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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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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. • ...
>
> Tom Staley of Tom's Train Station (a local model railroad store) loaned me a
> wireless video camera.
...
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
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Subject:
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NCLTC Takes 1st Place at Raleigh GATS! (Long)
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.announce, lugnet.loc.us.nc, lugnet.trains, lugnet.events, lugnet.trains, lugnet.trains.org, lugnet.trains.org.ncltc, lugnet.org.us.nclug
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Followup-To:
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lugnet.trains.org, lugnet.trains.org.ncltc, lugnet.loc.us.nc
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Tue, 5 Aug 2003 04:22:56 GMT
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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.
http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?i=477625
The weekend didn't start out so well for us though. I was in Portland, OR
for work last week and had scheduled myself to take the last flight from
Portland to Raleigh on Thursday night. When I got to the airport I learned
that my connecting flight to Dallas wasn't anywhere close to on time and
would miss my connection to Raleigh. I had an awful lot to do on Friday and
it was going to be a real problem if I wasn't at home! I managed to get as
far as Chicago on Thursday and flew from Chicago to Raleigh on Friday
morning. From the time I landed it was a scramble the rest of the day until
GATS kicked us out at 9:00 PM on Friday night.
Even though we had reviewed our track plan many times, we simply overlooked
the fact that the track on top of Cary's subway module was in a fixed
location. Doh! We realized about 8:30 that our track plan wouldn't work!
Fortunately we were able to adjust (we added a local loop and re-routed the
other line) and moved on. The monorail spirals ran into Joe Meno's museum,
something else we missed on the plan. A little more rearranging and we
resolved that dillema. I had mentioned to Cary as we were getting ready to
leave that this was about the most inefficient set up we had ever done - six
hours of set up and we still had quite a bit of work to do in the morning.
On Saturday we all staggered in (me being one of the last) and finished
getting everything set up just as the show opened. We were about as far
from the entry as you could get yet by 11:02 we had people around our
layout.
This was by far the busiest of the three GATS shows we have done. Press
coverage for this event was much better than in past years, the weather was
rainy on Saturday, and the venue was air conditioned (unlike last year).
All of these contributed to a show which I'd estimated was twice as busy as
last year.
We have lots of pictures, Joe Meno has posted quite a few in the last 24
hours including some very nice video clips.
Friday (Setup): http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?f=52264
Saturday: http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?f=52265
More from Saturday: http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?f=52267
Sunday: http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?f=52269
I have also uploaded some pictures that my daughter (who is six) and I took
although these folders are currently unmoderated:
Friday: http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?f=52400
Saturday: http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?f=52308
Sunday: http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?f=52309
Some of the highlights from the show were:
Will Pedersen's Roundhouse:
http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?i=477537
Will Pedersen's model of the Backshop at Spencer (the old Southern Railway
maintenance facility):
http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?i=477522
Cary Clark's Subway Module
http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?i=477483
http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?i=477627
http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?i=477507
Mike Walsh's Amusement Park:
http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?i=477553
http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?i=478775
Joe Meno's Natural Science Museum:
http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?i=478764
We had Cary's monorail spirals out again (these are a crowd favorite):
http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?i=478765
Tom Staley of Tom's Train Station (a local model railroad store) loaned me a
wireless video camera. On Saturday night I built a locomotive to mount the
camera in and on Sunday we ran the train for a while with the camera on.
This was a real crowd pleaser although the battery life of the camera isn't
very long (about 15 minutes). I was able to capture some video of the train
running on three of the five train loops we had operating.
Video from a wireless camera mounted on a LEGO locomotive:
http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?f=52316
For this show we also held a canned food drive to support the Food Bank of
North Carolina. Anyone who donated two cans of food was entered in a
drawing to win a LEGO train. We gave away a My Own Train locomotive and two
additional cars. We were overwhelmed by the donations, we completely filled
two collection barrels that are a little larger than a 55 gallon oil drum!
Barrels: http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?i=477586
The play area was extremely busy all weekend. Special thanks out to my
father-in-law, Rex Tracy, who manned the play area almost all weekend.
http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?i=477584
Lastly, we did well in the local media coverage department. Our layout was
featured on the news of four different local TV stations, one on Saturday
night, and three on Sunday night. One of the oddest clips (WB22) featured
an interview with a classic model railroad fan talking about what he came to
the show to see. It was all about seeing regular model railroading stuff
but it was filmed in front of our layout! The best coverage was from NBC17.
I have captured all of the clips and uploaded them to BrickShelf.
Media Coverage (after moderation):
http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?f=52306
Deep links:
NBC17 -
http://www.brickshelf.com/gallery/mpw/TrainShows/GATS-2003/MediaCoverage/nbc17_news_clip_030803.mpg
WB22 -
http://www.brickshelf.com/gallery/mpw/TrainShows/GATS-2003/MediaCoverage/wb22_news_clip_030803.mpg
News14 -
http://www.brickshelf.com/gallery/mpw/TrainShows/GATS-2003/MediaCoverage/news14_news_clip_030803.mpg
WRAL -
http://www.brickshelf.com/gallery/mpw/TrainShows/GATS-2003/MediaCoverage/wral_news_clip_030802.mpg
I think that is about it although I am sure I missed something. We had a
blast and we are all tired (even 24 hours later). We met a lot of really
nice people and we hope we have convinced a few more to come join our merry
band of builders. It was also nice to do a bit of community service and
quite a few parents commented on how they appreciated what we were doing for
the Food Bank.
