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Another “cover your eyes/ears Josh” comment. I just recently donated a LEGO model of the Peregrine Lunar Lander that I built to be displayed at the Moonshot Museum and elected to glue certain pieces together both for structural stability and to make sure that parts (like radar dishes and rover wheels) don’t disappear from curious little hands!! After doing some research online I chose to use Gorilla glue, which is a cyanoacrylate glue. It bonded well and at least so far hasn’t discolored or deformed any pieces.
Thanks @watchwmarcella, I added it to the Gallery! Looks great!!
I have several dragons that could be suspended from the trellis, and several trolls from LOTR that could be added somewhere as well. I also have a catapult and a ballista that could be added to any siege scene.
Congrats @watchwmarcella!! I added your pic to the 2024 LEGO Store Gallery album. If you have a close-up of the display itself, post it here and I’ll add that to the Gallery.
@greg, here’s the PennLUG standard that we’ve followed for straight track. The track sections are both MILS’d and ballasted. Hope this helps!
@carlsonf, I had a similar problem when I built the dome for my Hogwarts Castle Tower. I had 8 sloping plate-built panels coming from an 8″ diameter brick-built circular tower that had to come together and support the round top turret.
To resolve it, I ended up hinging the bottoms of each sloping panel using c-clips and plates with bars. At the top, I attached 4 of the sloping panels at the cardinal points again using c-clips and plates with bars, and let the other 4 panels “float”, or just rest against the top turret. The 4 points of attachment at the top were enough to support the turret and ended up being pretty sturdy.
For yours, I’d suggest building a ring at the top using plate hinges and 1x plate that could be attached to some of the sloping panels using c-clips and plates with bars, and then figure out a way to attach and support the top cylinder section of the tower to that ring.
If you’re having stability issues with the yellow supports at the base of the tower, then I’d consider again using plate hinges and 1x plate to make a ring at the bottom of those yellow supports to supplement the technic connections you already have. Once both the top and bottom of those supports are hooked together, the whole bottom support ring should be pretty stable.
I’ll be at set-up for Home & Garden on Tuesday. If you bringing the tower in with you, I can bring some parts with me to at least try to prove out whether this will work or not before you have to go and buy anything more (or worse yet, start gluing anything!).
For those who weren’t able to attend the meeting, here are some pics of the submissions for the Q1 Build Challenge. Winner was @smallfrost for his Trade Federation Command Ship, second went to @watchwmarcella for her Ewok diorama, and third went to @randomdan for his Star Wars parody build and video. Dan said he would post the video once he clears up a few trademark issues.
If you hadn’t noticed, the LEGO Store display was updated during International LEGO Day weekend to commemorate 2024 as the Year of the Dragon! @tfdesigns did the dragon, and @greg did the backdrop.
Pics have been uploaded to the Gallery. To view them, click on the “Gallery” tab at the top right corner of any page, and then open the album “2024-02 LEGO Store Display”.
Check the instructions before you do! The spiral galaxy is a sticker, and stars are there, but the Moon and other Planets aren’t!! Call it “deceptive advertising”?
Got this email from the Science Center this morning. I think the 6,000 visitors she’s referring to are the total number of visitors to the whole Science Center for the weekend!! Otherwise, that would mean 500 visitors per hour (or 8 per minute!) for this 2-day, 12-hour event! Based on this, I think it’s safe to up my estimate to 2,000 visitors just for this event.
Hi everyone,
I took the last couple days off to recover from our fun weekend, but I wanted to say thank you so much for making this a great event for our visitors! We had nearly 6,000 visitors for the whole weekend. I always get so many compliments, especially for all the fun interactives you include with your layouts. I am so appreciative of all the time and effort you put into this event. We couldn’t do it without you!
