I flew down to Anaheim from Portland this morning (absolutely problem-free trip) and after getting situated in the hotel (and calling Joe, who was out looking at layouts to tell him I was here) I went down and got my registration packet for the convention.

As expected, Day 3 of the NMRA National in Anaheim turned out to be especially busy for me. I had three (count them, THREE) clinics to give - all back to back. And as if that wasn't enough to make life interesting, we also videoed all three! Talk about a major hardware and setup scramble ...

I started my day 2 by wandering around the Layout Design SIG/OP SIG room. You can view interesting layout design examples in this room - here's one that's near-and-dear to my heart: a mushroom club layout design! (click image to enlarge)

This past Sunday marked the conclusion of an 8-year odyssey to get DCC on my layout.  That's right, 8 years - a lot of obstacles sprang up from the time I initially purchased my Digitrax Chief starter set in July 2000, conspiring to prevent me from ever running any decoder-equipped locos in their intended environment.

As expected, day 1 of the 2008 NMRA Convention was fairly slow, with a few clinics in the evening, and the Layout Design SIG's traditional Meet and Greet. This is my sixth National Convention, and I've been a past editor of the LD SIG's Journal publication, plus I now serve as the LD SIG's webmaster.

Well, I've finally went back to working on the Joppa Subdivison Layout...After about an 18 month hiatus...due to planning, and capital issues...So, I have invested in layout design software, mainly for having my webpage redone with the layout schematic on it...along with pictures of various areas of the layout and such.

Just wanted to take a minute to introduce myself to the group.  My name is George Simmons and I live in Central Louisiana.  I have been a model railroader since high school and a fan of railroads since a little child.  I remember listening to my father a conductor/brakeman for the Missouri Pacific Railroad or "MOP" as he called talking about some of his trips.  He along with my grandfather, two uncles and a couple of cousins worked for the MOP while one cousin in law work for years for the L&A.  The major boost for me in model railroading was when I fo

It's Sunday, July 13th, and I'm sitting in my 2008 Convention Hotel room, using my very fast (but not very free) wireless internet connection to post this blog entry. We're fully registered for the convention, have our convention packets (lots of little goodies like free McHenry couplers) and we're flipping through the convention program checking out the coming week's events.

Sunday is pretty slow, mostly just registration - so there's not much happening yet. However, we will be videoing a couple of JMRI clinics this evening! I've included a page from the program on the left - click on it to see a full sized version you can read. I've marked the two clinics we will be videoing in yellow.

Tomorrow is when things really get rolling, with a full day of tours, clinics, and other events. I'll be walking around the convention hall taking photos and be posting more in the days ahead "live" from the convention in my blog!

I guess I dunno whether to be embarassed or pleased that the demo issue seems to be the Charlie and his Bare Creek RR show. I will say that I'm darned impressed by what Joe's doing with MRH magazine. And I've known him for close to 10 years now - but he somehow keeps surprising me.

So, last night I got to thinking. I have a TON of down time at my job. When I buy a copy of one of the major publications, I usually carry it with me to work for a week or so, and read it on my down time.

Question here in lies, how will I carry my PDF copy of MRH to work!? Its too much to lug my laptop (considering the power cord is buried).