Rails By The Bay, NMRA Convention 2021
The NMRA and the Layout Design Special Interest Group will hold their national convention in Santa Clara, California, USA, from July 6-10, 2021.
Information on the NMRA Convention is available here; information on the LDSIG convention is available below.
Overview of the Layout Design SIG schedule for the week.
All Times US Pacific Daylight Savings Time (PDT, UTC-7)
All week:
Clinics, between 9:00 am and 9:00 pm all 5 days of the convention. (Main convention rooms)
LDSIG lunch and dinner open discussions (LDSIG Zoom Room)
Layout Design SIG Tour (Main convention with LDSIG curated selections)
Layout Design Consulting (signup required, details in official convention program)
Monday, July 5, LDSIG meet & greet — 5:00 pm-7:00 pm. (LDSIG Zoom room)
Tuesday, July 6, 10:00 am-Noon — Make Only New Mistakes clinic with Layout Design Journal editor Byron Henderson. (main convention “Zephyr” room)
Thursday, July 8 5:00 pm-7:00 pm — SIG Dinner (LDSIG Zoom room) Speaker: Otis McGee on “Realizing a John Armstrong Track Plan for SP Shasta Division”.
Thursday, July 8 7:00 pm-9:00 pm — What Would You Do Differently panel with layout owners. (main convention “Daylight” room)
ALL OF THE LDSIG ACTIVITIES ARE OPEN TO ALL CONVENTION ATTENDEES.
Even though the convention is virtual this year, you must be registered to fully participate in the activities described here.
Details about the activities
All Times US Pacific Daylight Savings Time (PDT, UTC-7)
Meet and Greet,
Monday, July 5, 5:00-7:00 PM, LDSIG Zoom room
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.
Lunch and Dinner Breaks,
Tuesday to Saturday, LDSIG Zoom room
Open discussion, hang out and eat with SIG members, share your impressions of the Convention, and discuss your layout designs and operational plans.
LDSIG Meal Break Volunteers Needed
Your help is needed to host and moderate* the LDSIG Zoom room during the lunch and dinner breaks. This is instead of the usual call to man the LDSIG table in the SIG room. If interested, please contact Chris Mesa
Layout Design Consulting Service
(Tuesday through Saturday - Open to all
convention attendees)
Members of the LDSIG will be offering free 45-minute layout design consultation sessions to convention attendees.
Limited availability, sign up details to schedule a consultation on your plan is in the official convention program.
Clinics - all week
There are layout design clinics all week given by some great clinicians.
For our curated list of clinics with layout design content, see here.
Make Only New Mistakes with Layout Design Journal Editor Byron Henderson
Tuesday 10:00 am - Noon, Main Convention “Zephyr” room.
Discover how to refine vision, concept, and purpose; select layout footprints and schematics; draw accurate and useful plans; create efficient and engaging yards and industrial areas; make the best use of staging tracks; maintain space for people, and avoid common track planning errors. Questions and answers with viewers will be included in this two-hour clinic. Presented by Byron Henderson, custom layout designer and editor of the Layout Design Journal. [This clinic is a distillation of the four-hour Layout Design Bootcamp featured at most NMRA National Conventions.]
What Would You Do Differently
Thursday 7:00 pm - 9:00 pm, Main Convention “Daylight” room.
A panel of hosts from the Layout Design SIG Tour discussing lessons learned and the evolution of their thinking. Featured owners include Jack Burgess, MMR®, Guy Cantwell, Howard Lloyd, Ed Merrin, Tony Thompson, and Paul Weiss."
LDSIG Annual Layout Tour: All week
Because the convention is virtual this year, the LDSIG can’t host its traditional self-driving Layout Tour. Instead, we have curated a list of railroads that are part of the overall Rails By The Bay layout tours that we think will be of the most interest to those interested in layout design.
Our curated list of railroads is here.
Annual SIG Dinner:
Thursday 5:00 - 7:00 pm — LDSIG Zoom room
At the “SIG Dinner” join other SIG members for a virtual dinner together. Otis McGee will speak about “Realizing a John Armstrong Track Plan for SP Shasta Division”.