brought some tools I would have otherwise needed to order from MicroMark, and got them at better prices).
The modular layouts there were nice, the HO fairly large, although only a few modules were decently detailed (and I didn't get to see them run the 'State of Maine' string of reefers), and the Circus modules were good too.
All in all, it was mildly interesting, not something I would repeat for a long while as it didn't hold much value to me.
If you collect or run Lionel, yes, this show is geared to you - otherwise, don't expect too much.
BTW, I did break down and buy a cheap chrome Lionel whistle, which I incorporated into my 'Halloween' costume as a train engineer (trust me, nobody at the parties I went to knew that engineers didn't carry such whistles - they thought it sounded nice).