I really enjoy coming to NMRA Regional Conventions. These usually are attended by 200+ model railroaders and feature lots of great clinics, layouts, some prototype visits and just a good general interaction with other like-minded people. this convention is a return to Albany which last hosted a Regional in 2001. There are some great layouts in the area as you will see in the coming days and they also have a great slate of clinics on tap. I am also giving a clinic here on the railroads of Northern New England and how I used them as the basis for my in-progress layout.
The drive up went very well. It is very warm right now, not like October at all and much warmer than past Fall conventions I have attended. The high while driving hit 79 degrees. I had to stop by the local Best Buy on the way to pick up a special Mini-DVI cable that will allow me to attach my laptop to the digital projector. After that it was relatively easy driving and only took me about 3 1/2 hours. Fall is a little ahead up here vs. back home, so I saw lots of nice foiolage on the drive up - plenty of reds, yellow and oranges like I am trying to duplicate on my layout. Here is a quick camera-phone picture I took:
The hotel is the Best Western right off I-87 near I-90 in western Albany. Nice enough place although just one elevator might be an issue once people start to arrive. Right now it is fairly empty although I did run into another contingent from the NJ Divsion as I arrived, including Carl Corsi, Ken O'Brien and Chris Widmaier who serve on the NJ Division Board with me, and Division member Bob Doan. They were going to scout out a local hobby shop. I have "reservations" with Diane and Tony Steele who graciously invited me to dinner for this first night. I was told that Jim Six will also be in attendance, so I am looking forward to meeting him as well as seeing Diane and Tony's layout progress. I'll post an update later tonight when I get back.
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