Rocky Mountain Train Show 2019

Greetings and welcome to a special post of the Ralston Creek Railroad Blog. March 2nd and 3rd was the semi-annual Rocky Mountain Train Show, at the Denver Mart. Touted as the largest Model Railroad Show, West of the Mississippi. This year included an additional 35,000 square feet of vendors and layouts. My short time there, I can attest the venue was well attended. I'm still nursing a concussion from a fall a couple of weeks ago. The noise and crowd were a bit much, but still managed a couple of hours to check things out.

 

The show had several manufacturers, vendors and layouts to enjoy.

We'll start with the last item of the day. I found this Athearn Blue Box Baldwin S12 fairly early during the show. I put it back twice, wanting to save my money for any must have items that might show up in the sales area. I really wanted the chassis from the locomotive for a PC SW7 project from last year. The S12 and SW7 use the same power chassis. Not as sexy as a Alco road unit, I got it before heading out the door. I then remembered the PC also rostered S12's as well. A 91% Alcohol bath will be in order for it as well. Two PC switchers for the price of one? I'm liking it already.

Here's the recipient of the Erie Lackawanna S12 Mechanism. I still need to make some handrails and put some glass into the cab. At least it now has a chassis to ride on. It takes a few seconds to swap between the S12 shell and SW7. That will give me two switcher options for the PC to run.

My goal for the show was to track down common cars between the P.C.C.M. layouts. My first purchase of the day was this New Haven, State of Maine boxcar. Score!!! I really like the car and it will work for future P.C.C.M. virtual ops exchanges between the layouts.

Then things got weird. The same vendor I got the New Haven car from said, for a few bucks more, I could pick out two more cars. He didn't want to take them back to Texas in a raging snow storm that was brewing outside. He didn't have anymore P.C.C.M. related cars, so I grabbed two that caught my fancy. A Burlington Northern hopper car and a Milwaukee Road rib side boxcar. Both made by Roundhouse. I can always use hopper cars and always wanted a Milwaukee Road rib side boxcar.

Another score for the P.C.C.M. equipment exchange is this Illinois Central 40ft boxcar. I've seen it exchanged between Terminal Yard and West Mill on a few occasions. Maybe it can go west to Denver every once in a while. Give it some legs for the P.C.C.M series. That pretty much wraps up my shopping for the day. I walked out with a few boxes of Girl Scout cookies as well. Couldn't say no to those young ladies in uniform, working on their merit badges. My adventure wasn't quite done for the day. Sometime between my Texas used train stop and the Illinois Central purchase, I received an overhead page to the Information Booth. I was there alone, why would they page me?

Bonus Round!!! I won a Door Prize! From the prize table I selected this Value Trains USA boxcar. I never heard of Value Trains USA and the bright packaging really caught my attention.

The car is based on a ACF 50ft ribbed side boxcar. Quite popular in the 1970's and 80's. Another bonus is the Limited Edition Train Show scheme! Let's take a look at this new release and vendor.

Here's a shot of the end and roof details. The first thing that comes to mind is Scale Trains, Evans Double Door RBL boxcar kit. Two main differences between Scale Trains and Value Trains. Value Trains is RTR and comes with Kadee couplers and trucks. Another bonus is it is made in the good old US of A. I can definitely get behind a company making trains here in the States.

One noticeable omission on the Value Trains is the brake detail underneath the car. I agree with a review on Youtube, who really looks under the cars anyways? This car is definitely a "operators" version without a lot of extra detail. It will work fine with my 0-5-0 car loader and often clumsy crew moving the cars. No rivet counters here.

Close up of the Rocky Mountain Train Show logo. Value Trains currently has undecorated and cars with no lettering available. They are going to release a set of Railbox decorated cars this month.

 I thought they did a nice job with the logo and lettering, considering the uneven surface of the car.

Some shots of the eye catching packaging. I plan to purchase more of their products. Thank you to Value Trains USA and the Rocky Mountain Train Show for the Door Prize!

Thanks for reading and support for the Blog during its first year!