WNYRHS 27th TRAIN SHOW 2018

27th Annual WNYRHS Winter Train & Toy Show
Review February 17th and 18th, 2018

by WNYRHS

No snow and partly sunny mid 30' days made for another very successful show for the Society. A huge thank you goes out to all you who attended the show and to our large support staff behind the scenes of the show. Many WNYRHS members were responsible for the setting up and breaking down the over 400 tables that we use for the show. They also take tickets at the main door and man the Casino entry door to the Center, along with letting dealers in and out of their designated door at the South end of the building. Again, thank you to all who helped make this another very successful show!

With perfect February weather, thousands of young and old railroad fans flocked through the doors of the Hamburg Fairgrounds "Event Center" on Saturday and Sunday. Once inside, every member of the family found something to do, see or buy. "Buffalo News" photographer, Sharon Cantillon was on hand to create a wonderful "photo essay" for the News website. WKBW Channel 7 also was on hand to film this great video titled
"Preserving history, one family at a time" produced by Ch7 reporter, Chris DiMaria.

WNYRHS members staffed our tables selling magazines, track maps, rolling stock and our 2018 Buffalo Railway Heritage Calendar . Large photos and information of activities and developments at the Hertiage Dicovery Center, Williamsville Lehigh Valley Depot, Orchard Park BR&P Depot, and our equipment were on display. Most of our regular vendors were back for a chance to sell their inventory and many of our new dealers reported they did well at their tables.

The Williamsville Depot, had a very successful "Basket Raffle" and "Paint a Square" fund drive for their newly aquired boxcar. A new electrical service has been run to both the boxcar and our Lehigh Valley Caboose to allow both to be used year around. Proceeds will also go toward many new updates at the Depot and we again thank all those who contributed to this effort.

On Saturday, Joan Jennings Scalfani, the last known "20th Century Limited Girl" still living, was at the show. Joan gave a talk in one of the meeting rooms about her "Life on the Rails." She was one of 5 girls that were employed by the New York Central as hostesses on the famous 20th Century Limited from 1960 - 1962 working in the observation and lounge cars. She said it was the best job she ever had and we were fascinated by her talk.

ORGANIZATIONS & CLUBS

One of our affiliate partners at the Heritage DiscoveRY Center, the "Steel Plant Museum" had a great information table loaded with their signature T-Shirts and many books for sale. Our friends from Canada at the "Niagara Railway Museum" brought a 1950's Fairmont M9g Speeder to the show with their display table.

The "Buffalo Harbor Museum" aka: "Lower Lakes Marine Historical Society," had a table full of maritime books for sale and historical photographs of our Buffalo Harbor. Our friends from the "Buffalo Model Boat Club" had many tables of remote control and model boats on display.

Members of the "Niagara Frontier Chapter" of the NRHS had lots of calendars and information about their museum and events scheduled for this year. The "Central Terminal Restoration Corporation" had a table full of information about their restoration progress and events planned for this season.

The "Gowanda and Buffalo Model Railroad Club" had a new display featuring artifacts, photos and a talk from the 1867 "Angola Horror" disaster. They again sponsored the "Thomas & Friends" free kids play area which was loaded with future "engineers" all day.

LAYOUTS & DISPLAYS

The "Niagara Orleans Model Engineer's" entertained everyone with their great "HO" scale layout and the "Flower City TinPlate Trackers" brought their huge "O" scale layout from Rochester. The "Joy of Trains" had two kid friendly layouts running. The "Salamanca Rail Museum" and "Twin Tiers Model Railroaders" had a switching layout along with their display table. The "Upstate New York Chapter of the Train Collectors Association" had a table featuring information about their bus trip to the big York, Pennsylvania Train Show April 19th and 20th, 2018.

DEALERS

The WNYRHS is proud to host a show that has dealers which offer something for everyone in the family. Over 80% of our dealers offer prototype or model railroad products for the serious railfan. Other dealers have products that appeal to women and children that may not have railroad interests but love toys, dolls, crafts or food. Below are some of the many different products the dealers had to offer. We hope you enjoyed yourself and that we will see you at our wonderful "37th WNYRHS Greater Buffalo Train & Toy Show" November 17th and 18th, 2018!

Thanks again to all our dealers and friends who came to the show. And a hearty Thank You to all our Society Members who volunteered their time to help set up and take down tables, take tickets, man tables and answer questions. We couldn't have done it without all of you!

For More Information to Train Show at - wnytrainshow@hotmail.com
Or call (716) 821-9360 and leave a message.