By Noel Widdifield LSOL.com Managing Editor

Author  Bio Another Big Train Show (BTS) has come to an end here in Ontario, California and it was a great show. For the first time this year the show has included all scales and there were some concerns that it could hurt the show for Large Scalers. It turns out that it may have even helped the show.

Another Big Train Show (BTS) has come to an end here in Ontario, California and it was a great show. For the first time this year the show has included all scales and there were some concerns that it could hurt the show for Large Scalers. It turns out that it may have even helped the show.

The convention center in Ontario provides an excellent place for the show. It is near Los Angles but far enough away so that the traffic is not bad. The weather was cool for June, but it didn't keep the crowds away.

The convention hotel was the Ontario Marriott and it provided nice rooms, excellent employee service and a very convenient location. The breakfasts were great and the service was friendly and efficient. It was a great place to stay again this year.

There were vendors for all scales and it was fun to see model railroaders in all scales setting up their railroads to share with all of us. The difference in size between the scales was very apparent to all who attended, but was shown very vividly by a display on one of the N scale railroads. There was a lot of speculation among us Large Scalers about how many N or Z scale boxcars would fit in a G scale boxcar. The Z scale railroaders were an interesting bunch and were having a great time.

There were 74 vendors at the show and they included 39 that were exclusively G scale. There were 12 that offered other scale products, 11 offering products in multiple scales and 12 offering things that were railroad related such as rides on real railroads, fabrics, tools and even real railroad devices. On Thursday, when we arrived the hall was pretty empty with a lot of people working hard on setting up the modular railroads. Some of the vendors were arriving and beginning to bring in all of the goodies that we love to look at and buy. It was fun to see and talk with several of our old friends that we only see at Large Scale shows.

Friday morning arrived early for those of us who had traveled from the east coast the day before. Jet lag is real, but results in being able to start early on the west coast. After a big breakfast, Jon, Jo Anne, Bryan and I packed all of our stuff over to the convention center and set up the Large Scale On Line booth. We found that a lot had been done in the late hours of Thursday and many of the vendors were set up. The modular railroad people were still working hard to fine tune their railroads for the show. As the day progressed we began to hear the sounds of these railroads and that added to the anticipation for the show to begin. By the end of the day we had visited with all of our friends, watched the vendors set up their offerings and built our anticipation for the excitement of the show. We were joined by "Video" Peter during the day and he began to record the show for us with his "moving pictures'.

We were up early again on Saturday morning and arrived at our booth about 8:00 for a 10:00 show opening. Most of the major vendors were at the show, with only MTH missing.

Although there were not many new items introduced at the show, there were still a few things for us to covet that were new or at least, were not yet in production. Eaglewings had several new buildings on display and they are excellent models for outdoor railroads.

John at Upland Trains introduced a new building model of a store selling for $40 that appeared to be an excellent model for the money. A kit-bashed version was also on display showing what could be done with a little work. We will be doing a product review on this building in the coming weeks.

Pacific Coast Garden Railway Supply has added a model of the D&RGW Durango 65 foot Armstrong Turntable to their excellent collection of high quality narrow gauge structures. It includes a metal support, bearing and basic bridge with styrene side structure and is a beautiful model of the turntable.

Train-LI-USA had some interesting new figures and was also advertising a Laser uncoupler controller in their very colorful booth.

Bachmann had their new narrow gauge long caboose on display and it was a beautiful model. It has a fully detailed interior that faithfully reproduces the crew living quarters with working gas lamps for interior illumination. They also had their new release of the Thomas and Percy train sets in G scale running in their large booth.

USA Trains had their very large booth in place and were showing some new paint and road names for some of their top-selling products. There had silver plated versions of the ATSF F-3's and PA's. They also had new roadnames for their Alco S-4's.

Aristo Craft had prototype versions on display of their PCC, Consolidation and a new gas station. Lewis Polk showed us the new coupler they are developing that is more prototypical scale and will join with all other knuckle couplers. Scott, Navin and Lewis were in the booth next to the LSOL.com booth this year so we were able to visit with them throughout the show.

John at Just Plain Folks has been introducing a series of figures in 1/22.5 that are being sold by him in his booth and also offered by Silvergate. These figures are high quality productions and represent people from the early 1900's to present. At the show he had several new people for our railroads. These included working people, street scene people and even a set of cops and prisoners. He also has three houses of different sizes under construction that are made from pine. Some of his figures are made to be working on these unfinished houses. Jon was also showing the first one of a 1930's gas station half flat that will make a nice addition for a railroad.

A new item that was not for sale, but was extremely interesting was an F scale (1/20.3) Denver & Salt Lake standard gauge 2-6-6-0 locomotive built to run on hand laid track that represents the correct standard gauge in 1/20.3. Built by George Konrad over a three-year period it is currently not painted and weathered but George promises to do that over the next few months. There are currently no commercially available standard gauge products in 1/20.3 although a couple of people are working on producing some freight cars in that scale. It was a beautiful model and I can't wait for next year's show to see it painted and detailed.

