It started off simply enough. Eric Kingsley saw a video of a LEGO moon base display by the Ontario Brick Builders which featured over 250 feet of monorail track. As far as we could discover, that was the longest monorail track that had been publicly displayed. Eric thought that as a club we could best that and start a friendly little monorail competition among the Lego User Groups.

The next step was to see how much monorail track we could gather together. Quite a bit as it turns out. So then we needed to figure out where and when we could create a display. One of our favorite shows every year is the Wenham Museum in Wenham Massachusetts and they were willing to let us try something a little different this year. We now had a venue, but one that presented a challenge. How many linear feet of track can fit into about 280 square feet of display space? Well the answer is that if you are willing to go vertical, very vertical, you can fit in over 700 feet of monorail.

Come by the museum on February 11th or 12th to see if all our planning and building will pay off with a new LEGO monorail record. In addition to some rather impressive towers which support up to eleven levels of looping track, the display will feature a city, moon base, castle, and carnival. It should be pretty special.

Captain, Captain, the Imperials are heading to the archipelego to take our treasure.

Relax.

Shouldn't we do something?

Sure, but we've got time. Their row boats only go two inches per turn. I can swim three times faster than that. Besides, the monkeys hate soliders and the gators are armor plated. Let see if they survive.

You know if we go there now, maybe we can steal someone else's treasure.

I have a better idea. Let's leave now and steal some treasure from the other pirates.

Sigh, such a better idea. I wish I had thought of it.

*SMASH* “What? Again!?”
When we planned a “Monsters Attack” theme for our layout at the most recent Greenberg Toy and Train Show at the Shriners Auditorium in Wilmington, MA, we thought we were well prepared. After all, we had plenty of monsters. Three-headed Ghidorah crashing through a building? Check. Motorized T-rex terrorizing trains? Check. Small rock monsters? Check. Large rock monsters? Check. Small Dragons? Check. Large dragons? Check. Dinosaurs in the carnival? Check. Giant mutant ants in the city? Check. Sta-puft Marshmallow Man? Check. Giant Mecha? Check. Gremlins? Gremlins?! Okay, who packed the gremlins? Well, that is my theory anyway. What else could explain all those mishaps? Not only did we have a record number of derailments, but so many trains fell to the floor that we were starting to run low on engines that could run on our outside loop. It didn’t matter if they were a LEGO design or a custom model, battery or 9volt, steam or diesel. Everything was fair game to the gremlins. Even the Carnival was infested. Brand new rides wouldn’t work the way they did at home. Older rides broke down in brand new ways.

Despite all this, we still managed to put on a pretty good show with towering skyscrapers, an expansive railyard, elaborate castle, and the always popular Carnival. The crashes themselves were entertaining in their way. They certainly helped answer the frequently asked question of “Do you glue your models?” Many visitors enjoyed watching the train engines being rebuilt after all the loose bricks had been scooped up off the floor. And speaking of our visitors, they were fantastic. Many were very helpful when we did have a crash, either picking up pieces themselves or keeping the loose brick from being trampled under foot while a Nelug member made their way over to the area. And there were lots of questions. New questions. Interesting questions. Enthusiastic questions. We all love to build, but sharing our hobby with others is why we do events like this. So thank you to everyone who stopped by to talk or just to look.

NELUG will be hosting a monsterously cool display at Greenberg's Train & Toy show on March 26th & 27th. Located at the Shriner's Auditorium in Wilmington, MA, the show goes from 10:00am to 4:00pm on both days. We'll have a brand new layout for this show featuring some beastly creations rampaging through the city!

For more information on Greenberg, including admission information, please visit http://www.greenbergshows.com/.

For directions to the Shriner's Auditorium, please visit http://www.alepposhriners.com/directions.html

We look forward to seeing you there!

For the third year Nelug was invited to display at the Wenham Museum and we were happy to accept. So this past weekend we presented a train layout that included the ever popular carnival and a few things new to our Wenham layout. Visitors were treated to a city of towering skyscrapers, a fantasy castle, and a futuristic miniland city. And of course, there were trains. This year we had an interesting mix of steam and diesel engines, LEGO and custom designs, and 9volt and battery powered trains.

But what is this?...

On January 29th and 30th, NELUG once again displayed at the Amherst Railway Society's big Railroad Hobby Show in West Springfield, Massachusetts. This was our second year at the show, and like last year we had a blast. Our setup on Friday was plagued by a few hurdles, but the members who were there pulled together and had the majority of the work done before the end of the day. On the morning of the show, details were added, and trains began to run. By 9am the first of the public began to come through the doors, and it was non-stop for the next two days. Total visitor count to the show, according to the organizers, was 20,459 people. Even with that large of a crowd, the atmosphere was relaxed, and we had an enjoyable time talking to patrons, vendors, and other clubs. There was even enough time for our members to visit the other buildings where the show took place, which was wonderful for gathering ideas for future builds. Being a train show, the majority of our exhibit consisted of a very active train yard filled with locomotives and rolling stock. We also had a small town section, a residential area, and bit of a warehouse district for trains to unload at. While we didn't have a river section for this show, we did have a nice mountain area to provide some scenic beauty. Despite having only done this show once before, we were visited by many people who had seen us before. We caught up with some old friends, and even had a chance to meet a couple of new members. We look forward to attending again next year.

On December 3-5, NELUG participated in the LEGO KidsFest event in Hartford, CT. We arrived on Thursday the 2nd for setup, and discovered that we actually had a slightly LARGER area than anticipated, which turned out to be a welcome surprise, especially after last year's event where we wound up with half the expected space! The overall AFOL/Hobbyist area was about 40'x70', and consisted of two train layouts (one for NELUG and one for PennLUG) and a table for the Great Ball Contraption and general models.

