NSE Convention 2026 - Milwaukee

[Sokramiketes]

At the breakfast (which took most of the hour and a half to get folks through a single sided buffet line with lack of food…) they didn’t have a microphone available. So we only caught half of the announcements.

Micro-Trains by Atlas is looking at Fall release of trucks/couplers separate sale. They are printing bodies in Talent but have a backlog of 10s of thousands of bodies awaiting trucks couplers to finish.

New boxes from nPossible are imminent! 

Lowell Smith changed the tooling on the baggage dorm to make it a less obvious foobie.

Anyway, lots of fun to be had at the convention still. And Resourced Rails attended their first n scale convention with the goodies from their first n scale collection. Lots of deals there.

[Chris333]

There were painted samples of the Bachmann 4-6-0 and an early sample of the BLI 2-8-0's. Where are the pics!   

[fcnrwy23]

There was also an issue with the food at the banquet.. 

The 2026 Banquet "Car" is a Trailer.  There were issues with getting the NEW couplers and trucks received.







The Trailer comes with the usual, Extended and Retracted Landing Gear.
Also, the country of manufacturer is Vietnam...

Personally, My Open House tours on Friday, turnout very well received.. 
Not many people have ever seen a "Cranberry Bog", before...

Jerry

[Jimbo]

New boxes from nPossible are imminent! 

“Imminent” for me means I’ll see them within the next couple of weeks.  Unfortunately, I doubt we’ll see them within the next couple of months.

I really love how the product looks and performs, and unless one wants or requires magnetic uncoupling, it is a vastly superior coupler system.  But I’d like to see the say/do ratio improve regarding promises on availability of new conversion products.

Modeling season is still a couple months away, though, so as long as I can start getting these new products that have been promised by then, I’ll be reasonably happy.

Jim

[muktown128]

I spoke with Andrew about his nPossible couplers.  He took the time to show me how to assemble one.  I wonder how many times he has shown people how to do that.  I hope I'm not divulging any confidential info, but he said that Hiawatha Hobbies in Waukesha will be carrying these soon 

I wish I took pics of the BLI 2-8-0.  I wasn't thinking about that.  The 3D printed shell looked good, but once I saw the solid drivers, I was disappointed...

I did have a nice chat with Lowell Smith.

[milw156]

I spoke with Andrew about his nPossible couplers.  He took the time to show me how to assemble one.  I wonder how many times he has shown people how to do that.  I hope I'm not divulging any confidential info, but he said that Hiawatha Hobbies in Waukesha will be carrying these soon 

Thanks for the news of Hiawatha Hobbies carrying these in the future, that's my LHS, even if it is 45 miles away! I took very few pictures and only a couple of videos, here is some hometown +/- railfanning on the Modutrak layout, although not nearly as interesting as Jim's car puller!

[Sokramiketes]

“Imminent” for me means I’ll see them within the next couple of weeks.  Unfortunately, I doubt we’ll see them within the next couple of months.

I really love how the product looks and performs, and unless one wants or requires magnetic uncoupling, it is a vastly superior coupler system.  But I’d like to see the say/do ratio improve regarding promises on availability of new conversion products.

Modeling season is still a couple months away, though, so as long as I can start getting these new products that have been promised by then, I’ll be reasonably happy.

Jim

One thing that I've come to appreciate about Andrew is how much iterative effort he puts in to making these things as clean and in tolerance as humanly possible.  So just know that delays are more "pursuit of perfection" than anything. 

It's wild to think these have only been on the market for ~11 months so far. I think you'll be happy by modeling season!

[Sokramiketes]

There was also an issue with the food at the banquet.. 

Jerry

Oof.  I assume most of the issues were with the hotel not having adequate planning staff to know how to host an event like this.  Not a fault of the NSE organizers.  But here's hoping they pick a better part of Milwaukee to highlight next time.  It's a great city, and the abandoned hotel next door, this worn out hotel, and the poor guest experience... wasn't showing off all Milwaukee has to offer. 

[Jimbo]

One thing that I've come to appreciate about Andrew is how much iterative effort he puts in to making these things as clean and in tolerance as humanly possible.  So just know that delays are more "pursuit of perfection" than anything. 

It's wild to think these have only been on the market for ~11 months so far. I think you'll be happy by modeling season!

Yeah… I get it.  He’s put a lot of himself into this product line.  And I’ll reiterate that it’s a fantastic product that, to me, is worth the investment of money and time to modify my fleet.

I’d just like to see more awareness from him on the realities of manufacturing and distribution challenges, and overestimate - rather than underestimate - expected deliveries.  (In fairness, we see these optimistic schedules even from the “big boys”.)

I am absolutely rooting for his success and have made a couple of contributions to the “N-Possible Journal” thread documenting some of my conversions.

