Bay Area Layout Design & Operations Weekend
January 29 to 31, 2010
Sponsored by:
NMRA Pacific Coast Region
Layout Design Special Interest Group
Operations Special Interest Group
The Pacific Coast Region-NMRA, Layout Design SIG and Operations SIG will hold another joint San Francisco Bay Area Regional Meet in Santa Clara, CA (approx. 45 minutes south of San Francisco) Friday, January 29, through Sunday, January 31, 2010.
A terrific three-day program is being planned for your model railroading enjoyment. The agenda for the weekend includes kick-off dinner (no-host), clinics, operations discussions, track planning workshops, and visits to local layouts on Friday and Saturday evenings. There will also be operating sessions at several nearby layouts on Sunday, along with additional layout tours. Don't be surprised if someone puts a throttle in your hand!
The 2009 meeting was a big success, and we hope 2010's will be also.
Due to the overwhelming response in advance registrations, we have exceeded the capacity of the SBHRS' Santa Clara Depot meeting room and had to move Saturday's meeting to a larger venue to accommodate everyone comfortably and safely:
Hyatt Regency Santa Clara
(next to Santa Clara Convention Center)
5101 Great America Parkway
Santa Clara, CA
(408) 200-1234
www.santaclara.hyatt.com
(MAP)
Saturday's meeting will be in the combined Winchester and Stevens Creek Rooms on the 2nd floor. The rooms will be directly ahead as you step off the lobby escalator. Layout design consultations will be in the adjacent Lafayette Room. (Floor Plan)
Descriptions and maps of the layouts on tour this weekend are now available!
Get layout descriptions and map here!
Enter your registered email address and NMRA membership number to access the maps. If you have any problems accessing the maps, please contact Steve Williams directly at spwilliams@gmail.com or by phone at (408) 857-6787.
All the 3 days of layout tours are open to all NMRA/PCR members. Attendance at the LD/OP SIGs Meet is not necessary. If you can't join us for the meet, come out anyway and enjoy some truly wonderful layouts.
The festivities start with a no-host Kick-Off Dinner, 7:00 PM Friday, January 29. You are welcome to join us at Fiorillo's Restaurant, 638 El Camino Real, Santa Clara, for some good food, along with good conversation with friends, both old and new. (MAP)
Be sure to indicate on our new ONLINE RSVP & REGISTRATION FORM if you will be joining us so we can make the necessary reservations. Layout tours of several local layouts will follow dinner.
Saturday's meeting starts at 8:00 AM for registration, breaks about 12:00 PM for lunch, then wraps up about 5:00 PM for dinner, followed by layout tours. We're planning several clinics, and a panel discussion of layout owners who recently started operating sessions on their layouts.
SCHEDULE
| TIME | TOPIC | PRESENTER |
|---|---|---|
| 8:00 | Registration opens | |
| 8:30 | Introductions | Seth Neumann |
| 8:40 | Welcome | Ron Plies, PCR President |
| 9:00 | LAUPT in O Scale | John Goodrich |
| 9:45 | Designing a Layout for a Shipping Container | John Barry |
| 10:30 | Announcements | |
| 11:00 | Birds of a Feather Discussions / Mike Burgett CTC Video | |
| 11:45 | Lunch Break | |
| 1:00 | Approaching Ops from Real World Replenishment | Dustin Shoup |
| 2:15 | Challenge: Container Layout | John Barry |
| 3:00 | Vasona Branch: What Went Right? What Went Wrong? | Robert Bowdidge |
| 3:45 | Panel: Beginning to Operate | Bruce Morden |
| 4:45 | Closing Remarks | Seth Neumann |
| 5:00 - 7:00 | Dinner Break | |
| 7:00 | Layout Tours Start | |
| 10:00 | Layout Tours End | |
Seth Neumann is again organizing a program of clinics on a variety of topics and discussions for Saturday's session.
Please bring your display of layout design or operations-related ideas. (Layout mock-ups are particularly interesting). Please indicate what you are bringing and its size in the "Comments" block of our new ONLINE RSVP & REGISTRATION FORM.
Byron Henderson is again organizing the layout design and operations consultations. If you are planning a layout, bring along your "Givens & Druthers", maps, sketches, and other materials to get a free consultation from group members! They can also help with questions about operating your layout, including how to get started. Please indicate on our new ONLINE RSVP & REGISTRATION FORM that you would like a free layout design or operations consultation to facilitate scheduling.
We're planning to repeat the ever-popular "Layout Design Challenge" event. More information will be made available at a later date. More details will be posted as we get closer to the event; we'll even e-mail you updates if you RSVP using our new ONLINE RSVP & REGISTRATION FORM!
Would you like to meet with others modeling your region, prototype or era? Interested in DCC, sound, computerized switchlists, or layout CAD programs? Any of these might be a topic for an impromptu "Birds of a Feather" meeting. Let us know if you would like to informally lead a short group discussion on any topic. These are scheduled at the end of the morning session so you can continue your discussion over lunch, if you'd like. Please indicate in the "Comments" section on our new ONLINE RSVP & REGISTRATION FORM if there are any BOF discussion topics of interest to you, either as a participant or the leader.
David Parks is also coordinating operating sessions for Sunday morning and afternoon at a number of nearby layouts, including many opportunities for those new to operations. Please use our new ONLINE RSVP & REGISTRATION FORM if you'd like to sign-up for an operating session.
NEW LOCATION ! ! Saturday's sessions will be held in the Hyatt Regency Santa Clara, 5101 Great America Parkway, Santa Clara, CA. (MAP)
Our previous and long-time location, the South Bay Historical Railroad Society (SBHRS), 1005 Railroad Avenue, Santa Clara, is open to the public Tuesday evenings from 6:00 to 9:00 PM and Saturdays from 10:00 AM to 4:00 PM. Visit the SBHRS website at: www.sbhrs.org.
Contact Bob Jacobsen if you need or can offer a carpool seat to a fellow attendee. Past attendees have come from all over the country and would welcome riding with someone familiar with the area.
To facilitate planning, please RSVP and register in advance using our new ONLINE RSVP & REGISTRATION FORM. Be sure to sign up for the other activities so that we can contact, especially about your preferences for operating sessions.
For more information, to volunteer to help out, get names for car pools, etc., contact:
Bob Jacobsen
Phone: (510) 486-7355
e-mail: jake@physics.berkeley.edu
This page last updated:
Page maintained by Dave Grenier, PCR / LDSIG / OPSIG.
