Railroad and toy show rolls through Medina County fairgrounds

MEDINA — "It's just nice to be out instead of sitting inside," Gary Bryant, of Granger Township, said Sunday, happy to be trading a wide variety of classic Star Wars and Marvel items at the Medina Model Railroad & Toy Show. As Bryant was answering questions, another attendee took notice of his large replica Star Wars X-Wing fighter and quickly made an offer. The event attracted a full parking lot's worth of visitors to the fairgrounds at the Medina County Community Center, 735 Lafayette Road. With masks required for all entering the building, toy vendors and model train enthusiasts remained busy until the very end of the day. "This is our first time coming here, we planned to come earlier before everything happened last year," Bryant said. "I've been collecting for something like 10 years, just started buying stuff and finding out you can sell it for a good price. It's a lot of stuff I've just had lying around the house, too." His wife, Lori, also made the trip to help sell numerous items from an impressive collection. "It'll just be nice to have some space around the house for a change," she said with a smile. "I guess it feels good too, for both of us, to be out and have some space, period." Under normal circumstances, Lodi-based Conrad & Dowdell Productions Inc. puts on the Railroad and Toy show four times annually but saw all of its local attractions shut down for most of last year due to COVID-19 restrictions. The company also oversees the Medina Flea Market of Collectibles and Medina Gun Show every year at the community center. Lodi resident Vikki Conrad and her husband Jim have sat at the head of that operation since 1978. "It started off as just the gun show when we started our business," Vikki Conrad said. "We decided to add in the toy and the train aspect a little bit later. I'm a lifelong resident of Medina County and we're very thankful for the people in the county and people outside of Medina who keep coming to see us every single time." "People seemed to want to come back out right away but it was a little slow at first," she said regarding the first few shows after pandemic restrictions began to be rolled back. "Today's been the best so far, a lot of people." In 1992, the Railroad and Toy show joined the flea market and gun show to create a combination that's remained extremely popular across the greater Cleveland area ever since. The next railroad and toy show is slated for 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Sunday, April 11 with follow-up dates announced for Oct. 31 and Dec. 5. Gun shows and flea markets are also lined up on Saturdays and Sundays throughout the spring with more details available at conraddowdell.com. "Last year it was rough for us just like it was for everyone," Conrad said. "We do all these shows every year then, for about seven months, nothing. The toy show at the very end of October and gun show in November was when we really got to get started here again." "We did actually get some PPP money," she added. "That helped. I know a lot of people who do these kinds of things, these kinds of shows, and it helped them too. It's nice to know at least some of that went to the people who actually needed it. We wanted to be here after this is all over. It's like a community reunion kind of, just being able to see everyone." Near the back end of a floor featuring roughly 250 vendors, a huge model train was put on display by the Burning River N Society, a northeast Ohio club that's promoted N scale model train enthusiasm since the early 1970s. Charlie Colitre, of New Franklin, a club member for over 10 years, was spotted looking over the extremely detailed landscape complete with electric lights and recreations of Ohio's varied community layouts. "I'd say this took about a year and a half to build," he said. "We wanted it to have something that could be any town in Ohio and we divided it into different sections. You see, there's the rural and you can go over to the city. Then there's the farms and, well, you can call the last part nature, the forest land." Anyone aged 14 or over can join the Burning River N Society, Colitre said. More information is available at burningrivernsociety.org. "A lot of people start young when they're getting into something like this but a lot of our new members nowadays are 30 and over," he said. "Kids love the video games, of course, but it's possible to like both. I know the scouts have merit badges that have to do with model trains, so that helps gets some of the kids interested. "We're here for anyone who wants to take interest. You might be surprised." Contact reporter Jonathan Delozier at 330-721-4050 or jdelozier@medina-gazette.com.