Schedules

Convention Schedule at a Glance

This year's convention will run July 6-10, from 8:00 AM to 10:00 PM Pacific Daylight Time (PDT) with the following daily schedule:

  8:00 AM –   9:00 AM • Morning Meetups
  9:00 AM - 12:00 PM • Morning Clinic Session
12:00 PM –   2:00 PM • Lunch Break
  2:00 PM -   5:00 PM • Afternoon Clinic Session
  5:00 PM –   7:00 PM • Dinner Break
  7:00 PM –   9:00 PM • Evening Clinic Session
  9:00 PM – 10:00 PM • After Party

Clinic Schedule

The Rails By The Bay Daily Schedule below is current as of and is subject to change without notice. Check the News & Updates page frequently for additions, deletions, and updates.

NMRA 2021 Rails By The Bay Clinic Schedule (Current as of: )
Day / Date	Start Time (PDT)	Daylight Clinic Track		Zephyr Clinic Track
Day / Date	Start Time (PDT)	Clinician	Topic	Clinician	Topic
Tuesday July 6	9:00 AM	Welcome – Gordy Robinson and Ed Slintak Robert Stafford's BN Coal & Grain Unit Trains clinics will follow opening.
	10:00 AM	Ray Persing	Scratchbuilding in Wood	Byron Henderson	Make Only New Mistakes
	11:00 AM	Robert Pethoud	Basics of American Steam Locomotives	Byron Henderson	Make Only New Mistakes
	2:00 PM	Mark Juett, MMR®	Setting Up for Operations	Phil Edholm	Printing Interiors for Your Models
	3:00 PM	Mark Juett, MMR®	Using JMRI for Car Forwarding	Neil Erickson	The Oahu Railway Wahiawa Branch in On30
	4:00 PM	Clark Kooning, MMR®	Clarks Tool Ideas Clinic: Part 1 Part 2 (combined)	Paul Hobbs	Fifty Years of Amtrak and Business Cars, Private Cars
	7:00 PM	Clifton Linton	Ethanol by rail -- a 21st century prototype you can model	Paul Deis, Moderator	Layout Owner Panel with James Brassill & Dave Falkenburg, Dave Tateosian, Dave Adams, and Dave Stanley
	8:00 PM	Bruce Morden	Layout Without a Plan: Changes as You Go Along	Paul Deis, Moderator	Layout Owner Panel with Jim Providenza, Seth Neumann, Paul Weiss, and John Zach
Wednesday July 7	9:00 AM	Bob Frankrone	Creating Operations on the Louisville Southern Lines	Dave Lull	Structures on an Extraordinary O Scale Traction Layout
	10:00 AM	Guy Cantwell	Blurring the line: Freelancing from the Prototype	Pete Steinmetz	Weathering With Pan Pastels and Other Media
	11:00 AM	Irwin Nathanson	Let's Visit the Diamond Point Railways	Phil Edholm	Using 3D Printed Building Framing in an O Scale Model
	2:00 PM	Steve "Breezy" Gust	A Day in the Life of a Train Dispatcher	Doug Harding, MMR®	Western Grocer - A look at a Mid-Century, Midwestern Grocery Distribution Company
	3:00 PM	Bryan Fraser	What is Model Railroading?	Frank Schneider	Surface Mounted LEDs
	4:00 PM	Clark Kooning, MMR®	40 Minutes with Clark	Bob Weinheimer, MMR®	Getting Started in Operations
	7:00 PM	Clifton Linton	Dispatcher's Fireside Chat - What it was really like with Steve "Breezy" Gust, Thomas White, Rick Kang, and Mark Amfahr	Dave Adams, Moderator	Jim Vail Tribute with Guy Cantwell, Craig Symington, Jerry Boudreaux, and Dave Adams.
	8:00 PM	Clifton Linton		Bruce Morden	Direct Traffic Control
Thursday July 8	9:00 AM	Bob Frankrone	Love Those Loads	Robert Pethoud	Operating the Fall Creek Branch
	10:00 AM	Bill Decker	So You Want to Build a Dream Model Railroad?	Pete Steinmetz	Dead Rail Systems in Smaller Scales
