I spent Thursday and Friday at the NMRA PSR Convention in Oceanside, California, which prompts a few comments.....
1. Okay. I'm probably a bit of a nerd, but I've been in model railroad environments that made me, in comparison to the geeks around me, look like Cary Grant in his prime. But, with only a few exceptions, the people attending this convention could just about pass for normal human beings. Nice change.
2. Not long ago --- I think it was on another forum --- there was a bunch of whining about whether it was really worth it to join the NMRA. Not being much of a "joiner", I've wondered sometimes myself, but have maintained my membership just to "help support" the hobby. This convention was good enough to make me glad to be a member.
3. The best part of it --- I guess, for me, the only important part of it --- is the clinics. This convention, like many, had a whole bunch of them. I came away feeling I had really learned some great stuff. Layout design, material usage, RTV / resin casting, new and unusual tools, weathering techniques.
4. And I am now sure I will never care to get involved in modular stuff. Between clinics on the first day, I regularly popped in to the train show room to watch the people setting up their modular layouts. There were a bunch of them --- N, HO, HOn3, Sn3, O, and even tinplate. These guys were banging away on them for hours (literally) to get them up and running. Some were still working on them on the 2nd day! Didn't look like a bit of fun to me.
Bill S
1. Okay. I'm probably a bit of a nerd, but I've been in model railroad environments that made me, in comparison to the geeks around me, look like Cary Grant in his prime. But, with only a few exceptions, the people attending this convention could just about pass for normal human beings. Nice change.
2. Not long ago --- I think it was on another forum --- there was a bunch of whining about whether it was really worth it to join the NMRA. Not being much of a "joiner", I've wondered sometimes myself, but have maintained my membership just to "help support" the hobby. This convention was good enough to make me glad to be a member.
3. The best part of it --- I guess, for me, the only important part of it --- is the clinics. This convention, like many, had a whole bunch of them. I came away feeling I had really learned some great stuff. Layout design, material usage, RTV / resin casting, new and unusual tools, weathering techniques.
4. And I am now sure I will never care to get involved in modular stuff. Between clinics on the first day, I regularly popped in to the train show room to watch the people setting up their modular layouts. There were a bunch of them --- N, HO, HOn3, Sn3, O, and even tinplate. These guys were banging away on them for hours (literally) to get them up and running. Some were still working on them on the 2nd day! Didn't look like a bit of fun to me.
Bill S