Greenberg model-train show

This is probably my least crowded shot — and a grizzled geezer is holding court at left. (Photo by BobbaLew.)

The other day (Saturday, March 10, 2012) yrs trly attended a Greenberg model-train show at the Dome-Center in deepest, darkest Henrietta.
“Henrietta” is a rather effusive and obnoxious suburb south of Rochester (NY).
The show wasn’t actually in the Dome, a large geodesic dome that goes back to perhaps the ‘70s.
It was in an adjacent Exhibition-Hall, a normal uninspired building.
Both the Dome and the Exhibition-Hall are exhibition venues, and the Dome looks its age.
I was originally going to attend this show with Gary Colvin (“coal-vin”), like me a retired bus-driver from Regional Transit Service (RTS) in Rochester, where I worked 16&1/2 years (1977-1993) prior to my stroke.
Gary likes model-railroading, and is working on a layout in his basement.
I’m a railfan, but not much of a model-railroader.
I prefer the real thing, and model-railroads collect dust.
But Gary did not attend. He lives far from Henrietta, me about 15-20 miles southeast.
Gary lives far east of Rochester, perhaps 40-50 miles out, maybe even farther.
The show was awful, super-crowded and awash in dusty junk.
As a child I was smitten with Lionel® model-trains; even had a few myself.
But now I think Lionel is junk compared to what’s available nowadays.

Photo by BobbaLew.

My HO GG1 model.

I have an HO-scale Pennsylvania Railroad GG1 (“Jee-Jee-ONE;” I only say that because a friend was mispronouncing it “Jee-Jee-Eye”) electric which is much more true-to-form than Lionel’s GG1, and that’s despite Lionel’s GG1 is perhaps the most collectible engine they made.
Large Lionel steam-engines were on display. They’re much smaller than actual scale, but the track is O-gauge (one-and-1/4 inches apart).
A full-gauge steam-locomotive in O-gauge would be a couple feet long.
Some steam-locomotives had six-wheel “Buckeye” trucks beneath their tenders, but they weren’t actually six-wheel.
Six-wheels would have never negotiated Lionel’s tight curves; the trucks were actually four-wheel, with a casting added to the center of the truck to mimic the middle wheel.
A six-wheel truck would have never stayed on the track. The curvature was much tighter than even a 19th-century industrial siding in the real world.
My friend Art Dana (“DAY-nuh”), since deceased, also a retired bus-driver from Regional Transit, had an HO model of a gigantic Union-Pacific “Big Boy” (4-8-8-4), the largest steam-locomotive ever made.

Photo by BobbaLew.

Look at how far the boiler-barrel of this thing offsets coming around a curve.

The entire model was articulated, even the rear engine-truck, not seen in the real world.
Articulation was needed to make a long engine negotiate track-curvature, although with the real Big Boy, only the front engine-truck was articulated.
It could swing side-to-side, but the rear engine-truck was solidly mounted to the boiler.
Negotiate a switch and the front engine-truck of a real Big Boy might swivel a couple feet.
But on Art’s model-railroad layout, the boiler-front sashayed perhaps 15 scale feet to the side (see photo above).
And that was HO (half-O, 16.5 mm [0.64961 inches] between the rails), much truer to scale than Lionel. But even HO curvature is way tighter than the real world.
Everything under Art’s Big Boy had to swivel for it to stay on the track, even the rear engine-truck.
And railing it (getting it on the rail) was a beast; 12 wheel-sets.
It was very impressive, but unrealistic.
Greenberg sponsors model-railroad shows nationwide.
Vendors show up with huge collections, hoping to sell something.
Plus there’s other stuff attractive to railfans, like books, videos, and tee-shirts.
My GG1 model came from the Tiger-Tracks model-train show two years ago at Rochester Institute of Technology.
Tiger-Tracks was a much better show.
I also bought a book there three years ago, and took Dana to Tiger-Tracks the year before that.
Dana left with a set of Santa Fe HO coaches for not too much. They were very realistic and pretty.
Colvin left with some N-gauge equipment last December — the second time for the two of us. N-gauge is about half HO; 9 mm (0.354 inches) between the rails. Colvin’s model-railroad is N-gauge. —Supposedly too delicate for children, but you can get more track on a tabletop.
Local model-railroad clubs set up huge model-railroads that operate.
A large trolley zoomed back-and-forth at perhaps a scale 100 mph, stopping at stations in a scale couple feet. Do that in the real world, and ya got passengers injured on the floor.
Grizzled geezers were holding court here-and-there.
“Can I hep ya?” bellowed one, almost knocking me over as he grabbed my arm.
“No thank you!” I said. “Just looking.”
So began a long dissertation about Atlanta’s abandoned railroad-station.
Didn’t I wanna contribute to this worthy cause?
“Nope!” I said, attempting to break free of his halitosis and grinning gaze.
Of interest to me were the live steamers, actual steam-locomotives in miniature.
A tiny fire, often fueled by alcohol, heats water in a tiny boiler, and the steam generated propels the locomotive.
A few were operating on display, in giant G-gauge, 45 mm (1.772 inches) between the rails.
A live Shay steamer was slowly plodding around the circle of track, and a second live-steamer was booming-and-zooming on another track.
A guy stopped that engine and added something from a clear plastic gallon milk-jug, fuel or water. —He thereafter fiddled a tiny valve under the locomotive’s cab-roof, and off it went.
I’ve seen live-steamers that actually burn pulverized coal.
There was a third live-steamer of a really old design, a vertical boiler atop a tiny fire, kind of like the first steam locomotives about 1827.
The fire was almost invisible.
What’s nice about live steamers is they actually emit steam — instead of fake smoke-puffs that smell like burning wax.
Live steam also smells like burning alcohol. There’s no mistaking the pungent aroma of burning coal on a real steam-locomotive. Nothing matches it.
At another G-scale layout a gigantic Pennsy articulated about four feet long lumbered slowly forward, pulling a train of about 10 cars.
First of all, Pennsy never had articulateds; at least not in quantity. And secondly the caboose was New York Central.
The speed the train was operating was realistic, but the chuffing sound it made (an on-board recording) did not synchronize with the drivers. The drivers were rotating slightly faster than the chuffing sound, which should be four chuffs per driver revolution.
And furthermore an articulated with two driver-sets emits a chuffing-sound that’s not regular: “Ka-chuff, ker-chuff-chuff!”
The engine looked like Norfolk & Western’s A-class, a fantastic locomotive, but hardly Pennsy.
And only 10 cars behind a 2-6-6-4 is overkill. Such a locomotive is good for perhaps 100 cars.
Also of interest is DCC train-control.
Instead of track-current being varied to determine train-speed, the track is full current, and a tiny computer is in each locomotive. It receives signals to determine how much current the engine uses.
By doing so it’s possible to have multiple trains on a single track, stopped or operating at different speeds.
Instead of all trains on that track operating at the same current-draw.
I could only stand about an hour.
A motorized train, led by a drooling Thomas-the-Tank-Engine, was slowly navigating the parking-lot outside, its lawnmower engine puttering sullenly.
$3 per ride. Sign up inside, and wait out here in the gazebo.
“Mommy, can we ride the train? Pleeze? Pretty pleeze?”
“Watch the car sir,” said the engineer to me, a rather weighty girl.

• For 16&1/2 years I drove transit bus for Regional Transit Service in Rochester, a public employer, the transit-bus operator in Rochester and its environs. My stroke ended that. I retired on medical-disability.
• I had a stroke October 26, 1993, from which I pretty much recovered.