One thing I’m not a fan of about the model displays is the entry form. It doesn’t tell who the modeler is. That’s important to me. I’d like to know who is doing the modeling. But in a contest I guess they don’t want names known.

This first model of the Blackwood Pickle Factory is Attalee Taylor’s model. You might remember the photo of Attalee looking over one of the cars displayed from the 2019 Chicago Show post. Check out the last image on the post.

Some very nice structures next.

This next bridge model was impressive! It was also amazing that it could be transported to the show.

Now let’s wrap this up with some locomotives, freight cars, a traction model and a caboose.

Well the Thursday before the Chicago O Scale show was a travel day for me. As the image above shows, a twelve hour drive. Thankfully it was uneventful until the last 60 or so miles. Then it was rush hour in the Chicago area. Not fun.

But this was a welcome sight. Next day started out simple enough. Set up started around 1 pm. and the unpacking started for everyone.

Lots of things showed up on the tables at this show. This really is THE BEST O Scale 2-rail show of the year. Here are some highlights.

Below we have a simple set up, one USH hobbies hopper, 5 Pacific Limited cars and 5 Robert Parri cars. And just so you know, not all of them sold over the weekend.

The above image was hard on me. Those Key B&O E units looked great. The ABA set was nicely priced. I’m glad these went to a good home.

Below were some of the models from John Dunn’s collection. I know that they moved a lot of his models at the show.

The show is not all about brass models, some tables it’s fun to watch the models get unboxed. Here Jim Zwernemann is unboxing a beautifully built Chock Ultra Scale Northern Pacific Reefer with custom made brass trucks.

Next was a Rails Unlimited SFRD reefer that Jim reworked the walkways and added many extra parts. He did a great job of building a fine model.

Jim also put out on his table a LV gondola that was scratchbuilt by Jim Hickey. I remember seeing photos of the car on the Proto48 website 20+ years ago. It still looked great!

This next scene made me laugh when I walked past it. Precision Scale imported a PRR H27 which was the only offset hopper car the PRR owned. It was a one car class. One car compared to the 40k+ cars of the H21 classes. I always said to myself what is the likelihood of EVER seeing one of those cars pass you if you were to be trackside during the time they were on the railroad. Not very likely. But here we have TWO of them in boxes at the show side by side. What is worse is there were at least two other models of the same car on tables at the show. Four models at the same show of a ONE car class.

Mike O’Connell, former owner of Chooch Enterprises Inc. had a group of tables with various things on the tables. He had parts, converted 3 rail cars, partially built kits and fully built cars.

Much more in the next posts, I still need to recover from the drive.

Just returned from the 2024 Chicago O Scale Show. Another great show!

There were some new models from various manufacturers at this show, as well as a host of used models. Here are some of the new models I saw at the show.

Twin Star Cars / Modern Era O Scale
Ross Dando had a sample of a Rock Island rebuilt USRA box car. The car looks great and should be released later this year. I’m looking forward to this kit!

Ross also had samples of the car that are available through the other side of his business Modern Era O Scale.

Southern Car & Foundry
Jon Cagle from Southern Car & Foundry had the last of his inventory of previously released models on his table maybe a half dozen kits at the beginning of the show. He also had samples of a possible car to be released later this year. We saw the casting for a Northern Pacific composite box car.

Jon was also showing samples of the masters of two different tank cars. One a two compartment car and the other a single compartment car.

Rails Unlimited
Ted Schnepf had a UP 50 foot composite UP A-40-1 boxcar. While I think this is a great looking car, it was retired by my modeling period.

I was interested in the “PS-0” ends as he labeled them. They are a Pullman Standard end that was used on a few different car. They developed the casting for the CGW kit-bask project car. These were also used on a class of B&O boxcars.

Lambert Locomotive Works
Dylan Lambert had available on Dave Vaughn’s table a couple of recent 3D printed cars. The PRR “Ore Jenny” Class G39 and the modern center beam cars. Dylan really needs be at this show next year if he really wants to produce models for the O Scale market.

Just returned from the 2019 Chicago O Scale Show. Another great show!

There were some new models from new manufacturers at this show, as well as a host of used models and those from estate sales. I always think this show can’t get any better and it always does.

Let me start with a couple of new manufacturers. Bill Yancey has a new line called Modern Era O Scale. He is offering limited run kits of FMC boxcars in four versions. he also has decals available for the cars.

Next up is Ross Dando, his new business called Twin Star Models. His first offering is a resin kit of a Rock Island rebuilt 53′ flat car. The flat car is among the very best in fine pattern making. Gene Deimling wrote about the steps taken to develop the patterns for this car in his post “MODELING: Applying Technology to Model Making”

The castings for the kit were done by Jon Cagle, he is one of the best casters there is. Good to hear that Jon is still involved in kit making. Maybe he’ll release something new in his own company, Southern Car & Foundry.

Altoona Model Works had a brewery series of models on display at the show. I really liked the size of the buildings. Freight cars should appear small next to large industries.

There was a Key B&O rebuilt EA on a table. I had to fight the urge to take this home. That would have clearly moved my focus to the Reading going through New Jersey. Still not sure I want to make that jump.

There were some great prices on brass freight car models including this PSC B&O W-2 hopper car with a price tag of $75 on it. Strange thing was it was still on a table late into Saturday. I didn’t check on it on Sunday.

