Branchline Yardmaster 1937 AAR Box cars

Hey,

First of all i will thank Joe and Jeff for exellent reading from the NMRA convention.

 I am Eivind, comes from Norway and I am 22 years old. I started with model railroad as a young kid do to my fathers(KnuT) interests in the Hobby. The interests dropped a little when I was in junior high, but when I started high school I got more interested. Today I am modelling in O-scale and HO-scale. Because of lack of space just modules.

Monday July 21, 2008

 Okay, can I plead sleep deprivation? I haven't been to bed prior to midnight this week (which will change tonight) and I've been up at or before 7am every day (which won't).

 I'm reorganizing the photos I've already uploaded into subject/manufacturer directories, and I'm very annoyed that even with a fresh set of batteries installed this morning, I managed to run them out in my camera by noon. That's two hours of solid photography, btw. So I'm also uploading all that. Even a little video of Point & Shoot resolution.

BLMA

We interviewed Craig Martyn, owner of BLMA, and got the rundown on his new railcar announcement - A Norfolk Southern TopGon in both N and HO scale. The model will come with quality knuckle couplers and the proper 100-ton trucks. Craig also showed us his other new items, including an N scale and HO scale truss bridge. Unfortunately, the N scale bridge is already sold out, but the HO scale bridge will be available soon. If you're an HO scale modeler and you want this beautiful bridge, don't delay or you may miss out!

One question, though, how does Craig get all those cute girls to work for him in his booth? (Click image above to enlarge.) Watch the video to learn the answer (video coming soon in MRH theater)!

The National Train Show opened this morning, first to convention attendees (9-Noon), and then to the public from Noon to 6 pm. We wandered around the train show and shot perhaps 1.5 hours of video interviews with various vendors. Here's a few highlights!

Microsoft Train Simulator 2 ... coming!

I was delighted to see a major corporation like Microsoft displaying at the National Train Show - it shows they feel the hobby is doing well enough it's worth investing their time in products for train hobbyists!

Microsoft unvieled their first public showing of the new-and-improved Microsoft Train Simulator 2, expected by Christmas 2009. Rick Selby of Microsoft explained to us that they're hoping to get helpful feedback from model railroaders at this show, and to see what people think of the next generation MS Train Simulator! (Click photo to enlarge.)

I had to do a double-take as I watched some of the action on the monitors as people tried their hand at running a loco. I found the action to be very smooth, the simulation physics feels like it's right on the money, and the image quality is photo-realistic at a level not touched by MS Train Simulator 1.

 It's 8pm and my feet are achin' (it'll be much later by the time I get this posted).

 My morning started at 8am when Joe, Patty (Joe's wife), and Les Halmos (the advertising account manager for Model Railroad Hobbyist magazine) and I met in the Starbuck's at our hotel. A couple minutes planning and we wandered over to Hall D of the Anaheim Convention Center - or, more correctly, to it's entrance, as the doors would not open until 9am.

On Thursday, we agreed to video the complete 2008 Digitrax Users Forum - an almost two hour event. You can watch the video for free here in MRH Theater.

Zana Ireland, President of Digitrax, first spoke of some noteworthy Digitrax news: they're moving from Atlanta, Georgia to Panama City, Florida in the next few months. Zana gave lots of reasons, not the least of which is they're growing and the Florida Panhandle has a better quality of life, along with a more business-friendly environment than the Atlanta area. (Click on the left hand photo to enlarge.)

Next Zana moved into new product announcements, at which point she handed the mike to AJ Ireland, the engineering mastermind behind Digitrax. AJ described the new PR3 programmer, some new Z-scale decoders, and the big new item - their partnership with SoundTraxx that uses transponding to make the new SurroundTraxx layout sound system work. AJ invited Nancy Workman of SoundTraxx to come up and briefly describe how the new SurroundTraxx system works.

Today was an easy day - I only actually attended a couple of the clinics (so far), took a bunch of photos and videotaped stuff. Oh, and found out what I won at the silent auction.

Layouts! Every layout has something about it the owner does well or distinctively, and for the Layout Design SIG layout tour, I find this to be especially true.  I'm delighted to report that for the Wednesday LD SIG layout tours here at the 2008 NMRA National Convention in Anahiem, this remains as true as ever!

Mike Kresen's HO freelanced western Pennsylvania layout

We carpooled with Rob Hinkle driving (who as it turned out, has already been to some of the layouts on previous nights as a guest operator - so he drove right to them). We departed the hotel just after 10 am to begin our trek. We stopped first at Mike Kresen's HO scale steam-diesel era freelanced western Pennsylvania layout set in the early 1950s.

The fully scenicked 14x20' layout immediately impressed me - with the level of detail being well above average - although Mike claimed the layout needed still more details (what layout couldn't use more detailing work?)

For instance, the details in the central city scene really dazzled me and caught my eye. I've included a scene here on the left (click the image to enlarge). Notice the realistic street lights, the building billboard light, and the animated neon dental supply sign that plays through a realistic sequence of squeezing the toothpaste out onto the brush. And that wasn't all - Mike also included traffic signals that change, a spinning barber shop pole, and other realistic eye candy. Very nicely done, Mike!