BayLUG News

The BayLUG/BayLTC exhibit at the Museum of American Heritage in Palo Alto over the past few weeks was an amazing success! The weekend of Jan 7-9 saw more visitors to the museum than ever before. More than 2000 LEGO lovers attended over the 3 days. Check out the pictures by Bill Ward.

Attendance was likely helped by the great Palo Alto weekly and Mountain View Voice articles featuring quotes from Club co-founder Russell Clark. We look forward to another even better MoAH Living LEGO-cy event for December 2006!

BayLTC has signed up to exhibit at several train shows as part of the Great Western and Atlantic Train Show (successor to the Great American Train Show) around the bay area in 2006.

We will also be making our third straight appearance at the Train Collector’s Association (TCA) Cal-Stewart spring meet in Santa Clara.

In addition we will be displaying as part of the BayLUG museum exhibits in Pleasanton, Danville, and (tentatively) Palo Alto again this year.

Also we are tentatively scheduled to be part of the Great Train Expo in Pleasanton on Thanksgiving weekend.

For full details, click on “Upcoming Events” in the navigation bar.

SAN FRANCISCO BAY AREA, CA – Below are the details for the upcoming appearances of the Bay Area LEGO Train Club (BayLTC).

Sunday, December 18, 2005 to Sunday, January 15, 2006

Museum of American Heritage
351 Homer Street
Palo Alto, CA 94301
http://www.moah.org

The Bay Area LEGO Users Group (BayLUG) and Bay Area LEGO Train Club (BayLTC) are pleased to announce that we will once again be displaying at the Museum of American Heritage in Palo Alto. Set-up is on December 18 and the show officially opens on December 23.

Show Hours:

Friday-Sunday 11am-4pm
Closed Monday-Thursday
Closed December 25, 2005
Closed January 1, 2006
Admission: Donation

BayLTC will be presenting a self-running 12′x25′ layout with several loops of trains running through town, farming, and suburban scenes. The theme of this layout is “Holidays in the Bay Area,” and will feature locally-based scenes with a holiday theme. In addition, BayLUG members will have a variety of other models on display.

Saturday-Sunday, November 26-27, 2005
Great Western & Atlantic Train Show
Alameda County Fairgrounds
4501 Pleasanton Avenue
Pleasanton, CA 94566
http://www.greatamericantrainshow.com

Show Hours:

11am-5pm both days
Admission: $8 for adults; Kids 12 & under free
Admission is good for both days.

The details of this layout are not finalized yet, so please check our Web site periodically for updates.

SAN FRANCISCO BAY AREA, CA – With the end of 2004 rapidly approaching, the Bay Area LEGO Train Club’s 2005 calendar is already filling up. We have signed up for five shows so far for 2005, and two of them are already confirmed. Plus, we still have one show remaining for 2004. Below is information on our upcoming shows. The details for our 2005 appearances are not finalized yet, so please stay tuned for all of the information.

Friday, December 10, 2004 to Sunday, January 2, 2005

Museum of American Heritage
351 Homer Ave
Palo Alto, CA 94301

The Bay Area LEGO Users Group (BayLUG) and Bay Area LEGO Train Club (BayLTC) are pleased to announce that we will be displaying at the Museum of American Heritage in Palo Alto for the month of December, open to the public starting December 10.

Show Hours:
Friday-Sunday 11am-4pm
Monday-Thursday closed

Admission: Donation

BayLTC will be presenting a self-running 12′x25′ layout with several loops of trains running through town, farming, and suburban scenes. The theme of this layout is “Holidays in the Bay Area,” and will feature locally-based scenes with a holiday theme. In addition, BayLUG members will have a variety of other models on display.

Saturday-Sunday, February 12-13, 2005
Great America Train Show
Cow Palace
Geneva Avenue & Santos Street
Daly City, CA 94104
Status: Hold for Show

Friday-Sunday, March 18-20, 2005
Train Collectors Association Cal-Stewart Spring Meet
Santa Clara Convention Center
5001 Great America Parkway
Santa Clara, CA 95054
Status: Confirmed for Show

Monday-Sunday, July 11-17, 2005
Depot Days for Kids
Museum of the San Ramon Valley
Corner of Railroad Avenue & Prospect Avenue
Danville, CA 95426
Status: Confirmed for Show

