Those of us in Milwaukee look forward to Trainfest almost like a holiday -- with the same feeling of exhaustion afterwards. Some random impressions (I am sure MR will be noting the new products announced). I suspect the attendance might be a hair smaller than last year, so perhaps 20,000, but still, very well attended. It actually helps if the weather is unpleasant without being positively foul.
I volunteer each year at the registration for layouts/dealers on Friday and this year handed out program booklets at the door Saturday and for a bit on Sunday; I put in about 7 1/2 to 8 hours worth of volunteer time. Let's just say, you meet all types .... There is a large crew of really hard working, unpaid volunteers.
John Tews, the director, has been at this several years and has most of it down to a routine but each year there seems to be new challenges and new issues, but I can see there is a real effort to address the problems of the year before. This year for example it seemed the state fair park staff did not handle the parking situation as smoothly as they could have; that is out of our hands but I am pretty sure they will "hear" about the issues. Many aspects of Trainfest are really out of our hands; Trainfest is just a renter of the facility and since it is government, .. well ... .
Trainfest is the main funding vehicle for our NMRA division, and thanks to Trainfest we meet each month in a spacious hotel conference room, with tiered seating and projection capability, with rooms for contests, swap meet, free video/DVD borrowing library, coffee, etc. Our meets are all free and totally open to the public yet cost quite a bit so the money from Trainfest benefits all local model railroaders and many railfans who are not modelers.
The main thing about Trainfest is operating layouts. It is not a swap meet: it is layouts, displays, commercial dealers, and manufacturers. Little or no used stuff is sold (except for railroad collectibles) and some first time visitors to Trainfest mention that it was not the sort of "train show" they are used to back home, but the advertising tries to make this emphasis on layouts very clear.
General impressions? Kids are still enthralled by trains. The excitement level for kids is almost uncontrollable regardless of scale. Thomas is still big but not essential to getting a kid excited. A smaller but encouraging number of teens retain that interest. It seems to me that age 10 is where we need to work to retain interest. I think I saw more 18 year olds than 14 year olds for example.
One somewhat sad announcement this year was that the "Bits n Pieces" display layout was sold to a person out of state so this long standing attraction, which uses theatrical darkened lighting and a double deck (HO below, N above) to feature caricatures of signature Wisconsin scenes, will likely not be seen again at Trainfest. That accounted for many hurrying over to the layout Sunday afternoon to get their last photos. Most other layouts had been there before. Among displays, an SS Edmund Fitzgerald display was near the familiar Great Lakes car ferry displays. That was new.
John Dornfeld, well known custom builder and manufacturer ("Depots by John") was showing the fruits of his continuing effort to scratch build (to very high standards) EVERY structure that stood in Zachow Wisconsin in years gone by: houses, garages, sheds, depot, barns, industries, everything. If you know anything about Zachow or have old pictures, John wants to hear from you.
Historical societies for Soo Line, Milwaukee Road, Chicago & North Western, Great Northern, and Green Bay & Western were represented. Great to meet, at the Soo Line Historical Society booth, Dave Leider the editor of the NMRA's Midwest Region Waybill, for which I am the "Frugal Modeler" columnist.
With the possible exception of local dealer Southside Trains and their $12.99 for RTR freight car sale, it seemed to me that the dealers were not offering the sort of jaw dropping "how can they sell that so cheap" item that was commonly seen in prior years. Then again so much of what is offered from P2K, Kato, and other lines is out of my era that perhaps I was not paying full attention. Lombard Hobbies was offering the Rapido pre-wired telephone poles at a greatly reduced price, more than 40% off. That might have been the most interesting deal I saw. Somehow I passed it up.
New products. Again I defer to whatever summary Model Railroader runs but it seemed the entire room was buzzing over Fox Valley Models' announcement of a complete 1935 Milwaukee Road Hiawatha train in both N and HO: that means the steamlined 4-4-2 as well as all the smooth side lightweight cars built in the Milwaukee shops. The engines lasted into the early 1950s, the passenger cars beyond that into MOW and other service. Fox Valley Models was also showing their previously announced N scale Gevo engines that had the N scale types pretty excited. The detail level is exquisite.
Athearn was showing pre production models of an HO diesel and boxcar but I could see no sign stating what they were. Walthers had built up versions of the Hewlett unloaders together with a great lakes boat, and some of their new structures including the Wadhams "pagoda" style gas stations that many of us Midwesterners remember from our youths. Unlike last year they did not have demos of how to use their modular structure components. Many dealers had the Walthers modulars for sale at rock bottom prices.
I am not into tinplate in particular but both Mike's Train House, Bachmann, and Lionel had impressive tinplate displays.
Mike's Train House was showing a Milwaukee Road (and presumably South Shore) "Little Joe" electric in HO that had many local modelers very excited. The display model was impressive in size and detail. I hope I won't be sued for saying that.
The Lionel display had a steel industrial look with trains running on a high overhead beam and at each corner, four stacked up circles of track with running trains. Most Lionel stuff is toy trains but some of it is really scale models that run on 3 rail track.
Kadee was not present which surprised me; they had been a regular in recent years. In years past they had great deals ($20) on their RTR freight cars, also examples of the entire coupler line to review, and free samples of couplers! But looking at the Walthers catalog for 2010 they have evidently changed their HO freight car line to be almost entirely special runs; the catalog has just about nothing. While those Kadee cars are very pricey at full price they are really nice cars and I hope Kadee returns to Trainfest in future years.
Chooch was also not present nor was Woodland Scenics. I always worry about outfits that were regulars and then drop out.
Several outfits were offering high quality die cast collectible vehicles such as Norscot (the new HO UPS truck is out).
Accurail had the usual Trainfest specials covering local Wisconsin railroads. I bought a Soo Line 40' boxcar. The other offerings were out of my era. Very friendly folks from Accurail.
In the scenery department I was pleased to see Timberline return because they have some high quality items that are not easily found locally, such as their "pond scum." It would be the rare hobby shop that could display their entire line. Sweet deal: what they did not have on display they offer at 40% off until the end of the year if you enter the "secret" Trainfest code that they handed out on flyers.
New -- I think -- to Trainfest was Scenic Express with a very extensive display of Silflour, Heki, and other European and American scenery lines. I indulged heavily in Silfour since no dealer locally offers it. Expensive but so unique, and with my purchase they threw in one of the most lavishly illustrated color catalogs I have ever seen.
And an old reliable, "Tool Man" from Texas (Billy Carr) was there with his usual selection of fascinating tools, some of them dirt cheap like the dental picks. I bought one of those flexible Zona saws that lets you cut flush on a flat surface. I have yet to think what I'll use it for but I had to have it.
This is not a complete report -- just my general and casual impressions. I spent about 13 hours there all told and am still somewhat footsore, broke, and dazed. Can't wait until November 2010!
Dave Nelson