Mr Fixit Wrote:I think we are all a little jealous Justin, meeting T.K and the MR staffers.
You showed great restraint by only buying two books and a freight car.
Glad you didnt by lunch that would have cost more than all the above items and really broken the budget. 
Damn those convention and sports caterers charge like wounded bulls. 
Mark
Well.. I only had about $60 to spend, I still have $6 left over, but I am saving that to subscribe to RMC, They gave me a coupon at the Train Show, 1 year for $25 !
T.K. Is a very nice guy, He even said "Thank You" after he gave me his autograph.
I was about to question why T.K. said Thank You after signing an autograph for you and then I remembered that you had just purchased his book from him.
Pity you didnt get a photo of you two as well to put in the book as a keep sake.
Mark
railohio Wrote:Here are some photos of the train show from the folks at Carstens Publications:
National Train Show 2011
Thanks for the link! I now realize that the Associate Editor of Railfan & Railroad was the one that sold me "The V&O Story"
The future convention schedule is as follows: 2012 Grand Rapids, Mi, 2013 Atlanta, Ga, 2014 Cleveland, Oh, 2015 Portland, Or.
Woohoo! If I start saving now, maybe I can afford to go to Portland in 2015! If it's still running, I could even take Amtrak Cascades to get there!
Glad you had fun (and showed tremendous restraint!) Justin!
Galen
The only NTS I have been to was the Portland Oregon one in 94? I had no idea at that time how big of an event this show really was, being as I was only 13 or 14 years old. I think I only ended up seeing about 20% of what was there as my Father took me and really had no interest in trains. I am planting the seed now to convince the wife that Grand Rapids is a nice vacation spot next summer...WISH ME LUCK!! Probably will be the Portland show 2015 that I actually will make it to....
Greg, go to the web site and find all of the non-rail activities that they have planned. See if there is something there that would interest your wife. Another thing, the conventions typically open for registration on Sunday afternoon, but actually start on Monday morning,, and run through Thursday evening. The NTS opens on Friday morning through Sunday evening. If there is something that your wife would like to see either on the way up or back, you can also use that to persuade her. Also typically, the cost to sign up your wife for the non-rail activities is about the 1/2 the price of the convention. At this point my wife and I are planning to go the Portland for the convention in 2015, and she is planning to see all of the things in Portland that I will miss while doing trains.