Trainfest

[James Costello]

So, was there anything else actually announced at the show?

[up1950s]

I am beginning to think that Charlie Vlk's comment about the roof raising is that the place is actually a huge UFO and all the souls aboard are well in transit to Alpha Reticuli (sp) to teach those Retuculians how to model . Thats why we haven't heard from anybody , they are out of Cell and YFi communication limits .

[tom mann]

I am beginning to think that Charlie Vlk's comment about the roof raising is that the place is actually a huge UFO and all the souls aboard are well in transit to Alpha Reticuli (sp) to teach those Retuculians how to model . Thats why we haven't heard from anybody , they are out of Cell and YFi communication limits .

Yeah, that must be it! ;D  Amazing that thousands of people can keep quiet all day!  Does Milwaukee not have Internet access yet? ;D ;D

[GaryHinshaw]

Glad to hear the Atlas gons have finally arrived.  While the "Hi" is a very exciting announcement, and is great news for N scale, the gons are great news for me.     (I noticed that Atlas posted photos of the new 25K tanker as well - can't wait for them too.)

-gfh

BTW, my Kato comment was a joke.   :

[Mark5]

Ritchie,

I think they're still working on the roof:



Mark

[Mark5]

Apparently Atlas made an announcement, at least maybe in HO:

http://forum.atlasrr.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=56877

Must be a gag order in effect in Milwaukee!

Mark

[lashedup]

Must be a gag order in effect in Milwaukee!

Sorry gang. I was there on Friday to help with setup of the Modutrak stuff and we had some new modules and such that needed some troubleshooting/wiring to get everything working correctly and it took longer than normal. I was only very briefly able to get around the vendor area for a quick look around. I couldn't make the show today due to family obligations, but I'll be up there all day Sunday (tomorrow). Skibbe and I will get around to all the vendors and ask what's new, take some notes and of course pictures and I'll post them up tomorrow evening - probably late.

Right now I can give a few things from memory, but I didn't talk to each vendor and specifically ask what's new, so I could have major holes in this abbreviated report...

Altas, Athearn and Walthers didn't have anything new that I saw, but I'll have to go back and ask tomorrow. Some of the new releases from these vendors were on display though.

FVM had their 1935 Hiawatha announcement and a flyer to go with it. This will be available in both N and HO and comes in a complete set with a Class A 442 streamlined loco, six passenger cars (Tap Cafe, 3 coaches, parlor car and beaver tail unit). Two additional coaches will be available with it. Matt is shooting to have them done for the NMRA convention in Milwaukee July 2010 (next year is the 75th Anniversary of the NMRA).

Kato had their sample Santa Fe El Capitan on display and the quality is solid and very similar to Kato's Super Cheif in terms of paint and finish. Kato said to expect to see the El Cap sets first week of December. Outside of that nothing else new from them for now.

Micro Trains had their new Heavyweight's on display including samples (unpainted) of their coach heavyweight unit. And if most of Railwire couldn't tell they also had new wheel sets.

PCM/BLI had their PA/PB n-units in paint on display and they looked good. Detail was crisp, paint looked great and the plated sides on the Sante Fe units look particularly great. I'll ask them more about them tomorrow.

GC Laser had a few things on display in n that I hadn't seen before and a wood laser cut company that I hadn't heard of before had a complete city of Chicago elevated train platform that was pretty amazing.

Deluxe had a very cool prototype of a intermodal container loader - four wheel truck with a boom. No ETA or price, but they mentioned it would at least partially be made of metal to make sure it is solid. Deluxe had other current releases on display.

Intermountain had their cab forward on display and a few other recent releases.

Scenery Express also had a new Heki static device as a competitor to the Noch unit.

I know I'm forgetting a bunch, but since today was the first public day, I'm sure there will be others chiming in tonight.

I spoke briefly to Charlie Vlk and he said one of the announcements he expected was not made at Trainfest. So we'll have to wait and see what comes next.

I'll do a far more complete run down tomorrow with lots of photos.

- jamie

[up1950s]

Thanks Jamie , so far pretty dull for the masses , with some sparklers for a focused few .

[Ian MacMillan]

I saw the laser cut Chicago El kits on Youtube last week on the Model Railroad Vlog. The kits look really nice, but they were like $25 for a 60' section I believe. I can't remember their ULR at the moment as I have it at home. I'm looking at getting some for my layout.

[TiVoPrince]

Attendance
seems rather sparse, even for a model railroad show...

[Ian MacMillan]

Apparently Atlas made an announcement, at least maybe in HO:

http://forum.atlasrr.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=56877

Must be a gag order in effect in Milwaukee!

Mark

Man I would love those in N!

[Dave Schneider]

I just back from the show and uploaded some photos. It was a nice crowd with a moving line of 15-20 minutes just to buy a ticket. Other than the Hiawatha, I did not see or hear of anything else of great note. I had some nice talks with FVM. DeLuxe Innovations, Atlas, Wheel of Time, and Walthers. The highlight of the show for me was the MiNiModutrak layout and a chance to meet the folks from that group.









I made a plug to Atlas for a FM H12-44 switcher, and Rob wrote it down on a piece of paper!   
Walthers was interesting. I spent a fair bit of time discussing N scale with them, including Stacey Walthers Naffah. It is easy to throw rocks at them and be frustrated in N scale (and they deserve it), but I found her to be extremely nice and easy to talk to. We discussed the philosophy of future releases (serial releases vs. a theme release), problems with their N modular line (fit, variety of products, etc), and the issue of letting HO sales help decided on N releases. On this latter issue, they agreed that this didn't make any sense. I pointed them towards some of the great prototype modeling being done in N along with people wanting large industries. I invited the owner from Wheels of Time to think about participating in Railwire, and he seemed interested. A really nice guy as well.

The laser work from Imagine That Laser was very impressive. The are burning bricks in N scale, and they looked great. They have some nice modular brick curtain wall industries in HO that I advocated that for large N scale industries. The El looked nice, but expensive. They located in Canada and the weak dollar isn't helping.


Finally, here is some nice HO paper modeling by John Kosma on his Gypsy Trolley Line.




On a purely fun note, they had a train racing layout for the kids that was a big hit. They used American Flier  engines on a large looping layout. If you went full throttle, the trains would derail on the curves so the kids had to think about what they were doing. Big fun, with sparking crashes and cheers from the crowd. Something to think about if you are planning a show.

Best wishes, Dave

[H Lee]

I spoke briefly to Charlie Vlk and he said one of the announcements he expected was not made at Trainfest. So we'll have to wait and see what comes next.

It's too bad it was the roof raising announcement that didn't get made!

[asarge]

I see the MiNi-Modu-Trak looks great as usual. Nice job guys!!!

[GaryHinshaw]

That is a sweet scene!  Thanks for posting those shots Dave.  It would be great to start a separate thread on this Modutrack setup for posterity.

Someone should encourage Stacy to wander over to this layout for a fresh look at N scale.

-gfh