Garden Railway Convention 2010

The 26th National Garden Railway Convention was held between August 1st and 8th in Tacoma, in the state of Washington, USA. For PIKO it was another important show in the US with its new subsidiary PIKO America, LLC, located in San Diego, where they could show the G-scale products to the public. In the US PIKO is very well known for its G-scale model buildings and with no doubt the market leader in this area. With the locos, cars and the new track-system PIKO is as well on the way to success. In a very nice exhibition center in Tacoma, south of Seattle, PIKO presented the models to the members of the different Garden Railway Clubs, who came from all over the US and Canada. At the exhibition Jonathan Meador, Product & Sales Manager of PIKO America, together with the owners of PIKO, Dr. René F. Wilfer and his wife Ortrun Wilfer, talked with interested customers about PIKO G-Scale models. After a challenging year in 2009, in which American consumers were quite cautious in their hobby spending, PIKO is anticipating a good year in 2010, partly because of an improvement of the US economy. In addition to that it is also a result of more aggressive promotion of PIKO products in the US market by PIKO America. This much improved business year in America will also have a positive effect on the factory in Sonneberg, Germany, where all PIKO G-scale products are produced.

Ortrun D. Wilfer, Jonathan Meador, Product & Sales Manager PIKO America and Dr. René F. Wilfer at the PIKO America booth in Tacoma.

Ortrun D. Wilfer is happy about the good response to PIKO products.

Many of the garden railway layouts had a number of PIKO G-buildings.

A large garden railway layout has been constructed by the residents of a retirement community. As a group project they designed and built the layout, which has developed into a fantastic attraction.