Last Updated March 9, 2010

The 2009 NMRA and LDSIG Conventions will be held in Milwaukee, Wisconsin on July 10-18, 2010, to commemorate the 75th Anniversary of the founding of the NMRA.

Information on the NMRA Convention is available at the official site http://www.nmra75.org/

If you have questions or would like to get involved before or during the convention, please contact the LDSIG local events coordinator,  Seth Neumann via email at sneumann at pacbell dot net or click anywhere in this paragraph.

Note: Watch this site for updates on clinics, forums, layout tour information and other convention activities.

 

Sunday, LDSIG Drive In Tours

Sunday, LDSIG Drive In Tours 

 

Watch this space for layouts open for the drive to the convention on Sunday.

LDSIG Exhibit Room

  LDSIG Exhibit Room, Sunday, July 11 through Saturday, July 17

All week long you can make the SIG room the place to be. We are sharing the room with the Operations Special Interest Group which is planning a full round of operations during the convention.  Make the SIG Room your convention headquarters networking opportunities, meeting others for planning, designing, building, and operating considerations intended for your dream layout.

SIG Room Hours	Open	Close
Sunday	7 PM	10:30 PM
Monday - Tuesday	7:30 AM	10:30 PM
Wednesday	7:30 AM	12:00 Noon
Thursday	7:30 AM	10:30 PM
Friday	7:30 AM	5:00 PM
Saturday	8:00 AM	12:00 Noon

 Displays & LDSIG Desk – in the SIG Room. Check here in coming months for guidance on ways to improve your displays and instructions for shipping them to Hartford if you can't travel with them.  Members’ informative displays include track plan diagrams, layout photographs and 3-D mock-ups, and priority lists of design features to help others learn how others have solved layout design problems. Frequently, the layout designer is available for discussion. Design-related clinic schedules, descriptions of open-house layouts for the Wednesday tour, carpool signup lists, a local restaurant list, and a roommate-wanted list will be available. A bulletin board will have important updates about LDSIG events -- be sure and check daily for activities and schedules. You may catch great discussions from time to time, especially in-between clinics.

Layout Design "Help Desk" –  LDSIG volunteers will be available at several times during the week to provide free sit-down guidance if you are in the process of designing your layout.  To get the most value from these opportunities, do some homework before asking for help: prepare a dimensioned drawing of your layout space, identify your "Givens", "Druthers", and constraints, and bring a map or route schematic of your proposed territory.  Also bring forecasts of the traffic mix and jobs you'd like to feature during your eventual operating sessions

Meet 'n Greet, Sunday

Begin your convention by meeting other attendees who are especially interested in layout design. Hear informal LDSIG-member introductions about their layout design and construction status, plus timely event announcements and networking opportunities. Meet published authors and respected contributors to various email lists. Sunday, 7:00p, in the SIG room.

 

Layout Design Clinics, Monday

Layout Design Clinics  – On Monday, July 12, NMRA75 and the LDSIG and the OpSIG will be presenting an all day series of clinics focusing on layout design. The clinics will provide real examples of design challenges and solutions to assist you in designing your dream layout. All these clinics are open to all convention attendees.  

 

Special Layout Design “Bootcamp”

 

 

Former Layout Design Journal editor and custom layout designer Byron Henderson and other members of the NMRA's Layout Design SIG are leading a Layout Design Bootcamp at the NMRA Convention in Milwaukee in 2010.

 

This four-hour clinic begins at 8 am Monday, July 12th and will be an intensive session on track planning and layout design. 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 best use of staging tracks; maintain space for people; and avoid common track planning errors. Step-by-step examples from a variety of layout designs will be discussed.

 

Whether your dream layout is strongly prototype-based, a creative freelanced theme, or somewhere in between, this practical session will give you the tools and best practices to design a great layout!