	11:00 AM	Bob Weinheimer, MMR®	Operations on the Pennsylvania Southern	Al Daumann	Maximizing Small Layout Operations (Squeezing 10 Lbs of Ops into A 5 Lb Layout)
	2:00 PM	Tony Koester	Update on the Nickel Plate	Frank Markovich, MMR®	Building The Demonstration Layout For the "Magic of Scale Model Railroading" exhibit at the California State Railroad Museum
	3:00 PM	Mark Juett, MMR®	Installing Sound Decoders	Frank Schneider	Make Your Own Decals
	4:00 PM	Mark Juett, MMR®	Using Decoder Pro	Michael Hill	Simplifying Wiring on your panels with Arduinos, Neo-Pixels and Resistor chains.
	7:00 PM	Seth Neumann	What Would You Do Differently	Paul Deis, Moderator	Layout Owner Panel with Rick Fortin, Richard Croll, David Parks, and Richard Eberli
	8:00 PM	Seth Neumann	What Would You Do Differently	Scott McGhee	Madera Sugar Pine
Friday July 9	9:00 AM	Paul Deis	Building a Layout, Design to Details	Ray Persing	3D Printing for Model Railroading
	10:00 AM	Joe Fugate	Painting in a post-Floquil world	Don Winn	Kitbashing - Think outside the Walthers box!
	11:00 AM	Bob Weinheimer, MMR®	Evolution of an Operating Scheme	Jack Burgess, MMR®	Photoshop Elements as a Modeling Tool
	2:00 PM	Guy Cantwell	Scenery techniques - Modeling the Central Valley and the Western Sierras	Charlie Getz & Chris Palermo	NMRA's Magic of Scale Model Railroading Exhibit at the California State Railroad Museum: A Guided Tour
	3:00 PM	Bob Frankrone	How to add a scene to a layout in 15 easy steps	Dave Falkenburg & James Brassill	Silicon Valley Lines Under the Layout Tour
	4:00 PM	Seth Neumann	Re-Animating a US&S type 506 CTC Console	Joe Fugate	Make it run like a Dream
	5:00 PM	Dinner	Michael Gross - My Life in Trains
	7:00 PM	Earl Girbovan	Modeler's Showcase featuring Dave Adams, Dave Croshere, Paul Deis, Fran Foley. Earl Girbovan and Jesse Walden	John Abatecola, Moderator	Layout Owner Panel with Jack Burgess, MMR®, Guy Cantwell, Howard Lloyd, and Tony Thompson
	8:00 PM	Clifton Linton	Butane by Rail - A Prototype You Can Model	Edwin Hall, MMR®	Basic Airbrushing and Detailing and Painting a Southern Pacific Cab-Ahead
Saturday July 10	9:00 AM	Guy Cantwell	Fast Forward - 15 Years of layout Construction in an Hour	Steve Redeker	Modeling the Hetch Hetchy Railroad in 1919: A Black and White Approach to Scenery
	10:00 AM	Jesse Walden	An Operating System for Smaller Layouts	Paul Deis	Tuning Up Your Rolling Stock
	11:00 AM	Roger Sekera	Developing Your Operations from Start to Timetable and Train Order	Seth Neumann	An Update on the Union Pacific Oakland Sub
	2:00 PM	Mike Osborne	LABRF: Los Angeles to Bakersfield	Bill Kaufman	Developing Operations for Your Layout
	3:00 PM	Chris Palermo	Seasickness Unknown: The Pacific Coast Companies Create the Alaska Cruise Business	Ed Merrin	Focus Stacking and Low Perspective Smartphone Photography
	4:00 PM	Seth Neumann	Model Railroad Communications (Phones for Ops)	Joe Fugate	Siskiyou Line 2 Clinic
	5:00 PM	Dinner	NMRA President Gordy Robinson - Thanks for Coming
	7:00 PM	Kristine McNary	Zimo DCC	Paul Deis, Moderator	Layout Owner Panel with Ed Merrin, Chuck Oraftik, Bill Kaufman, Dave Houston
	8:00 PM	Bruce Morden	Using Sanborn maps and aerial photos for layout design	Edwin Hall, MMR®	Detailing & Painting the Southern Pacific 1941 Lark

