Salt Lake City NMRA Convention 2019

The NMRA and the Layout Design Special Interest Group held their national convention in Salt Lake City, Utah, from July 7 to 13, 2019

Information on the NMRA Convention is available here; information on the LDSIG convention is available below.

The major LDSIG activities will include clinics, the LDSIG Tour, and the dinner.

The schedule for the week includes (all times Tentative at this point):

Sunday night meet & greet - 7:00 -10:00

Clinics, all week

Wednesday - Annual Business Meeting

Wednesday - Tour all day and evening

Friday Night Dinner - dinner speaker TBD

ALL OF THE LDSIG ACTIVITIES ARE OPEN TO ALL CONVENTION ATTENDEES.

Meet and Greet, Sunday, July 7, 7-10 PM, Location TBD

We will hold our traditional Meet and Greet in the SIG Room providing an opportunity for all Layout Design and Operations SIG members and friends to introduce themselves and their interests, and find folks who can share ideas and solutions to your layout design and operation concerns. We have invited owners of the Wednesday Layout Tour to provide a preview of the Tour. It is also a time to arrange car pools for the Wednesday Layout Tour. Do not worry about arriving late if your're enjoying tours and op sessions, we will be there until at least 10:00 PM.

Displays and Consulting

The SIG Room will be open Monday to Thursday from 8AM to 10PM. It is a great place to congregate, meet friends, make friends, enjoy the SIG Room Displays, get or give layout design consultation, or generally take a break between clinics or from other convention activities.

The SIG Room has space for you to post a display about your railroad, its design challenges and how you've solved them (or how you need help). Bring a display with you to the convention. It can be flat poster-board or 3d room models or whatever you think will help people understand your dream railroad. Display setup will begin Sunday afternoon and tear-down on Friday at noon.

LDSIG Table Volunteers Needed

If you can spare an hour or two to help man the LDSIG table, please contact the convention SIG coordinator, Cal Sexsmith at calvinsexsmith at sasktel dot net. The duties are easy and the benefits can be rewarding. You will have a chance to meet SIG members and potential members who you may only know through the internet or articles in the LDJ or the national model railroading press. Monday and Tuesday are the businest days when volunteers are most needed. The table will not be staffed on Wednesday during the LDSIG tour.

Layout Design Consulting Service (Monday through Friday - Open to all convention attendees)

Members of the LDSIG will be offering free half-hour layout design consultation sessions. Limited availability, sign up in person in the SIG Room during the Convention. Help Providers Needed! Help-provider volunteers are crucially needed. We need experienced LDSIG members volunteers to provide half-hour layout design help sessions during the Convention. This offers a service to the hobby and promotes the SIG. Each volunteer will be asked to set aside one, two or more hours during the Convention when they can commit to being available for help sessions. It is very important that we have volunteers and hours confirmed before the Convention begins. To volunteer, or for questions, please contact Byron Henderson, ldjeditor at gmail.com, who is coordinating the help sessions.

Clinics - all week

There are layout design clinics all week given by some great clinicians.

Featured Clinic not to be missed for beginners or veterans. Lots of great information.

Layout Design Bootcamp, tentatively July 8, 8am - noon

Layout Design Journal editor and custom layout designer Byron Henderson and Seth Neuman of the NMRA's Layout Design SIG are leading a Layout Design Bootcamp at the Salt Lake City 2019 NMRA Convention. We'll begin with Seth Neumann and Byron Henderson as your friendly presenters. The Bootcamp is 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)
Layout design for operation

Wednesday, July 10, 2019, 8-9 AM, LDSIG Annual Meeting

This important meeting will be held in the SIG room. Information for the LDSIG tour will be handed out at this meeting.

Wednesday, July 10, 2019, 9:30 AM until 10PM, LDSIG Annual Layout Tour

We currently have 23 layouts on this year’s Tour. For a list of the layouts including a general map and links to individual pages for each layout please click here.

Carpooling is strongly encouraged so you can discuss the unique features of these layouts as you travel. Carpool size will be limited due to roadway restrictions. All members of a carpool must register for the Tour. Sign-ups for carpools will be posted in the SIG room.

While we encourage carpools in normal vehicles - cars, up to 7 or 8 passenger SUV's, we discourage the use of larger vans and small busses. This tour is not designed as a bus tour. It allows you to enjoy the layout and speak with the layout owner for some time. Owners enjoy this also and would love to see 6 to 8 of you at a time but not 15 or 30. Please be thoughtful of the layout owners, the other tour participants and the nature of the tour.

