The 4th Annual Convention of Indian Railways Fan Club in North America (IRFCNA) was held in San Francisco Bay Area, California, USA on September 14-15, 2013. Twelve railfans from across the USA and Canada attended the convention.
The venue- Hotel Embassy Suites, Santa Clara is all set for the attendees (Karan Desai)
Souvenirs for the attendees- a custom design IRFCNA cap and picture postcard with convention schedule (Karan)
Our resident steam expert- Harsh Vardhan came all the way from Canada for the convention (Karan)
Attendees settle in for the start of the indoor session on Day 1 (Karan)
Sri Ram and Saqib Karori listen to the presentation, Saqib's son Kumayl is busy playing, while Bharat Vohra seems to have dozed off! (Karan)
IRFCA old-timer Pushkar Apte, Jainand Narayanan and Neelabh Arora engrossed in discussion (Karan)
Sri Ram and Saqib share a rail-related joke. Kumayl is not impressed. (Karan)
Bharat Vohra introduces himself and talks about his recent rail adventures (Karan)
First-time attending member Raghu introduces himself. Anurag looks on. (Karan)
Pushkar Apte talks about his rail adventures in Switzerland, including missing a train at a small station midway through the journey (Karan)
There was a roundtable discussion about impact of railways and the environment. Anurag Bist makes his point, panel moderator Pushkar Apte listens attentively (Karan)
Refueling time! The gang out for lunch. Left to right- Pushkar Apte, Neelabh Arora, Anurag Bist, Sri Ram, Jishnu Mukerji, Bharat Vohra and Harsh Vardhan (Karan)
Convention attendees posing for a group photograph, at the end of the indoor session. (Bharat Vohra)
After the indoor session, the group went out for railfanning. We are first met by a rare double-headed Amtrak Capitol Corridor train pulling into Oakland station (Karan)
Sri Ram and Harsh Vardhan engrossed in discussions, waiting for the next train at Oakland (Karan)