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I know it’s an assumption that we will be asked to be there but I think it’s a good one. Also, never too early to start planning!
The reason I want to get this out there now is discussion has happened over the last year about how we display everything and the biggest take away from last year is the majority of people want to have a combined display, not separate. This brings up its own challenges but does have the advantage of us all being together.
This of course requires planning. I think the discussions a lot has been centered around “worlds” where different sections of displays exist, such as castle, video game, space, city, etc and the train(s) would travel between them. I think this gives us a lot of possibility for variety of builds within the large display as a whole. That of course means we will need to start figuring out what people will want to bring and how we will categorize it and plan out the space that is needed.
So, here we go! I know it’s a few months out and we have International Lego Day first but this is going to come up quickly!
2025 Home and Garden
Mar 3 - Mar 16
Multi day event at the convention center. huge display space for standalone MOCs and train/town collaboration. increased cup credits since it is a paid event.
Shifts Layouts Cups View Shifts (26)
Empty Shifts - 1
Participants - 27I will have my crane again, which is roughly a 3×3 square of 32×32 baseplates (96×96 or 30″x30″) so that it has room to turn in place. I have more chains now and can actually pick up small solid builds so I can always make my own extra space if needed 😉
I also have a brick-built LUG logo brick and should have a lifting rig for it by show time, so I have this idea of semi-continuously restacking one or more of the logos.
Biggest obstacles for the trains are:
If U shaped layout, trains need big enough turn around, especially for the big ones. Standard trains, obviously much tighter is okay.
If looped layout, train bridge needs to be able to be lifted for access. Not everyone can (or wants) to crawl under to access the center. I know @playingwithechoes is hard at work as we speak on a new bridge build though.
Other item to consider is the tables themselves. We spend some time getting the lug tables as level as possible to avoid derailments, etc. We rely on the fold up tables for the display side. So if we’re combining, we need to take in to consideration how the trains might react to some unevenness if using the other tables. Or figure on spending more time getting them as level as the plastic tables can be.
I’m all in for the combined layout. If I can get some time in I’d love to try to map something out. I’d invite anyone else to do the same so we can share ideas and pre plan any issues ahead of time.
I thought for sure I had a thread for this already, but I can’t find it. We are confirmed for it already.
We could double do a single C shape of r40 outer loop with using the wide radius RC on a double inner loop (counter-interuitive, i know) so we can have the bridge still. Very crude and not to scale visualization attached.
Combining tables really shouldn’t be an issue as long as we level them all to the same height. Wedges or even post it notes stacks work great for this. The Post it nites are awesome because you can just tear off what you don’t need to get the level you want.
That idea of Josh’s is interesting, almost like we could have an inner island of stuff, maybe like bigger things such as Gabe’s crane, etc and the outer could be the “worlds”.
Behemoth Bascule Bridge is coming along. Working on modifying the tower armatures and mechanism to work more smoothly but we have a functional bridge structure to display. For design purposes, @joshhall, and @amplef0rth, the bridge will need 40 inch AKA 4 baseplates of clearance between landings, exact, with nothing below as there is technic framing below the track level. Surfaces for landings need to be level and stable. Tower side landing is 2 baseplates long and will be on the left, when seen from the front of the display. The other landing is 1 baseplate long. I would caution at least a baseplate extra on either side to let the long trains straighten out a bit from the large curves.
If anyone has access to a filament type 3d printer, I saw a downloadable re-railer that would fit in place of one piece of straight track we can add to each track line to avoid that one odd wheel that always randomly pop out at the curves.
I also stocked up on more rechargeable batteries and extra charging station to keep the giants chugging along.
Also, any farming fields? I got that Clarkson Lamborghini tractor stuff nearly done. Will help with any broad green flat spaces in need of something.
any farming fields? I got that Clarkson Lamborghini tractor stuff nearly done. Will help with any broad green flat spaces in need of something.
@laura has some fields already done and we should be able to do some additional corn fields if needed.
I am planning on a fairly substantive downtown/city area to include both my current skyscrapers (Gulf Building and K&L Gates building), my Liberty Avenue and Penn Avenue buildings, and hopefully a new “intermediate” skyscraper (the Industrialist Hotel at 405 Wood Street).
