TheRailwire
General Discussion => N and Z Scales => Topic started by: TrainCat2 on June 19, 2007, 05:24:02 PM
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Just got off the phone with Dean about the Hartford show and less than 200 people have signed up for the convention and/or secured a room. Dean sounded very apprehensive on the conventions success.
Some other info was passed along. No early room sales as in Denver and no continuous vendor operation during the convention as in Denver and San Diego. Dean said vendor tables would be limited in operation to two days only and to a set schedule.
All of this causes me to ponder if this year may not be what everyone thought the convention was going to be. What are your thoughts and are you going the the NSC Convention ???
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I have never been to one, but am planning to attend the one in Louisville next year. As a matter of fact, I decided I'd rather go there than to my 50th high school reunion on Long Island. Frankly, the choice of the Hartford area somewhat surprised me as it's not exactly a tourist destination and not all that easy to get to from outside the Northeast. OTOH, there are prototype steam and trolley operations nearby.
Wished I could have made the one in Northern Virginia in 2004, but I was active in SCORE at the time and had to attend a workshop in Portland, ME two weeks earlier - too long to stay away from home and too far to drive all the way back to Virginia from Florida. Did stop in Baltimore on the way back from Portland and shopped at Klein's.
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I`ve been to one, 2004 in Chantilly. Had a great time. Just never went to another just because my personal schedule didnt allow it. I may head up to Hartford on Saturday and grab a hotel room on the way back home...
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Hartford, CT: Definitely a tourism and railroading hotspot!!!!!!!
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Hey,
This will be my 1st convention. Maybe my last. The cost has got to be a factor for many. I was blown away with just the $75.00 to get in. Add food,lodging & transportation. Not cheap. Considering you can go to a train show for $8.00,that's a big difference.
The only reason I didn't cancel is I'm meeting alot of N scalers face-face. We'll see what happens.
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The only reason I didn't cancel is I'm meeting alot of N scalers face-face. We'll see what happens.
For that price, send them a digital photo of yourself, and call them on the phone ..
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Hey,
This will be my 1st convention. Maybe my last. The cost has got to be a factor for many. I was blown away with just the $75.00 to get in. Add food,lodging & transportation. Not cheap. Considering you can go to a train show for $8.00,that's a big difference.
The only reason I didn't cancel is I'm meeting alot of N scalers face-face. We'll see what happens.
Is that just to get in the train show? Or to register for the whole convention?
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I'm going, I signed up last week and got registration # 244, so your numbers from Dean may be a little low for attendance, although that may be in the ballpark for room reservations. I know there are 5-6 other members from Baltimore Ntrak going and we are going to have a lobby layout in the hotel.
I went to the 2004 convention in Chantilly and the 2006 convention in Denver and had a great time at both. For some perspective on attendance numbers, my NSC registration number of Chantilly was 0222 and I made it 2 months earlier than I made this year's (plus the Ntrak folks had a different block of 4-digit numbers starting with 1), and my number for Denver (made about the same time as this year's) was 378. Based on registration numbers, it would seem attendance will be about 2/3rds the attendance at Denver.
A couple of comments based on what I've heard...
1. 2004 was the first joint Ntrak/NSC "national" convention; the 2005 San Diego and 2006 Denver conventions were also billed as "joint" "national" conventions, as is Louisville in 2008. My understanding is that the 2007 Hartford show is NOT being advertised as a joint national convention, it is a NSC convention with Ntrak participation.
2. From the literature I've seen, the schedule has the large Ntrak layout and vendor area in operation Friday and Saturday only, with Friday being for the convention and Saturday being the public train show. The only event listed for Sunday is the manufacturers breakfast at 8 AM. This is VERY different from the last 3 conventions, where the train show went the entire weekend and was open to the public Saturday and Sunday.
Personally, the Hartford location doesn't really excite me. I'm going because it is on the east coast, and it is within reasonable driving distance. It may be a while before I have that chance again, since it's my understanding they won't return till the east coast till 2011, with 2008 in Louisville, 2009 in Portland OR and 2010 in Kansas City. I am going to try and go to Louisville, and am actually more excited about it than I am this year's event in Hartford.
Tim
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I will be there at the N Scale Vehicle Association's table. If you are interested in N scale vehicles, stop by and let's chat. :)
Carter
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The National Railway Historical Society held their National Convention in Hartford not to long ago and I attended with my dad who was originally from Brooklyn, NY. The N.R.H.S. scheduled events there were almost duplicates of what the Collector Con. is doing, plus lots of train trips,(of course no layout tours),so its "Been there done that" for me plus I do not consider myself a collector,I could have gone to Denver when it was in my own back yard. If it were combined once again with an N.M.R.A. National Train Show like Detroit they I would be interested. Nate Goodman (Nato). Salt Lake, Utah.
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I have never been to one of these. I'm planning on attending this year, since I live only 45 minutes away from it. I'm not going to bother with the Monday through Thursday activities. Friday and Saturday may be worth it.
Eric
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Nato, the NSC-Con, and the N Scale Collector's Society itself, stopped being strictly for collectors/investors a loooooooooooooooong time ago. Keep the paradigm if you wish, but it's not accurate.
Chantilly was my last convention and I enjoyed it quite a bit. Schedule conflicts have prevented attending any since then.
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Never have, never will.
(http://www.on2.com/cms-data/images/Austin_Powers_512k_standard.JPG)
Not my thing.
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I went to Chantilly in 2004 and enjoyed it and got to meet Chuck.
I'll be going, I'm just not sure which days yet. I'm thinking Saturday and if the weather is good, I'll ride up on my hog. A day of trains and a good ride would be near perfect. ;D
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Nato, the NSC-Con, and the N Scale Collector's Society itself, stopped being strictly for collectors/investors a loooooooooooooooong time ago. Keep the paradigm if you wish, but it's not accurate.
