In the News
Spring 2010 ECLSTS Wrap Up
Apr 7, 2010
By Noel Widdfield |
Author
Bio
The East Coast Large Scale Train Show is one of the most popular Large Scale train shows. The first fall one was held this past October and JJ Productions, the producer of this show, put on the thirteenth one last week at York, PA.
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Spring East Coast Large Scale Train Show 2010 The East Coast Large Scale Train Show is one of the most popular Large Scale train shows. The show drew larger crowds than the fall show, there were more vendors and the show had much more of a feeling of success than the fall show. We saw many of our LSOL.com members at the show and met several new friends. We even signed up some new members. We took group photos on both Friday and Saturday so you can see how many LSOL.com members were at the show. 
Thursday night we held our usual LSOL.com banquet at Hoss's in York. The dinner was great and we heard short talks from Scott Polk of Aristo Craft Trains, Dan Hoag of Eaglewings Ironcraft, Axel Tillmann of Train-Li-USA, Damian from Mainline Bridges and Matt Poissant of MNP. After each member introduced himself or herself, we had a Hat Contest and drew for door prizes. Awards were presented to several LSOL.com "staffers". The room was packed and it looks like we will need to find a larger place for next year's show. 
The show opened on Friday morning at 9:00 with the LSOL booth to the right as you entered the vendor hall and this allowed us to meet and greet all of the attendees as they entered the hall. We spent a good deal of our time taking photos, talking with hobbyists and answering questions about the Large Scale hobby. We even had an interesting guest helping out in the booth. Thank you Nancy Benardo! 
The show had its own show car and T-Shirt again this year. Both used the logo for P&WV. There were still a few locos and cars from the previous train shows that were on sale as well. The Spring ECLSTS shirts were proudly displayed by the JJ Productions and the lines were long waiting to purchase the cars and shirts. The show had seminars scheduled on Friday and Saturday. David Bodnar, LSOL.com member, had three seminars scheduled on Friday. Lewis Polk had a seminar on "Questions for Newbies" that was well attended on Friday. Tom McCloud of Appalachian Nurseries presented on "Putting the Garden in your Garden Railway' and Axel Tillmann of Train-Li-USA conducted a general seminar on Garden Railroading. On Saturday Lewis held another "Newbies" seminar and Jerry Chapman of Split Jaw Railclamps presented "Fun with Automation". Jimmy Shepard of Microscaping presented "Garden Railroad Plants 101" QSI Solutions held a seminar on their products at their booth. Throughout the two days, Yogi Wallace had his usual table of tricks and modeling tips. Bob Temple demonstrated "Figure Making" in the layout area throughout both days of the show. Watch for a recording of David's Seminar coming soon on LSOL.com
The model contest attracted a larger number of entries than the fall show, and there were some interesting models entered. Christopher Bump took the Best of Show with a Marble Quarry. 
There were the usual numbers of modular layouts at the show. The live steam layout was an item of interest for many of the show goers. 
Although there were not many new things shown at the show, there were a few. The most important announcement was from Aristo Craft. Scott Polk unveiled two large cakes and announced that Polk's Hobbies, the Aristo Craft parent organization was celebrating their 75th anniversary this year. A large crowd gathered at the Aristo Craft booth for photographs and cake eating. 
Aristo Craft was showing the shells of their new RDC-3 Budd railcars and shells of their PCC's in their booth. Both of these shells are very nicely done and the final products should be beautiful. 
Aristo Craft also had their pre-production version of the 2-8-0 in their booth. It is coming "soon". 
A new vendor at the show was Large Scale Products and they were showing some products that have been part of the military modeler products, but are being shown for Large Scale modelers. These included several figures and some buildings and flats that are made from resin and are very nicely done. 
Colorado Structures was showing three new building kits. These included a new barn, farmhouse and a church that have been added to the growing line of sturdy building kits being offered. 
 The show was a good show with a large choice of products and even a few new products. The attendance appeared to be considerably more than that at the fall show. It was great to see old friends and meet new people. There seemed to be several newcomers to the Large Scale hobby and we enjoyed answering the questions they asked about the hobby. Since we were positioned at the door, we were able to see that a lot of people took advantage of the bargains on products at the show. Lots of Large Scale equipment disappeared out the door over the two days of the show. Jo Anne held down the booth for most of the show while Jon, Peter and Noel spent their time taking photos and videos of all of the action. If there was something we missed, let us know so that we can capture it at the next show.
| Pics ? |
| Nice article, but couldn't get to see 'more' pictures from the show and the banquet? What am I doing wrong? Bob |
| Bob DeForge - 04/07/2010 - 03:25 |
| Links Fixed |
| Links had a typo. They should now work. |
| Jon DeKeles - 04/07/2010 - 06:47 |
| Model Contest |
| I am sorry I could not make the show and see the interesting models in the contest first hand. The quarry was an interesting change in G-gauge modeling. |
| Rick Henderson - 04/07/2010 - 07:08 |
| Show Coverage. |
| Great Coverage, Keep up the good job. Bruce Benardo |
| Bruce Benardo - 04/07/2010 - 14:21 |
| looking forward |
| great photos. Looking forward to the west coast show -convention in Tacoma in August. Attended the Seattle show a few years back which inspired 230feet of track and a steel bridge over the pond . |
| Harvey Erickson - 04/07/2010 - 20:59 |
| Show Coverage |
| Escellent job of covering the show. For those not able to attend LSOL's detailed coverage gives a good overview of the event from start to finish. The model contest contained some first rate models. The quarry was great. Rolling stock, locomotives and buildings were first rate. The judges did a good job selecting top models in each category. |
| JD Miller - 04/08/2010 - 05:57 |
| Large Scale Products |
| Thanks for the excellent coverage. I'm sorry that I didn't go. I'm going to have to go to the fall show. Does Large Scale Products have a web site? I didn't see them in the list of vendors. I'm interested in the flats to go along the back of my layout. |
| Bob Ewart - 04/10/2010 - 04:48 |
| Large Scale Products |
| Bob, I am working to get some contact info for you on the Large Scale Products people. I will let you know when I get something. Thanks, Noel |
| Noel Widdifield - 04/10/2010 - 05:07 |
| Large scale scenics |
| Saw the pictures of the new buildings from large scale scenics. Do they have a web site? Can't find anything from doing google searches. Thx Will |
| Will Chaffin - 04/10/2010 - 10:10 |
| Large Scale Products |
| Will, I am still working to find out about them. Should know something next week. Noel |
| Noel Widdifield - 04/10/2010 - 17:20 |
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