Customer question about some of our bigger, newer kits

Hi everyone, this is Dave.  A customer asked me a question the other day that I thought I’d better address so everyone could see it.

On our STEEL and BRICK & MORTAR discs are some physically large kits, namely Big Steel and Akron Tool.  The instructions on the sheets say they should be printed on 8-1/2 x 14 cardstock.  Apparently folks are having trouble finding this size.  (Elsewhere we state that out kits are designed for 8-1/2 x 11, but these buildings are really big and we had to break our own rules to make them practical.)

If you can’t find 8-1/2 x 14 cardstock, you can make it by taking two sheets of 8-1/2 x 11 and taping them together.  What I do is use clear, packaging tape. (available in office supply stores)  Cut a piece about 12” long and place it on the back of one of the sheets, on the 8-1/2” edge so about half of it is exposed.  It helps to work on a surface that the tape can be easily removed from.  Flip this sheet over so the sticky side is up.  CAREFULLY, you get one shot at this, take a second sheet and aligning the two edges, press the second sheet onto the tape.  You really want the joint to be tight.  It might take a bit of practice, but it is not as hard as it sounds.  Trim the tape that is sticking out from the sides and you have an 8-1/2 x 22 sheet of cardstock.  (you don’t have to cut it down to 14”, your printer will automatically feed out the whole sheet)  Make sure to feed the paper into your printer with the tape on the non-printed side.  You may also have to provide a bit of support for the joint as the paper feeds.  You will be amazed that the joint disappears once printed.

This works so well, that I don’t even try to buy 8-1/2 x 14paper anymore.

Quick comments on our trip to the Amherst Railway Society Show

Hi everyone.  This is Dave.  Thom and I just got back late Monday night and now that we have recouperated a bit, I wanted to give you all some brief highlights.  There will be more, with pictures, once I unpack completely. (and find my camera)

First, it was a grueling drive.  We knew it would be long, but the weather was really difficult.  We arrived Late Thursday, rested and got to the Eastern States Exposition Center early Friday for setup.

All I can say is WOW.  This is a huge place and it was already was full of folks setting up some huge layouts in everything from Z to G.

Because we only brought our new HOn30 layout (complete with cardstock trains) and our DVD’s to sell, we were set up in about an hour.  We go to spend the rest of the day wandering around meeting some really nice people and seeing allot of great verdors and displays.

This place is absolutely the biggest show I have ever seen.  It’s 347,000 square feet under roof, in four buildings.  We were honored to be placed in the center of the main building, sandwiched between Scotty Mason of the Scotty Mason Show and Dave Frary, “Mr. Scenery”.  This was a great place to be and I want to thank the show management for such a great location.

One of the interesting things to me, was that besides about 25 vendors that we run into at all the shows we go to, the other 375, (yes, there was 400 vendors there), were all new folks to us.  It was also a very new customer base to us.

When the show opened on Saturday at 9:00 AM, it was pretty much non-stop people till closing at 5:00 PM.  I have never seen such a crowd.  The Management reported that the first day attendance was over 11,000.  WOW!  I missed the 2nd day report, but it was every bit as busy as the 1st day.

Well, I wanted to keep this fairly short and we will have more in a following post, but for now, you really want to see this show.  Lots of top notch layouts, modeling, vendors and folks like you.  It’s every year at the end of January.  Go to the Amherst Railway Society website, http://www.amherstrail.org/, for more info.

Dave Miecznikowski