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Convention Hotel

Renaissance Center

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The venue for this years convention in Detroit was GM’s Renaissance Center. This is quite an impressive building with reasonable room rates. We managed to get a room on the top floor of the center tower, 70 stories up. We were right under the white stripe on the near the top. The top three floors are GM offices.

Needless to say the view was spectacular.

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Our room faced the river and looked back into Windsor. Vita would not come within two feet of the windows, which span from the floor to the ceiling. Its a bit disturbing to look straight down!

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It was a pretty good spot for taking pictures, except the windows were dirty. Too bad I couldn’t open one, I’d crawl right out there.

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With the 300mm lens I was able to get shots of the railway across the river in Windsor. Our room looked directly down this line. Not sure what line it is though.

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With a west facing room, we were treated to some spectacular sunsets. The smog really helps generate some impressive skies!

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This was taken a few minutes before a thunderstorm rolled through. That was quite a spectacle.

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The hotel was full of cars and what looked like interesting displays. I never actually made it to any of them. While the place is an impressive structure, it is without question the most confusing place I have ever been in. Ask anyone who was there, it must have been designed by some sadistic mouse in a maze dropout. Several times I simply gave up from exhaustion trying to find a restaurant or lounge or anything for that matter. Every time I went up to the room it was a different route, and not intentionally!

-Tim

About the Author:

I'm your host, Tim Warris, a product developer in Port Dover, Ontario. Since March of 2007 I have been documenting the construction of the former CNJ Bronx Terminal in HO scale. For my day job, I design track building tools for Fast Tracks, a small company I own and operate. Fast Tracks makes it fast and easy to hand lay your own trackwork. Stop by our website to learn more!

Posted by: Tim | 08-03-2007 | 10:08 AM
Posted in: 2007 NMRA Train Show - Detroit | Picture of the Day | Comments (2)

Coming up at 6….

CBC News Windsor

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On Friday we had a visit from CBC Windsor who were doing a piece on the large Canadian presence at the NMRA Train Show. Thanks to Clark we were selected for this story (I’ll get even with him later). I usually shy away from any media coverage, as they always, always get it so wrong and seem to want to put a campy spin on the hobby, but I figured maybe the CBC would do a better job.

Well, they did put an odd angle on the story, but at least it wasen’t the “choo choo whoo whoo” type. We managed to catch the story in the hotel later that evening, and had a pretty good laugh over it. I will see if I can get a copy of it from the CBC and post it here.

-Tim

About the Author:

I'm your host, Tim Warris, a product developer in Port Dover, Ontario. Since March of 2007 I have been documenting the construction of the former CNJ Bronx Terminal in HO scale. For my day job, I design track building tools for Fast Tracks, a small company I own and operate. Fast Tracks makes it fast and easy to hand lay your own trackwork. Stop by our website to learn more!

Posted by: Tim | 08-02-2007 | 10:08 AM
Posted in: 2007 NMRA Train Show - Detroit | Picture of the Day | Comments (1)

2007 NMRA Train Show

The Detroit Crew

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Me, Terry, Vita and Clark at the Fast Tracks booth last weekend in Detroit.

The show went very well and as usual was lots of fun, and lots of work. Not sure what the final attendance was yet, but it seems to be off a bit from the last two we attended. There were less exhibitors as well, but lots of stuff to take in.

I have lots of pictures that I will be posting over the next while, both from the train show and from our visit to the Henry Ford Museum the day after the show.

-Tim

About the Author:

I'm your host, Tim Warris, a product developer in Port Dover, Ontario. Since March of 2007 I have been documenting the construction of the former CNJ Bronx Terminal in HO scale. For my day job, I design track building tools for Fast Tracks, a small company I own and operate. Fast Tracks makes it fast and easy to hand lay your own trackwork. Stop by our website to learn more!

Posted by: Tim | 08-01-2007 | 11:08 AM
Posted in: 2007 NMRA Train Show - Detroit | Picture of the Day | Comments (1)

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