Saturday-Sunday, September 24-25, 2005
Great American Train Show
Santa Clara County Fairgrounds
344 Tully Road
San Jose, CA 95111
Status: Hold for Show

Saturday-Sunday, November 26-27, 2005
Great American Train Show
Alameda County Fairgrounds
4501 Pleasanton Avenue
Pleasanton, CA 94566
Status: Hold for Show

The Museum of American Heritage (MOAH), The Bay Area LEGO® User Group (BayLUG) and Train Club (BayLTC) are combining forces this winter to create spectacular Holiday season fun at MOAH. MOAH visitors can explore a variety of LEGO creations and an operating LEGO train layout featuring a wide variety of creations by club members that range from futuristic spaceships and classic 1960 LEGO constructions to models of large heavy equipment and famous landmarks. How many will you be able to identify? Highlighting it all is Holidays in the Bay Area, a 12 by 25 foot train layout incorporating multiple trains running through city, farm, and suburban scenes.

Living LEGO-cy will be open to the public from December 10, 2004 through January 2, 2005 during normal exhibit hours. Come and find out just how many clever ways LEGO can be used. Club members will be present during weekend hours to answer questions and support the displays.

The Museum of American Heritage, located in the historic Williams House in Palo Alto, operates programs to collect, preserve, and present objects that illustrate the evolution of 19th and 20th century invention and technology. MOAH provides hands-on education to engage and encourage the public, especially youth, to understand and appreciate the history of technology as a stimulus for the creative mind. In addition, the Museum sponsors events that bring together diverse individuals and groups interested in our heritage of ingenuity and invention.

Regular exhibit hours are 11 AM to 4 PM, Friday, Saturday and Sunday (except Christmas Day and New Years Day). Admission is free.

On July 11, the Bay Area LEGO Train Club (BayLTC) took down our layout which had been on display at the Amador-Livermore Valley Historical Society and Museum in Pleasanton, California since June 12. This was by far the longest-running display our club has had.

But if you missed this display, do not worry: we will be appearing at the Great American Train Show in San Mateo next weekend, July 17-18. We will have a larger layout than the Pleasanton display, including more modern features.

Tear-down pictures.

During the tear-down, after removing the “sneeze guards” and table skirts we took about 10-15 minutes for photographing the display.

Pictures taken throughout the month-long display are also still avaialble.

Since June 12, the Bay Area LEGO Train Club (BayLTC) has had a layout on display at the Amador-Livermore Valley Historical Society and Museum in Pleasanton, California. There is one week left until we take it down next weekend on July 11.

This weekend we had a special display for the 4th of July weekend: a parade! Various members of the club built models which we lined up down “Main Street” on the layout. My personal contributions were an old-fashioned fire truck, a John Deere Model B tractor towing a flat bed trailer with a bluegrass band on the back, and a horse-drawn cart with four waving local citizens on it.

Here are some more pictures I took of the display:

Pictures taken June 26, showing models added in the two weeks since it opened.

Pictures showing our 4th of July parade.

The pics I took on June 12 are also still avaialble.

The Bay Area LEGO® Train Club (BayLTC) has opened its latest train layout, at the Amador-Livermore Valley Historical Society and Museum in Pleasanton, California, now through July 11, 2004. This layout represents several “firsts” for the club: first layout in a museum, first automated layout, and first layout attended by non-club members (museum docents). In addition this is by far the longest-running club layout, lasting 32 days.

BayLTC members set up the exhibit Thursday and Friday afternoons, June 10-11, and finished setup on Saturday morning, June 12. Pictures taken just after setup can be seen on Bill Ward’s Web site.

The exhibit follows a theme of “Railroad in the Central Valley”, and features locally-based scenes ranging from the 1850s to the 1950s. Some featured models include a new farm scene by Paul Sinasohn, new Old West town by Russell Clark, downtown area by Kenny Paul and family featuring many new buildings, Ross Benz’s Mission San José, and Bill Ward’s train station. In addition, we have traditional layout elements including a “fantasy area” featuring Thomas the Tank Engine and a static display train yard with rolling stock made from LEGO bricks.

The layout is 15 feet square and features an electrical control system that shuts off the trains for 10 minutes at a time every half-hour to prevent overheating. The museum is open Wednesdays through Saturdays from 11am to 4pm, and Sundays from 1pm to 4pm. It is closed Mondays and Tuesdays. Admission: $4 per person (donation to the museum). BayLTC’s layout will be ondisplay through July 11, 2004.

