Rest in Peace, Avondale Train Show

The Avondale, aka Troy/Athens, before moving out to Avondale,train show along with the Gratiot Valley train shows were always the shows for me.  When I moved to the Detroit area in 1997 and discovered the Gratiot Valley train show Macomb Community College, I was very impressed.  Roll through the Holidays and into the Troy/Athens train show.  At this point the wallet was hurting so much it could hardly handle the next Gratiot Valley show.  Oh those were the days.

Looks like a pretty nice little show.  Hopefully, somebody can take it over and either keep it there, or move to a new location if need be.

And if a new location, choose wisely to keep the show valid.  An unwise location will kill it off in short order.

Thanks, Mixed Freight. Who knows what will replace the Avondale Train Show in that location? At least, we've got the Novi Train Show next month and a few others left. 

this is heart breaking.  what will I do since Avondale is gone.  It was the best around for many years and this is a big surprise to me.  I have bought many items there over the years.  NO more train shows in the metro area.  NOW WHAT????  Next thing you know this Covid stuff will destroy all the train shows and local dealers.  I try not to buy online.  I support my local dealer even Brassuers up in Saginaw and when there I head up to the South end of Bay City for lunch.  It's a all you can eat great Polish/American meal for under $10. and great Polish dark beer.  Check it out.  I was never impressed with the Novi train shows.  Too commercialized for me but great for the kids                                                    https://www.krzysiaks.com/

I'm surprised you don't like the Novi train shows. At least, there are monthly train shows in New Baltimore and seasonal ones at the 876 United Food & Commercial Workers hall down in Madison Heights, but those train shows are tiny. At least, there have been train shows at the Costick Hall in Farmington Hills and in Port Huron as well, but they're not as lavish like the ones at Avondale High, Novi, and Gibraltar Trade Center, which was another classic.

Novi really had not impressed me and I don't know why.  I do go to Port Huron for their show and every September there is one at St. Louis church right by the house on Harper and Crocker.  I always try to make the ones in Madison Heights and that is one of my favorites.  I know a few of the dealers there and the prices are always right.  I enjoy talking to man named Cash.  SO NOW tell me about the one in New Baltimore??? Never heard of it.  When and where???  As far as Farmington Hills goes it is a distance for me and I would assume that the same sellers are there.  I do enjoy the one in Clare, MI. at the college and do go there if I am making a trip up North to our cabin in Harrison.  My layout is pretty well populated with all the building it can handle after 40+ years and I am adding new details this winter along with a few smaller projects. Late fall until spring fishing is train time,  almost nothing in the summer because the wife and I bicycle with a club and usually do trips of about 20 miles  in town here and with the group we get rooms up North and put on about 50-60 miles in 2 days doing wineries and craft breweries.  Summer is outdoor time and train room is closed unless I get visitors.

Here are four pictures of my layout.

Thanks again. Anyway, the train show in New Baltimore is plastered inside the New Baltimore Trade Center and is held every first Sunday of every month. My mom and I went to it hoping to find some good choices, but all we saw were 3 or 5 different vendors and 10-20 different train tables; No operating train layouts and one TV running a train video. Most importantly, the train show was cramped among other vendors' booths in such a small space unlike Gibraltar.

All I got were a Marx HO Hudson engine that only budges an inch and doesn't work fully, a postwar Lionel operating boxcar (works great on my Fastrack layout), and an entire bucketload of Model Railroader, Classic Toy Trains, Railroad Model Craftsman, Scale Rails, and O Gauge Railroading magazines a vendor sold me for like $5. Trying to decide if I have an opinion or if I'm mostly hung up on other folks' opinions, my mom says that vendors aren't clear on the products they give to their customers, and I could see why. :/

Andrew: Magazines have become a drug on the market today.  I gave my collection of oldies to good friend and owner of Modellbahn Ritzer, Rainer Knoch, to sell in his Nuremberg, Germany, shop.

Rainer has a great shop which includes a nice selection of new and vintage trains in all scales and nationalities.  Check out the neat pix when you Google Modellbahn Ritzer.   (Note the double l's in modellbahn)  You should bring up a insert on the right side of the page.  Hit Fotos ansehen to take a tour of his shop.  Neat!

Should you call or E-mail, Rainer speaks and reads English......German too of course, LOL