Who's going?
Dan
I'll be volunteering there Friday morning, attending all day Saturday for sure, probably Sunday too although the Soo Line 1003 is scheduled to be running on Sunday and if it is a pleasant day I may take the time to get some shots of the steamer before I go back to 'Fest. I assume we should be planning a grand Forums reunion, presumably Saturday at the Kalmbach Booth, as in prior years. I have my official Forums T shirt although most years it is so cold that I need to cover it up even inside.
So let's all keep in touch and try to agree on a time. Once a time is set I;ll try to post it in all the other forum rooms. Somehow we have to get Noah Hofrichter to attend so that he too can be photographed.
Volunteering at Trainfest can be tense at times -- setting up a sales booth or display railroad is no joke, and folks can get testy -- but also fun. In past years some of the manufacturers have "remembered" my Friday help when I visit the booth during "Fest. Let's just say volunteering has its benefits
I sure hope The Tool Man from Texas will be there as my wife has already given me a shopping list of tools she wants. And every year the big question is, what will be the Accurail "Trainfest Special" car that is run only for 'Fest. Often it is a Green Bay and Western car. Excitement is mounting already!
By the way something new this year: for $30 you get a special pass that includes 'Fest but also the Friday night manufacturer's event which in the past has been a closed event. In theory this gives you first dibs on any goodies the manufacturers are offering. How it will all actually work out I have no idea. As it happens, Kalmbach's own Mike Yuhas is giving a presentation that night at the local Nat'l Railway Historical Society meeting in Fox Point just mintues from my house, and Mike always gives a good program.
Dave Nelson
The Accurail cars this year: http://www.accurail.com/accurail/trainfest.htm Need some other tools from the Tool Man as well...
I will be there all weekend, at the club layout www.wcgandydancers.org , and probably helping the WISE Division Youth Group layout as well.
I've got Noah's number...
Mike WSOR engineer | HO scale since 1988 | Visit our club www.WCGandyDancers.com
I will be there Saturday for sure. I need to get some more locos from the always-cheap Lombard booth!
Your friendly neighborhood CNW fan.
Greetings,
Trainfest 2008 is sneaking up very quickly. The past several years we have had members of the Forum in attendance meet at the Kalmbach display and pose for a photo. We have had some good years and slim years. Let's try it again for 2008. I will be in attendance at Trainfest on Saturday November 8th all day. I won't be there on Sunday. So I'm hoping something will work out for Saturday. I guess all we need is a time to meet. I know some people arrive early and leave early. Others have travel time and arrive later. I am suggesting maybe a 1pm meeting ?? at the Kalmbach display. Of course any TRAINS or Kalmbach employee is also more than welcome to join us including our Forum moderator EB.
I will be spending most of my time at the Milwaukee N Southeastern Model RR Club layout. Our N scale clubs portable layout. Our club will be open from 6:30p-9pm on Saturday night after Trainfest check it out. http://www.mnse.org
Billed as the "Largest Train Show in the US" More Info http://www.trainfest.com/
Keith Schmidt
Keith Schmidt KC9LHK You don’t bring nothin with you here and you can’t nothin back, I ain’t never seen a hearse with a luggage rack. George Strait Check out Flickr Train Photo Page
OK 1 pm on Saturday it is and I will try to post this on other Trains.com forums.
Will there be a 'swap' area at the fest? I have some EMDs that need new homes.
Not so much. Trainfest is not a swap meet. The dealers are all selling new product.
Can,t believe its only one week to go. I can still remember the first one when in was in just one building at the state fair park. Its nice to see old faces and theres always a chance to meet new ones.
i will be there all 3 days
jeff
packed and ready to go see you guys this weekend
kschmidtOf course any TRAINS or Kalmbach employee is also more than welcome to join us including our Forum moderator EB.
I'm going to try to make it to the group meeting, but I can't make any promises. My wife if going to be out of town, and one of our kids has been sick.
If I don't see you, have fun!
Bergie
How was it thats easy GREAT!! I can't beleive its over you know what they said ( time flies whenyour having fun and man I had fun). Lots of new goodies coming out. The one I am looking most forward to is MTH new HO Mike's
Came away with some great ideas for the new layout.
Wow, another record for Trainfest. That is interesting because it also seemed to me that the Sunday attendance (always the more quiet of the two days) DID seem more robust this year. Nor did the hall clear out during the Packer game as it sometimes does (no snide remarks please - it was a tough loss). Although Trainfest has a large and dedicated group of volunteers who work very hard, it is a credit to John Tews, MMR, who really puts it all together and makes the hard decisions. Obviously the enthusiastic participation of Walthers and Kalmbach are also key.
Thanks to earnings from Trainfest our NMRA division meets each month in a good location at a hotel with plenty of parking, a tiered meeting hall for the 3 monthly clinics with other large rooms for the contest and a small swap meet, with meets being free to any who care to attend. And we are also able to do such things as donate $5000 to the Mid Continent RR Museum to restore an historic passenger car, etc.
We are very fortunate here in Milwaukee to have this. When I was eating lunch Sunday a very elderly gent near me was telling a friend "I live for this weekend." I think he meant it! Speaking personally, what a great chance to see friends year after year, and to meet new people such as Jeff (jpmorrison, a Forums poster) who posted above came all the way from Colorado and who is in our group photo.
The chance to get to really talk in depth with manufacturers is also a great feature. I bought some really really nice trees and "forest floor" base from Timberline Scenery, a new manufacturer to me, and talked for some time to the owner, Jim Wilde -- also from Colorado. I also got a close up look at the beautiful new covered hoppers from Tangent Scale Models, the new retaining walls from Chooch, the new HO steel mill structures and N scale sleeper from Walthers ..... but this is not intended as a Trainfest report.
Thought I would share some photos from the TRAINS.COM Forum member photo from Trainfest 2008. The group this year was pretty good compared to other years. We actually have two photos featuring different people in each one. Each photo features a different Kalmbach employee also. I have also heard that Trainfest again set an attendance record with over 21,000 people attending the two day show. WOW !! Great News.
For the photos we didn't write down who was who so if you are willing to admit to it, please point yourself out in the photos. Shot #1 features Cody Grivno from Model Railroader and Shot #2 features Mike Yuhas from TRAINS and one of the original "Trackside Photo Contest" participants.
Shot #1 Sorry for the image quality. I didn't bring the DSLR just had the point and shoot.
Shot #2 I will be the first to ID. I'm the big guy in the green tshirt. I wore the shirt to get a free DCC decoder and it worked.
Till 2009
Keith
I'm the tall guy in the back row wearing a T shirt that says "Forum Member" Mark Hintz is next to me (a look at his head explains his nickname "Fuzzy") and he is holding his son, who in at least one photo someone got is chewing on my name tag. In the dark blue jacket is Jeff, jpmorrison, who came all the way from Colorado for Trainfest!. Holding the little sign and flashing what might be gang symbols (?!?!) is "Lord Atmo."
We neglected to get names of all the participants this year. We also neglected to get the name of the fellow who volunteered to take the photos with three different folks' digital cameras
Sorry I missed it; I just couldn't tear myself away waiting for my bailout check. Maybe next year they'll move it 1500 miles to the Southwest and I'll be able to attend!
From the far, far reaches of the wild, wild west I am: rtpoteet
R. T. POTEET Sorry I missed it; I just couldn't tear myself away waiting for my bailout check. Maybe next year they'll move it 1500 miles to the Southwest and I'll be able to attend!
- Luke
Modeling the Southern Pacific in the 1960's-1980's