Awesome to hear the sky scrapers are coming back. XD Hopefully I can do a ride along video from the trains on the different circuits to get that in the city perspective. 🙂
@laura, let me know if you want some photos of my Lambo tractor for ideas on where to put it. I’d be glad to place it anywhere blank on the display that needs something.Subbed, Looking at the dates I should be able to staff in some fashion too.
In regard to the table situation, I personally like this proposed “U” shape Josh put up. It gets rid of the narrow walkway issue behind the train loop that we have struggled with for years as well as include everyone in the space. I will say though, I would advise against running the trains throughout the whole display. While I think it is an interesting idea, It is a logistical nightmare for those of us who run and tend to the trains. I think it is best to keep them on the closed loop town areas.
Would definitely like to add in a Castle/Medieval Area for this. I think we have enough castle builds to fill a nice area, could even do a bit of a collab with it.
We could do one big train and a couple smaller train areas potentially, just depends on how much track we have and how the layout ends up being. The big/main loop of train should be on the edges and thus easily accessible. Smaller loops geared for specific areas should be able to be built to have access throughout.
What are the dates and times for this event?
@emperorofthenorthpole, dates for this event are March 7-16, 2025 at the Convention Center. Fridays and Saturdays are 10 am – 9 pm, Sundays are 10 am – 6 pm, and weekdays are 4 pm – 9 pm.Sorry to hear that you can’t make it to Locomotion Weekend, but hopefully you can make it to some of the days for this one!
Would love to be included again some how – love this event. One word of caution and reminder: we need to have at minimum 2 people to run the display for each time slot. It is too much for one person to do, not to mention lonely. So we should begin planning ASAP. And another word of caution, once you sign up for a timeslot, please do all you can to make that slot or find a replacement if something comes up.
Look forward to this every year.
we need to have at minimum 2 people to run the display for each time slot
weekdays are 4 pm – 9 pm.
Having the weekdays not start until 4:00 pm should help with getting more people able to help staff. I am planning on doing at least a few days during the week this time (especially since I missed last year entirely).
Exact availability is still TBD but I want to staff at least a couple days for this, both weekday and weekend.
added the shifts.
2025 Home and Garden
Mar 3 - Mar 16
Multi day event at the convention center. huge display space for standalone MOCs and train/town collaboration. increased cup credits since it is a paid event.
Shifts Layouts Cups View Shifts (26)
Empty Shifts - 1
Participants - 27I signed up for a few shifts. @joshhall as of right now I am good for the Monday load in. If you want I can come over to your place Monday morning and help you load up and drive down together.
The rest of the week most of my participation will be Sunday Evenings/Tear down. If needed and my hospital work schedule will allow it I might be able to do one of the Monday evening shifts but I dont want to commit to those just yet.
I’ve also signed up for a few shifts (Monday set up, Monday 3/10 and Wednesday 3/12, and Sunday 3/16 afternoon shift and tear down). I may pick up a few more but will wait to see how others can fill out the staffing.
I’ve signed up for Mon/Tue setup and final teardown as those should be pretty solid for me, and I’ll definitely pick up a few more shifts as the event gets closer.
I have a new train camera car in the works designed to handle my small 4k camera and vertically hold people’s smart phones (can’t have the phone sticking out and hitting things). I may bring it for CSC Locomotion Weekend as a test for the HG show.
So @joshhall, @timf and anyone else, if you got something you’d want to see from that ride along perspective, let me know. I’d be glad to share footage. Might be able to fit the camera on a flatbed truck if you have one for city streets.
If the Behemoth bridge is ready as planned, that would be pretty cool.
Is that camera’s footage able to be viewed live wirelessly? I could probably bring the right hardware to set up a display for it at H&G.
The Behemoth Bridge will be there. Whether or not the motorization works, it will have a manual operation mode. I don’t know if the camera has wireless. I know it uses micro SD and has a micro usb port for a wire to grab video files.
@laura for the castle/medieval area, we could have several castles and their knights all going up against Sauron’s dark Tower
@playingwithechoes if you want to bring the camera to Locomotion next weekend, I can see if a live feed is possible.
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