It does suffer from the name. I believe they took over from Ntrak, which used to handle the N scale conventions. If I recall, as of last November, their fliers didn't even list a location for the convention. I hope they weren't expecting to find some place cheap in Connecticut. Having lived there 15 years, I could have saved them the trouble. I really would like to attend, but I'll be saving my pennies for Springfield this winter. And a few new things coming out.
Traincat2, I can only suggest it would probably be better off attending than not. At least you can have some visibility for your products. This is a good area to show off your products, which are very nice, by the way. They are on my watch list. Fantastic work, but I have a long way to go before get to purchasing.
Frank
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I have never considered myself a collector, although I have over my years in N starting in 1969 aquired many items that now may be considered collectable. Yes I'am a mmember of the NSC Group because they have run some prototype cars I was interested in Ie: PFE TOFC cars with reefer trailers, the Impact trainning and testing box cars that UP & SP had in the 1950's and the latest release a New Haven Flat car with nice CAT Diesel engine loads on them. I'am fully aware that the Collector Cons are not just for hard core collectors ,but I still believe joint conventions like N Trak (Quack) had with the N.M.R.A. National in Eugene .Oregon in 1987 is the way to go,an all N convention or N & Collector Con for several days before the all scales National, then N layouts provided to the public and attendees at the national. Nate Goodman (Nato). Salt Lake, Utah.
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Nato, the NSC-Con, and the N Scale Collector's Society itself, stopped being strictly for collectors/investors a loooooooooooooooong time ago. Keep the paradigm if you wish, but it's not accurate.
Chantilly was my last convention and I enjoyed it quite a bit. Schedule conflicts have prevented attending any since then.
I would feel different about the NSC-Con. Since owned by Micro-Trains, it really is for collectors, etc IMHO. I've been to several and mostly Micro-Trains collections are shown and it is centered around that concept. I have no problem with that, it's just the color of the horse...
Ntrak organized conventions are centered around....well, Ntrak...so there is lots of 'running trains' on modules and information related to those modules, building them, etc and all the itesm that we see on them.
The Best N Scale conventions have been when sponsored by an Ntrak Group, IMHO. Northern Virginia Ntrak has done an exceptional job, both in 1996 and in 2004. Chantilly was sponsored by NVNtrak and was a great time for N scalers, as well as for the NSC-Con folks who co-sponsored. I suspect that next year's Louisville convention will be exceptional, based upon the organization so far, which btw, includes some of the NSC-Con folks.
It is too bad that Ntrak does not have the organizational goals and resources to sponsor a convention yearly.
Steven
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N Quack (Trak) use to have the ability to do a National Convention each year. They alternated between the East and West Coasts, several years they were held right before and as part of the N.M.R.A. National Con (Eugene ,Oregon 1987 which I attended comes to mind). I think that local N Scale clubs whether they are N Trak or some other standard,Fremo,Bend Trak, One Trak etc. would rather hold regional cons or attend local multi-scale shows, and so the ball has been dropped in the Collectors Court to organize and hold National N Events. Nate Goodman (Nato). Salt Lake, Utah.
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Hey,
This will be my 1st convention. Maybe my last. The cost has got to be a factor for many. I was blown away with just the $75.00 to get in. Add food,lodging & transportation. Not cheap. Considering you can go to a train show for $8.00,that's a big difference.
The only reason I didn't cancel is I'm meeting alot of N scalers face-face. We'll see what happens.
Is that just to get in the train show? Or to register for the whole convention?
From what I understand,it pays for:
1)enterance fee
2)any clinic
Also,if you have people with you(kids,wife,GF,etc) its an extra $35.00 per person.
John,
These people have been very good to me & a picture over the internet just doesn't cut it. They know who they are.One is here often,one from Railfan, & the other is on Trainboard.
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Well, I am still unsure of Hartsford, but I have settled on going to the Detroit NTS after all. The Collector and Neil’s N Gauge have setup a continuous running shuttle bus between the convention & Neil’s Hobby Shop. No word yet if they will let me use part of an extra hall they have no assigned usage for. The hall would be perfect to allow vendors to setup shop in. Appears that biased operations are still the norm at NSC!
Will anyone be at the NTS??
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if you like slightly smaller conventions, come to Pennsylvania. The Bedford N-Scale Weekend is August 25th-26th. I went last year and will definitely return.
Ray
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if you like slightly smaller conventions, come to Pennsylvania. The Bedford N-Scale Weekend is August 25th-26th. I went last year and will definitely return.
Ray
I agree, it`s a nice little show. And with Altoona 45 minutes up the road it make it a nice weekend. I even met Ray at The Curve last year...
Rich
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I was interested in POVC's post; at least now I know where the next few conventions are going to be held.
My wife and I both have kids/grandkids/even greatgrandkids in west Florida and Alabama and we have been planning on attending our first N Scale shindig in Louisville next summer in addition to the NMRA national in Anaheim. Following that we were going to go up to the Pacific Northwest and see other kids/grandkids/greatgrandkids but since the 2009 N Scale feastivities are going to be in Portland we will probably wait and kill two birds with one stone and go up there then. If the schedule works out - I definitely want to attend the NMRA national in Milwaukee - I now hope to make it to KC in 2010.
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I will be coming to the N Scale Collector's Convention in Hartford, CT, albeit only for the banquet on Saturday night , the afterhours room sales on Saturday night, and Manufacturer's Breakfast on Sunday morning.
Reason for late arrival is that I'll just be coming off a business trip and that is as soon as I can get there.
I'll look forward to seeing some of you there!