Howdy folks, Anybody going to the Oklahoma City Train Show tomorrow? If so, perhaps we could meet up. We're headed up about 9 AM, takes about three hours to get there, so should be there by early afternoon. I'll be wearing a red (secretly Frisco Red) hat with scrambled eggs and the Texas Western MRC on top. Holler and I'll give you my cell number. Best, mike
If someone is, please be on the lookout for a MELLOR 432 Locomotive kit. Converts 2-6-2 to Lt. 2-8-0 Tyco. I will pay not only for the kit, but extra for your time, effort, and coin to ship. Please! Thank you, Manny
I wish I could go but a new career and health problems will not allow it this year. I hope everyone who is able to attend has a great time.
After laying out quite a bit of coin for a new timing chain and intake/exhaust valves in the engine of my pickup, ths show was a complete wash for me- had to stay home. However, I hope those who went had fun- I plan on consoling myself with next week's Claremore & Southern operating session, and squirrel some coinage away for the Tulsa show in March. Besides, I also get the chance to do some cyber-doodling with the RTS software & come up with some track-planning ideas.
Are the Oklahoma City and Tulsa shows worthy of traveling up from San Antonio? I don't mind making the drive and the little bit of expense, but I don't want to go to something that turns out to be like Greenberg's which is usually a 50/50 split of non-train and then junk train stuff. Thanks, Manny
I think the Tulsa event that Manny is referring to is Tulsa's "annual" Layout Design and Operations SIG meet. The March, 2011, meet features presentations by Tony Koester, Doug Gurin, Riley Triggs and a Frisco design clinic by our own Keith Robinson. Attendees will be able to sign-up for operating sessions at a number of Tulsa area model railroads. As Bob Wintle said, there's no question that the annual Oklahoma City train show is a terrific sales event. I spent 5 hours there yesterday. OTOH, the Tulsa event will be an outstanding place to hear great speakers, discuss layout design and operations, and even operate model railroads if you care too. Price is very reasonable. Contact me at KCTRWY@Yahoo.com for a registration sheet. Jim Senese Claremore, OK
Howdy, Here is a report of my visit to the OKC Train Show. We arrived at the Transportation Exposition building around noon. The place was packed. I was excited to see so many young people...the future of model railroading. During the raffle announcements, the announcement area was packed. I'd guess may 150 people were around the microphone. I could see a lot of smiling faces among the young. Exciting event. Several years ago, there weren't that many attending the raffle and only two train sets were raffled. This year, there looked to be at least 10 or 15 trains sets for raffle. there is hope for the future of model railroading. I didn't see any new Frisco announcements, but did get a look at the old Bowser U25B's. They were a bit pinkish for me but looked nice. One dealer had Athearn GP35's for $80, but the hoods looked pretty wide. I saw an Athearn GP 40-2 as well... I managed to score a two packs of Pyle gyralites for $1 each. No shipping, no tax. good deal. I'll build the box for them and mount them on my newly acquired GP38-2's. I don't know if I'll use micro LED's or fiber optics. They'll find a home on Monday's modern run night at the Texas Western. Sadly, I saw a modular club that ran On30. The lure is strong; especially for old eyes. Resist, must resist... Dave Kohler had a 1522 for $1100 which isn't too bad. I didn't spot much more brass for the Frisco. Dave was also selling the Frisco yellow flat car for the Texas Western. Shameless plug: shop.twmrc.org. I am sad too that the DFW area can't put on a show half as good as the OKC show. I think there are too many folks here, mired in the past and satisfied with the status quo. They'll die over time and OKC will continue to grow. This year, OKC had no available vendor spots...good sign. A final note about the modular layouts at the show. With few exceptions, most were sophomoric and not very exciting. At the Timonium show in Maryland, I once saw a modular club that looked like a collection of George Selios modules. They were fantastic and facilitated a lot of operations. Most modular clubs today are no more than Lionel layout rings of track, IMHO. I wish they were more. I think I'd join an On30... Well, enough wandering. The show was a lot of fun. Happy rails, mike
Thanks for the report, Mike. It sounds like a worthwhile venue. Hopefully, I'll be able to attend next year.
Thanks for the great report! Awesome! I've been at the Timonium show in Maryland. How does Oklahoma compare to that? Looks like I will make plans for next year. Lord willing I can go. Maybe I can hook up with some of y'all. Thanks again, Manny
Howdy, While the show in OKC is large, it is only half as large as the Timonium show. Timonium is the largest one I've ever attended, NMRA shows included. I have fond memories of the Timonium, MD show because that is where I finally found a 1500 4-8-2 that I could afford. Best, mike
Manny and All: Manny: Since you have made repeated requests on this forum with no success, I think we can asume that no one here has one they are willing to part with. I did a web search for this and did learn two things: (1) Ther is another Frisco modeler who has had a request for this same item on Trainboard.com for several months. (2) It is very rare as there were none offered or hardly even mentioned which you probably already knew. Having said that, if you haven't already done so, I would suggest at this point that your best option would be to use the "Saved Search" option on Ebay and if and when one is listed you will be notified. I have done this in the past and have always found the item I wanted but sometimes it took as long as 6 months or more. Also have you tried asking for one on HOYARDSALE.COM? I honestly think that repeated requests on this forum will not garner any success. As far as the Oklahoma City Train Show is concerned, the majority of the vendors there are just that, big vendors, and there are very few if any "swappers" or junk merchants. The show is so big and sells out every year which allows the staff to be very selective.
