A Childhood Friend Comes To My Neighborhood: The 2018 O Scale Convention

Welcome to the O Scale Convention! This intricately scenicked On30 logging camp module greeted registrants. While  oft-discussed On30 was present at the O Scale Convention, it was not as dominant as I expected.

On a recent busy weekend, I was able to squeeze in a brief visit to the 2018 O Scale Convention, which took place at the Hilton Rockville—close enough to my home that I didn’t even need to get in the car to get there.
I visited the convention mid-morning on a Saturday, and the crowd was just picking up. There was an extensive schedule of clinics, layout visits, and other rail-related tours, as well as a model contest. A good sized vendor floor offered a large selection of O scale and general model railroading wares. Most of the rolling stock for sale was mainline, standard gauge fare, which surprised me a bit—I was expecting more On30, pre-WWII, and even traction gear.
O scalers are, for some reason, more prone to model heavy electric, and I was pleased to see a significant contingent of big electrics on the vendor tables as well in the in contest room. Even modern electric equipment gets its due, and I saw several chunky AEM-7 and Siemens motors on display. An O scale AEM-7, ironically, is about the size of a small toaster!
The event afforded me the opportunity to meet some manufacturers and model railroaders of note. Dave Herman of ESU was showing off high-amperage decoders (particularly relevant to older O scale equipment that can draw well over 2 or 3 amps!) and the new CabControl product. We discussed the ECoS controller and Mobile Control II, which I have been using on the Old Line Corridor after having reading about it on Trevor Marshall’s Port Rowan blog.
Tony Koester, that genial statesman of model railroading, was also on hand with his modular ‘Wingate’ O scale modular layout that will be featured in upcoming issues of Model Railroader magazine. Tony and I swapped stories about our alma mater, Purdue, Northwest Indiana, and railfanning the South Shore. I learned that Tony was involved in campus radio at Purdue, but I should have figured that he had some broadcast or performing arts in his background--he has 'the voice' and the knack for a great, immediate story.

Model Railroader columnist, author, and raconteur Tony
Koester telling rail tales while displaying his Wingate, IN
O scale modules.

In a particular way, visiting the O scale show was a return to my earliest, most formative model railroading experiences. The first actual model railroader I ever knew was Dr. Alan K. Roebuck, and I helped him build benchwork, track, and catenary for his O scale Indiana Northern layout. In my teens, I cut grass and did handyman work for Dr. Roebuck, who not only paid me money but also let me have the run of his extensive railroad and modeling library. He passed on to me his abiding interest in heavy electrics--I 'borrowed' his copy of Middleton's When the Steam Railroads Electrified for several years. We were both inspired by the work of Bob Hegge, who had been publishing articles featuring traction and electric models in the major model railroad magazines of the time (the late 70s and early 80s).

Dr. Roebuck and I even went to an 80s iteration of this O scale convention, and there were both similarities and important differences in the 35 or so years since. The models were just as big and substantial as I remember--and electric prototypes were in evidence as well. But today the models are better--the hobby's greater overall fidelity to detail was certainly apparent in both the contest room and the sales tables, and more likely to be made of plastic. As late as the 80s, disdain for plastic as a modeling material was still in vogue among O scalers. But in the years since, the high quality model manufacturing methods that have been refined in HO and N have been employed to great effect in O scale. Track is another area of substantial improvement over the decades--more scale sized rail and detailed flex track and turnout products.

Despite my nostalgic affection for O scale, and what seemed like acres of available models of interesting subjects, I didn't walk out with any O scale models or even inspiration to launch an O scale project. It is difficult to imagine arranging my real estate in such a way as to accommodate these monstrouns models, even though they are impressive and satisfyingly substantial (There was an O scale AEM-7--that toaster-sized 'Toaster' mentioned above--at a low, low price that was indeed very tempting. And sound takes on a whole new meaning in those seemingly cavernous O scale boilers and locomotive bodies!) But I did enjoy catching up with O scale in person, and meeting and talking to other model railroaders, including latter day O scalers.