PCR Layout Design and Operations meet, Sacramento, Jan 31 - Feb 2, 2025

My favorite model railroad event, the PCR (Pacific Coast Region) Layout Design and Operations meet, is happening this year in Sacramento at the California State Railroad Museum, January 31 to February 2, 2025. Like always, the meet's a mix of talks about design and operation, layout visits, and opportunities to try model railroad operations on layouts in the Bay Area. Friday will have a tour of the NMRA "Magic of Model Railroading" exhibit at the museum led by exhibit instigator Charlie Getz. Saturday's talks will be in the auditorium at the museum. We'll get to tour layouts in the Sacramento area on Saturday night. Operating sessions at local model railroads will be on Sunday. Like last year, you can also attend virtually if you're not in the area or want to enjoy the presentations from your home.

Get more information at www.bayldops.com. You must get tickets in advance at EventBrite. Virtual tickets give you access to watch the presentations and ask questions via a Zoom video conference. In-person tickets also include the Zoom link in case of last minute travel problems.

Like past years, we'll also be offering free layout design and operations consulting, in Sacramento or virtually. Check the website

to sign up for a session.

Bruce Morden is again running the layout design challenge, this time encouraging modelers to build a modular layout based on Sacramento's R Street industrial district. Read the layout design challenge and contact Bruce to become one of the challengers.

I love the Layout Design and Operations meet because it pulls together a fun group of folks: interested in modeling specific locations, railroad history, imitating the real railroads' operating practices, and just interested in understanding what the real railroads were about. It's also a great meet if you're curious about any of these topics. The invites to operate on local model railroads got me interested in model railroad operations, and helped me understand the differences between running trains on my own versus working with a dozen other people to get trains moving on a large layout. If you're considering a new layout, or thinking about operations on an existing layout, you can sign up for time to talk with others about what you're building and what options you might consider.

Hope to see you there!

Movie Night XXXI: Interurban Era visits the Vasona Branch!

I'd mentioned YouTuber Interurban Era visited in October; we caught some pictures of his Caltrain electric locomotive model in front of the Market Street Station. At the same time, he also captured some video of some of the Alta California rolling stock braving the Santa Cruz mountains. If you've wanted to see the whole layout on video (which I've wanted to do but never got around to), Miles did a great job showing off the layout, both as railroad scenes and showing the overall layout.

Pop some popcorn and watch his visit to the Vasona Branch here!