Trade Shows

[expresslane400]

This week the MASTS truck show is in Louisville KY. This is "the" show for the trucking industry. There is also a large scale model railroad show is going on in York PA.   Is there any trade shows for railroads? And if so who would go to a show like this? Railroad conductors and engineers? Roadmasters or trainmasters? There must be more to railroading than trains and engins.

[oltmannd]

These guys: http://www.rsiweb.org/railway_interchange_2011.html

 

[wabash1]

yes there is more like paychecks. rules checks , fog, elinore roosevelt waving , this forum, exsplosives, back stabbing,politics, religon, goats milk , green stuff, oreo cookies, foamers calling railroaders names, and now smokin the abuse button again , some kid needing a rule book and the moderators needing 911.

Its a wonderful day in the neighborhood. "Look ahead look south" or the old country tune "If you got the horse i got the saddle" Roadmaster wasnt that a car by Buick? railroading is hauling freight. Its one of those weeks

[Victrola1]

Is a railroad trade show like all others? Pens, note pads, big plastic paper clips, etc. and bags bearing logos to put it all in?

Where is your sales staff?

What are they doing?

Who are they with?

A trade show is one of the few times you really know. Sometimes, orders come in after a show.

 

[henry6]

As in all industries there are trade shows...the American Association of Railroads used to sponsor at least one.  And in olden days they used to be as much publicity shows as trade shows.  More recently, however, the shows are supplier sponsored and oriented for everything from signaling and traffic control, track and car hardware, maintenance supplies and equipment, some locomotive and cars, communications equipment, and run of the mill office type stuff might be found there.  Everyone from the management team on down would be likely so show up, especially those in a position to influence planning and buying.  So you'll see the CEO and a track foreman, shop foreman, and why not a conducter or engineer?  Depends upon the railroad and the location of the show.  I believe there is some kind of show in Atlantic City, NJ each year, too, but I don't know the sponsor or the theme.

[Paul_D_North_Jr]

oltmannd

  These guys:  http://www.rsiweb.org/railway_interchange_2011.html 

That would be about it for this year and next, I believe.  From the webpage above [emphasis added - PDN] -

Railway Interchange 2011 will be sponsored by AREMA, REMSA, RSI and RSSI in what will be the largest ever such event in North America. Railway Interchange 2011 will be in place of the separate trade shows and conferences traditionally sponsored by these four organizations and will provide railroaders from around the world a unique opportunity to see and hear all that is new and innovative across the entire rail supply industry.

• Technical presentations by
  • American Railway Engineering and Maintenance-of-Way Association (AREMA)
  • Coordinated Mechanical Associations (CMA)
    • Air Brake Association
    • International Association of Railway Operating Officers
    • Locomotive Maintenance Officers Association
    • Mechanical Association Railcar Technical Services

And

• Tradeshow Exhibits by
• Railway Engineering & Maintenance Suppliers Association (REMSA)
• Railway Supply Institute (RSI)
• Railway Systems Suppliers, Inc. (RSSI)

Most everything else that I'm aware of is more in the nature of a technical conference kind of thing, sponsored by or affiliated with the engineering organizations - ASME-IEEE, AREMA, etc.

- Paul North. 

[mudchicken]

Doesn't show it really well, but the C&S and Shortline(ASLRRA) folks ought to be there as well.

[tree68]

I'm not sure exactly how railfans would factor into such a show.  Probably not very smoothly.

Since firefighters often tend to be fire buffs as well, it'd be hard to tell the difference between a non-firefighter fire buff and a firefighter in most cases at such shows, of which there are a number nationwide.  The t-shirt concessions usually do a booming business. 

[CShaveRR]

At one time, thanks to an executive of that organization, I was a member of the Railway Fuel and Operating Officers Association. I was able to get into a large exhibit at a coordinated show in Chicago--they had equipment on display near the Roosevelt Road station of the IC, and booths and so on at either the Pick Congress or the Conrad Hilton. I got a couple of "Hi! What are you doing here?"s from folks like Jack Wheelihan and Jimmy Zito (yes, we called him that!), and got to meet people in the publication trade like Dale Sanders and Robert G. Lewis. Publications like Railway Age and Progressive Railroading had booths inside, and offered free copies of their September issues, which usually featured the advertisements, etc., of the exhibitors or otherwise highlighted their products.

