CSC Locomotion Weekend – 1/16/26 to 1/18/26

Following

I will be there with the trains all weekend but I should be able to help setup on Friday

M.P.Lynes reporting for train duty.

I will have my giant blue Schnabel car and a ton of new really long hazmat train cars ready for that R 104 loop, including that brand new KUA flask car which will its world debut running at TUBS in November. Plenty of overhang drama with these educational STEM models. @rcgrier3406 and @amplef0rth, crowds love seeing them get close to buildings. XD

If Glenn can’t make it, I can provide extra trains for the other loop too or coordinate with other LUG train runners as well and share my every growing army of batteries. (Someday I’ll have a million of them…) LOLOLOL

@playingwithechoes, let’s discuss at TUBS. I think you, @timf and I are all in the same display area.

Tim confirmed last week that we would be there again this year, but other than that no real planning has been done yet for this.

Here’s a first pass layout to chew on! I had some time over the weekend to play with this.

For reference, we’ve always used 30″x72″ venue tables for this event, primarily because of the logistics of getting the LUG tables there and back, and also to avoid the bottleneck at the elevator and loading dock with the other train clubs that typically bring large pre-assembled modules to this event. Our usual “layout” is on a grid that’s 3 tables wide by 4 tables deep (11 tables total with an open space in the middle). To add the bridge, I added one more table to the left side making the grid 3 tables wide by 5 tables deep (12 tables total with a bigger open space in the middle).

Couple of things to note:

* We’ve always left a 5″ space open between the MILS bases and the edge of the tables. To make the bridge fit, I’m right to the edge of the tables on the top and bottom sides in this layout.
* In order to fit, the bridge has to start and end right at the MILS bases that either exit or enter the long radius curves. Don’t know if this will be an issue with some of @playingwithechoes longer wheelbase engines and cars, especially as they go under the drive side structure of the bridge.
* Since the movable portion of the bridge is 40″ wide, I had to land 10″ of that on a table. That may be an issue with the structure of the bridge at the landing point.
* In this layout we would lose one of the 9v loops that would have normally been on the right side, but that still leaves us with (2) RC long radius loops, (1) 9v double track loop, and (1) 9v single track loop.
* We used our own stanchions last year and would definitely need to bring them again for this layout.

By comparison, our footprint last year was 18 ft. wide by 10 ft. deep without stanchions, and our footprint with this layout would be 18 ft. wide by 12′-6 deep without stanchions.

Gabe Vistica wrote:

Assuming the tables are exactly 30″ deep and there’s no gaps between them, this will actually have a roughly 2-stud overhang on each end, since 32×32 plates are oh-so-slightly larger than 10″x10″.

That’s right @gabevistica. Another reason why we always left space around the perimeter in the past. We might want to leave space (or use a spacer) between two of the tables on the left side to account for this and let the MILS bases span the gap.

I’ll try to come if I’m all caught up at school. I usually come Sunday and bring the Harry Potter train I have that’s stationary.

Disappointing. I was talking with the gal in charge about changes to the floorplan necessary du to the return of a couple of longtime exhibitors who are returning after a several year absence. I was trying to expand my train layout but that isn’t possible this year. It ishoing to be a packed room.

If we can figure a way to make the tables work, or provide two small custom tables to fit the allotted parameters of the middle back table with 40″ gap, we could run the bridge on the back broadside as I don’t want to take from John’s winter village. That’s always a cute front facing attraction and the industrial looking bridge is tall enough to be visible from the back. Fortunately, it’s a 360 walk around display so people will still see it there.

I’d be willing to forgo the railyard and swap trains on a back table like in years past. Or have disconnected side tracks on remaining layout modules in that area to showcase static rollingstock.

If that’s possible to do, great. If not, it’s okay if the bridge waits till HG show. I’m quite happy with how well it worked at The Ultimate Brick Show. I don’t know if Josh has any custom small LUG tables to fit here but maybe he can check. 🙂

Josh wrote:

anyone thinking about how to get stuff from trolley museum for that weekend? maybe we do try to empty out of trolley museum at tear down and divide and conquer all the bins since I can’t fit everything in the van. If you know you won’t use the lug tables, I think I can fit all/just those in my van.

as to custom tables, we built a 2×3 standard baseplate table, and I’ve got plenty of wood to make whatever other dimensions needed at request/confirmation.

@joshhall, I just signed up for teardown at Trolley on the 21st and can take a bunch of the bins of MILS stuff that we’ll need for Locomotion Weekend, but I don’t know if I can take it all and still have room for the stuff I need to take to Locomotion. @timf, can you take some of it as well, especially the stanchions??

As of right now, the Science Center has said that we can’t have any more space than what we had last year, so it’s doubtful that we’ll be able to modify the layout to include Michael’s bridge. For sure we won’t be using any of the LUG tables, but we will need some of the stanchions.

All stanchions are at my house, but I’m happy to take them to trolley tear down for someone else to take home.