After a few months of anxious waiting, I was able to hit up two model train shows over the past couple weekends. Unfortunately neither one really blew me away. The first one, normally held once a year in a big convention center-type hall, seemed a bit smaller and more cramped than in years past. And there just weren't as many vendors or good deals as I was hoping for. The second show skewed heavily towards O-gauge and Lionel, which I don't do, but I did have my eyes open. A friend of mine wants to get back into the hobby and is interested in a quality O-gauge full size passenger train. If I see something worth getting for him, he's instructed me to jump on it and he'll pay me back. But I haven't seen anything that fits that bill recently either.
Anyway, long story shorter, I didn't come away empty handed. Plus, I had a pleasant surprise. Picked up a few freight cars (got a discount for buying all the blue tank cars together), a couple calendars for next year (not depicted), but the surprise is the sweatshirt. About three years ago at a different show, I was chatting with a clothing vendor, jokingly "complaining" that he didn't have a sweatshirt in "my" railroad, the SP. He said he would have one made for me, and asked what color I wanted. Black. He took down my address, said he'd mail it to me, and I paid him.
I never received the shirt. For the next couple years, I'd look for him at shows, but never saw him. Finally at the first show I attended this month, I saw a vendor selling the same type of hats and shirts, and I asked, "Hey, do you know someone who used to sell these products at shows in the area? There was a guy who used to have a table with this clothing."
"Oh yeah, that's __________. He doesn't sell these anymore, we took over the clothing line from him. But he's over there (pointing), he sells O-gauge now."
So I wandered over, ready to tell him, "Hey! Remember me? You took my money and never sent me anything!" When he saw me, he reached under the table and pulled out a bag.
"I've been carrying this around for two years!" He said. It was my shirt. He apologized because he had lost my address and then brought it to shows for the past two years, but we had never connected. So now I've finally got my shirt.
I also picked up some new pins at the second show. I have to wear a tie at work, so I have quite a collection of pins that I use as tie tacs. I have two other Northwestern Pacific pins already, but this is the first one I've seen that is a filled-enamel pin for the NWP.
The hopper looks great Tom thank you! 