Yes, you got pamphlets and paraphrenalia from the exhibitors, both inside and out.

As to how railfans would factor into such a show, you no doubt recognize that all of the people whose names I dropped are well-known for being railfans as well as professionals in railroading.

There have been years in which the outdoor exhibits have been open to the public. I was able to take Pat and our older (stroller-bound) daughter to one.

[henry6]

A thought on "railfans" and trade shows.  As a youngster intrested in trains back in the 50's I was given copies of Modern Railroad Magazine by Andy Costic,the Chief Electrical Engineer of the DL&W.  I also hung around the railroad and got to know the men and the jobs being done: trackmen and maintainers, passenger and freight crews in the cab and in the cars, towermen and agents, dispatchers, trainmasters, road foremen of enginers, you name the job and I came face to face with them like so many other neophytes.  Yes, I read Trains and Railroad magazines.  And I'd write to railroad companies and suppliers and builders of railroad equipment for "information"; and they all sent me something to add to my budding "railfan" experience.  I would have felt quite comfortable going to a Trade Show and probably would have walked away with a lot more knowledge and, yes, "foam" if you must, about trains and railroading.  But I wonder if that would happen today?  First, the shows are not as splashy nor as frequent.nor as public.  Contact with railroad employees from the trackman to the top brass is rare, very rare, except perhaps for shortlines. What a railfan learns about railroads and trains and how he learns it is quite different today: I  don't think it is as intimate as we older guys experienced.  Modern technology like video and the internet, do a lot to bring the "hobby" to the fan as a virtual reality, unlike our "reality" of experiences.  Therefore, the taking of pictures, feeling like (and actually being like) an outsider looking in, makes today's fan a completely different person for the most part.  Today's new fans have a totally different learning and exposure experience leading to a very different fan.  A trade show today, to them, would not be the experience it would have been for us.  And experiencing railroads and trains thorugh video and computer screens, or through camera lenses, is quite different than being with a real railroad...fill in the job title....seeing and experiencing railroads and trains first hand.  We of the older generation see things so much differently than the younger ones.  As for trade, I would not trade experiences with the younger ones, but if I were a younger one, I would hope I could trade!

[Kathi Kube]

Ah, trade shows! Trains staffers actually attend several a year, as well. RSI has traditionally been held in Chicago, so that was a must for many years. Generally speaking, someone usually attends ASLRRA, AREMA, some of the APTA shows, Transportation Research Board, and TTC's Research Review (I generally attend that every other year). I have attended conferences with both the League of Railway Industry Women and the American Council of Railroad Women, and the past several years I've had the pleasure of attending the ASME's technical conferences. (These guys are absolutely WONDERFUL!) We'll have a booth at some trade shows and hand out copies of the magazine. Like Carl said, you get a strong blending of railfans and professionals. The two are definitely not mutually exclusive! Very often we'll have someone come up to our booth and say, "Trains? Is this a new magazine?" And seconds later someone else will come up and say, "Trains! I've been subscribing since 19XX." It's pretty funny. I've seen some very familiar faces at several shows and have become good friends with a lot of people I've met through them. After all, if you spend 10+ years going to the same shows with the same people, you're going to get to know people. Obviously, one reason we go to the shows is an attempt to widen our visibility in the industry and hope that some of the suppliers will want to buy ads. But the shows are also very useful for the editors to get to know more people we can interview for stories or just provide information and answer questions. The technical conferences help me the most in that regard. Not sure how many of you are aware of this (although you probably could have guessed), but I helm the technology column, so I'm constantly on the lookout for new technologies and research that I can write about or assign to a contributor. A lot of these ideas come from tech conferences, as do feature story ideas. The Yucca Mountain feature originated at a conference, as did the TTC profile. Come to think of it, so did my feature in the May issue about rolling rails. I was enjoying the social hour at the hotel hosting the Research Review in May 2008 and one of my industry friends introduced me to some of his friends from Rocky Mountain Steel. When I returned to TTC in June to gather information for my TTC feature, I also toured RMS. As for the SWAG at railroad trade shows, it's mostly the usual. In my office right now I have wooden whistles from Siemens and BNSF, water bottles from NS, DOT and FRA, wooden train cars from Chicago Freight Car Leasing, a yo-yo from NRE, a flashing traffic cone from MEC, foam rubber locomotives and subway cars, and pens and pads of paper from SO many companies. It's all good. Love the trade shows. Kat

[Deggesty]

CShaveRR

paraphrenalia

Carl, where was your proof reader?

