I am more of a lurker than a poster (although I very much value the posts on this forum), but I thought my first-time York visit report might help other potential "first-timers" who are debating making the trip. I attended on Thursday as a "guest", and it took me about 3 1/2 hours (one-way) to drive to the show. (As I will reference, I have also attended the Big E train show in Springfield, MA.)
York Pros:
- Parking was easy and FREE
- In the Purple and Orange Halls, there were more O gauge "store front" vendors than are present at the Big E, and those that are common to both shows seemed to have set out more inventory (volume and variety) at York than they did at the Big E
- Lionel had a black Vision Line Niagara on a shelf in their booth, and a grey Vision Line Niagara running slowly on a simple layout. The grey one was running on a O-72 Fastrack loop and there was no overhang as it rounded the corners. Dave was gracious in showing off the Niagara's features. I think those people that pre-ordered this item (as I did) are going to really be happy once it gets delivered. (Sorry, I didn't stop to take any photos the entire day, so I have none to post.)
- By nature of it being York, there is WAY more O Gauge content at York than at the Big E.
- Many will scoff at me I am sure, but, much like the Big E, I was able to walk through every part of all six Halls / buildings in 3 hours. That includes stopping here and there to buy things that were of interest to me or to ask questions. I am not interested in the older O Gauge items (which is what seemed to make up most of the tables in the Silver, Blue, Red, and Black Halls), so I didn't stop and fully absorb every single table, that's for sure. In fact, there were quite a few tables where I honestly wondered why the person invested money to try to sell their wares as I find it improbable that they were going to make any profit whatsoever... maybe they just enjoy the friendly interaction with prospective buyers. Who knows?
- I guess you have to start with a baseline marked price, but, for all Halls except for some of the vendors in the Orange Hall, it seemed that most items were very negotiable. In fact, I think the seller-buyer haggle is expected. I heard a million times along my journey where a seller said "make me an offer". My guess is that this will become more and more of a reality as the show comes to a close on Saturday as many of the these sellers don't want to have to lug their wares home with them. Thus, if you want to find something that other buyers may be seeking as well, attending York on Thursday is probably your best bet, but if you are looking for fairly common items for the absolute best deal, my guess is that Saturday is your best option.
York Cons:
- In spite of the fact there's a "can't" miss section of tables with show registration forms in the lobby of the Silver Hall, it seemed most people in the registration line were wasting time by filing out the forms once they waited in line and actually got up to the registration window. It really slowed down the line.
- If you were interested in buying any Lionel Vision Line products, there wasn't much available. I saw one VL Big Boy, one VL Pennsylvania CC2, maybe 6-8 VL GG-1's in assorted liveries, 2 VL LCD billboard cars, and 2 boxes of the VL freight cars... and for the most part, the prices weren't all that great for any of them. {As an aside, I did see some really good prices (i.e. $500-$600) on some JLC GG-1's}
- For some reason, and I think I only noticed it in the Orange Hall, some of the aisles don't go from one end of the building completely to the other in a straight line, so if you are abiding by the "yellow arrow" one way direction markers on the floor, you end up having to go back down an aisle you've already visited to actually get to where you want to go.
- There weren't very many O Gauge layouts on site to admire, and certainly no where near the multitude of "all gauges" layouts that are present at the Big E. As such, I think York is less of a show to bring younger kids to than the Big E, which is a bit of a shame as kids represent the "next generation" of model railroaders. That being said, having to compete with strollers of very young children in the very tight aisles of York would be a complete nightmare. I saw only a handful of teenagers yesterday, although, in fairness, it was a school day.
I am glad that I attended York at least once in my lifetime, but I probably wouldn't go back as a regular occurrence. The deals on the newer products and lack of sales tax on purchases just aren't good enough in my opinion to offset the automobile gas consumed, the York registration fee, and the 7 hours of lost time on the road to get there and back. I hope this summary helps with any of those out there thinking about attending the show for the first time, and sorry for the long read.
