Sometime during the later years of my service at Kirkville I became an annual visitor at the train show on the NYS Fair Grounds. When I arrived in CT, I was delighted to discover that there was a huge train show at the Big E grounds. Well, technically, the show is in Massachusetts as the Big E is a couple miles north of the state line, but it hardly takes longer to drive there than it did to the fairgrounds when I lived outside Syracuse. I was also very impressed that this train show is at least twice the size of the Syracuse one, occupying four large buildings on the Big E grounds.
This year I went on Sunday afternoon, Jan. 25, as Saturday it snowed most of the day. The number of train displays and vendors is overwhelming. All gauges are well represented. I walked for hours just to pass by the various displays. I wasn’t looking for much in particular this year. I just wanted to enjoy the show. But I did make a few discoveries.
I enjoy the dioramas. Usually they are small showcases of the very best modeling skills. Usually they are in HO gauge but they don’t have to be. Soon after I walked in, I saw the one that I photographed. Snow scene ones are relatively rare. This one used multi-levels creatively and it featured the New York, Ontario and Western Railroad. That was a key North-South railroad in the area just east of Syracuse back in the heyday of railroads. I took pictures as the train passed even though I only had my phone camera.
I found a couple passenger car trucks for a rail car that I am working on. My brother, Phil is a train collector and a recent large purchase of his included incidentally a couple unpainted passenger car shells that had been altered to 2 rail. He donated them to me and I’m hoping to completely redo one of them inside and out for my 3-rail Tuscan Red Pennsylvania passenger train.
When I was a pastor in my first parish, one of the men was a painter at American LaFrance fire truck company in Elmira. I’ve been wanting a 1920’s era fire truck for my Christmas display. I found an American LaFrance model. The model itself will be rare as it was approved slightly before the company filed for bankruptcy and no more were made after the first batch. As you can see by comparing the picture of the box with the model, I have some work to do on it to add the accessories.
I also found two more early 20th century vehicles for my display. The Lipton Tea truck is a 1927 Talcott. The other is a Ford but according to the vendor, it also may become a rare item as it is a toy fair model. But they will both look good on my old time Christmas display, don’t you think?
