Sub-zero temperatures, blowing winds, and an uncooperative trailer couldn't keep NELUG away from the Amherst Railway Society's big Railroad Hobby Show at the Eastern States Exposition in West Springfield, MA this past weekend.

 

On January 30th and 31st, 2010, NELUG participated in the Amherst show for the first time.  Setup began on Friday, but was delayed slighly by our trailer, which was frozen in place thanks to the extreme cold here in the Northeast.  Our determined crew persevered, however, and by 10pm Friday night, we were set up and ready to run some trains.

 

Saturday morning approached quickly, especially when the doors for the public opened a full hour earlier than we had expected.  This just added to our fun, however, as we quickly left the detailing work that we were finishing up, and began pulling locomotives and rolling stock out of boxes, speedily getting the layout up and running as the first onlookers trickled in.  From that point on, everything ran smoothly throughout the weekend.

 

The visitors at Amherst were some of the best that we've experienced, and many were curious about the LEGO hobby.  NELUG's members shared information, swapped stories, and generally had a wonderful time playing trains together as we interacted with a very enthusiastic crowd.  The show layout featured a small town scene, two farms, a wind farm, and lots and lots of track and trains.  New feature included on the layout were a corner mountain section, and a second smaller mountain showcasing a wonderful winter scene.  As usual, our trains represented several local lines, as well as some make-believe railways that pleased the public.  We were also pleasantly surprised to see many of our friends and fans from past shows.

 

Photos of the event can be found in the NELUG Flickr pool.  For those who may have missed us in West Springfield, our next show will be at the Wenham Museum in Wenham, MA, this upcoming February 14th and 15th.  We look forward to seeing you there!

 NELUG, PennLUG and two members of ParLUGment were the clubs who contributed to the AFOL layouts at the first ever LEGO KidsFest run in the USA.  The event was held at the Connecticut Convention Center in Hartford, CT on 20-22 Nov. 2009, and by lunchtime on Saturday maximum capacity was reached for the first time at the newly constructed venue! 

 October and November have been very busy months for the members of NELUG!

On Saturday Oct. 3 NELUG celebrated it's 10th anniversary at the SEE Science Center in Manchester, NH (home of the LEGO Millyard display).  Members of NELUG and their families participated in an afternoon of events that included a pizza party, a MOC judging competition, playing a floor-sized version of Carcassone made in a pirate theme on 16x16 baseplates, and a giant raffle of LEGO!  Over 50 people participated in the event and a fun time was had by all.

On Saturday Oct. 10 NELUG participated in the second annual  "Mito Walk and Family Fun Day" for the United Mitochondrial Disease Foundation.  Like last year, this fund raising event was held at LEGO Systems, Inc. headquarters in Enfield, CT, and featured a 5K Walk, LEGO raffle, a skateboard demonstration, LEGO displays, a free build area, and a huge floor mural. NELUG's participation this year included a moonbase display, a Great Ball Contraption (GBC), a train and town display, and several MOCs.  Ten members of NELUG participated in helping with this worthy cause.

On Columbus Day (Oct. 12) NELUG member Teddy Welsh hosted a meeting of "NELUG West" aka western MA/CT/VT. Members from that part of New England gathered to build moonbase terrain to be used at LEGO KidsFest (see below).  Several members attended and were treated to dinner as well as an evening of 'moonscaping'.

We then held our monthly meeting on Thurs. Oct. 29 at the Burlington Mall following the usual routine of meeting at the LEGO Store at followed by dinner at Uno's. Turnout was excellent and in addition to the multiple LEGO purchases, food and drink, several members brought MOCs to show to the group (and the restaurant employees, who are now big fans!).

Then on Sat. Nov. 7 about 10 members gathered at the SEE Science Center to participate in a video taping session of experiences surrounding NELUG's participation in the building of the LEGO Millyard display.  NELUG and the SEE Science Center are collaborating on the project, which will hopefully be ready by 2010!

Our November monthly meeting was held on Thurs. Nov. 12 at the Natick Collection aka the Natick Mall.  Members gathered at 6pm at the LEGO Store and were treated to lots of great purchases.  Dinner followed at John Harvard's in Shoppers World, where final discussions were held about our participation in...

