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 Organizations / United States / NELUG / 1789
1788  |  1790
Subject: 
Re: Train Tables
Newsgroups: 
lugnet.org.us.nelug
Date: 
Wed, 18 Jul 2001 00:05:37 GMT
Viewed: 
792 times
  
Tom Cook designed them, but I can clarify some things here...

David Eaton wrote:

I thought about bringing this up at the meeting, but maybe some other people
out there have some thoughts on this too-- But I was thinking about
redesigning any future tables (still compatible of course) after seeing
WAMALUG's tables (I forget who designed them, though I know I was told at
least twice)

Still compatible is important!

1st off, the tables were really lightweight. I forget how heavy our tables
are when fully assembled, but I could lift up a WAMALUG table with one hand
without much trouble-- it also had a center support beam running underneath
the top for easier 1-handed carrying.

I actually don't think of them as light, but i'm a wuss - and it scares
me that your tables are heavier!  Tom could tell you what width wood and
such he used.

2nd is the fact that the legs fold up inside the table instead of being
attached upon arrival. This made it REALLY easy to assemble tables. We
unfolded about 20? tables in only a couple minutes and had them ready to
go-- plus we didn't need a socket wrench... (also probably would mean easier
storage)

25 tables, yes, they go up fast, down too.

The other thing they had was "clips" (which I never saw) that held the
tables together, versus our actual bolting them together-- just another
thing for a quickie setup...

big clips, they look like jumper cable clips.

Oh yes, and the other kinda neat thing they did was paint the tabletops
green so as to minimize the odd color patches between baseplates...

let's not talk about that :)  the green looks better than wood colored,
but it's a bad green, and was supposed to be a lot closer to LEGO green
than it was.

As for disadvantages-- when talking to them, they said there were two things
they would change: the height and the width. I think our tables are
significantly shorter, but theirs were something like 3 feet high? I dunno.
But it was such that little kids couldn't see over the top as they said.

To clairify here... some of our layouts put the tables 2 deep in
sections - that's when we can't reach... kind of pain to have to throw a
point 80" away.  The height isn't as a big deal... it's a thing for the
kids, not for us.

The 2nd thing they said they wanted to change was to make it a 3x3 baseplate
dimention, rather than a 4x4, seeing as they had some problems reaching the
middle with some of the larger buildings. I don't think we've really had
this issue in the past-- but the other advantage they said it would have
would be that they could fit in any-old-car, not just a van/SUV. Of course,
neither of these have been problems for us yet, seeing as we don't have HUGE
buildings, and the tables have always found a home in Eric's car which can
easily fit the tables...

the 3 x 3 is good because it would fit with the 4 x 4 (we could have
some stick out, or could match them up accordingly)... we're not ready
for any more tables, so i don't know when/if we'd ever do that... or if
we'd replace *gasp* the old ones... i'd feel sad if we ever got rid of
these... it'd be a huge waste.

Anyway, some things to keep in mind if we ever decide to add new tables or
want to revamp the old ones...

I think Tom's got some info, i'll forward your message to him, i'm sure
he doesn't read this list :)



Message is in Reply To:
  Train Tables
 
I thought about bringing this up at the meeting, but maybe some other people out there have some thoughts on this too-- But I was thinking about redesigning any future tables (still compatible of course) after seeing WAMALUG's tables (I forget who (...) (23 years ago, 17-Jul-01, to lugnet.org.us.nelug)

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