On Saturday, I attended this Spring’s Strasburg O Scale show.

John Dunn and Rich Yoder did a fine job of putting on this show. The attendance was crowded enough to make you think the isles were smaller this year. I was glad to see it. Plenty of new and second hand O scale models were on the tables.

Carl Jackson made the trip from Indianapolis, IN and Norm Pullen from Norm’s O Scale Trains made it down from Maine. Nice to see these vendors making the trip to Strasburg.

There were some new products at the show. Tom Thorpe was showing more examples of the turnouts he is promoting. They looked very nice. I was told of a couple of pilot models being in the room, but I was running my mouth too much to get to see them or get any images.

Rich Yoder did have his long awaited PRR 2D-F8 trucks at his table. The first run of these are sold out. I will have a post on them in the next couple of days.

I attended the Fall Strasburg Show today. I have to say that was a good show today for me. I got the chance to catch up with a lot of folks today and I came home with a lot of stuff. I hope everybody else there also had a good show.

There were lots on new things to see and learn about today. RCS America was at the show demonstrating their new Raillinx System. I was impressed with their system and the way it was installed on their sample models. Dead Rail is getting closer to being a reality.

I also got to look at the new Weaver Milwaulkee Boxcar. Bob Hiel had a pilot model from Weaver on his table today. Below are images of the car:

One thing I always enjoy about going to a Strasburg Show, is just being in the Amish country. Even their parking lot are fun to look at.

Eastbound train going through Lebanon, PA

I attended the Strasburg show today. Even though it was only three weeks from the National, it appeared to be well attended. I saw a number of vendors that were not at the National. So we were not looking at the same materials on the tables that didn’t sell at the National as some had feared.

There was the typical stuff on the tables, some dealers but more guys selling off some of their extra stuff, some at bargin prices and some high prices. I did pick up a few kits and even found a box of proto48 wheelsets, but nothing big. The highlight of the day for me was Bob Jones brought me a set of pilot castings from his T-1 kit. They are a two part casting for the pilot. There are some differences but they are very close to the K-1 pilots.

Joe G. was showing off a couple of new things at his table. He had an example of the new turnouts the he has recently posted about on his site. There was a rather large crowd around the times I passed by.  That and being they are gauged for O scale and not proto48, I didn’t get a good look at the new products.

For the first time in a while, I was not selling off some of my surplus models at the show. It felt good to be just a modeler in the crowd. I got to see and talk with a bunch of other modelers today instead of having my conversations interupted by other’s questions about stuff on the table.

Another nice part about not being behind a table, I didn’t have to stay at the show until the end. I got in walked around for about an hour and then my wife and I had the day to wonder through the countryside.

We started our wondering with a late breakfast at Jennie’s Diner out on RT30.  I have been stopping there after the shows for a couple of year’s now. It’s a Silk City Diner built in Paterson, NJ in 1959. Love it’s look and the food is not bad either.

Then we headed up through Cornwall, PA to Lebanon, PA. I wanted to see what was left in Lebanon since studing photos from the ’50’s. The Station is there but not much else. Not one siding downtown anymore.

We worked our way east on the Reading Lebanon Valley Branch. Besides exploring Lebanon, we wondered through Prescott, Myerstown and Richland. I even got to see a couple of Norfolk Southern movements on the line.

Jennie’s Diner on Route 30

Station area Lebanon, PA

Myerstown, PA

Richland, PA