Whew! Just got home from this year's Fest.
Badgerland deserves praise for putting on the first quazi-post Covid Fest, particularly since they couldn't put it on last year. Attendance seemed pretty good, considering there were likely folks the took a pass for this year.
The 2022 Fest is up in the air. The State Line S Gauges has unfortunately had to make a sudden and painful decision to withdraw from the Fest cycle. There were rumors of something possibly happening for 2022, but there there is nothing official or otherwise that can be confirmed or denied. CASG will be hosting the 2023 Fall S Fest.
All in all, I think it was a pretty good Fest, there was a good mix of Gilbert Flyer, Lionel/Flyer, AM, SHS/MTH, S Scale America and a surprising amount of brass. And not to mention the individual dealers. There was a lack of "big" dealers, save for Des Plaines Hobbies.
The last Fest I was able to attend was in 2018 and these last two days proved a stark reminder of faces I used to see at the Fests that are no longer with us or can no longer attend.
Myself, I got pretty much what I came for: Track. As I'm nearing building the next Great Plywood Glacier I'm in need of track. I picked up a semi-circle of SHS R27 and a box of 15" straights, along with a semi-circle of Lionel R27 S FasTrack. I've got a line on possibly another full circle of SHS R27, I'll have to wait and see how that turns out.
I've also picked up some other booty: A pair of AM Southern Pacific "Black Widow" FP7's and an Omnicon brass Erie 4-6-0. Both are things seldom seen nowadays. Pictures later... I've got to unpack them, I'm kinda pooped from driving 
and I'll be busy on Sunday...
What I call the unique model of this year's Fest: A trio of Baldwin RF-16 Sharks in Milwaukee Road. The models are American Hi-Rail shells on AM AF-2 drives. Of course the Milwaukee never owned Sharks, but the paint job was superb and they look like they could have existed.
Meanwhile, here are some pictures of some of the contest models:
A Flyer CGW Transfer Caboose
A Flyer Flat car converted to an auto rack using the Lionel O27 superstructure:
A Scalified and modified for B&O Flyer caboose:
Finally, a model of the CB&Q/BN/Metra Stone Avenue station in La Grange, IL.
That's all for now...
Rusty
