The East Coast Large Scale Train show will have a new show car which is a Aristocraft 2 bay covered hopper car in the Winchester & Western road name. This railroad is still alive and well which operates to this day in my town every day. They are listed on the fallen flags railraod site for some unknown reason, but they definately did not fall. The winchester & western also won shortline railroad of the year award about 6 years ago. The two biggest commodities they pull are tank cars loaded with propane and hopper cars loaded with sand and gravel. Small products also include soybeans and corn syrup. Picture#1 Aristocrafts fall 2009 ECLS Show car Pictures #2-4, the real Winchester and Western rail cars Visit EMD Trainmans Train scrap book for more photos
DragonFyreGT, more than likely I will pick one up because this railraod is like in my back yard. This is probably a once in a life time opportunity and I don't know how many Aristocraft made.
I was driving home from work the other day when I waited for an Indiana Harbor Belt train to pass the crossing. Nestled between 2 Seattle North Coast Boxcars was an old Winchester & Western Hopper. Rusted out, but her yellow was showing through it. I wish I had left my camera in my car now.
DragonFyreGT, There was a Wichester & Western Branch in Virgina that use to run silica from mines in hopper cars, this hopper car you seen might have been from this branch.
Looks like the Fall ECLS Train show will be mainly a Winchester & Western theme this year from T-shirts to the show car. There are new vendors who signed up this year and I can't wait to go. I would normally list vendors but Train Board now frowns upon listing vendors so instead here is a link to all ECLS fall vendors > http://www.largescaletrainshows.com/article_45.html Here is the link for the T-shirt design > http://www.largescaletrainshows.com/article_44.html I will be shooting photos of Club displays, the wonderful model contest and any new prototype trains that may be soon released. If anyone wants specific information or photos please let me know and I can send it to you. DragonFyreGT wants photos of the Aristocraft Trolley Any others please feel free to list Of course as usual you will only find my photos on Train Board from the Fall ECLS Train show. Most of the time when you find someone covering a show there is not alot of pictures, especially in the Garde Railroad Magazine. I posted 215 photos from the spring show and plan on taking more photos this time around as I have bought a couple of extra 2MB SD cards. At 6 megapixels of resolution per photo it doesn't take long to fill up a 2MB card. My Spring ECLS train show photos are still up for all to see, I will be going on Saturday for those who may attend also, just remember that this is a Friday and Saturday show, There is NO show on Sunday.
Hope To See You This Saturday at the York ECLS Train Show Remember this is a Large Scale ONLY Train Show
Garden Railways held a preliminary poll of how many people would attend or not attend the fall version of the ECLS train show. The results were not looking good, as of today 67% of those who voted had choose the Not Attend option. This could very well be the first and last fall ECLS train show if attendence isn't as expected. Remember Garden Railway Magazine is one of the sponsers of this show. Hopefully it will be a good show and good attendance and can't wait to see any prototypes.
Next Years ECLS Train show already announced. The 2010 SPRING ECLSTS WILL BE HELD ON MARCH 26th and 27th
I was supposed to be flyinig out this morning. I got held up at airport security. I missed my flight. And what did the airline say? Oh well, not our fault." So there's 340 bucks well spent. They say Murphy's law strikes every 10 seconds. Why does Murphy always strike me? The reason for the hold up was some dippy at O'hare was smuggling 10 pocket knives. And by smuggling, he was trying to get them through on his carryon heh.
ECLS Fall Train Show - EMD Trainman reports I must say after driving for 2 1/2 hours one way the show was indeed very disappointing. Not all of the vendors or clubs that were on the list showed up, there were many vacant spaces everywhere. I interveiwed a couple of vendors and they said those empty spots were paid for, but the people who piad for them never showed up either Friday or Saturday. I went today on Saturday and can tell you the attendence was a big bust, not very many people at all. I also heard the unofficial count for Friday was only 100 people. As the preliminary polls showed, the show would not make a big first hit. After interviewing many vendors, they all blame economy of course, "People are hurting right now and it definately shows", said one vendor. Another big vendor who wanted to remain anoynomous said if he doesn't show a profit next month, they are done. Dave Sauders from Bridgewerks has claimed to have lost 17 dealers who sold Bridgewerks transformers. Dave refuses to move his company to China like everyone else. Dave said, " It's not the cheap labor, it's the profit tax that makes compines move, here in the USA it's 30% and over seas it's only 15%. You can even tell the biggest G scale vendor in the USA who has a shop in Nevada and Illinios was worried as they had items priced to move. All MTH gauge one trains were slashed at 50% off. Even Accucraft AMS products were slashed 30% off. Plus they gave out 10% off coupons for those who joined thier large scale train club. Even at those prices, not much was moving. This show definately beats any Ebay prices. Charlie Ro of USA Trains is showing a little faith that things may turn around as he announced and showed off prototypes of the 60ft box cars which he said will run on 8ft curves. He also had a prototype 2 bay center flow hopper car but he doesn't plan on coming out with that until 2011. Off the record pieces they plan on working on is smaller versions of the aluminum tank car. He wants to eventually come out with a 40ft aluminum tank car and a 28ft aluminum tank car for those who can't run 8ft diameter curves. One of Charles Ro's helpers said, "people have been asking us to make different size tank cars". He also did say that the USA aluminum side passenger cars will run on 8ft curves but will not go thru a 8ft S curve. So this is good news if I decided to buy the Rio Grande Ski Train, but just like everyone else, money is too tight, I barely had enough to go to the show. Military type trains seemed to be the new theme for this show as they were everywhere. There were surprisingly even alot of kitbashed military type trains. The Large Scale On Line Model contest was also a big bust as there were only 5 models total that were entered. I must say however the clubs who did show up, never gave up and put on a good display and alot of hard work of course. It will take me a little time to organize and post my photos, but there aren't no where as many as the Spring ECLS Train Show. I will be surprised if they don't cancel this fall version show for next year.
