Cartersville Express - 2023 SER Convention

The PIEDMONT DIVISION would like to welcome NMRA SER members and guests to the CARTERSVILLE EXPRESS 2023 SER CONVENTION. The convention will be from Thursday Sept 14 thru Sunday Sept 17, 2023, in one of the top small towns of America 2022: Cartersville, GA.
This site provides you a link to the registration page with information to get registered for the convention. We encourage you to register early. Our convention team plans to host a fun filled weekend and a chance to fellowship with friends and make new ones. 
We are excited to bring you an exciting slate of clinics Friday and Saturday. Along with that we will have lots of layouts for operations to sign up for. The Piedmont Division is home to lots of great home layouts so there will be many hosts inviting you to come visit their home railroads.
If this is your first SER Convention, we hope you sign up and enjoy. If you have questions, we will be glad to answer them best we can. Hopefully the website will provide you with all the info. If you are not an NMRA member, we can get you signed up with a NMRA Railpass or Full Membership to participate with some of the folks that you will know for a lifetime.
We are looking forward to SER member Todd Stennis to be our Guest Speaker at our wonderful banquet that we have planned. We know everything is more expensive right now, so we are trying our best to be thoughtful of personal budgets for the convention.
We will have a Timetable posted online as soon it is finalized as well as a printed copy for attendees to who sign up. We will have advertisements in the Timetable and Website for those interested in doing so,
There will be as normal a Contest Room for models and photographs submitted following NMRA guidelines. Please plan to bring your models and photos to enter. Our convention theme for the popular vote contest will be “Passenger Trains”. Entries may be of models, photographs, art or crafts related to passenger trains.
The convention will have a White Elephant room to buy and sell trains. We will be posting a set of rules to use so you can sell your items and get paid at the end for what was sold.  This is Cash Only, no credit cards accepted. 
We have prototype trips planned around the area. We hope to secure a visit to Holcim Concrete, Tyson Foods, Trinity Rail, and an asphalt storage facility. These are still in the works and must be finalized. Please watch the website and your email after you register for latest updates so you may sign up for one or more.
Not a railroad person but planning to attend? We are planning some fun trips for you as well. One trip will be to Gibbs Garden in Ball Ground, Ga with a stop for lunch a Mary’s Bread Basket in Marble Hill. After lunch we will take you by Big Door Vineyards in White, GA for some wine tasting if you like. Our second trip will be to the Booth Western Art Museum and lunch out in Cartersville.  Each trip has 24 slots open!
Cartersville is full of great attractions. There is the Booth Western Art Museum in beautiful downtown Cartersville. New to Cartersville is the Savoy Automobile Museum which is quite impressive. There is also the Tellus Science Museum that is a very educational place to visit. Cartersville has southern charm, and the CSX Railroad still operates right through the heart of downtown on the old W & A RR line. Train watching is still good in the area. 
There are many hotels in the area, but we have an official Convention Hotel we will be using and have special rates. We will be using the Courtyard by Marriott Cartersville. It is connected to the Clarence Brown Conference Center where the convention will be held.