it's the most wonderful time...

Well, it could be the most wonderful time of the year.

Train show season.

That is, if the shows were good. Most of them are not. Sad but true, for our locale anyway.

The same tired displays, the same tired exhibitors, and the same tired excuses.
No shopping deals, and no squeals of delight from any but the youngest attendee.

Planning to make it to the Brampton show next week for a brief visit. This was a decent event last year so I am looking forward to the upcoming one. The 2nd "S Scale Social" looms in October, but this is not an 'open' soirée. Certainly there will be a regular visit to Copetown and a return to Narrow Gauge Madness in 2012 (but that's an eon away).

The Christmas Train Show, on the other hand, does not beckon. It desperately needs a complete overhaul of its premise, presentation, and participation. With the demise of the Spring CRHA Show, this is the only big event in the region. For at least the last two years, the event planners have managed to arrange it for the same weekend as another train show at the other end of the city AND the primary Santa Claus parade for the whole area - thereby splitting the attendance of vendors, exhibitors, and punters. The entry fee remains too high, the on-site food price remains too high, and the consideration for the exhibitors remains too low.

The trouble is, a group of people who are going to put the hobby ahead of the pure profit has to step up and do what's needed to sort this all out...