You never know what might turn up on a table at Chicago. How about a box full of PRR H25 car sides from an American Standard kit they had advertised but never released.

This year I drove out with John Dunn. I had a great time and really enjoyed our time on the ride. After walking around the show on Saturday, John mentioned that he had found everything he was looking for at the show except an Overland Ferdinand Magellan observation car. Turns out, there was one on the table directly behind our table. Here he is taking a look at it.

Attalee Taylor was having a reaction to a certain pickle car. He just couldn’t put it down.

I did get out to visit a couple of the layouts that were on the tour. I’ll post more on the layouts soon.

Just returned from the 2017 Chicago O Scale Show. All I can say is the show gets better every year. There were many new models at this show as well as a host of used models and those from estate sales.

Some of the new models were on Bill Davis’ tables. He had three new Single Track 139′ Lattice Truss bridges with two on display. One was straight and the other two skewed left and right. They don’t fit my modeling area but they were very nice.

American Scale Models also had more variations of the Erie cars he has been importing.

Norm Buckhart of Protocraft had production samples of two new Greenville Gondolas on his table. These looked really nice. They should be available later in year.

Ted Schnepf of Rails Unlimited had a new resin stock car kit of a CB&Q stock car. The car is available as either a built up body (you add the details) or a flat kit.

Two new kits were on Marvin’s tables. First up was the Southern Car and Foundry New Sand Springs RY Co. kit. It is a beautifully cast model of a prototype that had four cars on the roster in 1952 (my modeling period). I wanted to support our manufacturers but the chance of ever seeing one of four cars out of over 700,000 boxcars on the rails in 1952. SC&F is talking about doing the composite car of this design. If they do I will be ordering that car.

The second new car was the Glacier Park Models AC&F GS Gondola. I did not get back in time to pick-up one of the new gondolas before they sold out what was on the table, I will get one, I’ll just have to order it.

I did get to attend one of the clinics, Lee Turner filled the room with people who wanted to hear about how he paints and weathers models. He was great, sharing lots of good advice from his experiences. My only wish was that it was longer. Lee is very generous in sharing his knowledge and skills.

I’ll post more on the layout tours and the trip later this week.

This year’s Chicago O Scale Show started out a little different for me. My wife could not make the drive with me from New Jersey and she really didn’t want me to make the drive by myself. So to keep peace at home and still get to the show I needed a different means of travel to the show.

I have no desire to ever fly again. So, I opted to take the train out and back. This was partly due to the fact that I would not be riding the train alone. Turns out three other Proto48 modelers, Michael Rahiley, Matt Forsyth and Theo Rahak, were taking the train to the show also.

The trip started out nice enough, Michael and I got on an Amtrak train in Trenton for the ride to New York Penn Station. From there we got on the Lake Shore Limited which wasn’t as limited as the name implies.

I have photographed along the Hudson River many times. I even participated in a Day-in-the-life kind of shoot on the Hudson that resulted in some of my photographs being displayed in a Museum show back in the early 1990’s. I have also rail-fanned along there as well many times. Now I was on the train that just flashed through the scene, and the locations that I had spent time at were passing past my window.

The train stopped at Albany where it was joined by the cars from the Boston train. We were also joined at this point by Matt and Theo. We all talked for hours before trying out the train diner car. That was an experience I always wanted to try. How was it? I’d equate it to a good diner back here in Jersey, not the best but not the worst either.

Most of the trip west was after the Sun went down so there was not much to see out the windows. But if you have sent some time around either Matt or Theo you would know that they both can tell a colorful story. Our conversations lasted longer into the night than most folks in our car probably would have liked.

The morning brought another trip to the diner car for breakfast. Then we had the pleasure of the rather flat countryside of Indiana and Illinois to enjoy.

We arrived at Union Station in Chicago and from there caught a commuter train out to near the hotel. I have to say the commuter rail system in the Chicago area is very nice compared to some I’ve been on in other places.

On the return trip Amtrak sat Matt and Theo in the section of the train that was headed to Boston. So we ended up spending most of the trip back in the cafe car. Again many stories were shared on the trip back.

This year’s Chicago O Scale Show was fantastic as usual. It had new models, old models and models for every budget. It is THE one show each year that can’t be missed.

For me the highlight of my trip was finding four sets of Overland Reading T-1 decals. A big thank you to Jim Mucka for pointing them out to me, I had walked right by them a dozen times. They will work nicely for both my T-1’s and the K1’s I’m building. That made my trip.

I spent a portion of the day helping out Rich Yoder while he delivered his new release of the ACL Ventilator cars. I was amazed how big the line was for picking up the cars. It was also nice to see how many people were also reserving the newly announced Mather cars.

Kohs had a painted version of their PRR FD-2/FW-1 project. They looked fantastic, glad I’m not modeling the PRR anymore.

John Pautz of American With & Signal had his Proto48 turnout kits on display. 

Glacier Park was there showing off their new General American Transportation Corp. Composite Gondola. I was disappointed that they had a delay in their production and did not have any kits for sale at the show. But it should not be too long before they are available.

I had the chance to talk to a new vendor at the show, Union Station Products out of Memphis. They have been producing lightweight passenger car sides in the smaller scales and are now offering O scale car sides. They were showing smooth side and fluted side car sides along with a Budd Fluted Roof Wrapper.