Club members will be on hand much of the time on weekends, along with docents from the Niles Canyon Railway and the regular museum docent volunteers. Our display is one part of a larger railroad history display in the museum which is running all summer long.

The Bay Area LEGO Train Club (BayLTC) is pleased to announce it’s 2004 Great American Train Show (GATS) schedule. We will be showing at three GATS shows this year.

We presented a 20′x20′ layout at the Cow Palace in Daly City on the weekend of February 28-29, with good crowds on both days.

We are confirmed for the following show:

• Saturday & Sunday, July 17-18, 2004
  San Mateo Expo Center
  San Mateo, CA

We are on “Hold For Show” status for the following show:

• Saturday & Sunday, November 27-28, 2004
  Alameda County Fairgrounds
  Pleasanton, CA

We will be presenting a 20′x24′ layout with several loops of trains and monorails, running through town, industrial, and suburban scenes. We will also be presenting two workshops at these shows:

• LEGO Trains: Only Imagination Required
• Introduction to Track Designer

The Bay Area LEGO Train Club (BayLTC) presented a 20′x20′ layout at the Cow Palace in Daly City on the weekend of February 28-29, with good crowds on both days.

We had a pleasant surprise on Saturday afternoon, when a young AFOL dropped in with his Challenger-class (4-6-6-4) steam locomotive model. When he surprised us at last year’s Pleasanton GATS, we only got video of this 56-stud-long loco and 27-stud-long tender in action, but this time we got video and lots of snapshots! Watch for these images, due to be posted later this week. Thanks again to William Armstrong for bringing the model for us to enjoy, and to his bigger brother Chris for giving all his black parts to William for this model!

If you missed that show, come see us at one of our upcoming shows; see the Upcoming Events for the latest information.

Members of the Bay Area LEGO Users Group (BayLUG) celebrated their fifth year of association by putting on a major display at the LEGO “What Will You Make, Americas” 2003 Truck Tour in Old Sacramento this past weekend (October 10-12, 2003). On October 10th, 1998, a small group of bay area LEGO enthusiasts who later formed BayLUG set up displays at the Club Room at the Kezar Police Station in San Francisco, then walked to LEGO’s “Imagination Tour” Roadshow in the Golden Gate Park Panhandle. It was a fitting commemoration that exactly five years later, BayLUG was a major participant in LEGO’s current hands-on touring show.

BayLUG’s exhibit at LEGO’s “What will you make, Americas” 2003 Truck Tour stop in Sacramento from October 10-12 was a great success. Members treated thousands of Northern Californians to displays of their own creations, including an operating LEGO train layout and two monorails, and encouraged them to sign up for the new Sacramento LEGO Users Group (SacLUG) mailing list. The exhibit included a town display with Roy’s huge fire station, Bill’s amazing sculptures, Dave W.’s statue of Liberty with Spiderman, Russell’s Thomas the Tank Engine and friends, part of the San Francisco Waterfront Project, Dave S. and Paul H.’s spaceships, the BayLUG Bullet, and many other wonderful LEGO creations, all housed under a 10×10 foot tent canopy. In addition to BayLUG’s exhibit, the event offered visitors four activity areas, three hands-on building areas, and a “Can You Find It” challenge to locate specific LEGO items within the BayLUG Exhibit.

The Truck Tour stop was in the Old Sacramento district, right in front of the Discovery Museum, adjacent to the California Railroad Museum on the river. Attendance built steadily throughout the weekend with about 500 people on Friday, about 800 on Saturday, and well over a thousand on Sunday. The club handed out more than 1800 flyers about the exhibit over the three days. As the temperature climbed into the 80’s, the museum also provided tired and thirsty exhibit staffers with refreshments.

The Truck Tour also provided an opportunity to gauge interest in forming a local Sacramento-area LUG. Response was overwhelming, with more than 200 people and families signing up for the mailing list! Roy Gal will be organizing the first meeting soon, with help from BayLUG.

On Sunday, when LEGO’s master builder was not feeling well, BayLUG member Paul Sinasohn volunteered to fill in. Paul took photos of attendees’ models and talked to them about LEGO building.

Despite the early challenge of the sloping, dusty dirt surface, and the crowds on Sunday, BayLUG members enthusiastically set up, manned, and took down their first outdoor display. The show was a huge success, and a good time was had by all.