Amherst - West Springfield 2019 Announcements

[sd45elect2000]

I have a couple of things: For steam urban modelers ( like me) the new CMR hotel building was impressive. Speaking of impressing I did say hello (In Polish) to Peteski but he had a large (by my standards) wiener in his hand so I let him be. The food prices were mouth dropping or sure, I found a hamburger stand serving $20.00 quarter pound cheeseburgers !!

Bob Lunde has some nice new city buildings that fit the steam era nicely. Just because they didn't release new rolling stock this January it doesn't mean that they have a personal dislike for steam era modelers. The year isn't over yet, besides I have eleven totes of wartime and steam era equipment, I don't feel neglected or put out in any way.

[Point353]

The food prices were mouth dropping or sure, I found a hamburger stand serving $20.00 quarter pound cheeseburgers !!

Eat a big breakfast before the show.
Bring some non-perishable snacks with you to the show.
Go to Classic Burgers after the show.

[MVW]

I have a couple of things: For steam urban modelers ( like me) the new CMR hotel building was impressive. Speaking of impressing I did say hello (In Polish) to Peteski but he had a large (by my standards) wiener in his hand so I let him be. The food prices were mouth dropping or sure, I found a hamburger stand serving $20.00 quarter pound cheeseburgers !!

Bob Lunde has some nice new city buildings that fit the steam era nicely. Just because they didn't release new rolling stock this January it doesn't mean that they have a personal dislike for steam era modelers. The year isn't over yet, besides I have eleven totes of wartime and steam era equipment, I don't feel neglected or put out in any way.

Yeah, I'm not griping. I don't begrudge the upsurge in "modernish" stuff. Just stating the fact there aren't many new releases tempting me to open my wallet.

(And I think I'll just leave that "large weiner" comment alone.  )

Jim

[peteski]

I have a couple of things: For steam urban modelers ( like me) the new CMR hotel building was impressive. Speaking of impressing I did say hello (In Polish) to Peteski but he had a large (by my standards) wiener in his hand so I let him be. The food prices were mouth dropping or sure, I found a hamburger stand serving $20.00 quarter pound cheeseburgers !!

It was good to see you Randy, even if only for a second, to exchange "dzień dobry".   
Yes, I was carrying a foot-long (with kraut), rushing back to the layout, and I agree that the food prices were ridiculous, and the food quality was awful!

Bob Lunde has some nice new city buildings that fit the steam era nicely.

Yes, Bob again had some nice new buildings for sale. Although they have the same general appearance as the other ones he makes, they are unique enough to make them usable.  I bought two out of the three (only because he sold out of the 3rd building).  He is a super-nice guy (and so is Skip). He is in his 80s and he still travels cross-country in his RV. His wife was sick, so he drove to Springfield alone.  Actually Lunde Studios was the only place where I spent my money at the show. That is whatever I  had left after buying food!

[thomasjmdavis]

A flood of stuff, but zero items of use to me.
Looks like manufactures have given up on wartime and pre-war stuff.

I suspect that it looks worse than it is.  Years ago, I went to a show and asked about ATSF passenger cars.  "There's no market, just buy the Kato (CB&Q prototype) sets- that's as close as you will ever get."  6 months or a year later, Kato released its first run of Super Chief cars.  I am not sure how many runs there have been, so far, but I think Kato put to rest the notion that there was no demand out there for ATSF passenger cars.

Same thing happened a couple years later over heavyweight cars- "Sales of the Rivarossi are dying off (of course, we had been buying them for close to 40 years), nobody wants heavyweights in N scale."  6 months or a year later, Micro-trains brought out their first 10-1-2 Pullmans (or did the RPO come first, I forget).  Of course, I don't know how many heavyweights Micro-trains sells, but I do note that they have 10 or 11 bodystyles, another one coming soon (I hope) and they issue one or 2 cars every month.  So, I am guessing the demand for heavyweight passenger cars is somewhat healthier than some folks thought back about twelve or so years ago.

So, if things go to form, with everyone telling us that "there's no demand for N scale steam" and "why would we produce a late 20s vintage single sheathed boxcar", in 6 months to a year, some enterprising entrepreneur will bring out a line of steam engines or transition era freight cars or a full blown late 20s Twentieth Century or Chief. And all the manufacturers at the convention after that will be complaining that we never suggested to THEM that we wanted these things....

[JoeD]

Any sign of the single-window heavyweight coach car?
Were the new releases for February on display?

Still working on the tooling...more later

Joe

[Smike]

Don't hate me for this, but I suspect that a large percentage of people will model around the era that was ongoing or close to their childhood. Given the aging baby boomers, that might translate into a shrinking demand for steam era stuff.  Its always going to have a demand at some level, but for me the small number of steam era stuff I've collected is nostalgic, but not in a direct way. (I don't have anything to directly relate to the steam era, other than books, seeing other steam era layouts, and visits to various train museums)  Beyond no new releases, almost all of the new companies to enter the N scale market are making mostly modern era stuff (70's to current)   

I could be wrong, and this is in no way is a knock on transition era stuff. There is definitely a slowdown with it.
 

[MVW]

I wonder how much of the slowdown can be attributed to the fact that many of the high-demand items from the transition era have been produced already?

Personally, what attracts me to the transition era is the impact of passenger trains and manifest freights on operations. Makes things much more interesting (to me, anyway) than the modern "we'll get there when we get there" approach. I talked to a 1:1 dispatcher a few years ago, and he described his job as "playing the world's slowest, most boring computer game." I doubt you would have heard similar sentiments regarding the work from a 1950s (or earlier) dispatcher.

The other primary attraction to the era is that steamers were still chuffing around. I like the mid-'50s period I'm modeling, for the mix of steam and variety of early diesel power. If I were to ever select a different period, it would probably be the '30s.

And for reference, I was born in '62, and my earliest memories of the wider world are from about 1968, considerably later than the period I model.

To each his own, though. It's all fun.

Jim

[Smike]

I love to model the the 70's in the NE, but I don't have any memory of it, and its not because I was 'experiencing' the 70's 

[daniel_leavitt2000]

I don't think there is a slow down in transition era items as much as the ones that usually announce such items (Bachman, Kato, MP) don't make announcements in Springfield. Others such as  FVM and IM are still recovering from the manufacturing disruption in china.

I'm sure Bachmann has a few items in store for the NMRA convention

[James Costello]

Just wondering @rapidotrains how long you're going to torture us waiting for these beauties in N?

[Atlas Paul]

I'm guessing still no Thrall 5100/5400 covered hoppers in N. Darn it, one day I hope. They're out of my era, but between Crandic and Central Soya, I'd buy a bunch.

If you can get Crandic to allow use of their logo...