PCR San Francisco Bay Area
Layout Design & Operations
Weekend Meet
February 2 - 4, 2024
Finley Community Center, Santa Rosa CA.
and online via Zoom
Sponsored by:
Pacific Coast Region - NMRA
Layout Design Special Interest Group
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We’re in the North Bay this year!
Finley Community Center
2060 West College Ave.
Santa Rosa CA 95401
MAP
Get in-person and online tickets at EventBrite.
Welcome to the 2024 S.F. Bay Area Layout Design & Operations Meet! This will be our 31st annual meet!
The Bay Area Layout Design and Operations meet is a model railroading event for modelers interested in model railroad design, model railroad operations, railroad and local history, or any related topic.
The event is a mix of clinics and talks, in-person events, and tours of model railroads in the San Francisco Bay Area. We also invite attendees to participate in operating sessions on local model railroads, and especially invite folks who haven't done operations before to join in. If you've like feedback or advice on model railroad design, you can sign up for a layout design consulting session where you can brainstorm or seek advice from other modelers about your future layout design.
This meet is open to ALL model railroaders, regardless of club affiliation or membership. NMRA, PCR, or LDSIG membership is NOT required!
The 2024 meet will be a hybrid event. You can attend Saturday clinics in-person at Finley Community Center in Santa Rosa, CA, or you can partipate in the clinics via Zoom. Recordings of the clinics will be available to all registered attendees after the event.
Get in-person and online tickets at EventBrite.
Friday's tour and dinner, Saturday night layout tours, and Sunday operating sessions are in-person.
Friday night social dinner will be at Chevy's in Railroad Square, Santa Rosa. Come have dinner with your fellow attendees in the former Petaluma and Santa Rosa Railroad depot! Buy tickets for dinner when you register at EventBrite.
Staying in Santa Rosa? The meet doesn't have an official hotel, but check out the list of nearby hotels and motels where you might stay.
Saturday raffle prizes provided by Miniprints, Model Railroad Control Systems, the Loose Caboose hobby store in Napa, Just Trains in Concord, and TSG Multimedia!
See the full schedule for the 2024 meet here.
You're invited to test your operational switching skills with a switching puzzle. Read the switching puzzle beforehand or during the clinics, and work out your moves. We'll give you a solution at the end of the program on Saturday. Match your skills against Michael Leavell, the solution presenter and the owner of the N-scale layout upon which this puzzle is based.
As we've done in the past, we will again offer FREE layout design and operations consultations to meet attendees. If you are planning a layout, please have your "Givens & Druthers", maps, sketches, and other materials available as digital files to get a free consultation from group members! They can also help with questions about operating your layout, including how to get started. After you register, you'll get an e-mail with details on how to request a layout design or operations consulting session.
Layout Planning and Ops consultation sessions will take place via Zoom at a time convenient for the volunteer consultant and the help-seeker outside of the scheduled Meet hours. The number of sessions offered may be limited by consultant availability. Sign-ups will close on January 27, 2024.
Every year, we propose a layout design challenge and encourage interested attendees to design a model railroad based on the challenge and discuss their design choices and tradeoffs during the Challenge session during the clinics.
This year's theme invites you to design a model railroad based on two locations local to our event. The railroads and areas for your challenge consideration are the Northwestern Pacific Tiburon Ferry Terminal and shops area, and the Petaluma & Santa Rosa Railroad either in Petaluma or Santa Rosa.
Read more about the challenge rules and how to participate. Contact Bruce Morden (brucedmorden@gmail.com) now if you'd like to participate in the challenge.
There's no official hotel for the event, but there's plenty of hotels in the Santa Rosa area where you might stay. Here's a partial list close to the Findley Community Center. Rates are for single rooms.
Details on last year's 2023 Layout Design and Operations meet.
Page maintained by: Robert Bowdidge.