Jim

[NSEGeorge]

Oof.  I assume most of the issues were with the hotel not having adequate planning staff to know how to host an event like this.  Not a fault of the NSE organizers.  But here's hoping they pick a better part of Milwaukee to highlight next time.  It's a great city, and the abandoned hotel next door, this worn out hotel, and the poor guest experience... wasn't showing off all Milwaukee has to offer.

Mike-

When we booked this location a year and a half ago, it was not worn out. Dick and Skip visit every hotel we consider prior to signing a contract, and we selected them because they had the space, they had the room price, and we love Milwaukee.

Then over the course of time, there were FOUR count them FOUR management changes. To top it off, the hotel was sold 4 weeks before we arrived and to a person everyone we had dealt with was gone. We had to work our way through every detail of the contract on the spot.

It has become more and more difficult to find a hotel that has the space for the layouts and the show and all of the events at a price that people want to pay. Milwaukee had a lot to offer, great tours, great layouts, great people.

In spite of working harder with a hotel staff- many of whom were on there first day of work- we had a great time for sure.

The hotel in Sacramento has just been renovated, they are close to the California State RR Museum, and we are working on a tour of their newly acquired renovation shops. We are looking for a local contact to help us gather the right layouts and train rides for our tour schedule, but we are making great progress on the next event.

NSEGeorge

[N Scale Train Boy]

Yeesh, sounds like a heck of a thing to battle through. Glad you guys pulled it off, looks like folks still had a great time. Unfortunately I doubt I'll be able to make Sacramento (We'll see though!) so I'm looking forward to when you come back out East in '28!

[KSTXFLID]

Mike-

When we booked this location a year and a half ago, it was not worn out. Dick and Skip visit every hotel we consider prior to signing a contract, and we selected them because they had the space, they had the room price, and we love Milwaukee.

Then over the course of time, there were FOUR count them FOUR management changes. To top it off, the hotel was sold 4 weeks before we arrived and to a person everyone we had dealt with was gone. We had to work our way through every detail of the contract on the spot.

It has become more and more difficult to find a hotel that has the space for the layouts and the show and all of the events at a price that people want to pay. Milwaukee had a lot to offer, great tours, great layouts, great people.

In spite of working harder with a hotel staff- many of whom were on there first day of work- we had a great time for sure.

The hotel in Sacramento has just been renovated, they are close to the California State RR Museum, and we are working on a tour of their newly acquired renovation shops. We are looking for a local contact to help us gather the right layouts and train rides for our tour schedule, but we are making great progress on the next event.

NSEGeorge

Amazing. Thanks for the insight.
I am looking forward to Sacramento.

[Sokramiketes]

Mike-

When we booked this location a year and a half ago, it was not worn out. Dick and Skip visit every hotel we consider prior to signing a contract, and we selected them because they had the space, they had the room price, and we love Milwaukee.

Then over the course of time, there were FOUR count them FOUR management changes. To top it off, the hotel was sold 4 weeks before we arrived and to a person everyone we had dealt with was gone. We had to work our way through every detail of the contract on the spot.

It has become more and more difficult to find a hotel that has the space for the layouts and the show and all of the events at a price that people want to pay. Milwaukee had a lot to offer, great tours, great layouts, great people.

In spite of working harder with a hotel staff- many of whom were on there first day of work- we had a great time for sure.

The hotel in Sacramento has just been renovated, they are close to the California State RR Museum, and we are working on a tour of their newly acquired renovation shops. We are looking for a local contact to help us gather the right layouts and train rides for our tour schedule, but we are making great progress on the next event.

NSEGeorge

Thanks George, I'm getting flashbacks to running RPM Chicagoland and the fun of hotel contracts.  The speed at which staff changes at these places can be a veritable nightmare.  That's why I figured it wasn't an NSE side issue. 

I eventually found a sweet spot between hotel capabilties and an event that "wasn't a wedding".  Food was always a hot spot... mostly because train guys are a meat-potatoes group, and will overfill a buffet plate!  And the 50/50 men/women mix that hotel catering usually uses doesn't calculate out right for our events.  Eventually we figured out plated meals were easier for the hotel staff than buffets, and they really worked to keep it a similar price point.  And experience wise, no one felt left out or that they didn't receive the same value.

Another thing I learned from our attendees... we worry more about price point than they do.  Value of the spend, and the experience, are everything.  And a couple additional bucks on hotel nights or in the entry fee to properly cover costs, well that's only a percentage of traveling to the site in a lot of cases!

Great time with great people, for sure.  Thanks to all that made it happen. 

[Point353]

https://travel.usnews.com/features/best-conference-cities-in-the-us

https://www.hospitalitynet.org/news/4133125/us-news-unveils-inaugural-2026-2027-best-conference-cities-and-best-conference-hotels

[Iain]

https://travel.usnews.com/features/best-conference-cities-in-the-us

https://www.hospitalitynet.org/news/4133125/us-news-unveils-inaugural-2026-2027-best-conference-cities-and-best-conference-hotels

I would go to an NSE in Portland, Minneapolis, or Boston.