2009 Fall ECLS York Train show now available I have now started posting pictures form the 2009 Fall East Coast Large Sclae Train show. I have 150 pictures and so far posted half of them. I will post the rest on Sunday after a good nights sleep. Here is te link to my 2009 Fall ECLS Train Show pictures >>>>>>> http://www.trainboard.com/grapevine/album.php?albumid=712
ECLS Emd, Thanks for the time it takes to post all the pics. Looks like it would have been fun, but just too far for me. Ill have to see if there are any shows similar closer to me here in the Midwest. I have been to Woodstock to the Nursery/largest G scale train store, etc, show in the spring, and it is good, if u want to buy some things that weekend. Would have been nice to get some deals here, though. I can attest to the economy thing.....I work in travel.....and discresionary income and spending is WAY down.......The first thing folks do is stop spending on "fun". Once again, thanks for the good info!! D
dmiller, you are welcome and thanx for the nice comments. I wanted to give a better coverage of the show than other sites and magazines would and think I have accomplished that, plus I don't charge for what you get. It's a hobby thing and should be about sharing info, not making someone pay for it.
The Fall East Coast Large Scale York PA show pictures are now all posted and here is the link for them >> http://www.trainboard.com/grapevine/album.php?albumid=712
Forgooten Fall ECLS Show reports I was kinda tired when I wrote my first report on the Fall ECLS train show. Jeffery Damerst of Shawmut car shops wanted me to mention that he now does custom logos and decals for your trains. He didn't mention was wether he had the rights to do regular road names light Union Pacific. But if you wanted to make up a custom road name such as Beaver Creek and Timber Hill railroad, he can help you out with a Avatar herald and making the decals for you. He does everything at his shop. You get a entire decal sheet loaded with your custom decals. Shawmut is now offering snowplow cabooses based on the USA caboose and they are only $100 which I think is a deal and may end up getting one myself. Dave Sauders has given me inside info of a new project he has not yet officially announced. He wants to expand his buisness by making G scale lighted billboards for outside use that you can easily change. He already has a Toyota dealership who wants thier name put on these mini G scale billboards, they said it would be great advertisement.
Charles Ro has un-announced scratch & dent sale Charles Ro was having a un-announced scrath and & dent sale on locomotives and for those who wanted to custom paint locomotives, there were great deals to be had. All of the locomotives were tested by Charles Ro and ran fine, but were sold as is due to paint peeling and a few had broken front coupler pilots, no big deal for a kitbasher. Speaking of Kitbasher, there was a ton of new and used parts to choose from. There was a few USA GP38-2 locomotive bodies and almost picked one up myself, but even at $20 for the body it was still too high I thought because you did not get a cab or chassis. If you had any woodside reefer cars with broken roofs, there were many of those to choose from in a variety of colors. Also a ton of new replacement parts were available on hand.
Charles Ro wants advice given out I did finally get to chat with Mr. Charles Ro briefly and told him about how well my USA locomotives held up and which all of them still had the original slide shoes and have only replaced one motor since 2000 on a USA train locomotive. He then made a comment that blew me away and never really thought about it until he mention it. Charles Ro said," You must have great track, I said, "well it's all Aristocraft because I laid my track down before USA Trains even made track." He said, thats not what I meant, I mean you must have laid your track down without big gaps." He said, "most people don't keep the track gaps close or tight and this is what he found to ruin the slide shoes and rubber tires." I said, "Yes I kept these gaps real tight and also ran 3ft long track straights so there wouldn't be too many gaps. So if you plan on running USA Trains locomotives keep the track gaps tight together and use Hillmans expansion track that allowsfor track expansion. This will keep the damage down on the sliders.
Charles Ro EMD, Interesting coment on Charles Ro and the impromtu scratch and dent sale. It would be interesting to see if he would extend that offer to the resto of us.....ie, internet sales, if properly notified. ?? I dont have a problem with scratch and dent items, as long as they operate, properly. Maybe they could offer that as a section on their web site...........many other hobby companies do..... Just a thought. D
Scratch and Dent would be so much easier to make my F3 Snow Plow/MOW Units then buying brand new. Although if I do have the chance, I would buy them any way possible.