I'm not so sure I understand why you find objectionable for me to ask others going to a train show to keep their eyes out for particular items? I have listed on HOYARDSALE, eBay and Trainboard for this item. I'm about to place an ad in Model Railroader for it as well. I've only listed once on FriscRG to see if this kit would show up. I'm not trying to be a bother to others, but I really want this kit. In fact, I am looking into having the frame built out of wood and then die cast and produced for myself. Frankly, I'm tired of not being able to find this gear. The RTR aspect of this hobby has really destroyed the foundation and I'm working to get back to it.
Interesting perspective. My take is that the RTR aspect of the hobby has strengthened the hobby and has brought in more modelers. Here are my thoughts (in no particular order). 1. We have more Frisco |-| RTR models to choose from than ever before. The most recent is the Kadee open hopper just announced. These RTR models enable me to spend more time on electrical, benchwork, scenery and other aspects of model railroading. 2. In "the old days" we had to kitbash, paint and letter everything and then it was a "best effort" model. If we were back "in the old days" all we would have RTR would be PRR, ATSF and NYC equipment. I remember spending hours and hours on a box car or tank car and it still never quite measured up to the prototype photos. These days that would not be a wise use of my remaining years. 3. I may be in a minority but I get my enjoyment in the hobby from operating. The building of equipment, benchwork, etc is only the means to get to operating. I do it because I have to. RTR equipment facilitates operations and operations brings everything together and brings the layout to life. My supporting evidence is a continually increasing number of modelers expressing an interest in operations. Many of them are members of this website. 4. I will agree that scratchbuilding seems to be on the decline. As I visit layouts around the country, I do see a lot of the same buildings on a lot of layouts, however, I saw a lot of the old low tech Atlas on everyone's layouts too. At least today's kits and RTR buildings include more detail and the RTR buildings (I have some on my layout!!) give me time to work on other projects. Layouts require lots of projects. 5. RTR equipment and buildings require more $$$ and that is a burden. There is so much nice equipment coming out that the budget can barely keep up and some models just pass me by. Not sure I have any wisdom here except to pick and choose the best you can. In summary, I am a victim, fan or whatever you want to call me of RTR equipment. I would never want to go back. Sometimes I have to pinch myself with all this new Frisco stuff coming out. It always hurts.
Hey Rick, Your points are excellent and very true. I should clarify my statement as I see I over stressed the point. There was a balance between RTR and Kits. The demand for better RTR and kits caused a rush in the industry which threw the balance in favor of RTR. The balance shift was so much that it choked out the kit bashing folks. Now the kitbashing folks have to scramble to find their gear and often pay a premium. That's what I'm upset about! Today's steamers may look great, but their drive train's aren't worth a crap. Today's manufacturer's focus on looks first, drive second. The support for replacements isn't based in maintaining parts, but is fed by a supply of expected damages during shipping. Once the damaged units are gone, there is no part support. Mantua, Bowser and old Roundhouse focused on good drive mechanism's first and then details second. If you wanted a detailed model, you had to do that yourself. But the drive train's of these locomotives were and still remain bulletproof. RTR has its place, but not at the expense of destroying one facet of the hobby. It's not all the manufacturer's faults either. We as modelers have to share the blame because we fed right into the frenzy and we didn't take the time to teach the hobby to the incoming crowd. Hopefully I explained this better. Great discussion! Manny
I'll have to admit that I'm a fan/victim of RTR equipment myself. I'm willing to pay extra for a well detailed and prototypically correct piece of equipment. Having said that, I'm totally against latent "foobies" and poorly assembled items. I don't like paying big money for "junk." The current RTR situation does seem to bring many more items for the less popular railroads. That's a good thing. It also frees up time for other endeavors such as Rick indicated. I do wish that the reasonably priced kit option was still available in the numbers that it used to be. That way everyone has a choice. The bottom line is that the manufaturers are in business to make money. We can influence things to a degree by how and where we spend our money. We can suggest and/or complain all we want. But, in the end money talks and everything else walks. That's my two cents worth.
I wish everything on my (Little Frisco) railroad was ready-to-run perfecto (And accurate) right out of the box. I build kits, scratchbuild and kit-bash only as a last resort to get an accurate true-to-prototype model. I couldn't care less about building a kit. I just wish RTR models were TRULY ready to run and you didn't have to do some extra Mickey Mouse task like changing couplers or attaching grab irons. Far as I'm concerned I wish all RR models were ready to run. At least kits now are mostly delivered with all the parts, I hated those old Walthers ads that advertised their kits as: "Complete (Less, trucks and couplers)." Tom
Adding to Rick's great comments, I have said many times that Walthers revolutionalized our hobby without probably realizing at the time what impact they would have when they started producing their industrial building series'. We now could get an entire cement plant, gravel pit, grain elevator, steel mill, and on and on. I think tht may have been what Rick was referring to when he said he sees the same thing on diferent layouts. If you were to see my layout today you would say that it is "Homasote Central" with a bunch of Walthers kits standing up where industries are going to be. Are they perfect, NO, they are representational. I just purchased the assembled BLMA yard office and with a little work it will be the one in Neodesha, KS in 1980. I can't address Manny's concern about the running characteristics of steam locomotives but can say that we diesel folks can get accurately painted diesels that run like silk right out of the box, plug a sound decoder in them and be in hog heaven.
