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Our first public weekend at the Beaverton Mall in Beaverton (outside
Portland, OR) was a great success! July 6th and 7th we were open to the
public during mall hours at our new temporary "clubhouse".
Highlights included a large port area, a 12V layout by Frank (possibly a
PNLTC first), a great old city downtown, a great farm and orchard area,
Ben's Roundhouse, and Matt's Roller Coaster. Stop by www.pnltc.org and see
all the pictures from the show, and of our great new space.
We have a store front in the mall through the end of the summer, and will be
having at least one more public weekend, August 3rd and 4th. If you are in
the area be sure to stop by and look in the window any time, and we hope to
see you in August!
-Matt Chiles :)
PNLTC
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In fact we've met there twice as a club since the "Open House" weekend to do
some maintenance (and hang out) and had to open to doors for 30 to 60
minutes due to the number people peering in.
Since the layout is always setup (as opposed to a GATS weekend), we've
realized that it's a no brainer to just open the doors and hang out for a
few hours essentially having an ad-hoc train show. We plan to do this again
this weekend.
I would recommend this setup for any of the established clubs!
SteveB
www.PNLTC.org
In lugnet.announce, Matthew J. Chiles writes:
> Our first public weekend at the Beaverton Mall in Beaverton (outside
> Portland, OR) was a great success! July 6th and 7th we were open to the
> public during mall hours at our new temporary "clubhouse".
>
> Highlights included a large port area, a 12V layout by Frank (possibly a
> PNLTC first), a great old city downtown, a great farm and orchard area,
> Ben's Roundhouse, and Matt's Roller Coaster. Stop by www.pnltc.org and see
> all the pictures from the show, and of our great new space.
>
> We have a store front in the mall through the end of the summer, and will be
> having at least one more public weekend, August 3rd and 4th. If you are in
> the area be sure to stop by and look in the window any time, and we hope to
> see you in August!
>
> -Matt Chiles :)
> PNLTC
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>
> I would recommend this setup for any of the established clubs!
Hey Steve,
Great pictures of your clubhouse! I was wondering if you could give us a
little insight on how the PNLTC was able to secure the space. I know that
mall space can be quite expensive (especially in Southern Cal) so I was
hoping to find out how you guys pulled that off.
See Ya,
Robert
SCLTC
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"Matthew J. Chiles" wrote:
>
> Our first public weekend at the Beaverton Mall in Beaverton (outside
> Portland, OR) was a great success! July 6th and 7th we were open to the
> public during mall hours at our new temporary "clubhouse".
>
> Highlights included a large port area, a 12V layout by Frank (possibly a
> PNLTC first)
Of course it's a PNLTC first, it's the first PNLTC show I've
participated in... But not the first I've contributed to if you count
some deals with Steve Barile... :-)
This has been a great show so far. I plan on incorporating the wharf
section I built for the BrickFest Castle Town into the 12v sea port.
Frank
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In lugnet.announce, Matthew J. Chiles writes:
> Highlights included a large port area, a 12V layout by Frank (possibly a
> PNLTC first), a great old city downtown, a great farm and orchard area,
> Ben's Roundhouse, and Matt's Roller Coaster. Stop by www.pnltc.org and see
> all the pictures from the show, and of our great new space.
Wow!! I would love to get out there and see this in person! Having just
returned from BrickFest, I'm hungry for more. :-)
Are there any videos online of the roller coaster? That thing is something
else!!!
> We have a store front in the mall through the end of the summer, and will be
> having at least one more public weekend, August 3rd and 4th. If you are in
> the area be sure to stop by and look in the window any time, and we hope to
> see you in August!
When you say "the end of summer," does that mean through sometime in
September? Or August? I'm just trying to figure out how if it's possible
to get out there inexpensively... For me to go from BOS to PDX on August
2-4, best fare is like $650. If there was another weekend later with more
lead-time, I think I could get out there for like $350. Hmm, according to
MapQuest, Beaverton is only 16 minutes out of Portland... does that sound
right? And PDX the airport to fly into for this? (I've never been to
Oregon before, and everyone says is wicked beautiful.) Are there better
(cheaper) ways to get to Beaverton from far away? -- like, it seems I could
fly into SEA for August 3-4 for $350, or $320 with more lead-time... Anyone
know what a bus trip from Seattle/Tacoma International to Portland is like?
MapQuest says it's about a 3-hour drive.
Do/would you give a private tour to an out-of-town AFOL on a non-public weekend?
--Todd
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"Todd Lehman" <todd@lugnet.com> wrote in message
news:GzpD9y.5tG@lugnet.com...
