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On April 24-25 NCLTC will have our layout on display at the Great American
Train Show in Raleigh, North Carolina. We still have a small amount of open
space available in the layout, if you are interested in participating,
please contact me directly.
Thanks,
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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The North Carolina LEGO Train Club (NCLTC) has our layout on display for the
Holiday Season at South Hills Mall in Raleigh, North Carolina. This is our
second holiday layout, we were in the same mall a year ago. This year's
layout is a tad smaller than last year but I think we have done a much
better job detailing the layout than we did a year ago.
This year's layout is 12'x17' and features a Christmas parade and three
loops of track. The layout is unmanned and the trains run from 8:00 AM
until 9:30 PM everyday. If you are in the Raleigh area, please take a
minute to stop by and check it out. South Hills Mall is right off I-40 at
the intersection of I-40 and Route 1. South Hills Mall is open daily from
9:00 AM until 9:00 PM and Sunday from 1:00 PM until 5:00 PM. Our layout
will be on display until January 4th (or there about).
On Saturday, December 13, 2003 from 1:00-4:00 NCLTC will host a building
event adjacent to our layout to benefit the Food Bank of North Carolina. A
two can contribution to the Food Bank will gain an entry in a drawing to win
a LEGO train. The building event coincides with the December NCLUG meeting
which will also be held at SHM.
Here are some pictures of our layout - a few more details have been added
since I took these but for the most part, this is how it looks right now.
We'll tweak it from time to time (which is one of the fun parts about it
being up for a while).
http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?f=65028
Layout on Display:
--------------------
Dates: December 1, 2003 - January 4, 2004
Location: South Hills Mall in front of Tom's Train Station
Admission: Free
Hours: Daily 9:00 AM - 9:00 PM, Sunday 1:00 - 5:00 PM
Driving Directions: http://www.tomstrainstation.com/map.html
Building Event & NCLUG Meeting:
-------------------------------------
Date: Saturday, December 13, 2003
Hours: 1:00 PM - 4:00 PM
Benefit: Food Bank of North Carolina - http://www.foodbanknc.org/
During the building event - donate two cans of food to the Food Bank and be
entered in a drawing for a LEGO Train!
More details: http://www.ncltc.cc/events/christmas2003/index.htm
FUT: lugnet.loc.trains.org, lugnet.loc.trains.org.ncltc, lugnet.loc.us.nc
Mike
--
Mike Walsh - mike_walsh at mindspring.com
http://www.ncltc.cc - North Carolina LEGO Train Club
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"John Morgan" <trees@utk.edu> wrote in message
news:HJ7s83.1rxn@lugnet.com...
[ ... snipped ... ]
> Congrats! thanks for sharing all this good Pictures and movies.
Thanks!
> I have seen the wireless cameras available online and was wondering how • well
> they would work as a train engine mounted video source. Great to see the • trains
> eye view of the layout! Was the camera you used the same camera as this • site
> offers?
>
> http://www.plantraco.com/product_ptv16.html
Nope, it was this one: http://www.e-metaresearch.com/
> Do you think the static we saw on the movies might have been lessened by • some
> foam padding aroudn the camera. I know this was spur of the moment setup • so
> thanks for giving it a try and sharing it with us.
> hope you've gotten a chance to rest up !
>
> congrats again on a job well done!
>
> John
I don't know if padding would have helped, it might have.
http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?i=478182
The camera sits in a crade that looks basically like this:
http://www.brickshelf.com/gallery/mpw/trains/Misc/cameratrain.jpg
There is virtually no play horizontally with the camera, it is almost a
perfect fit between to two small thin walls. Vertically there is a bit of
play. I think the static was from some interference source although I am
not sure what it was. If you watched the camera (which I realize you can't
do from the video) for five or six loops, the interference always happened
at about the same point in the track.
It was fun to play with. When ever we do our next show I would like to
mount the camera on a monorail chassis plate, I think the trip up and down
the spirals would be pretty cool to watch. I had hoped to do that for this
show but simply didn't have the time (plus I need another monorail chassis
plate).
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.org, John Morgan wrote:
> In lugnet.announce, Mike Walsh wrote:
> > This past weekend NCLTC had our layout on display at the Great American
> > Train Show (GATS) in Raleigh, North Carolina.
...
Was the camera you used the same camera as this site offers?
>
> http://www.plantraco.com/product_ptv16.html
If was different, but very similar. The camera fit easily in a 5 wide housing,
and was less than three studs wide itself. Mike Walsh made a cradle of 1-high
panels, separated by one stud, and the camera sat there. Mike never did figure
out how to get the auxilary battery pack to work, so we ran off the camera's
internal / rechargable battery, which lasted 10 or 15 minutes. Having a camera
like the one shown on this web site that takes a regular 9V battery would be a
great improvement.
> Do you think the static we saw on the movies might have been lessened by
> some foam padding around the camera?
...
We thought that the interference was caused by the motors and other electrical
devices, not by jarring the camera as it went around, but maybe we're wrong. One
of the neighboring layouts also had a train-camera and it had about as much
static. But the foam is a good idea, worth trying.
Also, it isn't our club's camera -- Mike borrowed it from a local train store,
so we may not be able to experiment any time soon.
>
> Congrats again on a job well done!
>
> John
Thanks
Cary
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In lugnet.announce, Mike Walsh wrote:
> This past weekend NCLTC had our layout on display at the Great American
> Train Show (GATS) in Raleigh, North Carolina. This is the third GATS show
> we have done and while our layout has always been popular, we have never won
> the competition.
>
> Much to our suprise, Sunday afternoon we were awarded 1st Prize! There was
> no doubt that our layout consistently had the biggest crowd all weekend, but
> as many LEGO Train Clubs can attest to, having the biggest crowd usually
> doesn't mean much in the GATS competition. We were (and still are) pretty
> excited about winning the contest and it was nice to see many of the other
> groups come up and congratulate us.
Congrats! thanks for sharing all this good Pictures and movies.
I have seen the wireless cameras available online and was wondering how well
they would work as a train engine mounted video source. Great to see the trains
eye view of the layout! Was the camera you used the same camera as this site
offers?
http://www.plantraco.com/product_ptv16.html
Do you think the static we saw on the movies might have been lessened by some
foam padding aroudn the camera. I know this was spur of the moment setup so
thanks for giving it a try and sharing it with us.
hope you've gotten a chance to rest up !
congrats again on a job well done!
John
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