As expected, Day 3 of the NMRA National in Anaheim turned out to be especially busy for me. I had three (count them, THREE) clinics to give - all back to back. And as if that wasn't enough to make life interesting, we also videoed all three! Talk about a major hardware and setup scramble ...

But the good news is: it all came off without a hitch! (Click image on the left to enlarge.) My first clinic, the Siskiyou Line Potpourri contained a lot of updates as to what's new on my layout, plus quite a bit on my "quality of run" philosophy. As a die-hard operations guy, I base everything I do in the hobby on my ultimate end goal: having realistic op sessions. I also talked about a key area in which you should focus your efforts if you want a well running layout - and that's on super-reliable turnouts.

I also mentioned my latest project, Model Railroading Hobbyist magazine - including a quick demo of the sample issue!

 Next came my DCC - the good, the bad, and the ugly clinic. (Bruce Petrarca of Litchfield Station stopped in to point out to me, in jest, that I had stolen his clinic name ! Apparently he had used a very similar name for some clinic's he'd presented in times past ...) The DCC clinic went very well, with lots of good audience comments and questions. (Click image on the left to enlarge.) I briefly mentioned MRH magazine at the end of that clinic as well.

My DCC clinic includes my experiences using three different DCC systems: first Lenz (1993 - 2000), then EasyDCC (2000 - 2007) and most recently, NCE (2007+). I discussed the importance of good DCC short management, DCC friendly turnouts, and the woes of BlueLine dual-decoder locos. Many in the clinic came up afterwards to share their agreement with my frustrations of using BlueLine sound locos.

 After two clinics back-to-back, I had to rush off to my final clinic of the day - a shared panel discussion among several past editors of the Layout Design SIG's Journal publication. While a bit harried getting to yet another back-to-back clinic, I found participating in this clinic to be a special delight! All of the other past editors are personal friends of mine, and we always have a great time together.

These guys represent quite a collection of layout designers brain trust, and talking about quality layout design with them really gets the ol' gears a turning! (From left to right in the photo - me, Dave Clemens, Doug Gurin, and Byron Henderson - click image on the left to enlarge.)

I'm pleased to say all three of these clinics have been video'ed. I'll be posting my first two clinics on MRH Theater, and the editor panel discussion, I'll be posting on the Layout Design SIG's wiki. MRH Theater visitors will find a link to the editor panel discussion, making it easy to go view that content if you'd like some layout design philosophy from the likes of these 4 ex-LD SIG Journal editors. I might also mention Doug Gurin founded the Layout Design SIG in the 1980s, and always amazes me with his layout design insights - even now after being an avid LD SIG member for some 20+ years.

Thus ended day 3 - a busy one for me. Tomorrow - the LD SIG layout tours!