[ ... snipped ... ]
>
> When you say "the end of summer," does that mean through sometime in
> September? Or August? I'm just trying to figure out how if it's possible
> to get out there inexpensively... For me to go from BOS to PDX on August
> 2-4, best fare is like $650. If there was another weekend later with more
> lead-time, I think I could get out there for like $350. Hmm, according to
> MapQuest, Beaverton is only 16 minutes out of Portland... does that sound
> right? And PDX the airport to fly into for this? (I've never been to
> Oregon before, and everyone says is wicked beautiful.) Are there better
> (cheaper) ways to get to Beaverton from far away? -- like, it seems I • could
> fly into SEA for August 3-4 for $350, or $320 with more lead-time... • Anyone
> know what a bus trip from Seattle/Tacoma International to Portland is • like?
> MapQuest says it's about a 3-hour drive.
[ ... snipped ... ]
As someone who flys to Portland on a fairly regular basis, I can answer some
of these questions. From PDX (the only airport to fly into), it is about a
45 minute drive (maybe less, depending on the time of day) to the Beaverton
Mall.
The last time I was out there Steve Barile and Frank Filz showed me the mall
space. Very cool. It is nice to have something set up for more than a
couple of days. At that time they had just gotten the space so it wasn't
set up yet. I too am looking for another reason to get to Portland so I can
see it as well.
I can't speak to the commute down from SEA-TAC but I am sure one of the
locals can.
Mike
--
Mike Walsh - mike_walsh at mindspring.com
http://www.ncltc.cc - North Carolina LEGO Train Club
http://www.carolinatrainbuilders.com - Carolina Train Builders
http://www.bricklink.com/store.asp?p=mpw - CTB/Brick Depot
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In lugnet.trains, Todd Lehman writes:
<regarding PNLTC mall display and roller coaster>
> Wow!! I would love to get out there and see this in person! Having just
> returned from BrickFest, I'm hungry for more. :-)
It is very cool!
> right? And PDX the airport to fly into for this? (I've never been to
> Oregon before, and everyone says is wicked beautiful.)
Just got back from PacNW myself, and it is wicked beat. Steve Barile picked
me up from the PDX airport. After the 5th hour of being in Portland he
teased me about how I'd had a permanent plastered wide-eyed smile on my mug
ever since I got off the plane! Very nice compared to the bleak brown
desert where I live.
> Are there better
> (cheaper) ways to get to Beaverton from far away? -- like, it seems I could
> fly into SEA for August 3-4 for $350, or $320 with more lead-time... Anyone
> know what a bus trip from Seattle/Tacoma International to Portland is like?
> MapQuest says it's about a 3-hour drive.
If you can better afford the flight into Seattle, I'd reccommend the Amtrak
Cascades Talgo trip from Seattle down to Portland. I took that route from
Portland to Seattle (fares one-way: coach was about $22; business about $33
and you get a $3 coupon for the Bistro car). The Bistro car offers Cascades
specific souveniers: ball caps ($15), t-shirts ($15), travel mug ($10),
postcards, travel bag. Be aware that that they might not have all items and
if they do they may have limited quantities or only a few sizes in t-shirts.
When I rode they only had one ball cap, two t-shirts (small and medium), and
one travel mug. Not sure about the quantity of other items. All items were
stored in a single small cardboard box. The bistro service person seemed a
little startled when I asked to buy gift items, and then didn't seem to know
where the items where stored. I rode business class. They showed a
full-length movie on the ceiling-mounted tv monitors after we got underway.
Bring your own headphones to listen to it, I think. Otherwise expect to pay
$4(?) for a set of Amtrak provided headphones. I think a standard headphone
plug will work in the armrest(?). Movie was a Kevin Kostner baseball show.
I didn't mind not watching-- the scenery viewed through the large Talgo
windows was fantastic!
Todd: I hope you can make it out to see the display at the mall in
Portland. It's a really nice showcase.
later,
James Mathis
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See below:
(snip)
>
> Do/would you give a private tour to an out-of-town AFOL on a non-public weekend?
>
> --Todd
Todd-
PNLTC would be delighted to have you in Portland for the weekend.
Accomodating a private tour would be just fine. Let us know when you are
coming into town, and we'll arrange a tour. The PNLTC members from Seattle
may want to come down as well - It would be great to have an AFOL
get-together with your presence. :-)
The weekend after next, we're holding a public show on August 3 & 4
(Saturday & Sunday), concurrently with a card show in the mall.
If you have trouble finding lodging, let us know, and we may be able to
arrange something for you.
Let us know when you may be arriving in the Pacific Northwest (and yes, the
Pacific Northwest is a marvelous place - you'll be surprised)!
-jeremy
PNLTC
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Sorry for the delay,
Actually the whole thing just fell into place. The Beaverton Mall is a tier
2 mall, so normally there is one or two stores vacant. This was the key to
success. This could happen in a tier 1 mall but there are rarely any vacancies.
