Search "amherst"

2011

Trainfest & The Holidays (December 2011)

We attended Trainfest Train Show in Milwaukee, WI this past month and in our opinion, it's one of the best shows put on anywhere. It's in a very clean newer building, plenty of convenient parking, very well organized and supported by their staff, and they promote this show a lot. Friday the 11th was a set up day and a special vendors day, Saturday was so busy we could hardly see out of our booth, and Sunday had a steady flow of people, including many who were not railroader's bringing their families to see the trains. The show had plenty of things for kids to see and do and they were loving it all. To see the emotions and big smiles on the kids' faces really makes it worth it. It's a great show and we highly recommend it to everyone from the highly experienced model railroader to the non-railroader looking for good clean entertainment for all ages. We didn't have any new products to introduce but we showed samples of our new O-Scale line of

Congratulations to the following winners!

We just recently attended the Amherst Train Show in West Springfield, MA and I would say that it was one of the better ones judging from the last few years. For us the attendance and business (sales) was certainly higher than years past. Many other vendors said the same thing. The official attendance figures were 21,534 for a two day show and most of these attended on Saturday.

It’s February already which means all of our well-intended New Year’s resolutions are fading away or forgotten completely. Many of us will be paying off Christmas debts for a long time. Many will still be trying to learn how to use their new upgraded fancy electronic not so smart phones or eye-tablets or whatever gizmos. Some may have their grandkids helping them figure stuff out. Many model railroaders should be adding new stuff to their layout, breaking in (or just breaking) a new locomotive, building some kits, or helping their grand kids enjoy model railroading as a trade-off for them helping with the electronic

2014

Christmas Season (December 2014)

Here we are just getting to or over Thanksgiving, depending on when you received this flier, and now going into the actual Christmas season. Those of you that have a model railroad layout that can be changed for each season or have a once a year Christmas train set up, are you now working on this season’s change out and setup? What’s your actual theme a snow scene with Santa Claus and Christmas decorations, a Thomas Kinkaid sparkling country scene, how about a totally politically incorrect Christmas scene with a beautiful baby Jesus Nativity on public property and “Merry Christmas” posted all over and school children decorating a tree and exchanging gifts and everyone of them having fun without some adult filled with political fears telling them not to because of some small minority “might” be offended. So get them layouts changed, pull out the yearly Christmas Train, and put up that Nativity Scene.

The Spirit of Christ is real and if we show the world

2016

Trainfest & Bachmann dove tailed coupler arm (December 2016)

Well, did you have a great Thanksgiving? If you did that's great and if not then why not? Most of us free Americans had four days off to be with our families and spend quality time with them which is the most important thing we can do. Hopefully, you were able to help some of your family enjoy model railroading and get them interested in this hobby, which can be enjoyed by the entire family.

Now if Thanksgiving worked out well you should be planning a fabulous Christmas Holiday with your family which, of course, includes some family model railroading. Don't just hide in your basement, garage, attic, or spare room playing with your trains alone. If your family is not interested in your model railroading do something uniquely special to show them that they'd want to come and see. But if they are still not interested, set your trains aside and spend the time with them because your trains will still be there later but your family

I am happy to report that the Amherst train show was hopping at the Kadee® booth this year. I was able to get out of the booth a few times to take a quick look around but for the most part it was nonstop interaction with customers. Answering product questions, coupler conversion questions, and talking to individuals about the new O-Scale trucks that we will be releasing after they have been thoroughly tested. We have sent some samples out to some individuals and clubs for testing on different layouts. We still need to do some inhouse testing for ourselves before we release them. I would like to personally say thank you to all of the individuals that we have talked to about this project and a special thank you for all of those individuals and clubs that have been testing the O-Scale trucks on their layouts.

As for our technical tip of the month, I would like to talk about a couple of HO-Scale products that I feel are underutilized that quite possibly be because folks don’t understand their

I hope everyone had a great Christmas and are planning to have a Happy New Year. Make sure your new year's resolutions are realistic and achievable. You might even spend some time practicing writing 2020 a few times. We are starting a new decade of the 2020's and hopefully this coming decade will be happy and prosperous for all.

Did you know that January is “National Hobby Month”? Check out the following web site www.nationalhobbymonth.com, YouTube, and Facebook for more info. Also the National Retail Hobby Stores Association’s (NRHSA) has more info too.

How much model railroading stuff did you get for Christmas? How much did you give for Christmas? Now it's time to get back to building layouts, building models, kit bashing and up grading models, coupler conversions, helping others and sharing your time and skills, and simply enjoying this great hobby. However, more importantly, is making sure your family is well cared for and there's peace and harmony in your home. No hobby, or anything