Setup was a bit slow thanks to our relatively smaller crew (compared to our normal shows), but by the end of the day, we had almost everything squared away except for the final minifig placements and small touch-ups. That left us plenty of time on Friday to finish up and get a good look around the event.

The event itself was a lot different than last year! 2009's KidsFest featured a good deal of vendor booths, many of which had nothing to do with LEGO or kids at all! This year, LEGO beefed up the LEGO content and had:
- 3 "monochromatic build" areas, building only with 1 color
- 2 LEGO surprise mosaics
- 2 areas to play LEGO board games
- A LEGO video game zone for LEGO console games
- Some stations to play LEGO Universe
- "Creation Nation" where kids could place their builds on a giant USA map
- Racing challenge, for kids to race their creations
- A bigger LEGO store (about 4 times the size and capacity as last year)
- Santa Claus visit area
- Charity ornament building
- Free building area
- "Bounce House" for kids to jump around in
- Stage for presentations (like "A day with a Master Builder", etc)
- Meetings for LEGO Club members (private room upstairs)
- LEGO displays in minifig scale
- Life-sized LEGO sculptures
- Some concessions (cotton candy, Dunkin Donuts)
- LEGO building contests And of course there was our "AFOL" area, about half of which wound up being NELUG content, and the rest was made up of fans mostly from Canada and PennLUG.

When the doors opened, the crowds made their way in, but didn't wind up being shoulder-to-shoulder like last year. Instead, the crowds were plentiful yet manageable. And fortunately, we didn't hear any horror stories of people being turned away or having inadequate parking. Instead, all the guests we talked to seemed very happy, and of course all the kids were having a blast.

With motors running, trains moving, and the GBC busily churning out soccer balls, we were probably the most popular display area at the event, compared to LEGO's displays which were mostly static. Throughout the weekend, we kept hearing both kids and parents saying that our area was their favorite part of the entire show.

When the doors finally closed late Sunday night, we started breaking down. We were treated to pizza and a small shopping spree at the LEGO store, courtesy of LEGO (thanks, LEGO!). It took a while, but we finally got everything packed up by around 11pm. Hopefully, we can look forward to coming back again next year!

 

Fri. March 26
1150 - After a busy morning at work, I grabbed some lunch before heading to Wilmington. Should be OK that I won't be there until later...
1245 - arrived at Shriner's Auditorium only to find that everyone was there and they had already unloaded the trailer! Seems that the message to meet at 1200 meant be here first, then go for lunch. I thought it was the other way around...
1315 - Matt and Chris arrive, bags of food in hand, wondering why no one was at McDonalds. Whew, I wasn't the only one!
1420 - tables are put together according to plan. I got to roll around underneath the tables with the drill securing bolts.
1645 - I needed to leave for a family event. All of my MOCs are now in place. Should be able to help finish up detailing the layout with minifigs and trees tomorrow morning.

Sat. March 27
0835 - arrived early to help finish setting up. Joe bought donuts - yea!! Helped put out minifigs and got the monorail track finalized, hooked up and tested. Eric did a splendid job planning the monorail for this particular layout! Teddy's mountain tunnel is also in place now, looks great.
0950 - Panic! Only 10 minutes left and we haven't tested any of the trains yet! Need to clear the tracks of boxes and bins so we can get done!!
1000 - Whew, made it! The last boxes were stored and the trains are all running exactly at showtime. That was kinda close...
1200 - crowds have been steady but not crushing, which is good. Unfortunately we already lost one train to the floor - Tom's. It was a spectacular crash, too. Pieces everywhere!
1300 - Took the last lunch shift. Decided to bring my own food for one of the two days to keep things kinda healthy. Does a fluffernutter on whole wheat count?
1330 - Am now in one of the two pits with the train speed regulators. Nice change of pace. Get to interact with the crowd a lot from in here. Folks at this show are very respectful of the layout - it's awesome!
1410 - Gee, how many pictures of the layout that people have taken am I in? Maybe I should always smile...
1500 - Done with the pit. Need a bathroom break anyway.
1600 - Show is done for the day. Taking lots of pictures of the layout after all the people are gone. Not happy with my camera settings; need to find the user's manual and figure out what I'm doing wrong.

Sun. March 28
1150 - arrived late as it's Palm Sunday. Meandering around the layout, answering questions and helping with layout issues as needed.
1230 - time for lunch. Got to eat with Linda and Jon. Mmmm, hamburgers...

1600 - Show is officially over! Went really well. Now need to start packing everything...
1630 - All my MOCs are put away. Packing up all of Jamie's monorail stuff. Might be the last show using his magic box of monorail, as he'd like to try to bring it back with him to Denmark next time he comes to visit...
1700 - Carrying all this stuff outside. Amazing that we can get it all into the club trailer!
1730 - All packed and done! 1.5 hours, not bad. The traditional after show dinner is dwindling in size, only 5 of us are going. Changing venues, trying the Horseshoe Grill vs. the Piccadilly Pub.
1900 - Dinner was very good! Place is really nice; I think we'd definitely go there again. Heading home after a fun but tiring weekend. Thanks, everybody!!

NELUG will be doing a display at Greenberg's Train & Toy show located at the Shriner's Auditorium in Wilmington, MA. The show is Saturday and Sunday, March 27 & 28 and goes from 10:00am to 4:00pm on both days. As always, we'll have a brand new layout for this show and some new creations to show off!

For more information on Greenberg, including admission information, please visit http://www.greenbergshows.com/. For directions to the Shriner's Auditorium, please visit http://www.alepposhriners.com/directions.html

We look forward to seeing you there!