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In lugnet.trains, Mike Walsh writes:
>
> "James J. Trobaugh" <james@ngltc.org> wrote in message
> news:GFELAx.HBo@lugnet.com...
> > Wow! Looks great, that's a huge layout for your first show, excellent job. • I
> > can't way for the commentary.
>
> Commentary:
>
> All in all - a great first day and a great first "real" [1] event for NCLUG.
> The GATS people have been very easy to work through this as has LEGO Direct.
> We arrived at the Raleigh Civic and Convention Center (RCCC) yesterday
> (Friday) afternoon about 4:00 with tables in tow (pictures from the setup
> session - http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?f=5110) and started
> setting up.
>
> After being relocated by GATS (right to the front of the exhibit area), it
> took about an hour to set up the tables and about half an hour to lay down
> the track. The monorail loop takes a while to put together, I'd guess we
> spent another half hour doing just that. At that point (about 6:00 PM) I
> headed home to gather up my layout items. I got back to GATS about 8:30 PM
> and got some of my layout in place. While I was gone the rest of the group
> had pretty much gotten their areas in shape.
>
> The only real problems we had were AC power - it took a while to get us
> some, and the bridges that cross the opening in the layout. Cary Clark had
> built two bridges for the train track and I had built one for the monorail.
> Of the three, only one was sturdy enough to be used. So the bridges
> returned home for some re-engineering work.
>
> I arrived about 7:30 this morning to get my sections in shape. The rest of
> the group showed up around 9:00 and we installed bridges, made some monorail
> adjustments, and added finishing touches. Just before the show opened Cary
> Clark installed the controllers with the polarity switches (I'll elaborate
> on those below).
>
> Before the show even opened we were approached by two people responsible for
> the local NMRA show in Raleigh (Sept. 8-9 at the NC State Fairgrounds in
> Raleigh) and asked if we would participate (which I think we will). This
> seemed like a good way to get off the ground.
Mike get used to that,we had 3 or 4 groups walk up to us and ask us to
display at there next show.It's a great"problem" to have:-)
> The show opened at 11:00 and our area was immediately surrounded by people.
> Like most groups have reported, we got lots of questions: Are these yours
> or do they belong to LEGO? Do you work for LEGO? When did LEGO start
> making trains? How long did it take to build the layout?
>
> I think it is safe to say that we had the busiest layout all day long. I
> don't recall a time where we didn't have at least four or five people,
> usually many more, around the layout. The kids layout was extremely popular
> and was pretty much SRO all day long. LD donated the bricks for the kids
> play area, the train components for the play area were provided by myself
> and Cary Clark. Everything seems to have survived the day okay. I had put
> out two train motors this morning - I think tomorrow I will only put out
> one. On a couple of occasions kids were crashing trains into each other (we
> had a modified figure eight layout on the play area). Other than that,
> there were no problems.
>
> Our only real incidents involved monorails. For most of the day we had two
> monorails (my four car Airport Shuttle and Cary's black and yellow Airport
> Shuttle clone) running. Cary's would run faster than mine and would catch
> up after about five circuits. Every once in a while we wouldn't catch it in
> time and Cary's would run into mine. One or the other would end up falling
> off the track. As long as we were paying attention this wasn't really a
> problem, we would just stop Cary's for a while until they were spaced out a
> bit and then start it back up.
Hee one of mine and one of Scott Sanburns did the same thing at our last
show even with both having new batteries at the same time one would always
catch up to another.
> Other interesting data: LD had sent out a postcard (presumably to their
> Mania Magazine database but I am not 100% sure) offering a $1 discount on
> admission. The GATS people told me that at least 100 people had used the
> postcards at the show and they (GATS) viewed it as extremely successful for
> generating attendance. There were two people that told me the only reason
> they came was because of the LD postcard. • They send those out to the zip codes(s) surrounding the zip code the shows at.
> There is probably more that I missed, others from the group are free to
> chime in. I am looking forward to tomorrow. Maybe I'll dig out my
> Metroliner and build it at the show.
>
>
> >
> > I really want to hear about the polarity switches on the controllers, what
> > did they control?
> > http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?i=50712
>
> Cary Clark can elaborate on these but essentially what he did was to use the
> polarity switches to power sections of the track. Each colored polarity
> switch caries power to one of the sidings in the rail yard. By throwing the
> desired polarity swictches, an individual siding can be powered. Over in
> the rail yard the connectors that clip on the track have corresponding
> colored tiles attached to them.
>
> >
> > And this cracked me up, what a great idea:
> > http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?i=50740
>
> This is how Kendall's blimp (which was extremely popular) is powered. He
> got the idea from something we saw (he works with me) when were at the
> Orlando LIC a couple years ago. It really works well. There is no reason
> why a plane or helicopter couldn't be suspended the same way. Maybe we'll
> add a plane to the other end tomorrow.
>
> >
> > Also I'm interested in hearing how your "Kid's Railway" went, the kid's
> > tables looked good.
>
> KRR was extremely popular. The gutters were last minute addition that
> worked out really well.
>
> >
> > jt
> >
> > --
> > James J. Trobaugh
> > North Georgia LEGO Train Club
> > http://www.ngltc.org
>
>
> Lastly - thanks to everyone in the group for making this come together and
> turn out so well. The layout ended up much better than I had hoped for a
> first outing. We had some doubts about our ability to fill the space but
> fill it we did.
>
> Mike
Sounds like you guys are having a blast! Congrats.
> Mike Walsh - mike_walsh at mindspring dot com
> http://www.nclug.net - North Carolina LEGO Users Group
> http://www.nclug.net/ctb - Carolina Train Builders
> http://www.brickbay.com/store.asp?u=mpw - Brick Depot
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