LET SWAP MEET SEASON BEGIN.

In Milwaukee, Oktoberfest season begins at the end of July with German Fest, and model railroad swap meet season begins toward the beginning of November with Train Fest.  This year's event took place in the downtown Baird Center, and the vendors were showing their wares and the local modellers' clubs with portable layouts were featuring their sight gags.

That might be one of the more over-the-top Lionel offerings, and I hope that any young lady with an interest in trains will prefer her FT in the Santa Fe Warbonnet.

The Karlson Brothers Circus were showing.

At many circus modellers' shows, mine is one of the few trains moving and it catches the kids' eyes, and then they can work through the color coding on the wagons.  For many of the cage wagons, if you know your college mascots, you know what's on each one.  Exception: the lion.  What did the lion ask the Wizard for?  Another exception: the monkey cage.  In Baraboo there is an orange monkey cage complete with monkey bars.

And yes, my sight gags are on display.  I don't have a side-show pitchman to call attention, the kiddos notice on their own accord and sometimes they're nudging each other and chuckling.

At Train Fest, the kiddos might have had the tail chasers to watch and the pushbuttons to operate.  The serious model rails did have their questions.  How old is that engine?  I'm not sure, it could be a Saginaw product from before the War.  Why does it run so smoothly at low speeds?  Because I had a custom model builder put a really good drive train in it.  What's the power source?  Battery in the tender.  Look closely, some of the electronics are visible above the tender, the easier for me to turn it on or off.

There might be time, going into the Festive Season, to do some serious building down cellar.