So, after a very busy and distracting couple of days, I'll get back to my attendance at this event some two weeks ago now, but mostly still fresh and exciting in my memory!
In my prior thread on this .... as seen here:
https://www.officeofsteamforum.com/engine-shows/39th-annual-national-narrow-gauge-convention/ ... I covered a few of the related opportunities that were done in conjunction with the convention, but located at various venues outside of the actual convention site, which was at the DoubleTree Hilton itself. Things like the California State Railroad Museum, Sacramento Live Steamers, and a few of the more than fifty (50) home and club model railroads that were open specifically for convention members to tour, though a few of them were over 100 miles away. I didn't get to see very many of them myself simply because I experienced some rather serious car problems on the way over, and so instead of getting there fairly early on the first day, I didn't arrive until fairly late on the second day of the event. Because of that I missed several clinics on site that I would have liked to have attended, and also missed the opportunity to tour several of the local layouts that were only open on the first couple of days, or were conflicted timewise with others that I also wanted to see. Such is life I suppose!
Somehow, I didn't manage to take any photos of the vendors rooms, and I totally regret not doing so. There were two huge ballrooms completely full of vendors and representatives from most all of the typical manufacturers, wholesalers & retailers, authors & publishers, historical & preservation societies, etc. In fact those two ballrooms couldn't even hold them all, and later I found several more vendors tucked away in the corners of the Modular Layouts room and even the Model Competitions room. It was way too much to try and take in with only the limited time that I had ... but I gave it my best try anyway!
I also didn't take any photos during the many clinics that I did manage to attend, but I think it would have been rather rude if I had tried, and such a photo would only have dimly shown the speaker and whatever image he had up on the screen at the time, so would have been of little value or significance in any event. But just to give you a taste of what all was on offer from some very talented and knowledgeable people, here is a link to the on site Clinic Schedule:
https://www.nngc2019.org/activities/clinics/Please note that there are clickable links inside this link, that give details of each of the clinics on offer, and also the schedule of when available in two sets of three sessions each day, morning and evening, with six clinic held simultaneously during each session. Even with most clinics being given more than once, there were still conflicts where I couldn't catch multiples at the same time, so ended up missing some in order to catch others. Never a regret about the ones I did make it too, but I'm sure some of the ones I missed were just as good, and certainly wish I could have attended them as well. Most were fully attended to seating capacity, while others were truly standing room only, and only a couple were less than completely full, but even those were just as good, though perhaps covering a lesser known or more niche subject.
With over 1300 attendees, thing could get a little hectic in the scramble between clinics!!!
I'll post here again later, with some pictures from the Model Contest room, after reviewing and organizing some of my photos. I must confess up front though, that my pictures don't do true justice to the quality of most of what was on offer in a number of different categories. I've been a modeller all my life, and have made some pretty nice things, but what I saw here made me blush over the inadequacy of my best efforts, and caused me to bounce my chin off the floor on a number of occasions .... but we'll get to that later.
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