[Gary Woolard]

Here are a few shots & some notes from last weekend's Great Train Expo in Costa Mesa, CA.

Here's yer "Establishing Shot" -- inside Building 10 at the Orange County Fairgrounds.

In earlier years, they've rented out two halls - one for vendors and another for all the modular layouts of various scales. This year, however, they squeezed everything into one building. Some of my favorite modular layouts, like The Door Hollow Shortline and the Southern California Traction Club (an HO club using live overhead wire) were squeezed totally out of the picture due to a lack of space! A symptom of the economy, I guess, but it's kind of a shame.

There were a number of 'mixed scale' vendors who had some "G" stuff on hand, but only three 'dedicated' G&F scale vendors that I can recall offhand; BridgeMasters, Gold Coast Station, and Electric & Steam Modelworks. Jonathan and Laura Bliese didn't even bring their Electric Modelworks banner -- as Jonathan says, they were 'incognito.' They seemed to be doing a pretty good business nevertheless -- I know Jonathan 'made me a deal I couldn't refuse' for a West Side Crummy #6.

Gold Coast is the first place I've seen that actually has the new Bachmann Mallet for sale. Going for about $550.00, if you can't make out the tag by the time I've got the pix compressed.

And an opposite angle, with flash -

Mac McCalla had a nice, lightly weathered one off in a corner of the Del Oro layout. Alas, I neglected to alert Carla about it, so no pic. Trust me though, it looks a lot better once that 'high-gloss' finish has been taken off.

There's a new small vendor I'd like to bring to your attention; a fellow named Steve Peterson who goes by "Bridges by Steve." He makes wooden bridges in G, O and HO scales, all with brass fittings. I was looking at some of his G scale samples, and it looks like exquisite work. Here's an example of a very unusual offering; a Warren Truss Bridge with a draw bridge middle section that actually lifts upward by a motorized cable!

I asked if he was going to be at the BigTrain Show, and he said he 'thought so.' I hope he makes it!

Speaking of Mac McCalla, we had an interesting conversation hanging out by the Del Oro Pacific. Many of us have attended one of his great airbrush weathering clinics. Mac's heard a lot of beginners express their frustrations that they couldn't get their efforts to look like his, and he has a word of advice for us. Here's a hint -- it's the same way you get to Carnegie Hall -- practice, practice, practice!

Here are a few examples of classic McCalla work. Mac thinks this hobo on the sway-backed flatcar is one of his most popular pieces.

And this engine with the Rube Goldberg pipework started life as a vanilla LGB Mogul!

Del Oro Pacific introduced a large new module at this show. It was built by Ted Greeno, and I believe is called "Old Mexico." The buildings are a mix of flats, half-deeps, and fully dimensional adobes, and with all the business in the foreground, the scene goes together seamlessly and realistically!

Last but not least, this Circus Midway is one of my favorite Del Oro modules, especially when the surroundings don't wash away the atmospheric blinking lights that frame the turn-of-century posters!

 

[Jerry Barnes]

Nice pix, thanks!

 

[Richard Smith]

Great coverage Gary. Thanks for the very fine report.

 

[joe rusz]

Gee Gary, you make it look better than it actially was--at least to me. Still, it was great to see Jonathan. And that Steve guy with the bridges does some nice work. Along those lines, I kinda got buttonholed by the Grex (?) people and played around with thier wire-brad nailer. Not new, but kinda neat if ya want to build your own trestles. Other than that,too much junk. I saw a great collection of Gazettes, but at $4.50 a pop, I passed.

 

[aceinspp]

Neat pics. Realy looked like some cool stuff there. Later RJD

 

[Randy Stone]

Great pics

Thanks

Randy

 

[Gary Woolard]

Thank y'all for the kind comments

Joe, to tell you the truth "the junk" is 90% of what I go to these kinda' shows for! F'instance, I found a book that I had had on my 'back burner' list for a while, and it being late on Sunday, the dealer said he'd let me have it for $5.00 . I took it home, and discovered that not only is it a charming and informative read, but according to abebooks it's worth. uhmm. ahem.. let's just say substantially more than the sawbuck I paid for it! (Not that I would sell it -- I'm one of those who can never sell a book, only buy one. So no matter how much a book is worth, it's not a great investment for me, if you get my drift.

)

However, I'll admit that I was a bit surprised when my wife decided that she had to have a framed map of the Pacific Electric System circa 1953! Where else but one of these train shows are you going to find something like that?

As for the Grex stuff... every time I go by their booth, I drool over that pistol-grip airbrush of theirs. I don't need it yet, I'm just beginning to learn how to use my cheapy brush for weathering. So I'm avoiding temptation, for a while at least, by skipping any booth with lime-green colors!

 

[joe rusz]

Oh, Gary, you make the world look so bright

I admit I went to the show with a xxx on, since I wasn't going to spend any money. So anytime I saw anything I wanted I had to restrain myself 'cause I knew I couldn't have it. For instance, that Accucraft flex track at Jonathan's booth was really calling to me, although I haven't used the 200 or so feet of Aristo I already have. And, as I said, I wanted those Gazettes, but not at $4.50 each. I started to thumb through them hoping to find some with articles that appealed to me, but soon grew tired of doing that as there were so many.

Still, i was entertained by some of the other scale modular layouts incluing one which had a downtown module with some buildings featuring extremely detailed interiors. Whoever built it did a superb job.

Then I went over to Samy's camera and blew $40 on a Manfrotto clamp and some gee-gaws. Go figure.