I went to the mall office during normal biz hours and introduced myself and
the club. I suggested that we can setup our layout in a vacant store to fill
the space. I also mentioned that we could be vacated within 2 or 3 days so
if they rented the space we were no obstacle. There was a PC in the office
so I had them surf over to our web site to legitimize the whole idea; a
photo album would work as well.
After a week or so I hadn't heard back so I called. We spoke about having
"OPEN HOUSE" days during several mall events (trading card shows mainly).
Next thing I knew we had the keys! BTW We didn't sign any papers, I'm not
sure how wise this is either way.
They are paying for electricity, the store stays reasonably comfortable with
out Air Conditioning, especially when the front doors are open to the mall.
Initially we thought we'd set up directly against the front window, but we
decided not to. We have a small LEGO product table that shows some of the
current product and a small display about the train specific LEGO
components. It's close to the front window. We also hung our club banners
and posted a couple pages of what this display was and who we are...
There is a reconstruction project happening at the mall this fall that most
likely will force us to vacate, that's why we'll only be there through the
summer. Now that we're in there I wish it was permanent! And who knows maybe
they'll offer us a new space. I can see us being a huge draw over X-Mass
vacations time.
SteveB
www.PNLTC.org
In lugnet.trains, Robert Powell writes:
> >
> > I would recommend this setup for any of the established clubs!
>
>
> Hey Steve,
> Great pictures of your clubhouse! I was wondering if you could give us a
> little insight on how the PNLTC was able to secure the space. I know that
> mall space can be quite expensive (especially in Southern Cal) so I was
> hoping to find out how you guys pulled that off.
>
> See Ya,
> Robert
> SCLTC
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On the website, with the downtown pics, there is this comment:
"We owe our thanks to our fellow club member, Matt Chiles, for designing a
brilliant modular system for town buildings". I'm especially interested to
know if this system allows adjacent buildings by different builders, rather
than have one builder per module of a downtown. Is it a set of club
standards or something more?
Can someone in PNLTC give some details of this system?
Thanks in advance,
Greg Kramer
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"Greg Kramer" <kramersinva@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:GzpwGv.B1w@lugnet.com...
> On the website, with the downtown pics, there is this comment:
>
> "We owe our thanks to our fellow club member, Matt Chiles, for designing a
> brilliant modular system for town buildings". I'm especially interested • to
> know if this system allows adjacent buildings by different builders, • rather
> than have one builder per module of a downtown. Is it a set of club
> standards or something more?
>
> Can someone in PNLTC give some details of this system?
>
> Thanks in advance,
> Greg Kramer
Steve Barile explained this to me when I was in Portland. It wasn't until I
saw it in person that I understood what he was trying to explain to me. It
is however, very clever and I have started building my own module using
Matt's technique. I'll leave the explanation to Matt or Steve because I
know I wouldn't do it justice.
Mike
--
Mike Walsh - mike_walsh at mindspring.com
http://www.ncltc.cc - North Carolina LEGO Train Club
http://www.carolinatrainbuilders.com - Carolina Train Builders
http://www.bricklink.com/store.asp?p=mpw - CTB/Brick Depot
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Greg-
Yes, this system does allow adjacent buildings to be connected, implementing
Matt's sidewalk standard. We've used it many times with much success, and
it's a BEAUTIFUL design. It sure works well with a team of design/builders,
so that one person does not have the full responsibility of building and
populating an entire city/module - plus it's a fun team effort! :-) Here is
some more precedence in some of our other galleries:
OMSI SHOW 2001 - http://www.pnltc.org/Gal_PDX_OMSI_01/gallery.html
LEGOLAND SHOW 2001 - http://www.pnltc.org/Gal_LLCA_0801/LLCA_MAIN_0801.htm.
In short we are using 2 plates in height for the curbs, and 6 studs in from
the curb for the sidewalk width. The sidewalk will vary in it's final
location, in relation to the road, by type of roadplate you use. Building
size and configuration are based on the "city block" dimensions you decide
to use.
Details (Per Matt Chiles):
Start with a 16 or 32 stud wide baseplate (you could also use 8 stud
for a very narrow building). Wider also works - increments of 16
studs work best but a 8 stud increment is also fine as an 8 stud alley
goes well in any block.
A typical block make of 9 baseplates (8 edge road baseplates and a
center blank plate) will be completely and perfectly filled by a 48x48
baseplate. In actual setups blocks are often longer by increments of
16 studs. In actual setups blocks are rarely complete (with a back).
If you build buildings 16 studs deep instead of 32 they will work fine
on the backs of blocks too (a 16 deep building will back up to the
back of a 32 deep building).
