The 2008 National Train Show, the Anaheim Special was a wonderful event. I particularly enjoyed the numerous layouts both modular and stand-alone. But finally meeting some of he manufacturer representatives with whom I've corresponded in my work as About.com's Model Railroad Guide was also a distinct pleasure.
I Wish I'd Had More Time
I had a wonderful time at the Anaheim Special. I only wish I could have had more time there. I really wish that I'd taken more pictures. But when I'm going to post photos for the world to see, I feel like I need to take down some information in order to give the modelers proper recognition. You can view the photos I did get in my Anaheim Special Image Gallery.The first badge I saw with a name I recognized belonged to Robert Ray. He's a respected member of the Z scale communities, and he was seated at the Bay Area Z Modular Group (BAZ BOYZ) desk. We didn't chat for long, but I did get to tell him how much I admire his work.
Märklin
Märklin was showing a their impressive offerings in HO and Z scale. Joe Fugate covers them well in his report (see the link at the bottom of this article). At the Märklin booth I had the pleasure of meeting Brenda Hensleigh, with whom I've talked on the phone but never met in person. I was able to ask her about the status of LGB. Apparently, the manufacture of LGB G scale trains has been taken over by German manufacturer Märklin GmbH, but the American subsidiary that she works for Märklin, Inc. is not distributing the LGB products. The official statement from Märklin GmbH is "Märklin hopes to be distributing garden railway equipment in North America by the end of 2008."InterMountain Railway
As I looked over the InterMountain display I couldn't help overhearing an InterMountain representative telling a convention goer that due to lack of pre-orders InterMountain had canceled a number of products they'd announced. I blurted out, "I hope that doesn't include the cab forward." He and the people talking with him stepped aside and pointed to the pre-production sample of the AC-12 cab forward locomotive that they had been screening from my view. What a relief! I got a photo of it. I was so excited at seeing the AC-12 I forgot get the name of the gentleman I spoke with or... get permission to use their images on my website.Con-Cor
In Con-Cor's booth I found a sample of the N Scale Aerotrain. A sign said it was due in late summer. As I was looking over the Con-Cor N scale Aerotrian, being circled by it's HO big brother and the HO M10000 (which I personally think is an ugly train), I suddenly noticed that the badge on one of the two men next to me. He was Mr. Conway himself, the head honcho at Con-Cor and a very knowledgeable and personable fellow. Mr. Conway was showing pre-pre-production samples of undecorated N scale M10000 shells. Seeing it in silver, like the Zephyr and Aerotrain, got me to thinking maybe the M10000 wasn't such an ugly train after all. Without the Union Pacific yellow and brown paint scheme it actually looked rather nice.TrainCat
As I meandered down the aisle I noticed a table covered with the most amazing array of shiny brass bridges and structures I'd ever seen. I wasn't surprised that the man behind the table was Bob Knight of TrainCat, who builds these elegant brass structures and posts images of them on one of the online forums. I have to say that the Train Cat brass is even more impressive in person than on the web.Micro-Trains Line
I was pleasantly surprised to notice that the man standing in front of the Train Cat boot talking to Bob was Joe D'Amato, the designer for Micro-Trains Line. I'd just been by the MTL booth and said hello to Ben Thielemann, MTL's press liaison. I didn't spend much time looking at MTL's offerings because I'm pretty familiar with their line and quite recently wrote on their latest announcement. But I'd never had the opportunity to meet Joe before. Now MTL makes more kinds of freight cars in N scale than anybody, so I couldn't resist reminding Joe that I don't know of any N scale Katy tank cars available from anybody. Poor Joe, he must hear this stuff all the time. With a sigh he said, "I'm sure we'll get to them sometime."Kato
The Kato booth was at the back of the hall. I got some photos of the forthcoming PRR GG-1. I forgot to open the flash, so camera motion made them all out of focus. But I had the pleasure of finally meeting Mr. Leon Waldack. We chatted a bit about Kato's Unitrack. If you've read my articles on track you know that I'm a Unitrack aficionado. And I had the opportunity to tell him that my blog post on that day was about the announcement of Kato's UP Heritage locomotives. I told him that I was looking forward to having one in N scale. Then I added, "Now if I could only get you to make me some in TT scale." He looked at me like I'd just stepped out of a UFO.Done Too Soon
At the back of the hall, among another group of Z scalers, I finally got to meet Jim O'Connell whose images have graced a few of my Wordless Wednesday posts. Jim is not only an exceptional modeler, he's a truly pleasant fellow to talk to. For his modular Z scale group he'd built a five sided module so that they could construct a more interesting layout than a simple rectangle. I managed to get one decent photo of it. You'd never know that he built it in just one month.After that, I retraced my steps to photograph as many of the best layouts and modules as I could in the time remaining. Sadly there wasn't nearly enough time to photograph them all. But I do have a gallery of the ones I got back to.