GSMTS

[RockGp40]

Thinking about going Sunday after I get off work. Spring Creek is a vendor this time which I am excited to visit. I'm not sure how regular they are to the GSMTS.

[mu26aeh]

Regular attendee last 2 years I think

[John]

Thinking about going Sunday after I get off work. Spring Creek is a vendor this time which I am excited to visit. I'm not sure how regular they are to the GSMTS.

I will be there Sunday afternoon with my grandson .. and for teardown -- lets catch up a bit if you get there

[Ed Kapuscinski]

Thinking about going Sunday after I get off work. Spring Creek is a vendor this time which I am excited to visit. I'm not sure how regular they are to the GSMTS.

They're there about once a year. They generally have at least something that will be relevant to your interests.

[brokemoto]

The Timonium show is this weekend.  BANTRAK will have a FREEMO N setup and TTRAK layout .  We hope to see you there

I am expecting to be there with girlfriend Saturday.  I will be sure to look for the layouts.

Never will I understand why some show-goers skip the layouts.   If you do that, you miss some pretty good displays.

[mu26aeh]

So what was everyones big scores of the weekend ?

Mine was brand new Atlas code 55 #7 turnouts for $8 each, and 3 shakers of #50 Scenic express ballast for $25.

[John]

I picked up two MMID GP38-3s

[brokemoto]

I went there looking more for track and supplies than anything, most of which I did get.  I still could not find any LL track cleaner, though.  I am down to the last line in my last bottle.  I might have to go to seventy per-cent alcohol at this point.

I saw only two vendors with the N scale Atlas FAs.  One guy, who always sets up near the doorway in the other room to the left from the food vendor had them.  He is high priced and the FAs were no exception.  I do not buy much from him due to his high prices.  There was another guy who sells a large amount of B-mann who frequently sets up on the other side of that same room.  His pricing is inconsistent.  Some of it is pretty good, some of it ain't.  His prices on the FAs were not bad; about ten dollars per more than Lombard so if you make allowances for the postage from Lombard, the price is not that bad.  He had only A units, though; no Bs.  I really am looking only for a B.  Most vendors do not mind selling you only the B.  They tend to like it less if you take the A and leave the B but they tend to be fine with your taking the B and leaving the A.  Perhaps it is because they can sell the solo A easily.  I am one of the few people that I know who always is buying solo Bs.

I expected that with the appearances of the Atlas FAs, many would dump their old LLs on FeePay, but I have seen only one such example of that.  The seller, someone well known to many, transplanted the Atlas shells onto the old LL power chassis and sold that while retaining his old LL shells on his new Atlas chassis.  I really do not care if I get an old LL B unit or  new Atlas. I will have to keep looking.

I did get a used Kato Penn corrugated baggage/mail for a good price.  The guy from whom the vendor got it must have done a body mount of MTs and used Super Glue, or something.  He must have gotten the glue onto the coupler shanks because they are stiff.  No biggie, really, it does stay coupled and on the track.  It was hard to beat the price.

I also got an Arnold Boom tender (the one with the four wheel caboose shell on the flat car).  If you dress those up with a minimum of details:  ladders, end railings and grab irons, they make pretty nice work cabooses.  The one that I bought was unlettered yellow.  It seems that there were two versions of this one.  One of them had truck pins. I already have one like that,.  It was easy to change the factory trucks for MT arch bars.  This one has the two-pronged truck "pin" attached to the chassis.  Getting arch bars onto that will be more of a challenge.  B-mann arch bars might be the way to go , there.

Finally, I got an unpainted E-R Shark A unit with BLACK gears.  Sadly, the vendor did not have a B unit.

[Bill H]

I'll be there first thing. …then lunch at Gino's.  I'm more excited for lunch than prospect of finding said cars

Everybody goes to Gino’s - because Gino’s is the place to go… If I can ever get back to Balmere Gino’s is a must. If I could only find Ameche’s… then Timonium…

[brokemoto]

If I can ever get back to Balmere Gino’s is a must.

Did they revive Gino's in the Baltimore Metropolitan Area?  They were everywhere in D.C., Virginia, Maryland and New Jersey the first time that I lived in the Washington Metropolitan Area.  When I got back, they were gonesville.  I figured that Marchetti died or something but I really did not look into it.  They had exclusive distribution of Kentucky Fried in their market with the exception of one Kentucky Fried in D.C. that was there before Marchetti got the contract.

Another "fast" food institution of that area, Roy Rogers, went out of business.  Marriott sold it because while it was running in the black, it was not obscenely so.  Hardee's had  a deal with Marriott that it could back out if things were not to its liking, which was what happened.  Marriott subsequently sold it to Icky-D's, which either converted them to Icky-D's or let the leases run out and took the name off the market.   A few years after that, someone rented the name from Icky-D's and opened a few of them in the Maryland and Virginia suburbs as well as on the New Jersey Turnpike.  Thus once more, you can get "Two Triggerburgers for the trail, hold the cockroaches".

[RockGp40]

So what was everyones big scores of the weekend ?

CMR got most of my hobby money this time. Two Con-Cor IC autoracks with lo pros and MTL couplers for $20 each, MDDE decals for an upcoming CF-7 project, and a 3D printed road slug shell which hopefully will become the Rock's Great American Energy Saver.

I also bought a Rapido centerbeam at just less than retail to see if it's as inconsistent as the thread suggested. So far, I am not grossly disappointed. Spring Creek had a good setup and I strongly considered buying some things, but the prices didn't justify the need for me yet.

Saw @seusscaboose and @DeltaBravo at BANTRAK.

[John]

and a 3D printed road slug shell which hopefully will become the Rock's Great American Energy Saver.

I saw those  .. they looked pretty good

[Ed Kapuscinski]

I grabbed some electrical goodies from Spring Creek, but the big takeaway was some photos on my friend Scott's awesome TTRAK module set. The skies here are all real, there's no photoshop involved. He does it all with LED lighting.















And a few on my own modules:

[thomasjmdavis]

I grabbed some electrical goodies from Spring Creek, but the big takeaway was some photos on my friend Scott's awesome TTRAK module set. The skies here are all real, there's no photoshop involved. He does it all with LED lighting.

Does Scott do stage lighting as his day job?

If we all pitch in and get him a plaid membership, will he share more on that steel mill and the lighting? Or is he here already, and I somehow missed the thread?

[Ed Kapuscinski]

Does Scott do stage lighting as his day job?

Yep! Well that and a bunch of other cool AV stuff.

I haven't convinced him to join up here yet, but I keep trying. Perhaps if we all say his name repeatedly. lol