The NGRC 2006 Has Begun

This article from the www.largescaleonline.com Library

Industry News...
The NGRC 2006 Has Begun
By Noel Widdifield
Jul 5, 2006, 04:10

The 22nd Annual National Garden Railway Convention opened on Monday in San Jose, California. The convention runs from Monday, July 3 to Sunday, July 9 at the Santa Clara Convention Center.

This convention features Garden Railway tours every day, beginning on Monday and lasting through Sunday. The railways are open for visitors on all of those days and bus tours are available on Thursday through Saturday. Jon, Jo Anne and Brian have been visiting these railroads and over 1,200 pictures have already been posted here on LSOL.com.

NGRC 2006 Pictures

There are over 30 clinics at the show and most run for one hour with a half hour intermission between the clinics. Our own David Bodnar will have a seminar on “Electronic Gadgets in the Garden” that will feature many of the unique electronic projects that David is known for on LSOL.com. His topics include an easy way to enable track-powered engines to glide over dirty track, microprocessor controlled engines, a multi-scale speedometer, and several other electronic projects of the quality we expect from David.

Some of the other clinics that are planned are listed below:

“Add a Little Magic, Creating a Fairy Garden”: Jennifer Turner-Wilkinson and Ellen Turner
“Ball Bearing Installation in Rolling Stock”: George Bellopatrick
“Basics of LGB Multi-Train System”: Jonathan Meador Jonathan is the product manager for LGB of America.
“BAGRS Short Line”: Bruce Jahn and Steve Russell
“Beginners Clinic”: Ken Martin
“Building the Central Pacific Railroad in the 1860s”: Steve Heselton
“Care & Feeding of LGB Trains”: Jonathan Meador
“Creative Effects for Garden Railways”: Paul Newitt
“Creating Geodesic Foam Scenery”: Joel Bragdon
“Disney’s Fort Wilderness Railroad, From Scale Depots to “G” Scale”: Michael Campbell
“Experiences of a Custom Railroad Builder”: Jack Verducci
“Fast and Easy Weathering”: Joel Bragdon
“Garden Lighting for Your Garden Railroad”: William Logan
"Great Gardening Tips & Tricks for Garden Railroaders” – A panel discussion with gardening experts Pat Hayward, Sue Piper & Nancy Norris
“How to get the Most out of the 22nd National Garden Railway Convention”: Convention Committee
“Introduction To Live Steam”: Marc Horovitz
“Kids Foil Figures”: Lake Phillips
“Look What’s Growing in the Garden”: Don Morris
“Model Railroads & Mountains”: Tau Rho Alpha
“Plastics for Garden Railroads”: Russ Miller
“Pneumatic Motion Control”: D.R. Manley
“Riding Your Garden Railway”: Matt Mason
“Roadbed and Natural Materials”: Paul Busse
“RTV Mold Making”: Joel Bragdon
“Small Scale Live Steam Locomotives”: Reg Shaffer
“Stereoscopic Railroad Images – Then and Now”: William Wissel
“The Carolwood Pacific – Walt Disney’s Garden R.R.”: Michael Campbell
“Water Ponds By “The Pond Guy”: Greg Wittstock
“Wood Bridges and Trestles for your Garden Railway”: Dave Connery

We will try to attend some of the clinics and post pictures on LSOL.com, as we have at all of the other Large Scale train shows this year.

There will be a model contest held during the convention that will include twelve categories ranging from locomotives to dioramas. All categories will receive awards from “First Place” to “Honorable Mention” and there will also be a “Best of the Show” award. The contest is for scratch built and kit based models only.

The convention will also include a Children’s Room that will have activities for the kids. There will be educational activities, layouts that children can operate and special events for kids that will help keep them entertained while they are at the convention.

This year there has been a pre-convention Great Western Rail Spectacular Tour lasting for 8 days and featuring 16 rides on real trains, six railroad museum tours and two dinner trains. Hopefully, one of our members took the tour and will post pictures or write an article for us on LSOL.com.

On Wednesday night, July 5, there will be the USA Trains Barbeque dinner at the San Jose Historic park and those attending will be able to spend time in the historic part of San Jose and ride the trolley featured there. This is a 14-acre park complete with historic streets, running trolleys and an old-fashioned ice cream shop. Original and reconstructed replicas of landmark buildings take visitors back to San Jose in the 1800's through the 1920's. It is possible to tour trolley barns and shops and take rides on these early modes of transportation.

The Ice Cream Social will be held on Thursday evening and Adolph Sutro is scheduled to visit with the attendees just before the official opening of the Exhibit Hall. This event will introduce attendees to the It’s-It Ice Cream Bar that was introduced to San Francisco’s Ocean Beach Amusement Park back in 1928.

Jack Burgess, an authority on the Yosemite Valley Railroad will be speaking at the Bachmann sponsored banquet on Saturday evening. The banquet will include entertainment and door prizes for those who attend.

The official convention car for the 22nd National Garden Railway Convention is an authentic replica of one of San Francisco’s Cable Cars. The model is build by Accucraft. The model is a first run with the 22nd NGRC graphic displayed on the car where advertising normally appears on the real car. The car is 1:24 scale and is track powered. The car is painted in the current colors for the San Francisco Powell and Market line (Maroon, white with tan trim.)

The convention store is selling Convention Polo Shirts, T-Shirts and hats. They also have DVD’s and VHS versions of movies of many of the railroads feature in the daily tours.

This year’s convention promises to be a great adventure for those attending and we will try to bring you coverage of all of the events so that you can get a feel for what the convention is about. Watch for daily photo and video coverage and for articles showing the vendors, clinics, the model contest and other activities at the 22nd Annual National Garden Railway Convention here on LSOL.com.