NTS Salt Lake Report

[TLOC]

I have attended 8 of the last 10 Trainfest shows and the same for the Mad City shows west on I94 from Milwaukee in Madison. I’m sorry but most of the modular layouts are the same and how many different themes can you put on modular show layouts. Saying that, I loved the N Frreemo layout that MRH showed on their Utube channel, that was cool. A National show doesn’t sound real appealing after attending the 2 shows I consistently go to. But...

I am however planning to attend the convention and NTS in St. Louis but mainly for the clinics and home layouts. I will wait to join the NMRA for that Railpass program they have so I can get in the convention. St. Louis like the Chicago and Wisconsin areas are a hotbed of model train activity.

 England, no way, Cleveland was good, Madison in the 90’s was packed as was the 1976 show in Chicago but not sure what it was called at the time.

As for the retailer and manufactures, there is so much social media coverage that I don’t feel I have to stop by the booth to find out what is new.

Tom

[Jbub]

Compared to the other local shows during the year,  NTS in July did very well for Salt lake from my point of view. @Rossford Yard  is right, not a large model railroader population but it's decent and yes Sunday is always slow. Church is a big thing here and people take it seriously. I don't know how the vendors viewed it but I'm assuming the convention attendance was down. For some reason beer and trains go together but we're missing one of those things in Utah (although I've be told we've got a decent selection of micro brews. I wouldn't know though) and I think the lack of night life or perception of that lack would play a part in a decision to attend.

[C855B]

I also asked both Walther's and Atlas if 3D printing was going to save them any money.  Both thought it had limited uses to detail parts at the moment. ...

My experience working with plastic 3D parts is that they need to be cleaned, they are more brittle than styrene, and they don't bond well with styrene solvent cement.  For a mass-market plastic structure kit, those would all be big drawbacks.  Those building kits are targeted at an audience that expects to be able to just put them together with a tube of glue.

Max is right. Also, reading into the response about "detail parts", as demonstrated here over the past few years, larger pieces take more machine time to produce and are subject to a fairly high reject rate even with "proven" input data. Nice idea and ideal objective for limited-run or on-demand production, but not there yet.

[Rossford Yard]

Well, I like talking to the Mfgs., even if I don't need to know what's new.  Actually, most were a little vague anyway, with the most constant answer being, "It depends on China" although I got a few good tidbits.  Like Atlas's primary supplier in China re-opened, albeit at half former capacity.  Works out though, because half the MRR companies either quit or found other factories.  Nothing I can do with that info, but always like to hear the inside story.

Perhaps the most curious was at the IM booth, where one person answered the N GP 10 Paducah's had be cancelled due to lack of pre-orders, but another spoke up to say that wasn't true at all, they were just getting moved back in the queue. I am hoping the latter is correct, because those would be a welcome addition to my industrial district.  Of course, I had to sheepishly admit that I never pre-order but was still planning on buying 3.  They were nice though, noting that they always make allowance for "my kind" of people.

[Rossford Yard]

Appreciate the insights!

[Bendtracker1]

Perhaps the most curious was at the IM booth, where one person answered the N GP 10 Paducah's had be cancelled due to lack of pre-orders, but another spoke up to say that wasn't true at all, they were just getting moved back in the queue.

Yeah I talked to Lee from Intermountain at the Spring Creek's open house in Deshler a few weeks ago.  He said that it looked as if they were going to get canceled, and if so they plan to put it on the back burner for awhile and see if things change later.

[thomasjmdavis]

I woulda been there if I coulda- but between DCC decoders and needing to get some repairs done on the house and having 17 year old cars....
But on my excursion to Salt Lake a few years ago, I had a great time.  Some phenomenal restaurants with reasonable prices.  Several very nice hobby shops.  And Ogden with its museum makes a nice day trip.  Helps that my daughter lives there and has an excellent radar for good restaurants.  There is even a movie theater with a bar.  There aren't any other bars to speak of, but there is that one.  Driving there is a unique experience, as the rules of the road seem to be open to individual interpretation.  But overall, I had a very good time and got in lots of railroad related activities in the week I was out there.

[peteski]

My experience working with plastic 3D parts is that they need to be cleaned, they are more brittle than styrene, and they don't bond well with styrene solvent cement.  For a mass-market plastic structure kit, those would all be big drawbacks.  Those building kits are targeted at an audience that expects to be able to just put them together with a tube of glue.

Also, the elephant in the room is the speed of 3D printing vs. injection-molding.  The injection molding machine can spit out several parts trees per minute vs. possibly hours for the 3D printed to produce similar results.

[mu26aeh]

Intermountains problem is the reputation to cancel items, so people don't want to do the pre-order because they feel they KNOW it won't happen anyways, so why bother.  Of course, we know how this ends, the run being cancelled due to low pre-orders.

[ryan_wilkerson]

Ryan posted photo couple of messages below

https://www.therailwire.net/forum/index.php?topic=47497.msg625737#msg625737

Getting settled back home after the long drive home yesterday from the show. The power are a pair of Kato SD70Ms. Was fun to get photos on so many different modules from around the country!

[ryan_wilkerson]

Talked to intermountain and the super dome is on the way. I believe he said within 60 days.
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[Ed Kapuscinski]

Intermountains problem is the reputation to cancel items, so people don't want to do the pre-order because they feel they KNOW it won't happen anyways, so why bother.  Of course, we know how this ends, the run being cancelled due to low pre-orders.

It's the Google problem. Thanks to all the murdered Google products and services I'm loathe to adopt anything new they roll out.

[Rossford Yard]

Intermountains problem is the reputation to cancel items, so people don't want to do the pre-order because they feel they KNOW it won't happen anyways, so why bother.  Of course, we know how this ends, the run being cancelled due to low pre-orders.

Well, I'm going to go to their site and pre-order 2 or 3.  If they make an announcement the next day that production is imminent, I'll know they produce to very low volumes, LOL.  What's interesting is that in talking to Paul Graf, he indicated the minimum orders that it takes them to produce a unit has come way down, and they really like making/painting those odd ball road names behind the big roads.  Not sure what tech allows them to do that, but producing odd paints and units is a real service to the hobby.

[Ike the BN Freak]

I see quite a few split levels around where I live and they all seem to have 2 car garages.

That was my point, when they did the compression for HO, they changed the garage from a 2 car garage to a single. It doesn't look bad, unless something clicks and goes, wait, split levels typically have 2 car garages.

However he mentioned that with N scalers typically having more room, or layout space, that the 2 car garage could be in the works.  As not all of the N buildings are scaled down HO ones. But we'll need to wait until they are shown

[Philip H]

Well, I'm going to go to their site and pre-order 2 or 3.  If they make an announcement the next day that production is imminent, I'll know they produce to very low volumes, LOL.  What's interesting is that in talking to Paul Graf, he indicated the minimum orders that it takes them to produce a unit has come way down, and they really like making/painting those odd ball road names behind the big roads.  Not sure what tech allows them to do that, but producing odd paints and units is a real service to the hobby.

 I think Atlas owns much of their own tooling, so they don't have to worry about production minimums even if they get runs done in a factory elsewhere.