Back in October of '68, I went to a show in Chicago, and wandered around the cars that were being shown, including two new cabooses; one was KCS, and I think the other was RG. Going back south, I had a seat in the Panama's parlor car to Carbondale, and then spent the night in a coach to Birmingham, on the Seminole.

[CShaveRR]

Deggesty

CShaveRR

paraphrenalia

Carl, where was your proof reader?

I think my proofreader retired before I did last night, leaving my thick index fingers to wreak havoc.

It's a good thing they didn't call this stuff "tchotckes" back then. That's the correct spelling, but my spell-check doesn't like it.

[Deggesty]

CShaveRR

It's a good thing they didn't call this stuff "tchotckes" back then. That's the correct spelling, but my spell-check doesn't like it.

This goes to show that the people who compile spell checkers have a very limited view as to what words are essential, so we who find it convenient/necessary to use such words must add them to our personal spell checkers.

[Jean Costic]

Hi Henry6, I think you are speaking of my grandfather, Andy Costic.  I would love to hear a story about him if you have the time,

Thanks,

Jean Costic-Fahy

[henry6]

Jean...If Andy is your grandfather, then I also knew your grandmother and your father!  Is your father Andy, Jr or Michael?  Your grandmother was a subsitute teacher at Denville, NJ; your father was either my Explorer leader (Andy)  or Patrol Leader (Mike) in Boy Scout troop 17.  I can tell you stories about all three...but they should be in private. 

[henry6]

Jean...If Andy is your grandfather, then I also knew your grandmother and your father!  Is your father Andy, Jr or Michael?  Your grandmother was a subsitute teacher at Denville, NJ; your father was either my Explorer leader (Andy)  or Patrol Leader (Mike) in Boy Scout troop 17.  I can tell you stories about all three...but they should be in private.  Also know your cousin, ....umpppp....name escapes me, but he lived up here in BInghamton, NY area at about the time of your Grandfather's death.  I want to say his first name was Mike, too.

[henry6]

Well, maybe people should know what railroading and railroaders and railroads were like back in the middle of the last Century.  They were friendly, glad to see someone who had a genuine interest in their business and their jobs (despite being a royal pain in the butt,I'm sure).  Andy was the Chief Electrical Engineer for the railroad with his office in Hoboken; he was hired away from the Lehigh Valley in Sayre, PA.  HIs was in charge of all electric, including the electric MU power system on Hoboken to Montclair, Gladstone, and Dover.  As noted earlier, he knew of my love of trains and made sure I got copies of Modern Railroad Magaznie when he was finished with them each month.  He gave me a grand tour of Hoboken one day: dispatcher's offices, his offices, Terminal Tower, Pullman Yard, MU Shed, wash track, and rotary dumper coal dock.  During the summer of '57 I was working for my father at his silk screen sign shop in Hoboken and so would often commute by train: the 7:06AM out of Denville.  Andy would also frequently ride that train and would grab me to join him for a cab ride to Hoboken....John Zipay of Dover was the engineer, I knew him and he would allow me cab rides on his afternoon train for a year of so before this. The morning ride was fun because DL&W President Perry Shoemaker would be standing on the west end of Summit station platform reading his paper with a scant look up as we breezed through non stop.  Coming down the hill from Grove St on the center track we overook a train stopping at Roseville Ave station on track two.  A train from Montclair would pull out in front of us onto track 3 while we slowed down to cross over to track 2 to go to Newark ahead of the train we just passed.  Those are really the most I can really remember about being around your grandfather.  His input into my railfan interests were of great importance and have lasted with me for well over 50 years now.