Subject:
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2005 Club Notes
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.trains.org.tcltc
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Date:
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Mon, 13 Nov 2006 17:43:31 GMT
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Viewed:
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7594 times
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12/19/05 Made progress on our new modules this week! All 5 are built (3 30x30”
and 2 15x30”). All that is needed now is to landscape the surfaces. That will
come when the dark gray plates from BL come;-) Also, looks like we have enough
greeblie to construct the 60 extra straight tracks we will need for the
expansion. I looking forward to a productive Christmas break.
12/14/05 Okaaay, it’s been about 9 months since I’ve updated the site! Actually,
since MOCpages was down for most of the summer, I didn’t sweat it too much. So
let me get things up to date here. Well, we did wait until good weather to see
if we would be able to pack the entire layout into our Honda CRV and Eureka! it
all fit-BARELY. And I mean JUST barely. The last things we packed were our
clothes, which we stuffed here and there where we could find room!
As for the show itself-- it was a HUGE success and I am so glad that Ross and I
made the trip (13 hour drive). It was really exciting to meet new friends, get
reacquainted with old friends, and just be a part of something truly
spectacular! We worked very hard to get ready for the show and could’ve used a
solid week more time to prepare, but isn’t that always the case:-) After the
show, we were literally tapped of LEGO energy and didn’t click a brick for
months.
Although we didn’t do much building for the latter half of the summer, I did
enter into “brick acquisition mode” for several projects which I then began in
October. The first project is my completely redesigned Milwaukee Road Hiawatha
train, which I hope to debut in LaCrosse, Wisconsin in March. It is KILLER, and
has taken a lot of time to amass all of the necessary brickage to build. I built
my first version of the Hiawatha when the Halloween buckets came out (containing
for the first time the color orange) in 1999. Now the orange was great, but the
Hiawatha is actually DARK RED and orange, and so not until now was building in
those colors together possible. And they look GREAT together. Did I mention that
this MOC is going to be KILLER? :-)
Our second project for the Fall was our Tree Project, which we just completed
this week. Now THAT”S a tree! The third project is in the works and about half
finished-- 5 new modules for the layout (3 30”x30” modules, and 2 15”x30”
modules). These should be completed this Christmas vacation. There are other
side projects which I will not mention until they are completed.
3/26/05 Okay, Ross and I think that we have finally settled on the final Cincy
layout design (after at least 4 iterations). We are going to pare the Thomas
modules down to 10 feet wide, build a transformer module (done), and build 2 or
3 more modules for a final footprint of 10’ x 9’. We are hopeful that we can
still pack everything into our small SUV. Further space testing will occur when
the weather is warmer.
3/15/05 Though I have participated in many shows as a member of the GMLTC, it
was quite a different experience putting on a 2 person show as a part of the
first public display for the TCLTC. Of the few TCLTC members we have, only my
son Ross and I were able to attend this show, which was about a 3 hour drive
from the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minnesota in the city of La
Crosse, Wisconsin. Feel free to skip the boring documentation and notes I’m
recording (for my own sake, before I forget stuff).
First, to say it was a tight fit would be a gross understatement. We packed our
Honda CRV literally to the roof (and above, actually, because I strapped 5 six
foot tables to our luggage rack:-) If we bring just one more 2x4 brick to our
next show, we will need to rent a trailer for the space (which we will
definitely be doing). The plan was to leave Friday around noon, one o’clock at
the latest. We ended up leaving at FOUR! Yikes! We arrived at around 7, looking
to set up a layout that we had never displayed before. We were kicked out of the
convention center at 10pm, and had to arrive a couple of hours early the next
day to finish set up. We were mercilessly teased by some GMLTC members as to
whether or not we’d finish setting up before 4 pm Sunday (the end of the show).
Breakdown went smoother; we even pulled out BEFORE the GMLTC did:-)
We were actually using this show as a warm-up for the BIG EVENT in Cincinnati
this July. And it was a good thing we did. Many things went very smoothly, but
some did not. My rack/display idea for the back of the layout was a disaster.
Luckily, we got a horrible placement on the show floor, and we had to have our
backside actually IN the GMLTC footprint along their backside, which, for all
intents and purposes, made viewing the back of our layout virtually impossible
by the GP. For the most part, the GP just assumed that the TCLTC and the GMLTC
were a single club because of our close proximity. But that won’t happen again I
am assured by the event organizers.
The good news is that the Thomas section was a HUGE hit. We “borrowed” Ross’
working fountain from our clubhouse layout, and that worked like a champ. Gears
started loosening up on day 2, so Ross is going to tackle that problem, but I
was very pleased (as was the GP) with it. Also, Ross’ RCX work on the Thomas
line worked famously, keeping kids bewildered and unsure of what was happening.
On the public side, the GP could only see a simple line coming out of a tunnel
and then disappear into another tunnel. Behind the scenes, the line split off a
siding, with an RCX brick controlling the switching of the tracks and reversing
power to the “2” lines. So, in essence, the GP would see Thomas come out of a
tunnel and disappear into the other tunnel. After a brief moment, Percy or Bill
(Whichever we were running at the time) would appear from the same tunnel into
which Thomas disappeared, only heading in the OTHER direction. More than a few
kids were startled as they watched for the train to appear out of the other
tunnel, only to have ANOTHER train appear coming from the opposite direction! We
were paid the ultimate compliment by a few-- raging tantrums at the prospect of
leaving, if only to see the rest of the show. I enjoy showing off to old timers
my prototype stuff, but it doesn’t quite compare to sparking the imagination of
kids with Thomas characters (along with Chitty and Trolley).
So, we are left with a hit on our front half, and a disaster on our back. Ross
and I have been talking about this, and we have decided to go for broke and
COMPLETELY cannibalize the home layout and add the four subway modules to the
traveling layout. So, so much for having a home layout! In time, we will
assimilate most of the home layout into the traveling layout, starting with the
subway modules and finally adding the waterfall modules. This will take some
time, and I think we won’t debut the subway module additions until next year at
LaCrosse.
All in all I was very pleased with our first solo effort and can’t wait to start
assembling the new version. We really only have less than 3 months to get ready,
and there is a lot to do in the meantime. Stay tuned for further updates and a
possible second warm-up show before Cincy.
3/06/05 Panic is officially settling in. I have yet to complete the corner
modules-- we have been spending a lot of time detailing what we have already
built. And the biggest panic of all-- will it all fit into our SUV???? Honestly
I’m not sure. I will know for sure on Tuesday when we do a test load. There are
still a hundred things to do-- who has the time for a day job?
2/22/05 Progress continues to be made on the Thomas section. We are rebuilding
the town section and I hope to have all of that completed this week. I modified
the Chateau for the second time to appear more appropriate for the traveling
layout (it used to be only 1 sided; now it is 3 sided). The stone arch bridge is
ready, although I need to begin on the elevated bridge oppposite the stone arch.
I also need to begin work on the corner from the stone arch into the display
rack. Much to do, and less than 3 weeks to finish it up:-o
1/27/05 We are now going to debut the traveling TCLTC layout at the LaCrosse
Train Show on the weekend of March 12-13 as a warm-up for the BIG show in Cincy.
We are still refining the layout design, but I think we have finally settled on
an 11’ x 12’ footprint. We have A LOT of work to do finishing up the modules and
building/repairing MOCs. I hope we can make some good progress in the next 2
weeks!
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