Since the National Model Railroad Association's (NMRA) Annual National Train Show and Convention has been cancelled this year (you can guess the reason), Gordy Robinson & Co. (of worldwide convention fame) have teamed up to provide an INTERnational NMRA convention, LIVE, over the internet!
Just like the IRL national convention, it lasts the Whole Week, starting this Sunday, July 12 and going Fifteen (15!) hours every day until Saturday night, July 18. That's almost two days' worth of clinics and presentations every day, from building your first layout, to layout design, structures & scenery, painting & weathering, operations, and more. Every day has a different theme and there'll be live roundtable discussions throughout - just like an actual convention, but from the comfort of your own home.
For all the details, including how to participate (you can access it via Facebook (you don't need a FB account) or YouTube) and a full schedule of all the proceedings, you can download the convention guidebook by clicking here or here, or by going to the NMRA's Facebook Group here and scrolling down the right hand side of the page under "Recent Group Files." If none of those options work for whatever reason, leave a comment below or send me an email and I'll send you the pdf file.
It should be pretty clear why this is a "Thankful Thursday" post . . . Not only am I thankful that, despite the current circumstances, we have technology that allows us to get "together" and share this hobby with each other, whether we're right down the road or literally on the other side of the world, but I'm especially thankful that there are folks that are so willing to step up and fill in the void left by so many event cancellations.
And it should also be pretty clear why this is also a "Friday Fun" post . . . because what could be more of a BLAST! than 105 hours of FREE clinics and presentations on this great hobby from all around the world?!
Heh - and it might be vaguely clear why I'm having this post do double-duty over two days. Not only do I want to get the word out . . . but I have a presentation myself to finish up! (my April presentation will be rerun Wednesday at 10a, but I'll be doing a live presentation on layout operations Saturday at noon).
So here's hoping you can spend some time with us at GATEWAY-X 2020. And if you can't sit in front of the computer (or on your phone or iPad) for 15 hours a day :^) don't worry, Gordy's recording everything and it'll all be available on the internets later, just like before.
Hope to see you there!
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