Do you do any shows? Revisited.

[Anonymous]

In March of 05 here in Edison, Is going to be one of the TAMR's largest shows, with over 10 trains running, Live steam, G scale, O scale... a 30x30 space!

I encourage others to join in by handing them a Cab1 and telling them to make 'er go.

Will post some pics of previous shows

[Anonymous]

We do about 10 demos at the local TCA meets every year, and usually two big shows (Cal Stewart, or other).

We get 7-10 running at once in Standard Gauge and O gauge in conventional, TMCC, and DCS, using the DCS system with a Lionel Command Base.

Like Chris, we let the public try the remote, but in our case it is a DCS Handheld instead of a Cab-1.

[brianel027]

I used to. Had a portable door sized layout that was detailed, but also geared to kids and beginners. The whole thing was made with found, used and recycled materials just to show folks that the hobby could be done on a budget. It was a lot of work lugging off to shows at the crack of dawn. The many thank you's, the letters I received, the thanks from other dealers, being recognized by kids on the street... it was a nice payback. I had people tell me they bought train sets because of me. I might not be able to sell used cars, but I do know how to sell train sets and promote this hobby!

But ultimately I realized it was far more work than it was worth. The many folks who do this kind of thing, especially the ones who have kid friendly layouts, really deserve an award from Lionel... they really are the only advertising for the hobby with the youth of today. The best way to sell this hobby is for kids to actually see the trains... and not just the expensive one's their folks may not be able to afford. Display layouts need to display affordable low end trains too.

KIds would get excited about seeing the Conrail, Norfolk Southern units and other modern roads (that they can actually see today) on my layout. Their dad's would ask where I got those, and I had to tell them no one bothers to make trains in those road names in the smaller more traditional size. I really got tired of it. I saw the noticable difference in the kids faces between the PRR and Norfolk Southern - and NS was the winner.

And to this day, there are still no starter sets in CSX, NS, BNSF, CP Rail or Conrail. If I hadn't seen what I saw for myself, I'd say I don't know what I'm talking about. But I know better.

PS: I had 4 or 5 custom painted Lehigh Valley locos too... K-Line Alcos in the "white elephant (snowbird) scheme, K-Line S-2's in various Cornell red schemes and the "yellow jacket" scheme and a Lionel NW-2 in the wide yellow "cigar band" scheme. Plus an Industrial Switcher in the Cornell red scheme. I always thought it was interesting how the older guys liked those, but the kids were unquestionably drawn to the railroads of today, with the sole exception of the Santa Fe Warbonnet scheme.

[Big_Boy_4005]

I just spent my entire weekend doing a show. Seven hours of setup on Friday, for 14 hours of running, and 2 hours tear down. The layout was 24 x 8, and featured 4 trains running using relay logic. Two trains ran on a loop with a passing siding, alternating laps. The other 2 were on interlaced figure 8's, with the relays forming an interlocking.





While I was there I was invited to do another show in April. I'm not sure if I want to. I am already committed to do another one in 3 weeks, and on top of that, there was discussion of next year.

I spent a couple of hours this afternoon designing a layout for the upcomming show. It will be bigger and slightly more complex than this past weekend's.