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Chessie
December 06, 2006
Christa and I spent a couple hours at the OKC Train Show on Sunday. My what fun we had.
Unlike the model railroad shows of my youth, this show was packed full of railroad-related antique dealers, actual model railroad equipment manufacturers, and art dealers. It’s amazing. Add to that the large modular layouts being shown off, and a model railroad fan, or any railfan, would be in heaven.
We ended up buying a few original magazine adds for the C&O Railroad. We’re going to frame them as a tribute to our Chessie… too bad there’s no railroad associated with Lace (the other cute cat).
We also bought a print of a B&O train at a station in winter… nice for framing and putting up in the train room. Upon inspection at home, I realized that the print is signed by the artist - kinda cool.
Seeing all of the model railroads and all the modeling equipment made me jealous of the owners… If I had tons of disposable income, I might get back into it, but it’s darned expensive. Especially when we’re trying to focus on our house.
One of the coolest new things in technology to affect model railroading is LED technology. Manufacturers are now marketing little LEDs for even the smallest scale. Couple them with new control technologies, and you can model a railroad complete with working signals… it’s amazing.
We also bought a book from a dealer from out of state. It was either buy it from him, or buy it from the American Meteorogical Association… buying from him was much easier. The book is called Railroads and Weather. It’s awesome. If you ever want a rail-related book, check out Railroadbooks.biz. He’s got anything and everything you need. I found an amazing, two volume history of Michigan railroads in his booth. It retails for $150 for the pair, and it’s an incredible study of any and every railroad that operated in Michigan. Alas, the cost was quite prohibitive at the time… and, really, unless you want a copy for your library, there isn’t much to do with it. It’s not reading material, because all it contains is business ledgers, route miles, etc.
Posted by paul at December 6, 2006 07:05 AM
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