 

Among the topics to be covered:

Layout design phases: Conceptual, Structural, and Detail

Developing vision, theme, and purpose

The impact of givens and 'druthers considering space, resources, and skills

Prototype research techniques and tools

The user and viewer experience

Layout footprint techniques

Drawing and rendering tools and best practices

Planning for people

Multi-deck considerations

Yard planning

Staging design

Signature elements vs. typicality

LDEs: Possibilities and pitfalls

Tricky traps of layout design (common errors to avoid)

… and much, much more!

 

Time	Presenter	Title
8:00 AM	Byron Henderson	Designing with the Designers "Super Clinic" [This is a three session clinic ending at noon. Come and stay as long as you wish!]
9:30 AM
11:00 AM
Lunch
1:00 PM	Cal Sexsmith	Track Design for a Prairie Town
2:30 PM	Cal Sexsmith	Running the Buckland Way Freight with TT&TO

 

 

 

 

Layout Design Clinics, Tuesday

Layout Design Clinics  – On Tuesday, July 13, NMRA75 and the LDSIG and the OpSIG will be presenting an all day series of clinics focusing on layout design. The clinics will provide real examples of design challenges and solutions to assist you in designing your dream layout. All these clinics are open to all convention attendees. 

Time	Presenter	Title
8:00 AM	Greg Johnson	Researching, Designing, and building an HO Scale SP Switching Layout
9:30 AM	Bruce Faulkner	Designing the CSX Shenandoah Division
11:00 AM	Bruce Faulkner	Operating the CSX Shenandoah Division
Lunch
1:00 PM	John Smith	C&O's operations in Northern Ohio
2:30 PM	Greg Johnson	Building and Operating an Industrial Strength Railroad, The Allegheny Terminal

 

LDSIG Annual Business Meeting, Wednesday, July 14, 8:00AM

LDSIG Annual Meeting – Our annual membership meeting agenda includes officer and volunteer reports. All LDSIG members at the convention are encouraged to participate.  The meeting should end about 9AM so the Milwaukee Layout LDSIG Tour can commence.

 

Milwaukee Layout Tour, Wednesday, July 14

 The Annual meeting will be followed by the traditional Wednesday LD SIG self-guided layout tour. Jeff Markey has planned a tour that includes 21 layouts in the Milwaukee area as well as 8 layouts in northern Illinois.

