Clinics

Our lives are complicated, rushed, and frustrating – a model railroad shouldn’t be. Riley presents an alternative and perhaps iconoclastic viewpoint of model railroading that values simplicity in design, construction, and operations of a layout and challenges the typical approach and definitions of success in a hobby that usually promotes large, complicated layouts in frenetic environments.

Examples from Riley’s Port of New York Railroad (PoNYRR) and other layouts will show how simplicity allows a layout owner to provide a friendly, engaging experience. This is accomplished through straightforward layout design, battery-powered wireless control systems, clear operating schemes powered by a No.2 pencil, and realistic replication of train crew actions. This takes place in a calm, low-stress, welcoming environment any new or experienced operator can appreciate and find rewarding. This clinic will also explain how simplicity can provide a focused environment to experience and enjoy the complexity of railroading using Brakeman! a serious(ly) fun operating system.

Riley will also present Advanced Operation Activities following this clinic.

About the Presenter

Riley Triggs is an architect, urbanist, historian, design educator, and lifelong model railroader. He is an architectural project manager and an architecture professor where he explores the emotional space shared by people and the built environment that create personal identity and authentic experiences of place. He uses this research approach to model the Port of New York (ponyrr.blogspot.com) and to recreate the experience of railroading in Hoboken, NJ and the Port of New York in 1959.

Riley is currently the Publications Department Manager for the NMRA and formerly held many roles in the hobby: Lone Star Region magazine editor, President of the Austin Model Railway Society, editor of the Layout Design Journal, Lone Star Region board member, 2023 national convention marketing chair, regional convention clinic chair and other volunteer roles. He has given clinics at local, regional, and national conventions, been published in Model Railroader, Marker Lamp, Layout Design Journal, and he has appeared on NMRAx, Modelers Life, and Around the Layout.