# County Fair and Trains, A Good Ideal ?



## Nicholas Savatgy (Dec 17, 2008)

OK a question for some of you, We were invite to participate in the Largest 6 day County Fair in N.Y. State, http://www.dutchessfair.com/

This Fair has over 1 million people come threw it each year and i'm wanting to do it but concerned at the same time. They have offered us a 25ft by 40ft spot.

They wish to build a horticulture display with trees bush's flowers and a waterfall and ask me if we could add two large loops of trains and some Buildings

and assesorries to make it look cool. They will build the Display and the day before we would come in to add the trains and such.

The Fair is open 12 Hours a day for 6 Days straight and our Display will be in the Very 1st large Building you come to we entering the Fair.

I think it will be a cool deal to do, but im concerned about the trains and the amount of people coming threw and past the Display on a Daily basis.


My questions would be what do you think ? And have any of you ever done a High Quality fair type show. We do have Plenty of members to cover the hours

of the Fair, and i think it would promote the Club and Large Scale Trains Greatly. *..............Over 1 MILLION in attendance............*


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## Greg Elmassian (Jan 3, 2008)

We have a large fair here in San Diego, it's in Del Mar, and there is a large horticultural exhibit, spanning several buildings. For many years the local club worked with them to have a display of trains and plants. 

I can tell you the biggest problem will be them wanting to have you add the train tracks after they do their thing... you need to set up the track, like on concrete blocks, fill with dirt, and then have them add the plants. It's a difficult thing to get people to work together when the trains and plants are so entwined. 

BUT 

The results were great, much more than loops of track on the floor (no offense)... 

I think it will be a challenge to do this, and you can't do it as a one man show... 

Greg


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## Pterosaur (May 6, 2008)

The local club in the area does this for the MN State Fair every year (1.7 million attendees!). It is sensational! They set up a small white picket fence around a very large display in the massive horticulture building. Way to cool not to do!


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## wchasr (Jan 2, 2008)

I believe the club in the Buffalo area does this too at the Erie County Fair? Yup, I just skipped over to the website and they are making plans according to the newsletter. Maybe Matt can chime in since I'm not a member of the WNY GRS? http://wnygrs.com/index.html 

Chas


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## John J (Dec 29, 2007)

Talke to Torby He does it in a Botanical Garden. He always seems excited about it. 

JJ


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## Greg Elmassian (Jan 3, 2008)

Notice that since the Botanical Garden is a permanent display, and the fair display will be built just for the fair, there are different construction techniques. 

Typically the fairs have temporary plantings with more "showy" plants, and people wanting to tromp in and out of the planting area. Also, in this kind of display, paths and ingress for maintenance is often missing or not desired. 

Greg


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## Mik (Jan 2, 2008)

A fence - a strong, sturdy, but attractive "keep your sticky fingers on that side" fence. 

Don't take anything with lots of little fiddly bits or that you'd be really upset if it got broken or (God forbid) liberated. 

Be prepared for questions, lots of basic questions, lots of not quite stupid questions, ("Is that wunna tham LBG thangs?" - BTW The answer to that is "yes", even if it's a brass Aster) 

And long stories that probably won't make much sense to you. ("My uncle had a train exactly like that when I was little! Only it was smaller and a different color, and......") 

And JUST as much work tearing down as setting up - only dog tired and with less help.


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## jgallaway81 (Jan 5, 2009)

Actually.. tear-down is more work then setup because setup is part of the [email protected] url(http://www.mylargescale.com/Providers/HtmlEditorProviders/CEHtmlEditorProvider/Load.ashx?type=style&file=SyntaxHighlighter.css);@import url(/providers/htmleditorproviders/cehtmleditorprovider/dnngeneral.css);


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## Nicholas Savatgy (Dec 17, 2008)

So I'm thinking my Standard rope and post Barriers may not be sturdy enough for the Fair ?


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## Cougar Rock Rail (Jan 2, 2008)

It's very possible Nick, you just have to be organized. We did one for a local home show where there were about 40,000 visitors in one day if I remember correctly. They hired a landscape architect, who worked with our group to come up with a good track and landscaping plan--plus they paid for all the materials we needed. Materials were preordered, preassembled wherever possible (like big curves etc) and so on the day of setup we blitzed it and it turned out great. Here are some pictures that should help show what we went through and how we did it:
















































































Hope those help give you some ideas.

