Every year, the National Railway Historical Society hold their National Convention in some railroad-oriented city in the U.S., with the next one scheduled for June 16th-22nd, 2008 in Fort Worth, Texas.  Since the Society is divided into regional Chapters, this one will be hosted by the North Texas Chapter.  I don't expect to attend this one, as it's probably too late to make reservations and in any case I'm not sure if I'll even be in the country, but in two previous years, in 1995 and 1998, I did attend, and in 1998 my Chapter, the Utica & Mohawk Valley Chapter, shared some of the responsibilities with the host, the Central New York Chapter, as the two Chapters are based only an hour's drive apart.  Every NRHS Convention features lectures, slide shows, train shows (the real kind more than the models), model trains, and of course excursions, whenever possible with steam locomotives.  Both 1995 and 1998 were fine Conventions in this regard. 
    The 1995 NRHS Convention was the more dramatic of the two, having far more steam locomotives present and being both the 50th Anniversary Convention and the Grand (Re)Opening of Steamtown in Scranton, PA, although the Convention was hosted by the Lancaster Chapter.  Among these aforementioned steam locomotives, in attendance were former Milwaukee Road #261, Reading Blue Mountain & Northern #425, NYS&W #142, and the locomotives of Steamtown National Historic site.  In addition, there were also a number of preserved first and second generation-diesel locomotives, most notably the recently-restored ex-Reading FP7 diesels, #902 and 903.
    I took many, many photos during the 1995 Convention, and until recently I only had a small handful on Flickr and iPernity.  In the past week, I've been uploading the photos that I do have, and on iPernity I plan an album based on the 1995 Convention.  In addition, in relation to the NRHS (but not the Convention), I have a video show scheduled for the 20th of December at the Kirland Town Library in Clinton, NY.  The show starts at 7:00p.m., and admission is free, so all are invited.  The title of the show is "British Trains 2003-2004," which is also the title of the video.  Hope to see you all there!!