Add a sidewalk to your baseplate (property). A good width is 6 studs
for main streets and 4 studs for side streets. Any width will work
and in real life every width is used. Downtown sidewalks are usually
wider in proportion to the height of the building. I usually build
small town scale (not more than 3 stories) - this scale works well for
this modular design system, and 6 stud wide sidewalks work well with
that size building. Frankly, I haven't tried larger buildings, but
building in Jer's downtown format would likely work well.
Your sidewalk should cover the front of your building property, and
the side if needed (if you have a corner lot with a corner building).
Front and side sidewalks can be different widths. The important thing
is to overhang your sidewalk 1 stud past the edge of your baseplate.
Then attach 1x plates under that edge. Your sidewalk now appears to
be 2 plates thick when viewed from the street. This lip will stick to
the first stud of old grey road baseplates and will overhang into the
road on all other road baseplates.
Next build a foundation. I usually use 1 brick high. White, grey,
dark grey and black are good foundation colors, but in real life you
will find every color. If you are detailing the inside, build a
floor. 2x2 bricks make a great parquet floor! Your foundation does
not have to cover your whole baseplate lot - it depends on how deep
into the lot the building goes, which varies a lot in real life,
especially in smaller buildings. Plus it is the facade that matters
and modelers across the board selectively scale building depth (less
depth means less bricks). Kim has built larger but very shallow
buildings using my method and they work well, especially against the
back of a layout where there is nothing behind them.
Now build your building. Remember, the facade is most important.
Side walls can be any color, especially conidering they are often
butted up against another building. Detail behind the building for an
alley is nice touch - in actual layouts most buildings will end up
with either track or open space behind them (as opposed to another
building). Don't forget roof detail too, since roofs are large areas.
Good Luck! :-)
-jeremy
pnltc
In lugnet.trains, Greg Kramer writes:
> On the website, with the downtown pics, there is this comment:
>
> "We owe our thanks to our fellow club member, Matt Chiles, for designing a
> brilliant modular system for town buildings". I'm especially interested to
> know if this system allows adjacent buildings by different builders, rather
> than have one builder per module of a downtown. Is it a set of club
> standards or something more?
>
> Can someone in PNLTC give some details of this system?
>
> Thanks in advance,
> Greg Kramer
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Last weekend, Steve and I went to the clubhouse for 2 hours to build and run
trains. We decided to open up the doors, so that spectators could come in
and enjoy the layout. Much to our surprise, within 10 minutes of opening
the doors we had a full house!
We designed the layout so that is is very easy for spectators to mingle
through the space. Monitoring the layout is perfect even for just one person!
It's a marvelous layout.
-jer
pnltc
www.pnltc.org
In lugnet.trains, Steven Barile writes:
> In fact we've met there twice as a club since the "Open House" weekend to do
> some maintenance (and hang out) and had to open to doors for 30 to 60
> minutes due to the number people peering in.
(snip)
> SteveB
> www.PNLTC.org
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(snip)
>
> Are there any videos online of the roller coaster? That thing is something
> else!!!
Todd-
Matt has a 15 second video clip of the roller coaster on his website:
http://www.insidethevault.com/rollercoaster/index.htm
At the end of the main text (just before the thumbnail pictures) is the video.
He has made significant changes to the coaster to make it operate with much
ease - it's truely a feat of genious!
Be sure to read the story of how it came to be - really interesting process...
:-)
-jer
pnltc
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In lugnet.trains, Todd Lehman writes:
> In lugnet.trains, Jeremy Rear writes:
> > Matt has a 15 second video clip of the roller coaster on his website:
> > http://www.insidethevault.com/rollercoaster/index.htm
>
> Oh my, that goes FAST!!!! Wow! Is it safe for minifigs? I have to wonder
> why all those minifig bodies are laying around here:
If you feel safe with a 1:4 chance not to end in the station - but on the
floor - it is safe... ;-)
In fact a cool video and a brilliant roller coster!
Ben
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In lugnet.trains, Todd Lehman writes:
> In lugnet.trains, Jeremy Rear writes:
> > Matt has a 15 second video clip of the roller coaster on his website:
> > http://www.insidethevault.com/rollercoaster/index.htm
>
> Oh my, that goes FAST!!!! Wow! Is it safe for minifigs? I have to wonder
> why all those minifig bodies are laying around here:
>
> http://www.insidethevault.com/rollercoaster/rc53.htm
Sorry for the delay in popping on this thread...
It is not as bad as it used to be! Recent safty improvements on the chain
to the top and on the seat belt system have reduced fatalities down to only
a few a day, instead of several dozen per day of operation. :) I'll try and
get some more pics of the improvements and update my rollercoaster site
sometime in the next few weeks...
-Matt :)
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