It was originally planned that I would attend the 36th Annual Festival of the Masters in Orlando, FL and hang out with the GFLUG as well as check out the various art exhibits. That plan is renounced, and I will instead be gearing up for the Tampa show in December.
http://www.gserr.com/shows/2011TampaLetter.pdf
Golden Spike Enterprises, which organizes several train shows throughout the country, as well as an organization which has developed virtually off of the demise of GATS, the ol' Great American Train Show, is continuing to commit to an annual Tampa rail expo and show.
To model train aficionados like me, this lately doubles as not only a LEGO train conduit but a model train one as well. The show has been noted for providing several in-and-out-of-stock model trains to willing buyers. The team of Paul Mathis, Mike M., and others, from South Florida, usually scouts some items from shows like these.
But why is this on the LEGO blog? My largest involvement in any train show is the LEGO train. GFLUG welcomes guest trains (I'm not a paid member yet but am willing to catch up in that aspect) to this day, and just the camaraderie is convincing to this day for me to get off of my couch and head on over there. The winter shows are usually the best in that they have good weather, good moods, et al. Also, the Fairgrounds are close to the A- and S-Lines, offering good interim railfanning opportunities.
I debated with this option whether the more cozy Orlando show was worth it or this, and this is what I came up with:
- Festival of the Masters is a static display, and only really provides photo ops and camaraderie. The LEGO Store is literally next to it but under the provisions of the Brand Ribbon Project, the terms of a promised discount do not provide for the discount to be attained through DTD.
- LEGO wants their Brand Ribbon models on the 12th. Either the 10th or 11th is ok, but the 12th is the dead last day. I have la escuela on the 10th and on the 11th, my parents will both probably be busy (Veterans Day, No School)
- Tampa Train Show may be a blunt failure like WGH (I was only there for one hour following the brutal traffic conditions on I-4. It turned into a railfan outing) but then again, we're not going 75 miles on I-4.
- Tampa Train Show falls on the third Saturday of December, the Plant City car show. So much action can happen in PC, as seen on March 19, and yet I have a few must-get pics of the depot for the ongoing LEGO project.
- Tampa Train show provides for train operation and other HO scale seeking. Overall, it means that I can do more than just sit around in the GFLUG display. A good example was Plant City 2010, where I was able to hang out with Mike Gulino and others who are into the trains, and check out the various scale train displays. Not surprisingly, I concluded that GFLUG's display was much better. ;)
Learning from mistakes
As I pointed out, the Tampa Train Show in March was a failed trip in terms of the show. When WGHoT said they were coming to Tampa, it felt like a World's Worst Hobby-on-tour. Very airy displays didn't help, and to add insult to injury, the trip was a mess. We wasted three hours, one on I-4 only getting 15 miles on the odometer in a jam (Exits 67-52), one and half down a detour on US 92 (at least I got a Q453-19 crew swap), and a half an hour on the west end of I-4 in Tampa. I arrived at the show with tired legs from sitting so long and even neglected taking my LEGO trains since it would be a quick look, because we went there for the show and we were just not going to blow it off. When we saw I-4 in Lakeland to be jammed, I even thought of turning back, and when we arrived in Plant City (WB on 92) the thought of killing four hours there was not a far cry either. Luckily, the railfan aspect balanced the lack of timeliness in this trip, and I got some enjoyment out of it on the other hobby. I may put up show video very soon to YouTube as a preemption to WGH.
With this story, I feel that we have to master plan this trip. Luckily the 30 minute burden on I-4 (which was due to a college football game) will not exist, because the Fairgrounds are in the east side of town, and I am fairly used to day tripping there via I-75. Either a day trip will be the plan or we will scope a hotel IN Tampa.
Scheduling
The Day Trip
6:00 wake-up
7:00 (As need be) get rental car
8:00 Head north
12:00 arrive @ show, eat lunch and get CSX trains as needed
4:30 leave show for Amtrak, Juice Train
New plans:
5:15 Plant City - action as provided
7:00 leave Plant City
8:00 hang out in Orlando, very traditional
12:00 arrive home
The Two-day trip
6:00 PM - leave
10:00 - arrive TPA
8:00 AM wake up
11:00 - show, trains (2:30 lunch)
4:00 leave
7:00-12:00 (see above)
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