This article includes a list of references, related reading or external links, but its sources remain unclear because it lacks inline citations . (November 2012) (Learn how and when to remove this template message) |
The Great American Train Show is the name of what was, for two decades, the largest traveling model train show in the United States. The company was incorporated in 1985 and went defunct in 2006. During the 1990s, the company operated as many as 90 train shows every year in 40 different states.
The Great American Train Show, or GATS, was founded by David K. Swanson as an outgrowth of a monthly train show in Wheaton, Illinois, near Chicago that was itself an outgrowth of a local model railroad club. Beginning in 1982, Swanson began running train shows in cities outside the Chicago area, eventually expanding the operation to the west coast by the mid-1980s and to the east coast by the mid-1990s.
GATS was originally run as a subsidiary of the NIART company, but following incorporation as GATS Limited became itself a parent to a series of subsidiaries which existed at one point or another. These included:
In 2001, the company was sold by Swanson to Elmo Geoghegan, a former Bob's Big Boy employee who had worked for GATS as a show manager. Geoghegan moved the emphasis of the company from train shows towards computer shows, a change which proved financially disastrous. In 2004, the company's name was changed to Great Western & Atlantic Train Show, and in April 2006 the company ceased all operations.
The core business of GATS consisted of running consumer shows focused on model railroading. These train shows consisted of several dozen vendors selling a variety of model railroad related merchandise, as well as several operating model train layouts. Shows were opened to the public over the course of two days, Saturday and Sunday. Public attendance could range from around 1,500 to as many as 10,000 attendees over the course of the two-day show. As show promoter, GATS performed facility and show operation personnel contracting, exhibitor registration, floor plan design, and on-site management functions, as well as conducting advertising and public relations campaigns to draw attendees.
After selling GATS, Swanson went on to purchase Greenberg Shows, an east coast train show company that had formerly been in competition with GATS. This operation was later folded into the Great Train Expo company, which was created by Swanson when GATS went defunct. Swanson also founded the World's Greatest Hobby on Tour, a model railroad industry trade and consumer show.
E3, also known as the Electronic Entertainment Expo, is a trade event for the video game industry. The Entertainment Software Association (ESA) organizes and presents E3, which many developers, publishers, hardware and accessory manufacturers use to introduce and advertise upcoming games and game-related merchandise to retailers and to members of the press. E3 includes an exhibition floor for developers, publishers, and manufacturers to showcase titles and products for sale in the upcoming year. Before and during the event, publishers and hardware manufacturers usually hold press conferences to announce new games and products.
LGB stands for Lehmann Gross Bahn - the "Lehmann Big Train" in German. Made by Ernst Paul Lehmann Patentwerk in Nuremberg, Germany, since 1968 and by Märklin since 2007, it is the most popular garden railway model in Europe, although there are also many models of U.S. and Canadian prototypes. LGB caused a revival of garden model railroading in the United States when it was introduced. LGB is sold in North America through Wm. K. Walthers, who took over from Ernst Paul Lehmann's subsidiary, LGB of America, when Märklin bought the LGB assets. Most of the European prototypes were manufactured in Germany, while much of the North American rolling stock was made in China. Production is now located in Hungary.
Produced by Boston-based IDG World Expo, Macworld/iWorld is a trade show with conference tracks dedicated to the Apple Macintosh platform. It was held annually in the United States during January. Originally Macworld Expo and then Macworld Conference & Exposition, the gathering dates back to 1985.
The Kansas City Southern Railway Company is an American Class I railroad owned by Kansas City Southern. Founded in 1887, it operates in 10 midwestern and southeastern U.S. states: Illinois, Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana and Texas. KCS hauls freights for seven major government and business sectors: agriculture and minerals, military, automotive, chemical and petroleum, energy, industrial and consumer products and intermodal.
COMDEX was a computer expo trade show held in the Las Vegas Valley of Nevada, United States, each November from 1979 to 2003. It was one of the largest computer trade shows in the world, usually second only to the German CeBIT, and one of the largest trade shows in any industry sector. COMDEX exhibitions were held in many other countries from 1982 to 2005, with 185 shows altogether. The first COMDEX was held in 1979 at the MGM Grand, with 167 exhibitors and 3904 attendees. In 1981, the first COMDEX/Spring was held in New York City.
A railfan, rail buff or train buff ; railway enthusiast or railway buff ; trainspotter or ferroequinologist, is a person interested, recreationally, in rail transport. Railfans of many ages can be found worldwide. Railfans often combine their interest with other hobbies, especially photography and videography, radio scanning, railway modelling, studying railroad history and participating in railway station and rolling stock preservation efforts. Magazines dedicated to railfanning include Trains and Railfan & Railroad.