Owner	Scale	Railroad Name	Era	Size	Scenery	Control
1. Ken Jaglinski	HO/HOn3	Ashland, Superior & Pacific	Transition	11X37 & 10X21	100%	NCE
2. Don Drum	HO	Chicagoand NorthWestern System	1956-1960	1140 sq ft	97%	DC PSI walk around
3. Jerry Gunderson	N	FordCityNorthern Railway	Modern 2005-present	15 X 11	95%	NCE
4. Bob Zoeller (NAPM)	HO	North American Prototype Modelers	Late 1940's to April 30, 1971	4000 sq ft	60%	NCE
5. Tim Hensch	HO	Norfolk & Whey Railroad	Modern	26 X 36	25%	NCE
6. Bob Frey	HO	U.P. & Western Railroads	Summer, 1950-59	26 X 30 X 40 X 10	98%	Digitrax
7. Keith Schmidt (MNSE)	N	MilwaukeeN Southeastern	Transition	17 X 40	95%	Aristocraft/System One
8. Ken Thompson	HO	BurlingtonNorthern Railroad  - Peoria Subdivision	Spring 1973	36 X 22	75%	Dynatrol/Rail-Lynx
9. Marcel Trautwein	HO	The Grand De Elusion	1940-1950	25 X 25	100%	DCC
10. David Popp	N	The Naugatuck Valley RR	Fall 1958	13 X 17	90%	Lenz
11. Rolf Plachter	HO	Midwest Lines	1964	33 X 52	100%	Lenz
12. Marty Edwards	HO	The ‘400’ Route	1935-1952	21 X 21	100%	Atlas DCC
13. Dan Dyer	HO	BurlingtonNorthern River Division	Mid-70's - early 80's	32 X 36	10%	DCC
14. Dennis Glynn	HO	BlueMountainand Cascade	1946	Full basement		DCC
15. Andy Sperandeo	HO	Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Ry.	1947	38' 6" X 44' 6"	.    -       None	NCE
16. Stan Olander	HO	CORNBELT NORTHERN	early 1950's	"L" 15 X 25 and 15 X 50	80%	Lenz
17. Jim Hediger	HO	OhioSouthern	early 1970's	"L" 22 X 28	70%	DC Block walk around
18. Kent Johnson	O-Hi Rail	CP and CN based	present	14 X 48	70%	TMCC
19. Tim Scott	HO	Northwoods Route	1957	25 X 17	75%	MRC DC Memory walk around
20 Jim Kelly	N	Tehachapi subdivision	1983	18.5 X 19	20%	System One/NCE
21. Jim Lorbiecki	HO	The Northwest Timberline	Transition	4 X 20 X 28	100%	DC
22. Don Cook	HO	Great Northern - Spokane Division	~1949	28 X 17 and 10 X 6	98%	NCE
23. Dan Sylvester	HOn3	Rio GrandeSouthern	1930's	4 X 8	100%	PFM (modified)
24. Jim Spice	HO	Denver & CatCanyon	1953	30 X 30	98%	NCE
25. Bob Perrin	HO	Illinois Central, St Louis Div	May - Jun 1966	92 X 32	10%	Digitrax
26. Greg Bedlek	HO	GNP Hydra Route	1970	2700 sq ft	80%	Lenz
27. Harry Schildkraut	HO	New York, Ontario& Western	Now	30 X 50	75%	Digitrax
28. Mike Ritschdorff	HO	N&W Pocahontas Division 1958	1958	25 X 41	100%	Lenz
29. Ted Schnepf	O	Milwaukee Road - Dubuque, Iowa & Dakota Divs	1954, 1929	4100 sq ft	50%	NCE

 Each of these is a quality example of design, construction or operation. Jeff has gathered “Layout At A Glance” data and “Special Features” descriptions  on all these layouts which will make it easy for you to decide which ones you want to visit.  Click here to see the whole list or click on any individual owner or railroad to jump directly to that information.  

Another change this year is the transition to the GPS rather than maps for navigation.  So if you own a portable GPS. please bring it to the convention.  Every Car will need One!

There will be no picnic this year. This event will be extra fare and limited to LDSIG/OpSIG members and families/significant others.

 

Layout Design Clinics and Forums, Thursday

Layout Design Clinics  – On Thursday, July 15, NMRA75 and the LDSIG and the OpSIG will be presenting an all day series of clinics focusing on layout design. The clinics will provide real examples of design challenges and solutions to assist you in designing your dream layout. All these clinics are open to all convention attendees. 

Time	Presenter	Title
8:00 AM	Tony Thompson	More Prototypical Waybills
9:30 AM	Ted Pamperin	Improved 4 Cycle Waybills
11:00 AM	Gerry Albers	Planning for Signals Forum
Lunch
1:00 PM		Turnout Considerations for Layout Designers
2:30 PM		Improving track Plan Graphics

 

Friday Layout Design Clinics and Banquet

Time	Presenter	Title
8:00 AM	Train Show starting at 9 AM for all those registered for the convention
9:30 AM
11:00 AM
Lunch
1:00 PM
2:30 PM	John Young	C&O Saginnaw Sub in N Scale
4:00 PM	Robert Reid	Layout Designs for a Small Room

 

Friday LDSIG Banquet  

The LDSIG Banquet is being planned for Friday evening at Mader's which is a famous German restaurant in Milwaukee.  It will be a full German style buffet with all the well known German dishes - sauerbraten, kassler rippchen, hungarian goulash, German sausage platter plus a fish dish, beer battered cod, and of course a large selection of German beers! (Cash bar though). 

 

Sunday, LDSIG Drive Out Tours

Sunday, LDSIG Drive Out Tours 

 

Watch this space for layouts open for the drive home on Sunday.