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We had a nice leisurely drive from Iowa, arriving in Enola PA October 19th, where we stayed in a motel directly across from Enola yard!  Next morning went to a local bridge where the township provided a pedestrian/car bridge over the Enola yard with camera and viewing cutouts. Met several dealers and attendees killing time until the halls opened at noon, and were helpful in giving advice and orientation of York to this neophyte.  Arrived at York before noon, but not before our in-car and Garmin GPS’s tried to send us different ways .  People were right, you can’t take York all in one day, but we did cover the Orange, Purple, Black, White, Red and part of Blue halls before closing time first day, though these were just fast walk throughs to see what was there.

Early Friday drove to Marysville to view the Rockville bridge, but no NS activity to video .  Today was the slow walk day looking for items on our hit list, purchased several Heinz cars for our collection and scenery items.  Stopped at the Lionel, Williams booths, but missed MTH though might have been right in front of me.  Shook hands with OGR staff and other people I have had dealings with over the years.  In fact, I was surprised meeting a local Cedar Rapids dealer who converts G scale trains to battery operation including wireless control.   Just before closing I finally spotted the RailKing PS3 611 J engine in the Orange hall, the one item we were really hoping to find (it was like that scene from Christmas Vacation, where Clark sees THE TREE with rays of golden light shining down and the Hallelujah chorus.)  Dealer gave me a blowout price and threw in tax as part of deal!

The Black hall with the huge layout was spectacular to say the least, too much to take in.  Noticed all the DCS controllers were the standard remotes, did not spot any WIFI users, but that could be just the shift staff running at that time period.

On Saturday, before opening it was announced about opening some areas to the public in 2017 York, followed by Kate Smith belting out her God Bless America once again, then the doors opened.  Overheard one dealer grousing to someone about opening to the public.  Basically, “now we get the riff raft, kids pawing over expensive trains, parents asking dumb questions about those choo-choo trains”, yada yada.  Yep, what a great representative you will be encouraging the younger generation to get into trains.   We bought a carousel for our amusement park, a auxiliary water tender for the 611, though I now realize it is a premier and not RailKing version, and an Aladin caboose lantern for the train room.

Traveled to the East Coast to visit the in-laws and out-laws before a slow drive back to Iowa, stopping in Springfield, IL at the Abraham Lincoln museum.  Fun fact, did you know Springfield is the most used city, town, or village name, occurring 41 times in the US?

So in answer to your question, would we go again?  You bet, but only when Star Trek teleporting (Beam me up Scotty) is invented.  2000 miles is a lot of driving.  But we came away happy, and with cash left over.

Oh yes, for those curious minds, I tried scrapple. Yep, definitely an acquired taste that I will leave other palates to enjoy.

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rrman posted:

 

The Black hall with the huge layout was spectacular to say the least, too much to take in.  Noticed all the DCS controllers were the standard remotes, did not spot any WIFI users, but that could be just the shift staff running at that time period.

 

The layout was too big to run on one TIU, it was running on 3 (and 6 Z4000s + a lionel 180 brick). We did not have enough WIUs to go along with it, so DCS wifi wasnt really going to happen. Normally, we do use both wifi systems and they work pretty well. 

The yard was running on LCS via wifi the entire time though.

 

Last edited by Boilermaker1

RRMAN, glad you got to go.  I'm sure the experience will stay with you for a long time.  Now you will have mental pictures to associate with all the comments on OGR. 

The public admit is definitely a big change and I don't begrudge those who complain about it.  After all they joined a private train collectors association for members only.  I don't think the public will have a measurable impact on the show or the sales.  It may have a slight negative effect on the eastern division, if some of their members opt out of renewal in favor of just seeing the dealer halls for two days.  Time will tell

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