If you stuck with me this long - 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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Subject:
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NCLTC to display at South Hills Mall March 1st and 2nd in Raleigh, NC
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lugnet.announce, lugnet.loc.us.nc, lugnet.trains, lugnet.events, lugnet.trains, lugnet.trains.org, lugnet.trains.org.ncltc, lugnet.org.us.nclug
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lugnet.trains.org, lugnet.trains.org.ncltc, lugnet.loc.us.nc
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Fri, 1 Aug 2003 10:30:22 GMT
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This weekend, August 2nd and 3rd, the North Carolina LEGO Train Club (NCLTC)
will have our layout on display at the Great American Train Show at the
Raleigh Civic and Convention Center in Raleigh, North Carolina. The show is
open from 10 AM until until 5 PM on both Saturday and Sunday. Admission is
$7 for adults, children 12 and under are free. A $1 off discount coupon can
be found at http://www.gats.com.
The layout will be approximately 15'x25' with four train loops and a
monorail loop, a working roundhouse, a working amusement park and much more.
The monorail loop will feature twin spirals which bring the track level up
to approximately 44 bricks off the surface of the table!
We will also have the play area where kids (and adults too) can build and
run a LEGO train. We will also be collecting canned food for the Food Bank
of North Carolina. Donate two cans of food and you will be entered in a
drawing to win a LEGO train!
Direcitons and more details and a preview of the layout plan (which of
course is subject to change) can be found on our web site at:
http://www.ncltc.cc/events/gats2003/index.htm
If you are in the area please stop by and say hello!
Mike
--
Mike Walsh - mike_walsh at mindspring.com
http://www.ncltc.cc - North Carolina LEGO Train Club
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Subject:
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NCLTC to display at South Hills Mall March 1st and 2nd in Raleigh, NC
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.announce, lugnet.loc.us.nc, lugnet.trains, lugnet.events, lugnet.trains, lugnet.trains.org, lugnet.trains.org.ncltc, lugnet.org.us.nclug
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Followup-To:
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lugnet.trains.org, lugnet.trains.org.ncltc, lugnet.loc.us.nc
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Fri, 28 Feb 2003 19:47:31 GMT
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This weekend, March 1st and 2nd, the North Carolina LEGO Train Club (NCLTC)
will have our layout on display at the South Hills Mall Model Train Show at
South Hills Mall in Raleigh, North Carolina. The Mall is open from 10 AM
until 9 PM on Saturday and from 12 Noon until 5 PM on Sunday. Our layout
will be on display during all mall operating hours.
The layout will be approximately 8'x18' with four train loops and a monorail
loop. The monorail loop will feature twin spirals which bring the track
level up to approximately 44 bricks off the surface of the table!
We will also have the play area where kids (and adults too) can build and
run a LEGO train.
Direcitons and more details and a preview of the layout plan (which of
course is subject to change) can be found on our web site at:
http://www.ncltc.cc/events/southhillsmall2003/index.htm
If you are in the area please stop by and say hello!
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, Mike Walsh writes:
> NCLTC just completed (it came down today) a six week run - our layout has
> been on display at a mall here in the Raleigh area since Thanksgiving. This
> was an interesting experience for us and it actually worked out much better
> than I expected. While we didn't make the news, we did get a nice two page
> write up in the paper and did a building event to support the Foodbank of
> North Carolina.
<...>
Hi Mike,
It is a real good display that you have done there, congrat tho both of you. I
would like to know who build that chruch
http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?i=296610
thanks,
Martin
>
> 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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Great write-up Mike!
I knew I should have tried harder to go see it!
Thanx,
Mark
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NCLTC just completed (it came down today) a six week run - our layout has
been on display at a mall here in the Raleigh area since Thanksgiving. This
was an interesting experience for us and it actually worked out much better
than I expected. While we didn't make the news, we did get a nice two page
write up in the paper and did a building event to support the Foodbank of
North Carolina.
A bit of history - there is a traditional model railroad store here in the
Raleigh area by the name of Tom's Train Station. Tom (of Tom's Train
Station) sells all of the traditional model railroad stuff - LGB, Lionel,
Rail King, Merklin, etc. and all of the accessories to go along with them.
We had met Tom at a past GATS show as he liked our layout so much he bought
several of his own LEGO trains (he has even tried to get LEGO to let him
carry the train line but that is a different story).
Back in October Tom offered me a small spot in his window for the holiday
season and I set up a small (5'x5') loop and put a train on a timer so it
would run during the day and turn off at night without having to "man" it.
