Trainfest 2009 - Follow-up

Trainfest 2009 is done, and a heartfelt thank you to everyone who stopped by.

A long weekend came to it's conclusion about 8:30 Sunday night when I finally unloaded the last of the display items into my garage so at least my car was empty enough to go to work the next morning. Still work to do this week to take things out of the garage and put them all away where they need to be.

All in all, a very successful weekend, a good show, no damages enroute either way (always a concern when your models and memorabilia travel), and no little monsters grabbing things when their parents aren't watching. "Jimmy, if you grab one more train and throw it on the ground, we're going home,, 3 is enough young man !"

The Fox River display got alot of attention as it was center located, plus all the recent FRTM excitement with the AEFRE 304 coming back to home rails. Note to self for next time,, identify it as "Interurbans of the ILLINOIS Fox Valley". The same Fox Valley extends north into Wisconsin, and a bit of confusion ensued.

Equally, many people assumed this was a display affiliated with the Fox River Trolley Museum, a semi-obvious assumption given the content, and some of my personal former involvement, but again, for the record,, no, this is not part of FRTM, but specifically what I have come to identify as my own personal "Traveling Hysterical Society". Having said that, I am a member of both FRTM and IRM, and happy to help share the word any way I can.

The "Connecting Lines/Fox River Park" part of the display

The CA&E section

I especially want to acknowledge two groups of people.

First is The Metro Milwaukee Z scale group. A very nice group of folks, with some simply fascinating tiny trains. I would have to give up my beer,, no way my hands could ever be steady enough for that stuff. At some point Saturday I thought I saw one of their cars on the floor, turned out to be a piece of lint.

Tiny, Tiny, Tiny. I'm kidding of course. Nice folks and they were gracious enough a couple times to help out this one man band by baby-sitting the IoFV display while I made a quick bathroom run. Many many thanks !

Next, to all the various people that visited, and ESPECIALLY all of the various groups that were also part of the show, and people that I've know only by name/email over the internet, that were gracious and complimentary,, thank you to all, not only for your comments and appreciation, but also because your words are truly from a "jury of my peers", and your "insider" knowledge and experience made your appreciation that much more special.

I would name names, but I'm afraid to accidently forget anyone. All of you, you know where to find me, please keep in touch ! And again,, Thank you all.

Trainfest 2009 - Set-up

At the end of a long day, here's a bit of a taste of the display at Trainfest.

Managed to escape (well physically anyway, still have the cellphone/electronic leash) from the office a bit after 2 PM for the high speed journey north to the land of cheese.

We had two 6 foot tables at HighWheeler, now just 9 months later, I had asked for three tables (2-8 foot, 1-6 foot), ended up with 4, and as you can see, they're jammed packed. Maybe the wife is right and I do have too much crap.... nahh.

Let's see,, four 1/2" scale cars, and a total of nine O scale, two sceniced O scale dioramas, lot of photos and memorabilia,, I just can't wait to pack all this S**tuff back up again,, geezus

Show starts in just 12 hours and 16 minutes, so perhaps I should get some sleep.

Trainfest 2009 - Milwaukee, WI

Time once again for Trainfest in Milwaukee.

Now in it's 38th year, Trainfest, billed as the largest model railroad show in the United States, typically hosts 20,000+ visitors each November over a two-day weekend.

200,000 square feet of displays, over 50 layouts of all shapes, sizes, scales, etc, over 130 manufacturers, distributors and retailers.

This year, Interurbans of The Fox Valley makes it's debut at Trainfest. I was tentatively set to do this last year, but work schedules interfered, the good news is that I was so irritated that it hardened my resolve that such a situation would NEVER occur again, so here we are.

Anyone who's seen the display this year, don't miss it this time. One of the commitments I've made to myself is that the display will continue to change and grow with every showing, and the current version is nearly double what the last public showing was. We will be occupying roughly a 10x16 square foot space and I promise to fill it.

For anyone that hasn't seen it yet, scroll through some of the other postings to get a flavor of what I'm talking about. I've combined my personal collection of memorabilia and railroadiana with models in O scale and 1/2" scale of the CA&E, AE&FRE, and several connecting lines, all telling the story of interurban service in the Fox Valley area.

Over and above the display, anyone interested in the CA&E and Fox River Line will have plenty to talk about these days with the Trolleyville cars already making their way back to Illinois.

Lots of pictures of Fox River 304 back on home rails for the first time in 74 years is one tease I will offer !

Assuming I'm reading the map correctly (A large leap of faith), our display will be roughly dead center up the middle of the display hall from where you enter, approximately 1/3 of the way in.

We are set to be directly across from the Glacial Garden G-Scale Railroad set-up, and across the aisle from the Milwaukee Electric Traction Club, a jury of our peers !

Trainfest is Sat and Sun, November 14, 15th, 2009

At the Wisconsin Exposition Center at State Fair Park, in West Allis, Wisc.

(Just immediately west of Milwaukee)

Check their website for more informatin, times, directions, and discount admission coupons.

http://www.trainfest.com/

Trainfest is presented by the WISE division of the National Model Railroad Association and the Model Railroad Industry Division HMA.

Enjoy your hobby more and join the NMRA !

Hope to see you there.