LEGO KidsFest was held at the CT Convention Center in Hartford, CT Nov. 20-22.  NELUG participated in a big way, providing a large train and town display, the Boston Skyline mosaic, a moonbase display, multiple Steampunk MOCs, the floor-sized version of Carcassone, and lots of airplane and dinosaur MOCs.  Pictures of the event can be found in the Flickr pool "LEGO KidsFest 2009" and a more complete write-up of this event will be posted shortly.

While the lack of current articles on our website about club events and activities may be an indication that NELUG is not that active, there is actually another more pragmatic explanation for this phenomenon – we actually love to build, but don’t really like to write about building. So with apologies, here is a belated account of our participation in the National Train Show (NTS) hosted by the National Model Railroaders Association (NMRA) at the Hartford Convention Center in July, 2009.

IT WAS GREAT!! The club pulled out all the stops and put together the biggest, best layout we’ve ever done, thanks to the tireless effort of many of our club members! The member participation level was super, and several new members got to display for the first time. In addition, NELUG was one of 5 LUGs who participated in the show this year, organized under the sponsorship of Trains ‘n’ Town (TnT) and the International LEGO Train Clubs Organization (ILTCO).

A full description of the event will hopefully be published soon in BrickJournal, so if/when that happens we will post the news. Pictures of the event can be found in the NELUG Media Gallery, the event's Flickr group "ILTCO NMRA Train Show 2009", and on the TnT and RailBricks web sites:
http://www.nelug.org/mediagallery/album.php?aid=411&page=1
http://www.flickr.com/groups/iltco2009/pool/
http://www.trains-n-town.com/
http://www.railbricks.com/

And speaking of writing about building, please check out the article in the current issue of BrickJournal (#7) about our 2 ½ year endeavor to help build one of the largest minifig scale displays in the world, the LEGO Millyard, at the SEE Science Center in Manchester, NH. And then go see the display for yourself - you won’t be disappointed!

Shortly, we should have a story up describing the fun we had at the NMRA National Train Show. Until then, please enjoy some pictures from the event.

The Boston Red Sox were a big hit at the 1st Annual Westside Train Show in West Springfield, MA.

On February 28th, NELUG displayed at the West Springfield Middle School, on invitation of the area's PTO. We fielded a 14' x 14' display, which contained a large rail yard, several industries, a small town, and Fenway Park, contributed by one of our newest members.

Trains of all varieties were on display, and the yard was kept busy throughout the day as several regional railroads took turns on the tracks. Spotted in the lineup were locomotives from The Green Mountain Railway, Vermont Railway, New Haven, and Rutland, as well as a 20 car Amtrak passenger consist. The Brickling Brother's circus train was on display, as well as the ever popular Thomas The Tank Engine.

We'd like to thank our host, the John Ashley PTO, for the effort that they put into making us feel at home. The coffee and donuts were much appreciated!

Photos of the show can be found in our media gallery.

New England Lego Users Group was invited to help celebrate the final weekend of the three month long Train Time exhibit at the Wenham Museum in Wenham, Massachusetts. We were happy to take part by creating a 16’ by 16’ train display. The visitors were enthusiastic (Please don’t touch that.) and for the most part, well behaved. (Sir, did your son bring that minifigure with him today?) Even Sunday’s snow didn’t keep everyone away.

The layout featured a busy rail yard (Can you make that one run?), an exciting carnival (No, none of them are sets), and a snow covered city and town. For adults, the carnival’s Round Up ride probably brought back some queasy memories. For the younger kids, (Watch your fingers.) Sponge Bob popping wheelies was a big hit.

One highlight from the city was a Chinese New Year celebration (Please don’t touch) going on in the shadow of two skyscrapers. (Look. The door moves.) In the town, our minifigures were busy skating, sledding, creating complex snow sculptures, and engaging in some pretty brutal snowball fights. But folks came to see the trains and for this show (Watch your fingers, please) they ranged from a dragon chasing a hand car to the classic Santa Fe Super Chief.

A three day show may have strained (Don’t touch that!) a nerve or two, but we had a great time and the museum staff were wonderful. They not only provided food and refreshment, but great company and support as well. Photos of the event can be seen in our Gallery.

