Arrived at the convention center, very nice building and great place for the NMRA. I immediately ran into a few Philly and NJ Division members. Before registering I had to get to the OpSig meeting area to coordinate driving to the layout I was assigned to for the evening. Turns out Jim Dalberg and Dick Foley, regulars who I operate with on a layout back home, were assigned to the same layout, so I was able to catch a ride with them. As the layout was located about 1-1/2 hours to the south, we needed to get on the road in order to have time to stop for dinner. I quickly picked up my registration packet and we were off.
The layout is called the Boston & Maine Central and the host is Franklin Lang. The layout is nice, featuring somewhat freelanced design but using prototype B&M and MEC equipment and locations. Wide aisles and a laid back operating scheme made it easy to quickly get into the session and have fun. Here are two pictures of the overall layout.
Franklin says he has only been building the layout for about 3 years and is just getting operations going on a regular basis. He is off to a great start. His layout is operated with a yard at each end and a center yard (where I was stationed). Of interest is his town of Relief, pictured below.
The session ended around 10pm, but we did have an hour and a half ride back. We nearly hit some bad traffic approaching Hartford, but using the GPS we got off and diverted around it. Then it was back to the hotel. So day one went quickly and I did not see too much of the convention or the clinics, contest room, etc. yet. Tomorrow is an early day with a trip to the RR Museum of New England and a ride on the Naugatuck RR.
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