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On April 24th and 25th the North Carolina LEGO® Train Club (NCLTC) will be
participating in the Great American Train Show (GATS) at the Jim Graham
Building at the NC State Fairgrounds in Raleigh, North Carolina.
The NCLTC train layout is constructed entirely of LEGO® bricks. The layout
is approximately 25' long and 15' wide and will have five trains operating
simultaneously. In addition to the layout, NCLTC will have a play area where
kids can build with a large pile of LEGO® bricks and run a LEGO® train.
NCLTC will be collecting canned food on behalf of the Food Bank of North
Carolina. Each person who makes a donation of two cans of food will have an
opportunity to win a LEGO® train set we are giving away. In 2003 NCLTC
collected almost 500 pounds of food and $250 for the Food Bank of North
Carolina.
More information about NCLTC and the event itself along with pictures from
previous events can be found on the NCLTC web site: http://www.ncltc.cc
If you are in the area, stop by and say hi!
Mike
FUT: lugnet.trains.org.ncltc, lugnet.loc.us.nc
--
Mike Walsh - mike_walsh at mindspring.com
http://www.ncltc.cc - North Carolina LEGO Train Club
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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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[ ... snipped ... ]
>
> I think having a vendor that actually owns a "brick and mortar" store is • great,
> that means he can sell sets at a reasonalble price.
>
> jt
By the time I got to Tom's booth he only had one 10013 set left and it was
marked at $16.99 - same price as the LEGO catalog. I don't know what he
sold 4511 and 4512 for but I suspect it was also catalog price.
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, Mike Walsh wrote:
>
> It was really nice to be able to point people who asked to one of the vendor
> booths right on the show floor.
I agree. We did a show in March and there was a vendor selling LEGO trains. Most
of them were older collectable trains so the prices were a bit high for the
standard show visitor, but it was nice to be able to point people in his
direction when people wanted to buy.
I think having a vendor that actually owns a "brick and mortar" store is great,
that means he can sell sets at a reasonalble price.
jt
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"Cary Clark" <cary@corp.nospamwebtv.net> wrote in message
news:HJ5Bs2.8z6@lugnet.com...
[ ... snipped ... ]
> ...
> Mike, this was an excellent writeup. One more note about Tom from Tom's • Train
> Station: Tom now carries LEGO at his store (got his first shipment on • Friday),
> and brought seven each of the new trains to sell at his GATS booth on • Saturday.
> As I understand it, he sold out within hours. He brought the remainder of • his
> shipment to GATS on Sunday, then sold the rest. I hear that Tom is getting • bit
> by the LEGO bug, too, and is already planning his addition to the NCLTC • layout!
>
> Cary
Cary brings up a good point, one I had forgotten about. Here are a couple
of deep links of people holding LEGO train sets under their arm. It was
nice to see this at a train show.
http://www.brickshelf.com/gallery/mpw/TrainShows/GATS-2003/Saturday/dscn0607_tn.jpg
http://www.brickshelf.com/gallery/mpw/TrainShows/GATS-2003/Saturday/dscn0608_tn.jpg
Tom told us he believed he could have sold quite a few more if he had them
but he had no idea what the demand would be. In addition to four sets each
of 4511 and 4512, Tom also sold out of the supply of 10013 Open Freight
Wagons he had.
It was really nice to be able to point people who asked to one of the vendor
booths right on the show floor.
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.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!
snip
>
> Mike
Congratulations to all the participating NCLTC members!
Mike, thank you for crafting such a detailed report. Nothing can ever take the
place of being there, but your descriptions along with the pictures in the links
you provided are certainly the next best thing.
sheree
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