Advance Section

Before you make travel arrangements to the Convention, make sure you first consider our Advance Section! The Advance Section runs from Friday afternoon through Sunday morning at the start of the Convention, Friday July 1 through Sunday July 3. It will be centered in Newark, in the southern portion of the San Francisco Bay Area.

The Advance Section is an opportunity to enjoy home layout tours, operating sessions, train rides (such as the Niles Canyon Railway), rail and industrial tours, non-rail functions, and an evening on San Francisco Bay aboard the USS Potomac, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s Presidential Yacht until his death in 1945.

All of the layouts can be visited via self-guided tours; some layouts and most other activities will have bus tours available. Most of these layout tours will not be available during the week in Sacramento. The Advance Section Bay Area is a nominal cost extra-fare event.

Self-guided Tour Packages

These are included in the Advance Section price and can be picked up at the Registration Desk at the Hilton Newark/Fremont Hotel in Room 1180.

X2011 Convention Registration Required

Registration for both the X2011 West Convention and the Advance Section is required to take part in any Advance Section activities. The Advance Section registration fee is $20, and can be purchased through the X2011e-Store. Your Advance Section activity tickets will be available for pickup with your registration packet at the Advance Section hotel.

Registration Desk

The Advance Section Registration Desk will be open as follows (subject to change without notice):
(Room 1180, at the back of the hotel, is straight down the hall from the front desk.)

As of press time, we expect around 55 layouts to be open for tours during the Advance Section, and approximately a dozen layouts (with over 170 operating slots) to be available for operating sessions. Owners of some of the well-known layouts on tour during the Advance Section include Jack Burgess (Yosemite Valley RR), Jim Dias (WP/Feather River Canyon), Dave Adams (D&RGW’s Durlin Branch), Jim Vail (Glenwood & Black Creek), and Narrow Gauge and Short Line Gazette Editor Bob Brown (Tuolumne Forks Lumber Co. RR).

Where is the Advance Section?

The Advance Section hotel will be the Hilton Newark/Fremont Hotel. The room rate is $69, plus tax per night. Call the hotel directly at (510) 490-8390 to reserve rooms. Refer to “X2011 West” to receive the $69 rate.

Advance Section Restaurants

Here’s a map and list of restaurants near the Hilton Newark/Fremont Hotel.

Getting to Sacramento from Newark

Newark is about 2 hours from Sacramento by car. Another option for travel to Sacramento after the Advance Section event is aboard Amtrak’s Capital Corridor trains, which can be boarded at the Amtrak Fremont/Centerville Station and ridden to the downtown Sacramento Amtrak Station, adjacent to Old Sacramento, then it’s a short bus or taxi ride to the convention hotels.

Sacramento Regional Transit (RT) Routes #30 and #31, departing from the Sacramento Valley Station adjacent to the Amtrak Depot, will get you within a block of the convention hotels.

The stops closest to the hotels are:
• 11th and J Street for the Sheraton Grand
• 11th and L Street for the Hyatt Regency
• 9th and J Street for The Citizen
• 15th and J Street for the Sacramento Convention Center

Arriving at San Francisco International Airport?

Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) has service from the San Francisco International Airport to Fremont, but a change of trains is required to get to Fremont – your destination. Transfer to the Fremont train at Daly City or Balboa Park, as the trains can fill in downtown San Francisco and with luggage, a seat is a wonderful thing!

AC Transit Route 242 bus service is available from Fremont BART, to within a block of the Hilton Newark/Fremont Hotel. The nearest stop is at Cedar and Stevenson Blvds, about 300′ from the hotel. Taken in the clockwise direction, it is an 11 minute ride; in the counterclockwise direction it is 23 minutes. This bus runs hourly in each direction, but at half hour intervals. The clockwise bus leaves the BART station at 40 minutes past the hour and the last service leaves at 10:40 PM. The counterclockwise bus leaves the BART station at 10 minutes past the hour and the last service leaves at 10:10 PM.Bus fare is $2, less for seniors 65 or beyond.

The Fremont BART Station also has taxi service, but you may have to call for a taxi, depending on your arrival time.