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Breakout Room Schedule

Using Breakout Rooms

TO ENTER - Click on the Breakout Rooms icon (4 squares) at the bottom of your screen to get a list of all the breakout rooms and who’s in them. Some of the breakout rooms will be dedicated to specific topics, but many will be available for people just to hang out and socialize in. To enter a breakout room, hover over the area that tells you the number of people in the room and a Join button will appear, allowing you to join the room.
TO LEAVE - click the button in the bottom right corner that says Leave Room then select the option you want from there.

QUESTIONS? – Look for volunteer staff throughout the convention or in the Great Hall. They will have Staff before their name.

NMRA 2021 Rails By The Bay Breakout Room Schedule (Current as of: )
Day / Date	Start Time (PDT)	Breakout Room		Hosted By
Day / Date	Start Time (PDT)	Room Name	Topic	Hosted By
Monday July 5	7:00–10:00 PM	LDSIG Zoom Room	LDSIG Meet & Greet – Open to all, especially SIG members. All SIG program participants (you don’t need to belong to Layout Design or Operations SIGs to attend) are invited to briefly introduce themselves and their interests. A layout plan may be shared.	Layout Design SIG Seth Neumann
Tuesday July 6	12:00–1:30 PM	VENDOR FOCUS	CTC and layout control, signaling, and a range of solutions for layout control	Model Railroad Control Systems Seth Neumann
	12:00–2:00 PM	Scratch Building	Is Scratch Building Dead?	Ray Persing
	12:00–2:00 PM	YouTube Modelers	For the YouTube modeling community	Human(c)ity Junction Heath Hurwitz
	1:00–2:00 PM	For Ladies in the Hobby	Women in the hobby are invited to a Meet & Greet	Cydney George-Abatecola, Michelle Kempema, Christine Zambri
	5:00–6:30 PM	VENDOR FOCUS	Multiscale 3D Printed Figures	Miniprints
	5:00–7:00 PM	B&O Railroad Historical Society	About the BORHS: Check out their information, archives, and collections	Travers Stavac
	5:00–7:00 PM	ProtoSteam Throttle	Progress	Mark Stafford
Wednesday July 7	12:00–1:30 PM	VENDOR FOCUS	The Amazing Diesel ProtoThrottle – also multiscale	Iowa Scaled Engineering Scott Thornton
	12:00–2:00 PM	Cool Tools	Photos/Photo Processing	Ed Merrin
	12:00–2:00 PM	CMRI Special Interest Group	Computer/Model Railroad Interface as developed by Dr. Bruce Chubb	Seth Neumann
	12:00–2:00 PM	Narrow Gauge	—	Dave Adams
	12:00–2:00 PM	MSS SIG	Modular Signal System	Jere Ingram
	12:30 PM	NMRA	Meet the President	Gordy Robinson
	3:00 PM	Operations	Passenger Ops	Bob Ellis
	5:00–7:00 PM	YouTube Modelers	For the YouTube modeling community	TSG Multimedia John Abatecola
	5:00–7:00 PM	B&O Railroad Historical Society	B&O Equipment: Photos, drawings, company documents, engineering reports	Travers Stavac
Thursday July 8	10:00 AM	Operations	Passenger Ops	Bob Ellis
	12:00–1:30 PM	VENDOR FOCUS	Multiscale Model Railroad Manufacturer	Bachmann Trains Doug Blaine
	12:00–2:00 PM	MSS SIG	Modular Signal System	Jere Ingram
	12:00–2:00 PM	Cool Tools	Eagle CAD	Seth Neumann
	12:00–2:00 PM	YouTube Modelers	For the YouTube modeling community	Human(c)ity Junction Heath Hurwitz
	12:00–2:00 PM	Small Scales	For those into N, Nn3, TT, TTn3, and Z scales	Richard Brennan
	5:00–7:00 PM	B&O Railroad Historical Society	Operations: Use of Form 6, freight working books, terminal operations and more!	Travers Stavac
	5:00–7:00 PM	LDSIG Zoom Room	Annual SIG Dinner. Speaker: Otis McGee on “Realizing a John Armstrong Track Plan for SP Shasta Division.”	Layout Design SIG Seth Neumann
Friday July 9	9:00–11:00 AM	Proto:87	Discussion	Rene Gourley
	12:00–1:30 PM	VENDOR FOCUS	Multiscale Laser Cut sturctures and Laser/Cast Details	Inter-Action Hobbies Darryl Jacobs
	12:00–2:00 PM	Cool Tools	Discuss 3D Printing (and the Achievement Program)	Ray Persing
	12:00–2:00 PM	Narrow Gauge	—	Dave Adams
	5:00–7:00 PM	For Ladies in the Hobby	Women in the hobby are invited to a Virtual Dinner	Cydney George-Abatecola, Michelle Kempema, Christine Zambri
	5:00–7:00 PM	ProtoSteam Throttle	Progress	Mark Stafford
Saturday July 10	12:00–1:30 PM	VENDOR FOCUS	Multiscale fiber optic lighting systems for layouts and structures	Dwarvin Lighting Michael Groves
	12:30 PM	NMRA	Meet the President	Gordy Robinson
	6:00–7:00 PM	Cool Tools	Hand Tools	Jack Burgess, MMR®

Themed Breakout Rooms

Garden Scale
Model Railroad Technology - DCC, JMRI, Arduino, LocoFi™, Dead Rail™, etc.
Modeling Modern Railroads
Modeling Canadian Railroads
Modeling Eastern Railroads
Modeling Non-US Railroads
Modeling Pennsy
Modeling the NYC
Modeling the UP
Modeling the SP
Modeling the Western Pacific
Modeling the Rio Grande
Modeling Western Railroads (ATSF, BN, BNSF, D&RGW, SP, UP, WP, etc.)
Modular Layouts
O Scale
Small Layouts
Small Scales – TT, N, Z
Train Photography
Under 30 – Are you 30 years old or younger? Meet others just like you in the hobby!
Our Social Gathering Rooms - any topic!
- The Hotel Bar
- The Dining Car
- The Lounge Car
- The Observation Car
- The Caboose
Our Vendor Rooms
- Chief Vendor Focus Room
- Overland Vendor Focus Room
Clinic Goes on Rooms
- Clinic Goes On Daylight 1
- Clinic Goes On Daylight 2
- Clinic Goes On Daylight 3
- Clinic Goes On Zephyr 1
- Clinic Goes On Zephyr 2
- Clinic Goes On Zephyr 3
Additional Rooms
- Eureka Room
- Mariposa Room
- Maui Room
- Mineral Room
- Napa Room
- San Francisco Room
- Santa Barbara Room
- Santa Cruz Room
- Shasta Room
- Sonoma Room
- Yosemite Room

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Vendor Focus Schedule

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