Here are some pictures of this small layout:
http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?f=27115
The mall management saw our layout in Tom's window and he told them we had a
much larger layout that we set up at train shows. They expressed interest
in having it as part of their Christmas theme. Tom put them in touch with
me which resulted in Cary Clark and I having a meeting with the mall
management.
The mall wanted our layout in the open area of the mall near where Santa
would be. Obviously we had security concerns - there was no way we could
man the layout for the month of December. The mall purchased plexiglass for
us (which we got to keep) and erected a nice fence barrier around the entire
layout. With our concerns addressed (as well as they could be), we
committed to doing the mall layout.
We committed to having the layout on display from 12/1 - 12/28 but ended up
getting some of it set up early and extended the display by a week (through
today) so it was up for about six weeks. We had three train loops, all
running on timers. The local DMV is right next to Tom's Train Station so
there were people in the mall at 8:00 AM through 9:30 PM pretty much every
day. I set the trains to run from 8:00 AM until 10:00 PM stopping
periodically (about every two hours or so) to ensure we didn't have any
problems. The timers actually worked out well. About the only problem we
had with these was when the power went out due to the ice storm. When it
came back on they were out of phase by about nine hours so the trains were
idle during the day and running at night for a day and a half.
On December 7th we held a building event where we invited people to come
build with us and more importantly, dontate two cans of food to the Food
Bank of North Carolina. Everyone who made a donation was entered in a
drawing to win one of three LEGO train sets. This event was a lot of fun.
We suffered a bit on advertising and attendance due to the ice storm but
will still collected several hundred cans of food and about $100 in cash. A
young boy won the Super Chief and he was still there when we drew names (the
other two winners were not) - he was so excited - here he is:
http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?i=282498. The look on his
face when we called his name was priceless. His family was still without
electricity that day so he and his dad had stayed and played for almost two
hours.
About a week after the building event I got an e-mail from a reporter from
one of the local papers (Cary News) asking if someone was available to
answer some questions. A few days later Cary and I met with Lisa Colston
from the Cary News and spoke her for almost an hour. We met right at the
layout - she had seen pictures of it but hadn't actually seen it herself.
During the interview numerous people stopped by to admire the layout she was
listening to their reactions. On December 24th the paper came out and much
to my surprise - we got a major feature. I was expecting a brief write up
with a picture. We ended up with two color pictures on the front of the
"Life" section, the majority of the front page of the Life section and
another 2/3 of a page on page 4! I have scanned the articles and the scans
are huge - if you want to see them you can find them on BrickShelf here:
http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?f=30198
Once the paper came out traffic picked up significantly and we were asked to
leave the layout up for another week.
So after almost six weeks our LEGO is back home. To the best of my
knowledge we didn't lose anything (my biggest fear) and it was pretty
reliable. The mall isn't too far from where I live so I tried to stop and
check on it a couple times a week. We also had two boxes of the Train
Catalogs which were available for people to take from racks hanging on the
fence. We gave away a lot of catalogs! I'd guess 1500 at least. If I
stocked the bins every day we would have probably given away a lot more.
So all in all, it was a success and I'd do it again - I think the other club
members would too. It was nice to see the layout up for a long period of
time as opposed to a 48 hour hectic weekend like most train shows are. The
holiday theme also allowed us to build a huge Christmas parade down main
street. This was neat and was very well received by people.
I took pictures on several occasions, here is the top level folder for the
event.
http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?f=28752
All for now - I have created enough 1's and 0's for the evening.
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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"John" <John@TCLTC.org> wrote in message news:H6qqo9.JtK@lugnet.com...
> This could be a historic weekend for number of LTC showing at one time!
>
> I count:
>
> GMLTC
> PNLTC
> NCLTC
> SCLTC
> NGLTC
> NILTC
>
> Now *that's* impressive! Brace yourselves for the flurry of pics next • week!
>
> Good luck to everyone!
>
> -John
NCLTC has a layout on display for the month of December at South Hills Mall
in Raleigh. This afternoon we set up our play area and collected food to
benefit the Food Bank of North Carolina.
We held a drawing for people who made a donation where we gave away a 10020
Super Chief, a 4561 Railway Express and a 4565 Freight and Crane Railway.
We had a good time and we had a pretty good crowd all things considered. We
didn't get the word out as early as we had hoped to and the severe weather
here in North Carolina on Wednesday and Thursday didn't help either. Many
people are still without power including our own Cary Clark.
The play area was busy from the minute we set it up until the minute we took
it down. In fact, there were people waiting for us to arrive! As usual,
the kids made lots of crazy trains and we collected quite a bit of food for
the Food Bank.
The first batch of pictures from the NCLTC building event this afternoon
have been moderated.
http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?f=29324 [1]
In addition to pictures of the play area I took a bunch of pictures of our
main layout. The main feature of the layout is the Christmas Parade. We
have had a lot of fun making the parade and it now stretches almost the
entire length of the layout. Cary Clark also brought his other large sign -
a yellow RR crossing sign.
http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?i=282453
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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