This past weekend, there was an attack by the rare, fresh water shark at the NELUG display during the Greenberg Toy and Train Show in Hartford, CT. Other strange animal behavior on the display included snakes in the trees, sheep navigating the hedge maze, an ostrich chasing an escaped prisoner, geese leaping from rooftop to rooftop, and somehow, the cows confused fuel storage tanks for a milking station. The turkeys were in a highly agitated state, no doubt worried about the upcoming Thanksgiving holiday. The rooftops were crowded not only with geese and turkeys, but also battling ninjas, superheroes and super villains.

But the main show was, of course, the trains. Younger visitors were thrilled to see James and Thomas the tank engine, and the latest version of the Circus train was a universal hit. Another bit hit was the monitor displaying the view from the camera hidden in one of the train engines. Many people remembered NELUG from the display we did in the spring of 2007, but many more commented, “LEGO makes trains?” We were happy to introduce them to the LEGO Train System and hopefully created some new fans.

In addition to the train layout, we were given enough space for member, Bill Bourn, to give a hands-on LEGO Robotics demonstration with his battling bots.

Photos of the show can be seen in our Gallery

Written by Linda D
Editted by Jonathan D

A little something for Søren....

Back in early October during the MITO event in Enfield MITO Event, Søren Torp Laursen (the President of Lego Systems North America for those who aren't familiar), approached us to see if we could display something during their Leadership Board meeting.

Søren & his children enjoyed the display in Enfield and was wondering if NELUG could display something though didn't know what at the time. He had seen Nathan Sawaya's sculptures and suggested perhaps NELUG would be able and willing to display something similar. We stated that although we didn't have a 12 foot stegosaurus handy, we suggested the Mosaic of the Boston Skyline that was shown originally at the Boston Home Show and later at Brick Blast 2006.

Søren saw a picture of the mosaic, was duly impressed and thought it perfect for the Leadership Team event. At this point it was coming down to the wire and after some frantic email exchanges, we quickly coordinated with Vince Rubino, the Marketing Program Manager for Lego, and Ann the Westin's Convention Servcies Manager to have a few members help setup this past Sunday the 26th.

If you happen to be in the area before Thursday, I recommend checking it out if you've never seen the mosaic in person. The hotel is the Westin Boston Waterfront located at 425 Summer Street (next door to the World Trade Center). The mosaic is setup on the mezzanine level and will be there until late Thursday, Oct 30th.
For a few more pics check out the gallery.

On Saturday September 27, 2008, members of NELUG participated in a fund raising event entitled "Mito Walk and Family Fun Day" for the United Mitochondrial Disease Foundation. The event was held at LEGO Systems, Inc. headquarters in Enfield, CT, and featured a 5K Walk, LEGO raffle, a skateboard demonstration, LEGO displays, a free build area, and a huge floor mural. NELUG helped by providing three displays; a moonbase, a large castle complex, and an exhibition of several city MOCs. The center of the moonbase display featured Spacely Towers by Teddy Welsh. Two modules (a Sponge-Bob themed Sandy's Greenhouse and a Classic Spaceport) and a moon monorail train were built by Jonathan Dallas, a Robot Museum module showcasing the likes of the Silent Running drones, B9 robot from LIS, Robbie the Robot, Rosie & Uniblab from the Jetsons and Oliver Wendal Jones' Banana PC Jr 6000 from Bloom County was done by Dave Gwon, three modules (Crystal Hotel, Moonbase Cafe Corner, and Market Street Moonbase) created for BrickFair 2008 were displayed by Mike Ripley, and connector modules in classic space and Blacktron colors were built by Linda Dallas. The castle display highlighted a large castle layout by Matt Mann, a castle and dragon scene by Dave Eaton, and a model of the Jabberwock by Jason Wolfson. Dave Gwon also provided two city MOCs, Bill Bourn had a robotics demonstration for the kids, and Steve Doerner provided extra hands to help with setup and tear down. Several NELUG members also walked in the 5K Walk that followed a somewhat damp, swampy and mosquito ridden path around the LEGO complex. A Channel 40 (ABC) news team was present for the grand finale, which featured a ring of people lying on the floor around the giant floor mural featuring the word 'Hope' adorned with - LEGO! As a result of everyone's hard work, over $38,000 was raised. And as a special treat for NELUG, we were given a tour of the new work spaces for the Master Builders in Enfield. It was great to hang out with Erik Varszegi, Dan Steiniger and Steve Witt, and to be invited to participate in the event! To see all the pictures taken at the event, please visit the event picture area in our Media Gallery.