Phil Bronner of Kern Valley Railway was exhibiting three Pennsylvania Railroad Harriman passenger cars in 1/32. He was exhibiting them in the Colorado Model Structures booth and had one on the #1 Gauge modular railroad. They are beautiful models of passenger cars not available currently in Large Scale.

The LSOL.com model contest attracted fewer entries than in previous years, but the quality of those models entered made judging very difficult this year. The Best of Show winner was Lynn Glover who won with his super-detailed model of a gas station diorama. He took away a gift certificate for $500 from St. Aubins presented to him by Jo Anne.

There were modular railroads in Z, N, HO, S and Large Scale that kept the show visitors spellbound for hours. Those of us working at the show spent many hours looking at the professional looking roads and watching the trains run. It was truly amazing to see a long train running on an N or Z scale railroad. One of the N scale railroads took almost 10 minutes for a train to make a complete loop. The Z scale rails could almost fit on top of a single G Scale rail. All scales had locomotives that had full sound systems, DCC control and were beautifully detailed. The different scales added a new dimension to the show.

Be sure to check out the modular layouts to see all of the different gauges and equipment in all of the different scales. These layouts generated a lot of interest among the attendees. The children were fascinated by all of the trains. One of the really fun parts of the show was the introduction of live-stream video from the show floor. Jon spent a couple of fun days pushing around a cart with a video camera attached that allowed him to send live coverage of the show. The accompanying chat feature allowed us to answer questions in real time. Several members took advantage of that feature during the live coverage. In the times that the live video was down, we continued to broadcast tapes of the live coverage for those who missed the live portion. This is a feature that is planned to continue for future shows. Sunday at the show was much slower paced with fewer attendees. There seemed to be many more families at the show that day with kids enjoying the layouts. As the show drew to a close around 4:00, the vendors and the clubs began the process of tearing down. I talked to many of the vendors that day and most seemed pleased with their sales over the two days of the show. Saturday was much more productive for most of them, but many reported continuing sales on Sunday. It is clear that the number of scales increased the number of people at the show and didn't seem to hurt the sales of the G scale dealers. Closing down at the end of the show is a time to say farewell to many of our friends and the beginning of the anticipation for the next show. Hopefully, we will see many of our LSOL.com friends at the Denver convention.

BTS Report

Noel, Excellent wrap up. No other LS site can hold a candle to the professional job that LSOL does in covering a show. With the amount of quality pictures posted for each day of the show it gave us all the opportunity to share the experience. Interesting that other fora devotes time and comment to taking negative "shots" at vendors, etc., rather than presenting a positive view of a large show. You and the LSOL team can take pride in the coverage provided.

JD Miller - 06/10/2009 - 06:58

Multiple Scale

Since the show is now into the different 'scales', do you think it will expand to include 'Lionel'? I can see other 'scales' helping a train show, but not if included Lionel collectors.

Rick Henderson - 06/10/2009 - 07:30

Great show, but...

This year's show was great, with a few minor exceptions. There was no listing of what vendors would be there like in years past. That would have been helpful. Also, I noticed that there weren't any plant vendors or exhibits as in years gone by. All else considered, it still was a great show. The different scales seemed to attract a lot of interest, and it was great seeing the differences between the scales. Keep up the good work.

James Heyn - 06/10/2009 - 07:52

First Big Train Show

I'm from Las Vegas so I ran down to Ontario Saturday morning (0-dark 30) and got there just before opening. I meet some of my fellow LVGRS members, chatted, watched some Live Steam then headed inside. WOW!!! I was like a little kid in a candy store. I walked around with my head snapping from side to side for about an hour. When I decided to stop wandering, I focused on the things I had seen which most interested me. The most impressive thing to me was the helpful attitude of the vendors. Kudos to Randy from Pacific Coast Garden Railway Supply and Rick from Empire Builder Railroad Design for all their time and attention to my myriad of questions. I picked up some great buys from Bridge Masters. Around 5PM my knees told me it was time to leave. I already have next year?s show in my calendar. If you didn?t make this year?s show I recommend you try and make the trip next year.

Don Wells (donwell) - 06/10/2009 - 08:25

Fine Job!

Enjoyed the report & the pictures! Also stopped in to check out the streaming video.......

Jeff Nettleton - 06/10/2009 - 19:28

The Big Show Report

Noel, Fantastic reporting job on this show which is way too far away to attend... I personally think YOU should be the LSOL reporter on all of the shows as your detailed reports leave many questions answered. Hope you will be able to attend next years's SEGRS and be their reporter as well. Thanks for sharing your expertise... Elaine

Elaine Haggenbottom - 06/11/2009 - 07:24

Top of Page