2018 Fall Train Show Schedule for Upstate New York

[Old & Weary]

The Batavia Show is this Sunday Nov 11,2018 at the Richard C Call Arena on the Genesee Community College Campus just out side Batavia. Lots of dealers, Lots of parking and lots of room. Doors open at 9:30 AM. Details and directions at www.gsme.org.

[lvrr325]

Lots of shows this weekend -

Fulton both days, Binghamton on Saturday, Batavia and Poughkeepsie on Sunday.

[lvrr325]

Binghamton was great, set an all time high sales record. Busy most of the day, died about 1.

Some guys were disappointed but they were either Lionel dealers or the one had art and woodworking items and he's had some of those pieces at that show since they started them.

Hoping for more of the same at Batavia -

[tree68]

Fulton show was very slow when I was there today. I was told it was slow on Saturday as well. The weather forecast may not have helped.

[lvrr325]

Batavia felt slow, sales were okay but no records. Did the normal 1:00 or so die-out. Tons of deals to be had there and a lot of them went home with the dealers. I didn't catch the attendance.

[lvrr325]

Hamburg this weekend, plus the Albany show at the Polish center. With any luck I'll make Hamburg, just spent a couple hours patching yet something else up on my vehicle.

[lvrr325]

It felt like attendance at Hamburg might have been down but I didn't hear them report how many came.

While the weather wasn't too bad either day, both days after about 1:30 it died right out; Sunday the big crowd was a little later and it stayed slightly busier in the afternoon. Sales were up a little from last year but still below average.

[lvrr325]

Norwich is Saturday, and the TTCS mini-RIT is in Rochester on Sunday.

My weekend off.

I do have one date I missed, the Broadway Market is having their show on Dec 15-16 right up the road from the Central Terminal in Buffalo.

[lvrr325]

Tomorrow is the big day, you have the Great Train Extravaganza in Albany, at the Empire Expo Center, the TTCS Trains In The Tonwandas show, Knights Of Columbus in Lancaster, and a TCA show in Cicero that will probably be a ghost town between lack of dealers and I've seen no promotion beyond flyers - in Buffalo.

[lvrr325]

Albany was quite good, not a record but my best this year. About 3,000 attended.

[lvrr325]

RIT attendance seemed down. Moderate crowd Saturday, very little on Sunday. Granted a lot of people can come through and not really pack the place, but it still seemed less busy than in the past.

About every other year this show stinks to high heaven, and this was an off year, about 40% below average. People were dumping stuff so badly I bought one item for 10% of what a retail dealer was selling it for, and the retail seller was almost 20% off the MSRP on it. The stuff I'll sell later on the internet is what will save me.

It's probably educational that shows that see similar levels of attendance, in Rochester I can't even sell half what I sold in Albany just a week earlier.

[BR&P]

I miss talking to you but just don't have enough stuff left to be worth buying a table any more, Too bad on the turnout, hopefully next year things will rebound.

[lvrr325]

One reminder for the Broadway Market show this weekend. That's pretty much it for upstate New York for the season, though. 2019 Spring thread is posted and we all get a few weeks off.

[umtrr-author]

I was at the Broadway Market on Saturday for other reasons (Polish Christmas cards!) so I stopped at the Train Show. For those of you familiar with how the Market is laid out, it was in the front near the Broadway side, in other words the opposite end of the building from the parking garage entrances.

A few tables, a mix of trains and toys, and prices ranging from reasonable to ridiculous. One operating display. Overall, the Broadway Market was much less busy than my wife (a native of the area) and I expected. I doubt that the vendors who took tables for the show were very happy.

[lvrr325]

I seem to recall hearing once that there was no charge for the tables. I only knew one guy who did it, he was local to the area.