Keith


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## Nicholas Savatgy (Dec 17, 2008)

Now that was some cool pictures Keith, But i dont think ours will be that fancy.

We will be dropping a couple of loops of track on the floor and *They as in the Fair* will come in and build the display around it.

and back fill with mulch.


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## Greg Elmassian (Jan 3, 2008)

That's a great example Keith, pretty much what we did here in San Diego. Not real complex track plan, but enough twists and turns to make it interesting, and a water feature. 

Nice to see the construction details, we did it similarly if I remember correctly. 

Greg


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## Cougar Rock Rail (Jan 2, 2008)

Thanks, we were really proud of what we accomplished--it was a shame to have to take it down! 

Nick, given the number of visitors, you may want to look at hooking up with your favourite train supplier for help with the rolling stock--I know the most frequently asked question is usually, "Where do you buy those trains?" 
It helps to have a bunch of their business cards there to hand out to people, as well as flyers and contact information for your own club. To have that many people passing right past is a rare opportunity! 

Keith


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## John J (Dec 29, 2007)

You did all that in one day? WOW 

JJ


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## Nicholas Savatgy (Dec 17, 2008)

Posted By Cougar Rock Rail on 20 May 2011 01:21 PM 
Thanks, we were really proud of what we accomplished--it was a shame to have to take it down! 

Nick, given the number of visitors, you may want to look at hooking up with your favourite train supplier for help with the rolling stock--I know the most frequently asked question is usually, "Where do you buy those trains?" 
It helps to have a bunch of their business cards there to hand out to people, as well as flyers and contact information for your own club. To have that many people passing right past is a rare opportunity! 

Keith 
Keith my phone has been ringing off the hook from people that want to be involved with it. should be fun.


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## Greg Elmassian (Jan 3, 2008)

The construction technique looks quite clever... 

Have to remember it... pallets of cinder block, sand bags, the pallets themselves, plus plywood and a circular saw... 

Greg


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## joe rusz (Jan 3, 2008)

Keith, that is one impressive undertaking. Everything looks like it belongs and setting the tracks on cinder blocks--to get them off the floor and to provide enough elevation for a water feature and a place to put that cool looking trestle--is quite clever. You guys did your homework. 

BTW, what's the story on that trestle?


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## noelw (Jan 2, 2008)

Nick.. The only problem I had at a show was they just about wore out the Dr's on 11 Eng's. 
I did a Modula Ho set up ( Little Truckee R.R. ) for the Calif. State Fair in 1990. The really treated me great.. They hired some Hobby shops employees to oper. my trains for me. I couldn't be there most of the time due to work. My Ho trains ran for 14 days for 18 hr a day. 
Nice about the State Fair was they replaced my wore out trains and some roll stock. Course you get free parking tickets (50 of them. ) and Free gate fee's ( I got 100 tickets on that.)
They built old time crates for my modules to set on and then they built a nice wooden railing around it .. But still people ( mainly kiddies) keep trying to get closer to the trains and would touch some scene stuff that had to be fixed daily.
Like yours on NYC trains.. You may have to run more of that stuff like i did here.. I had to run a lot of Southern Pacific and Daily light trains. 
"I had to use over 400pc's of rolling stock and about 4o Eng's." 

The SVGRS. G- club also set up there to and they had the same problems with there fence to. 
It's hard when you have that many people going thru the train buildings due to large crowds, even with the big isles. 
They had cement blocks also and I don't know how many dump truck loads of rock and dirt they hauled in. Two nursery's set up around the there tracks with a water fall. 
You are going to need a lot of manning people to keep things up and going.

One think you do get is Every one in the State or county gets to know your club & you.
So for you, I say go for it... It's great experience. 
Not sure I would do another one, Its a lot of work.. You have to keep changing out rolling stock and power.
Hey, but you get a big Ribbon... laf.


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## Allan W. Miller (Jan 2, 2008)

A great way to expose the public to this hobby, that's for sure. And a nicely done land properly landscaped garden layout is almost certain to introduce at least a few new participants to the fun of garden railroading. If you have a core group of interested and dedicated club members who are willing to devote a lot of time and effort to the task, I would say "go for it." 

Keith: That display you folks put together is world class!


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