I've been doing Altoona since it was in the virtual steel oven facility without AC in Bedford, and it was outgrown.
Then to the Jaffa in Altoona, and that was outgrown too. Mike gambled on moving it to the convention center, and surprise....
And now we've filled that to capacity as well.
I'll be there with my Ttrak modules and the Hickory Valley layout, I'm pretty much shutting down the kits after this year. Atlas killing my CF7 mechanisms was a true buzzkill. Maybe by the show somebody can let me look at a new GP20 chassis and see if that might work instead.
I really like Altoona, haven't been to Springfield, thats just too far for me. Heck, I'm still working and travelling too much for that.
It's hard to beat Altoona, when you add in the Railroader's museum, the curve, and the nearby Everett railroad excursions. They are running that Saturday behind diesel and that Sunday behind steam with a noon departure - see the web page. EBT isn't far away either, and they are doing 3 departures both days and it 'sure looks like' the #16 driver is fixed and steam back in service that weekend.