As much fun as we had at Sacramento, and as much as I've posted about (more to come!), I think my efforts at photodocumenting the National Train Show (and some related stuff), totally fades in comparison to the efforts of Harry Wong.

Go see his over 450 photos of the train show, and all of the new products, at http://www.pbase.com/tracktime/nts2011pix&page=all

Normally at the National Train Show, we tend to interview/videotape various hobby manufacturers, with the occasional layout and hobby notable added in as well.

This year, we got to interview someone who doesn't fit in the above categories - although based on his skills, I think he should be notable in his own right.

Yes, I know I'm posting this on Sunday - it's been a bit busy out here so this is likely to be a bit short. 

Friday we didn't do any video interviews, preferring to get set up an discover what was at the show. I was very busy going back and forth between various manufacturers and our photo booth where Charlie Comstock turned models into 3D Click'n'Spin photographs.  

I was asked to go take some photos of the Lego layouts here at the 2011 National Train Show. As I normally do, I went overboard....

We started "construction" of the MRH booth at the National Train Show on Thursday afternoon. Some vendors/manufacturers had been there since Wednesday, and some of the larger ones like Athearn and Walthers had theirs all set up and were gone by the time we got there. 

Okay, Day 4, otherwise known as Thursday, is getting split in two - sort of like Wednesday was. Prior to noon I was at the convention - after noon, it was all Train Show. 

Part of my day on Wednesday was spent on my first ever layout bus tour - I've done the LD-SIG tour before, but those are self-guided ones. I picked this tour for a couple reasons - it only took up one afternoon, so I didn't miss as many clinics as I would have on a full-day tour, and it was the cheapest as well. 

Our first stop was at Scott Robertson's On30 Never Done and Always Changing:

Wednesday at X2011 was a busy day for me - before I really thought about it, I scheduled myself for a bus tour called "The Rocklin Rocket" - six local layouts in six hours, from 1pm to 7pm. The problem with that is that it meant I couldn't go on the Layout Design SIG tour. However, I think the rest of the MRH crew did, so hopefully you'll see the photos from those layouts in their posts. I also discovered when I got here that I'd "won" the lottery to attend a workshop on airbrushing by Scotty Mason - which started at 7pm.

I had a nice little blog post ready to roll out last night.... and I hit the wrong key and blew it away. Serves me right for not following my own instructions in doing long posts in Notepad or some other text editor and then doing the cut n paste thing.... 

This morning I rewrote it... about 3 times as long as it was. This is going to take several follow-on comments. Now, for the blog entry:

We leave around 5:30am tomorrow morning... need to be there in time for Charlie Comstock's first clinic at 7:30pm on Avoiding the Pitfalls of Model Railroad Photography.

BTW - I just opened up my Guidebook app for X2011 and it told me there was an update available. I like this thing! See http://model-railroad-hobbyist.com/node/5394 for more information on getting the X2011 Guidebook app for both Android an iPhone/iPad.

I'm ready - let's get to Sacramento!