Thank you for visiting!
These web pages provide information about the 2011 O Scale West meet.
If you didn't arrive on this page via the O Scale West home page, please click the O Scale West home page, for general information, particularly what you can expect in the way of meet activities.
There is a limit on the number of entries in the contest. The maximun number of entries per category by one entrant is two entries except for the Display category where the limit is four entries.
We need to vacate the ballroom by 6:00 PM on Saturday, a little sooner than in previous years, so table renters please plan your move out accordingly.
Activities on Thursday, January 27 include registration, packet pick up for those who are pre-registered, clinics, layout visits (must be registered to get the layout visits map packet), and videos. Dealers move in and set up on Thursday, along with the visiting layouts.
For registrations postmarked before January 1, 2011, the cost to enter the meet is $30. This is a one time fee and is good for all days of the meet, and includes you, your spouse, and children (yours or not) under 18. The cost per table for rental is $40. Tables require pre-registration as we sell out and may not have tables available for those who walk up and want to rent at table. There is no extra charge for electrical service, but we need to know in advance that you need one or more tables so that we can locate your table near an electrical outlet. You should bring an extension cord. You may have to run your cord across an aisle, in which case you should bring some duct tape to make it safe for foot traffic.
For registrations postmarked January 1, 2011 and later, the cost to enter the meet is $35. This is a one time fee and is good for all days of the meet, and includes you, your spouse, and children (yours or not) under 18. The cost per table for rental is $45. Tables require pre-registration as we sell out and may not have tables available for those who walk up and want to rent at table. There is no extra charge for electrical service, but we need to know in advance that you need it so your table(s) will be assigned a location near an electrical outlet.
Note: you do not have to pre-register to enter the meet. You can register at the door.
There is no organizational membership required to register and enter the meet.
The meet will be held in the 25,000 square foot well lit and carpeted ballroom of the Hyatt Regency Santa Clara in Santa Clara, CA.
The Hyat Regency Santa Clara Hotel is located about five miles from the San Jose International Airport. There is ample free covered parking. If you come in by airplane or train and are not renting a car, you can get to the hotel via taxi (about $25 from the San Jose airport), or via the light rail line which stops outside the hotel.
The visiting layouts and contests will be in the ballroom. Clinics, because of a need for quieter surroundings, will be held in the hotel's meeting rooms.
O Scale West has obtained a special rate of $110 ($146 for Regency Club rooms) per night plus approximately 10% tax for single, double, triple, or quadruple occupancy. There is an extra charge of $15 for a roll-away bed. This rate is available for for the nights of Wednesday January 26 through Sunday January 30.
The number of rooms available at the special rate on nights other than Thursday-Saturday rate is limited. If you plan on staying in the hotel either of those nights, you should verify that a room is available at the special rate so that you can plan your travel. If you need alternative accommodations because the hotel is sold out, please contact Bob Plageman using the phone number provided below.
Staying in the hotel is much more convenient, and helps to keep O Scale West's cost for the facility (which determines the prices charged for admission and the table rental cost) as low as can be.
A deposit of one night's lodging is required. Additional hotel contact information is included in the newsletter (see below.)
If you have any difficulties at all with your room reservation please call Bob Plageman at 650-349-1496 or Niel Chichizola at 650-591-4136.
If you are looking to share a room, O Scale West will help you make contact with someone else who also wishes to share. The two of you then work out the details on your own. All we ask is that you contact us after you have made arrangements to that we can remove your entry from the list below.
Here is how it works. Contact O Scale West using the contact information at the bottom of this page. Please provide your arrival and departure dates, how you want to be contacted, and anything else you consider important, such as your smoking preferences, etc. This web page will be updated to add an entry for you. Potential room-mates should contact OSW who will get them in contact with you. After you have made arrangements, be sure to let us know so no more people are referred to you.
Here is person who is looking for a room-mate.
The meet schedule is as follows:
A new O Scale meet car for the 2011 meet is TBD (we are working on one!)
There will be two S scale meet cars. One is the S-Helper service 40' steel boxcar lettered for the SP B50-12A rebuild. The other is the Pacific Rail Shops 40' double door box car lettered for WP.
Left over from previous O Scale West meets, we will have:
For information including photos of the above cars click here and scroll down to 2010.
Layout visits are the highlight of OSW for many attendees.