Stay tuned for next year’s dates! I am fairly certain it will be MLK weekend once again, but I am beholden to the powers that be for scheduling. Hope to see all of you next year 😊
Nikki
Nikki Wilhelm (she/her)
Miniature Railroad & Village® Manager
Carnegie Science CenterHere what I have for cup credits for this event:
Bob Grier: Display + 6 shifts = 4 cups
Glenn Holland: Display + 5 shifts = 3.5 cups
Michael Lynes: Display + 5 shifts = 3.5 cups
Pete Lehman: Display + 4 shifts = 3 cups
John Singer: Display + 4 shifts = 3 cups
Will McDine: Display + 3 shifts = 2.5 cups
Dan Walker: Display + 3 shifts = 2.5 cups
Greg Schubert: Display + 2 shifts = 2 cups
Phil Breneman: Display + 2 shifts = 2 cups
Krista Kay: Display + 1 shift = 1.5 cups
Josh Hall: Display + 1 shift = 1.5 cups
Jade Leung: Display + 1 shift = 1.5 cups
Will Kay: 3 shifts = 1.5 cups
Joss Lynes: 3 shifts = 1.5 cups
Jenny Walker: 2 shifts = 1 cup
Ann Schubert: 1 shift = 0.5 cups
Denise Grier: 1 shift = 0.5 cupsPlease review your credits and let me know if we need to correct anything before we get them posted. Thanks again to everyone who participated!!
Our first event for 2024 is now in the books, and it went very smoothly!! We had everything torn down last night, packed and loaded into everyone’s cars in an hour and 20 minutes, which is pretty incredible for an event of this size!! There were 11 of us that stuck around for that, so lots of hands made for quick work, and everyone took the time to make sure that things were packed away neatly and where they should be so as not to make more work for the next time!
In all, we had 17 people staff this 2-day event, of which 12 displayed. Our base layout covered the equivalent of 180 32×32 baseplates, with another 20 or so equivalents included in the rail yard on the back table. At any one time, we had 6 trains, a trolley and the Incline all running simultaneously, plus we had 2 sets of motorized crossing arms operating intermittently.
Probably most importantly, the layout looked professional!! From the MILS’d bases and ballasted tracks, to the MOC’s everyone provided, to the fleet of custom-built trains that Glenn and Michael brought, it all came together nicely and looked great!! A lot of folks from the other train clubs that were displaying came over to check us out, ask questions and even get some pictures of some of their stuff with our stuff!!
I don’t know what kind of attendance the event had, but things were pretty steady all day on Saturday and after lunch on Sunday. Conservatively I would guess in the neighborhood of 1,200 people.
Pics from the event have been uploaded to the Gallery. To view them, click on the “Gallery” link at the upper right-hand corner of any page, and then click on the album “2024-01 CSC Locomotion Weekend”.
I’ve also uploaded some videos to my Flickr page, including a short snippet that was on the Channel 11 News about the event! We didn’t get mentioned specifically, but we were featured at the beginning of the piece. To view them, click on the link below.
I’ll work on tallying up the cup credits over the next few days and include them in another post for review. Thanks again to everyone who participated!!
Set-up went very smoothly today. I was able to get in there a couple of hours early to level the tables and get the table linens on. We got the loading dock right on time at 1 pm, and we had the bulk of the display installed by around 3:30 pm. Thanks to everyone who came in to help!!
A couple of pics from today are attached. Greg is bringing in a few more modulars and his recently completed train in the morning, and of course @emperorofthenorthpole and @playingwithechoes are bringing “the big boys” in with their custom trains!!
Glenn and Michael, you’ll notice that we have 3 sidings in the rail yard within the layout, and another 4+ set up on the back table. Should be plenty of room for you to store any rolling stock that isn’t running.
If anyone has any issues getting in, or you need to get a hold of me, my cell is 724-841-6085. I won’t be checking this thread again until tonight, so if you need something call or text me.
Everything is loaded (yes, it all fit!) and I’ll be leaving shortly to get the tables arranged the way we want them, leveled and covered with black table linens so we won’t have to mess around with any of that once we start loading in at 1 pm.
@willmcdine, sounds good. That should give us time to get the MILS’d base layout, track and roads down before you get there today, and I’ll wait until after you’re done before setting the Incline in so it’s not blocking your access to set up your stuff.
