Basic information

Convention Overview

• Great Bay Area layouts to see
• Top-level clinics by some of the nation’s best modelers
• Extensive operating opportunities on large layouts
• Tons of info on prototype modeling, practices & operation
• High-tech focus
• Ride narrow gauge, speeders and traction
• Celebrity Banquet Speaker (to be disclosed later)
• Beautiful Bay Area sights, natural beauty and attractions
• Fine dining, wineries and cultural opportunities

HOSTED BY 21ST CENTURY LIMITED

CO-SPONSORED BY PACIFIC COAST REGION OF NATIONAL MODEL RAILROAD ASSOCIATION

TOP RAIL ATTRACTIONS

In and Around Santa Clara

• California State Railroad Museum with new NMRA Gallery Exhibit on the Magic of Model Railroading (Sacramento)
• Roaring Camp & Big Trees Narrow Gauge Railroad
• Niles Canyon Railroad (Newark)
• Western Railway Museum (Rio Vista)
• San Francisco Cable Cars and Muni Light Rail
• Caltrain with frequent service from San Jose to San Francisco on the original Coast Line—including the historic 1875 Santa Clara Station
• Santa Clara Valley Light Rail
• SMART Light Rail (Sonoma County)
• Amtrak’s Coast Starlight on the Original Coast Line
• Ardenwood Park – Steam Tractors
• Golden Gate Live Steamers
• Walnut Creek Model Railroad Club
• Tri-Cities Model Railroad Society
• Silicon Valley Lines (San Jose) club
• West Bay Model Railroad Club (Menlo Park)

TOP NON-RAIL ATTRACTIONS

In and Around Santa Clara

• Great America Theme Park – Roller coasters & more
• Gorgeous Monterey Bay and Monterey Aquarium
• Yosemite Valley
• Three wine regions – Livermore, Santa Cruz Mountains, Napa
• Spectacular Big Sur coastline
• Levi’s Stadium - $1 billion home of the SF 49ers with tours, museum and great dining
• Tech Museum of Santa Clara County
• Computer History Museum (Mountain View)
• SAP Arena (San Jose) with concerts and shows
• Filoli – English country house with elaborate gardens (Woodside)
• Numerous Michelin-starred restaurants

COMFORTABLE HOTEL

Superb weather is assured! Contract room rate is $199/night. There are plenty of alternative hotels and motels around Santa Clara.

Oh Goody

My stepson and his wife live only 2 miles away. No hotel bill.

Mike

The Marriott

If anything is going to be a problem about going to Santa Clara, it is going to be the hotel. The sign here at the convention says that the convention room rate will be $199/night. That may be reasonable for the area, but it is probably going to make a lot of people take a long hard look before committing to a near $2k hotel bill. 

@AndreChapelon

@ AndreChapelon - if that makes you pretty sure you will attend in 2021 and you want to take advantage of our 2019 convention on-site registration promotion ($89 registration fee if paid by cash or check, $99 by card), and you are not in Salt Lake City this week, contact me by private message in the MRH system and we can get you signed up this week with the discount. This offer ends on Friday at 5:00PM SLC time.

@patentwriter

Thanks for the offer, but I’m not willing to commit two years out even if my hotel costs will be free. Given the savings, I’m willing to pay a higher fee for waiting.

Mike 

i am amazed there is no

i am amazed there is no mention of rail town up in jamestown.

http://www.parks.ca.gov/?page_id=491

or the amador central

http://www.amadorcentralrailroad.com/Amador-Central-Railroad-events

or all the wines up in the "gold country".

just not as published as out of the napa area.

all with a better climate, less smog. and much less traffic.

and the added benefit of not being in the way over crowed sf bay area.

I Know Why

Both Jamestown and Ione are at least a 2.5 hour one way drive from Santa Clara in a private car. A bus would take longer.

Both towns are really small towns and not set up to take large influxes of people all at once.

There are rail attractions significantly closer to the convention. The Sierra Railway is nice, but you’re talking an all day round trip at a minimum. Same with Ione and all you get is speeders there.