Model Railroader (MR) is an American magazine about the hobby of model railroading. Founded in 1934 by Al C. Kalmbach, it is published monthly by Kalmbach Media of Waukesha, Wisconsin. Commonly found on newsstands and in libraries, it promotes itself as the oldest magazine of its type in the United States, although it is the long-standing competitor to Railroad Model Craftsman, which - originally named The Model Craftsman - predates MR by one year.
The Seaboard Coast Line Railroad is a former Class I railroad company operating in the Southeastern United States beginning in 1967. Its passenger operations were taken over by Amtrak in 1971. Eventually, the railroad was merged with its affiliate lines to create the Seaboard System in 1983.
The Southern Railway was a class 1 railroad based in the Southern United States between 1894 and 1982, when its name was changed to Norfolk Southern. The railroad was the product of nearly 150 predecessor lines that were combined, reorganized and recombined beginning in the 1830s, formally becoming the Southern Railway in 1894.
The Louisville and Nashville Railroad, commonly called the L&N, was a Class I railroad that operated freight and passenger services in the southeast United States.
Kalmbach Media is an American publisher of books and magazines, many of them railroad-related, located in Waukesha, Wisconsin.
A gaming convention is a gathering centered on role-playing games, collectible card games, miniatures wargames, board games, video games, or other types of games. These conventions are typically two or three days long, and often held at either a university or in a convention center hotel.
A promotional model is a model hired to drive consumer demand for a product, service, brand, or concept by directly interacting with potential customers. Most promotional models are conventionally attractive in physical appearance. They serve to make a product or service more appealing and can provide information to journalists and consumers at trade show and convention events. Promotional models are used in motorsports, other sports or at trade shows, or they can act as "spokesmodels" to promote a specific brand or product in advertisements. During the 2010s, controversies over the used of scantily-clad promotional models in sports events and trade shows, involving claims that the practice is sexist, led to a decrease in the hiring of these models.
Life-Like was a manufacturer of model trains and accessories. In 1960 the company purchased the assets of the defunct Varney Scale Models and began manufacturing model trains and accessories under the name Life-Like in 1970. In 2005 the parent company, Lifoam Industries, LLC, chose to concentrate on their core products and sold their model railroad operations to hobby distributor Wm. K. Walthers. Today, the Life-Like trademark is used by Walthers for its line of value-priced starter train sets.
The Wiregrass Central Railroad is a shortline railroad operating 19.5 miles (31.4 km) of track from a CSX Transportation connection at Waterford, near Newton, to Enterprise, Alabama via the south side of Fort Rucker. The company was initially a subsidiary of Gulf and Ohio Railways and began operations in 1987 following the purchase of the Enterprise Subdivision branch line of CSX Transportation.
The Gulf, Mobile and Northern Railroad was a railroad in the Southern United States. The first World War had forced government operation upon the company; and in 1919, when it became once more a free agent, it chose Isaac B. Tigrett to chart its new course. Tigrett, a native of Jackson, Tennessee, was president of the GM&N from 1920 and of its successor, the GM&O, from 1938 to 1952, and oversaw the development of the road from a nearly bankrupt operation into a thriving success. He was the great-uncle of Hard Rock Cafe founder Isaac Tigrett, also a native of Jackson.
The AVN Adult Entertainment Expo (AEE) is an adult entertainment convention and trade show held each January in Las Vegas, Nevada and is sponsored by AVN magazine. AEE is the largest pornography industry trade show in the United States. The 2007 AVN Expo had over 30,000 attendees, which included 355 exhibiting companies.
The Western New York and Pennsylvania Railroad is a short-line railroad that operates freight trains in Western New York and Northwest Pennsylvania, United States. The company is controlled by the Livonia, Avon and Lakeville Railroad, with which it does not connect. It started operations in 2001 on the Southern Tier Extension, a former Erie Railroad line between Hornell and Corry, owned by the public Chautauqua, Cattaraugus, Allegany and Steuben Southern Tier Extension Railroad Authority (STERA). Through acquisitions and leases, the line was extended from Corry to Meadville in 2002 and to Oil City in 2006, and in 2007 the WNY&P leased and sub-leased portions of the north-south Buffalo Line, a former Pennsylvania Railroad line mostly built by a predecessor of the defunct Western New York and Pennsylvania Railway. The two lines cross at Olean.