I don’t think we’ll need the forest fire scene, but we can make that call this afternoon. My biggest concern is making sure we leave enough room on the inside corners of the large radius curves for Michael’s Schnabel car, which overhangs as much as 5″ as it goes around those curves.
@bengood921, sounds good!
@knb112, are you bringing your stuff on Friday? Didn’t see anything on the staffing plan. If not, I’ll need to get the table runners from you ahead of time so we can get them down before all of the MILS’d track bases. If you still have LUG Doug, please bring him as well. Thanks!@rcgrier3406, will there be a secondary display table for static trains like last time? Do we need to provide our own straight tracks for that?
@playingwithechoes, we’ve asked for the same set-up as last year, which means we should have those two back tables again for static trains. We’ll know for sure when I get there on Friday for set-up.I will have some extra straight track for those back tables. I’ll try and let you know how much we have after we get everything set up in case you want to bring more.
I plan to be there for setup and tear down. I will bring my track and we can use whatever is needed.
Bob, I will bring what you posted earlier (16 16×32 and 3 right switches) and will have the rest in my vehicle as backup. My understanding is you need stanchions as well. Do you have a number in mind, or should I just bring what we have? Anything else needed from Josh?
Those track and switch numbers still sound good @pnbrenem. We’ll use yours primarily in the rail yard in lieu of some of the LUG Bases where the track isn’t fully ballasted.
The table layout is 18 ft. wide by 10 ft. deep. I’m pretty sure the retractable belts go out 6 1/2 ft. from each post, so if you can bring 10 stanchions, that would give us a max. belted perimeter of 19 1/2 ft. wide by 13 ft. deep which should be sufficient.
@greg, we’re leaving the “space where the words are” open so we can access things from the inside of the layout that would be difficult or impossible to reach from the outside. For example, we put any 9v speed controllers on the strip of exposed table that surrounds that opening, and we need to be able to get at those.
Will your battery train will run on standard LEGO track with R-40 radius curves? We’re using 9v track on the two single track loops on the left and right sides of the layout, but that doesn’t mean we need to run 9v trains on them, or even power them. Last year we ran RC trains on those loops with no issues. As long as it runs on standard LEGO track with R-40 curves, we’ll just plan on running it on the single track loop on the right side of the layout (where your buildings are), and not connect any 9v power to that loop (see attached). Hopefully we can put fit your crossing arms on that track too!!
@willmcdine, we’ll check, but I would expect that if you’re bringing your wagon in with boxes they will want you to go in through the Security entrance and sign in. That would actually probably be easier anyway in that you wouldn’t have to figure out a path from the lot to the main entrance that doesn’t involve stairs.
@timf, can you email Nikki and check?If you’re interested in displaying, we still have (14) 32×32 spaces and (12) 16×32 spaces open for MOC’s in the layout. You can sign up for one or more of those by using the link below. Once it opens, click on the “Displaying” tab at the bottom of the spreadsheet, and follow the instructions for reserving your space(s). If you just want to staff, you can do that as well on the “Staffing” tab of this spreadsheet.
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1vWmKpb3CU2WryFoCcPzS8nyaYhNHf9k6OCCM2OvZGLQ/edit?usp=sharing
For those of you who can’t make it for set-up on Friday, the event hours are 10 am – 4 pm Saturday and Sunday, January 13th and 14th. Last year we were able to get in at 9 am on each day, and I would assume the same for this year. The museum doesn’t open until 10 am, so you have to enter through Security if you arrive before that. The Security entrance is on the Casino side of the Science Center (see attached), through the double red doors. Tell them you’re there with Steel City LUG for Locomotion Weekend. They’ll probably ask you to sign in.
The event is in Pointview Hall, which is on the 3rd floor of the new PPG Pavillion. You’ll be entering Security on the Ground floor of the Main building. Once you go through Security, go to the far end of the Cafe (towards the Rangos theater) and there will be a set of elevators on your left. Take those to the 3rd floor.
If you’re there for set-up, staffing or teardown, make sure you bring your parking ticket in with you so we can get a “chaser” sticker put on it and you won’t have to pay for parking.