There will be 32 layouts open for visiting. Some layouts were HO, and were included because the layout is exceptional and the layout and owner are nationally known. Of course, with the inclusion of S scale, some layouts were S scale. However, the majority of layouts, are O scale.
There are private layouts and club layouts. Some layouts are local to Santa Clara, while some are several hours drive away.
Layouts are open for visiting immediately before, during, and after the meet. Some of them are several hour's drive from the meet location. Advance information that lacks street addresses but is sufficient for planning your layout visiting will be posted to this web page (see below) sometime during January.
We recommend a GPS system for saving time in finding layouts, particularily at night. And of course, if you fly or take the train or bus to the meet, you will either need a car or have to find someone who can take riders (and you are then beholden to go where they want to go which may not match your interests).
CLICK HERE to view the layout visits schedule.
The clinics that are planned can be viewed HERE .
The schedule (day it will be given and the time that day) will be in your registration packet. Clinics will be given once; the only clinics scheduled for the same time slot are Betz and Thompson at 1PM Friday.
Don Olsen's program will include some footage that he hasn't shown before and that has not been released, so this may be your only opportunity to see it. It is all steam era, San Francisco Peninsula commutes, football specials, and various branches in the general area including Santa Cruz.
Don's second video will be a selection of scenes from the Sierra Shortlines videos. Don say he hasn't shown these at OSW for quite a long time.
Note that while the media is video, it is projected via a video projector onto a screen, giving a large view that the entire audience can enjoy.
In general, one is an occasional seller if they are not in the model railroad business full time, and they do not sell at more than two train events in a calendar year. In other words, most of us who are merely revising our collection are occasional sellers.
The following may help to illustrate this: Rod Miller has two tables at OSW. One is for his full-time model railroad-related business; for that table Rod is a business seller, and sales tax is collected and reported for sales made at that table. At his other table Rod sells his personal model railroad items. At that table he is an occasional seller.
Note: if you are in the model railroad business full time in another state, and only sell in California once a year at O Scale West, you are not an occasional seller.
The California Board of Equalization (BOE) requires OSW to collect a simple form from you that attests to your sales tax status as a seller. You must identify yourself (mailing address or California driver's license number) and check one of three boxes, which are:
OSW provides that form. You must complete it and give it to OSW in order to receive your registration packet.
If you have any questions please call Rod Miller. PLEASE do not wait until the last minute! If your activity is such that you need to collect sales taxes and you need to get a California resale number from the California BOE, that make take a few days if done by fax.
The October newsletter (see Newsletter below) will contain a registration form that you can use
to pre-register (note price increase after December 31, 2010.)
Registration forms for O Scale West can also be found at most O scale meets.
Note: if you registered for either the 2009 or 2010 meet, you will receive
the October newsletter with a registration form.
To obtain a hard copy newsletter and registration form please send an LSSAE to the O Scale West address below.
The registration form is also be available on line; click on
to download a printable copy of the form. Note: the Adobe Acrobat program is required to view and print this file. The program is available free from Adobe:
Click here to download acrobat.
Pre-registration is not required. You can register as a walk up at the meet. The $35 registration fee will apply if you walk up on Thursday or Friday. On Saturday the walk up registration fee is $20. NOTE: we have managed to advertise Saturday-only rates of $15, $20, and $25. The real rate is $20, and we will honor the $15 rate if that is the rate that helped you decide to come to the meet.
Tables sell out before the meet begins, so advance registration is required if you wish to rent one or more tables.
Please note that confirmations of early registration are provided only if you provide a valid (and legible!) e-mail address.
The October newsletter tells you everything you need to know about the meet (if not, please let Rod Miller know!) Note: if you registered for either the 2009 or 2010 meet, you will receive a hard copy of the October newsletter.
If you did not register for one of those meets and you wish to receive a copy of the the October newsletter, please send an LSSAE with 1 oz. first class postage to the O Scale West address below.
To download a copy of the newsletter, please click on 2011 Newsletter.
The newsletter page size is 11 x 17 inches. If you want to print it on an 8 1/2 x 11 sheet, try a size reduction to 65% which works to print it on an 8 1/2 x 11 sheet on some printers.
Note: the Adobe Acrobat program is required to view and print this file. The program is available free from Adobe:
Click here to download acrobat.
Go back to the general information page.
If you attend the meet, you will receive a survey in your registration packet; please be sure to complete the survey! The survey is the organizing committee's primary tool for getting your feedback, and for testing the waters when a major change is contemplated.