The scale miles around the
entire layout was 116 miles and at a scale speed of 30-40 miles/
hour it took over three hours to make the complete loop. At one time there were 93 DCC controlled
trains on the Red line running around the loop. This was one of the largest layouts ever assembled. The
overall layout was 50,000 square feet with 702 N-Trak modules in
the layout. See the diagram below. The scale miles around the
entire layout was 116 miles and at a scale speed of 30-40 miles/
hour it took over three hours to make the complete loop. At one time there were 93 DCC controlled
trains on the Red line running around the loop.
Our Loop, Loop 4, came together nicely and we had very few problems. The Loop consisted of groups from Ottawa Valley N-Trak, Northwest N-Trak (Chicago area), CINTRAK from the Cincinnati area, Jersey Central N-Trak, DENTRAK from Denver, Milwaukee N-Trak and of course GRVS. The loop was completed by Friday noon and we had trains running by early Friday evening. As with large shows like this we did not ‘own’ the Red Line. That line was strictly under control of the DCC group. We did run on both the Yellow and Blue Lines within the loop. The Yellow line was broken into 8 blocks and we used the original N-Trak throttles to control each block. The Blue line was run using a DCC set up from Northwest N-Trak. They used a Lenz system that allows the use of cordless phones for wireless control and it worked very well.
There were also the usual vendors, dealers and manufacturers from all over along with a banquet, manufacturers breakfast, clinics and Room Sales. Room Sales is a unique event at the National N-Scale Conventions. Sellers post their room numbers and ‘operating hours’ on a board in the registration center. You then go room to room looking at what is being offered.If you get a chance to attend either an NMRA or a National N-Scale Convention I would highly recommend you give either one of them a try. There is going to be an NMRA Convention in Milwaukee in 2010 to celebrate the 75th anniversary of the NMRA. Consider doing at least one national show.