I actually take exception to some of the non rail venues mentioned for the convention.

Yosemite is nearly a four hour drive one way on a good day. It will be absolutely mobbed in July. Anyone from out of state trying to get there is going to get very frustrated and curse the name of whoever suggested it.

Monterey Bay, Aquarium, Big Sur. All beautiful. The fly in the ointment is that the you can get some horrendous traffic backups either going to or getting out of the area even on workdays as there is essentially only 1 way into/out of Monterey, Highway 1. Actually you can get screwed up both ways traffic wise. If you’re going to Big Sur, you’re going through Monterey, period. If you want to visit the village of Carmel, you’re going through Monterey.  How do I know all this? I live in Monterey. While the busiest tourist times are on the weekends, once summer rolls around, things can be pretty busy during the week. 

Mike

Advance Section

We'll include Railtown 1897 (Jamestown) and Amador in future materials. The absolute distance to or from Santa Clara is not the only way to look at these attractions. Some people may choose to go to more distant places in the week or days before or after the convention. Thus we're not proposing Sacramento, Yosemite and so forth as day trips or convention tours, but as additional reasons to come into the general area for a couple of weeks.

Getting There, Staying There?

With respect to Yosemite, regardless of whether or not someone were to attempt it as a day trip, the truth is that it will be mobbed in July. Personally, I wouldn’t recommend Yosemite for that time of year, without the proviso that reservations for accommodations be made as far in advance as possible and a “don’t blame me, I warned you disclaimer”

With respect to “wine” country and for people who want a relaxing few days either before or after the convention. I’d recommend the wine growing region around Paso Robles. It’s farther out, but has some advantages the Napa/Sonoma region doesn’t. It’s not as well known, but there are a significant number of good wineries available for visit. Additionally, it’s less than an hour’s drive from Hearst Castle. Add to that a leisurely drive up to the Monterey/Carmel area up Highway 1 through some spectacular coastal scenery including the elephant seal rookery near San Simeon. It would make for a pleasant 3 day or so round trip from Santa Clara, staying overnight in Paso Robles or Cambria and a night in the Monterey area. Now that I think of it, people might need more time.

Things to do in Monterey:

1. Whale watching cruise, meal on the wharf, visit to Monterey History and Maritime Museum.

2. Aquarium visit, leisurely stroll through Cannery Row, drive along Ocean View Ave. past Lover’s Point, the Point Piños Lighthouse and Asilomar. Go for a drive on 17 mile drive.

I’ll have to add more later. We’re in Telford, UK and my wife is urging me into the shower as we’re driving up to Llandudno for a 3 day stay to see Conwy and Caernarfon Castles as well as ride the Welsh Highland Railway, among other things.

Mike

Website soft launched

NMRA 2021 Rails By The Bay invites every NMRA member to visit the beautiful San Francisco Bay Area to experience a fabulous convention with the world’s top modelers as well as your friends. Santa Clara, California, our host city, offers an exceptional summer climate and is near some of the nation’s best layouts and most interesting rail and non-rail attractions.

Rails By The Bay is headquartered at the Santa Clara Marriott Hotel from July 4-11, 2021.  The host hotel offers comfortable accommodations and is less than a mile from the National Train Show venue. The hotel is adjacent to California’s Great America Theme Park and Levi’s Stadium. It’s just a short drive to local rail attractions such as the Niles Canyon Railway, Ardenwood Farm Historic Park, and Roaring Camp Railroads. Further afield, but still easy day trips, are unique Bay Area attractions such as San Francisco with its cable cars, and the expansive California State Railroad Museum, one of the largest in the world.

The convention will have everything you enjoy, with emphasis on prototype modeling, operations, and technology. After all, Silicon Valley History is right next door at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, the HP Garage, the Intel Museum, and the Tech Museum in downtown San Jose. Expect informative clinics and hands-on learning opportunities such as Modeling with the Masters®. We'll have famous clinicians that you read about in major model railroad magazines, presenting topics that they’ve explored in depth.

