Members of the National Model Railroad Association (NMRA) from four countries and twenty-eight US states visited the Hudson Point and Hawthorne RR during Independence Junction 2006, the NMRA National Convention. Over two days, approximately 150 visitors made the trek south by bus from Philadephia PA to Maryland to see the Hudson Point and Hawthorne.

The bus only SEEMS to be bigger than the house! (But it's close).

The panorama photo below shows the layout as presented during the convention. The scenery on the left half of the photograph is all new since 2005 and is different from the pre-2005 track plan shown elsewhere on this website. Underneath the left side of the railroad is all new benchwork that allows a larger entrance for visitors and increases the number of life size cars that fit under the layout from one to two.

During the visit steam locomotives were operating a livestock train and mix freight on a continuous loop. DCC sound equipped Pennsy USRA Light 2-8-2 from Broadway Ltd and a DCC sound equipped Erie 0-8-0 road switcher from Life-Like (Proto-2000) provided the road power. A Broadway Limited Pennsy 4-8-2 M1a, also DCC sound equipped, was at idle in the yard adding to the railroad sounds.