On the LDSIG tour, one can stay as long as one wishes to study a particularly interesting layout or design element. The hosts are aware of SIG members' interest and are happy to answer questions. All this makes the tour an invaluable learning experience. No lunch is provided so you and your carpool buddies can eat what and when you want (there are plenty of good restaurants in all categories and price ranges along the route).

As in the past the Tour price includes the LDSIG Salt Lake City Convention shirt.

Neither the LDSIG Inc. nor the NMRA will provide insurance coverage for private or rental transportation.

To sign up for the Wednesday Layout Tour and get your polo shirt follow these instructions.

As of this writing (these instructions could change as the convention folks try to confirm with past practices) to sign up for the LDSIG Wednesday Tour you need to go to the Salt Lake City Convention registration web page www,nmra2019slc.org/registration.

If you have not yet registered for the convention fill out the form on that page, following the instructions, and be sure to scroll down to near the bottom to sign up for the Wednesday Tour and/or Dinner.

If you have registered you should already have an account. Go to https://northernutahnmra.account.webconnex.com/login and log into your account with your email and password.

Once you are in click on "Registrations" at the top center. When you get that page, click on "View Details" on the right. Now click on "edit" on the Registrant line.

Scroll down to near the bottom and you will see "Layout Design Special Interest Group" There are three entries - 1.) LDSIG Dinner ($48.00), 2.) LDSIG Wednesday Layout Tour ($45.00) and 3.) the commemorative shirt.

Click on the box to the left of your choice(s). If you are going on the Wednesday Layout Tour be sure to enter your information for your LDSIG Polo Shirt – Size (S, M, L, XL, 2XL, 3XL, or 4XL) and Monogram Name [monograms are limited to 12 characters, including spaces and must be submitted before June 1].

When you are done, scroll down and click Save. You will be alerted to your charges and how you will pay for them.

Friday, July 12, 2019, Annual SIG Dinner

Friday, July 12, 2019, 6:30PM, Annual All-SIG Dinner No-host happy hour, followed by buffet dinner.

This year the SIG Dinner is open to all SIGs. We have a great venue for the Convention wrap up dinner. We will be hosted at Jon Robinson’s Hangar at the general aviation SkyPark Airport. The hangar is between I-215 and I-15, north of downtown Salt Lake. There is an exit off I-15 that will lead you west toward the airport. The ride is about 20 minutes, without traffic.

There is plenty of (free) parking near the hangar. There will be carpool sign up sheets in the SIG Room, for drivers with seats available, and for those needing rides. If private transportation will be used, insurance is to be provided by the participants in the event. Neither the LDSIG Inc. nor the NMRA will provide insurance coverage for private or rental transportation. Directions will be posted in the SIG Room

This will be a great opportunity to relax and rub shoulders with fellow SIG members, discuss everything you've seen during Salt lake City 2019 and reflect on how to apply your new insights to your layout!

We will start the cocktail hour at 6:30 PM, with plenty of time to get from the Train Show or 4:30 PM clinics to the Hangar. The event is BYOB, with the nearest liquor store at 520 North 500 West, Bountiful, UT 84010. There are no restrictions on libations, but make sure everyone has a designated driver. The Utah BAC limit is .05 now, the lowest in the nation. We don’t want any DUIs! Utah State Liquor Stores close at 7 PM so if anyone wants to get something, they’ll need to do so before 7 PM. If anyone needs mixers other than the sodas we supply (see below), they will need to bring those too.

The menu consists of Appetizers of Olives, Cheese, Crackers, & Bruschetta. For Dinner we’ll have an Italian Buffet; Italian Green Salad, Spaghetti, Meat Sauce, Marinara Sauce, Meat Lasagna, Vegi Lasagna, and French Bread with Garlic Butter on the tables. For Desert we’ll do a variety of pies, cookies, etc. We’ll provide Coke, Diet Coke, Spite or 7up, Diet Sprite or Diet 7up, lemon & lime wedges, bottled water, ice.

This year's after dinner speaker is Lee Nicholas, of Utah Colorado and Western fame. He will talk about Utah and his adventures getting the UCW to its current state. We hope you will have had a chance to see it during convention week.

The cost for the dinner is $48. Sign-up for this extra fare event will be through the NMRA Convention on-line registration process, Company Store, or at the convention Tour Desk. Tickets for this event will be limited to 60, with a Tuesday evening cut-off deadline. Tickets are available at the main convention registration Link.

If you have registered you should already have an account. Go to https://northernutahnmra.account.webconnex.com/login and log into your account with your email and password.

Once you are in click on "Registrations" at the top center. When you get that page, click on "View Details" on the right. Now click on "edit" on the Registrant line.

When you are done, scroll down and click Save. You will be alerted to your charges and how you will pay for them.