We’re working hard on layout tours and we have initial commitments that should allow you to see well-known layouts such as the Yosemite Valley Railroad by Jack Burgess, Jim Dias’ Western Pacific, Robert Bowdidge’s Southern Pacific, Seth Neuman’s Union Pacific Oakland Sub, Ted Stephens’ Hallett Cove Southern, and David Parks’ Cumberland West, to name a few.

We'll offer tours of the area’s best attractions, such as the Santa Cruz Mountains wine region, Filoli Estate & Garden, other museums and cultural sites, and many of the venues mentioned above.

A dedicated team of volunteers is working to make this a great convention. Online registration hotel bookings will open shortly. 2020 has been a year unlike any other, and we appreciate your patience and positive support as we continue to develop the convention under challenging conditions. Visit http://www.nmra2021.com for initial information.

Registration

While i have a user name and password, I have not found on the site a registration button or page or pdf registration form to download. Will there be one soon?

John

Yet another convention question...

I guess the question has to be asked, as 2020 and 2022 have been cancelled either directly or indirectly to Covid, is there any cutoff date for this event?

There's no potential timeframe for a vaccine at this time, and most model train events have already been cancelled to the end of 2020.

Dont get me wrong, I really want this event to take place, as maybe I might get down to that one, just wondering as a lot of ink was wasted to promote this year's convention...

Better to plan and cancel...

Than not to plan and fail miserably.

Not that I don't doubt the crew in that area couldn't pull a convention together in less than 3 months... there's a lot of experience there.

2022

Wasn't 2022 suppose to be outside of the USA?

I'm going to pass this time....

That's a high cost location and there are lots of other reasons that make that location unattractive to me.

2022 was supposed to be Birmingham, England

However, knock on effects of the Olympics getting pushed back a year took over all the event venues.

I believe there are some plans, by somebody, to try and get St. Louis into 2022 but I do not know where, if anywhere, those plans have gone.. Dallas has 2023 already reserved.

No “cutoff date”

The 2021 convention doesn’t have a “cutoff date”; the committee is operating at throttle notch 8 and expecting the convention to go forward.

COME. LEARN. SHARE... MODEL RAILROADING IS OUR PASSION

Have you learned a special technique for your model railroad or while building or weathering some of your rolling stock?  Would you like to share some of that learning with other model railroaders?  Please consider giving a clinic at a model railroad convention.

Clinics are typically 45 to 50 minutes long. 

If you really enjoy giving clinics, the National NMRA Rails to the Bay convention is coming to Santa Clara from July 4, 2021-July 10, 2021.  You have more than a year to prepare.  For Santa Clara, we are looking for clinics with a definite prototype flavor so anything about your favorite prototype is fair game.   We are planning for over 250 clinics spread over the Sunday to Saturday run of the convention.

If you have an interest in presenting a clinic at Santa Clara, please contact Bruce Morden at clinics@nmra2021.com.

Plan B?

Hoping....

I'm still hoping to get over, combining it with a trip via the West coast of Canada, but it will depend on what my travel insurance will cost, as there is so much to arrange individually.

Plan B - Not at this time, but the idea is appreciated ...

... and I'll convey it to the planning committee. We're grateful for the interest in an alternative and will take the suggestion seriously.

For the record, there are

For the record, there are plenty of cheaper places to stay in Silicon Valley if that is your hangup. You will be driving or taking the train to get to the convention, but they are plentiful. 

The site checks all the boxes

California - ✓ Bay Area - ✓ Contributing to the tax base of that hell hole - ✓ Three good reasons for which gladly I WILL NOT be attending.

that hell hole?

You must lead a very pampered life if you consider Santa Clara a hell hole. Most folks think it's pretty nice with the Pacific ocean and Santa Cruz mountains to the west and south, Valley oaks and Sierra Nevada to the east, Russian river wine country to the north and the Train Shop right in the middle. The property values suggest many folks enjoy this hell?  :> ) .....DaveB