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Any idea how early we can get into the convention center tomorrow? Alexis and I are planning on having an early breakfast in the strip before she drops be off and heads to work. Didn’t know if anyone knew the answer
Here’s the time lapse video!
Steel City LUG 2025 Pittsburgh Home and Garden Show LEGO Setup!!!
Yes, I plan to bring my stuff this Saturday morning. I also have knights, horses (some mounted armor), etc. I could bring as well if we were to do good guy vs bad guy (i.e- lion vs dragon knights).
And for my stuff mean Lion Knight Castle (2023), Lego Maijistro Magical Workshop (but not sure if want to use it as see it is already there), and 2 mini castle towers
@octankragle14 we probably don’t need another Majisto work ship but the other stuff is great. Bob is bringing some orcs and trolls today for the bad guys to go with saurons Tower, so those are the bad guys with the dragon and you and the rest of the knights will be the good guys.
I’m going to be there Saturday morning as well so we can organize stuff then.
Here’s what I’m bringing this afternoon, all LOTR stuff. My bad guys outnumber the good guys 2 to 1, so we definitely need more good guys. I’m going to set them in there in “groups” (Goblins, Orcs, Uruk-hai, Trolls, Wargs, Dwarfs, Hobbits, and men) on 16×32 DBG baseplates, and will post a picture later today. Feel free to move them around, take some out, mix them up, whatever you want @argonvesher!
all LOTR stuff. My bad guys outnumber the good guys 2 to 1
The Rohirrim were even more outnumbered at Helm’s Deep, so 2 to 1 doesn’t seem that bad.
Nope, all good cinema has good guys outnumbered. Bad guys always believe strength in numbers so this will be awesome! @rcgrier3406 those look fantastic!
We got some early coverage already this morning on KDKA’s Pittsburgh Today Live, including my Pittsburgh City model, @joshhall and @tfdesigns Andy Warhol Soup Can, @greg’s Pittsburgh Bridge! Oh yeah, and that’s @thoga1109 in the opening shot with the Fort Pitt TCA Kids Club!!
All, I just found I am free tomorrow and can at least be there for a shift.
It seems like the big curves are set up this year? Are there any known track problems or clearance issues?
I found the sign up link. Is there an address for parking and a way to bring my train boxes inside somewhat easily?
I am coming into this blind and last minute but appreciate the input. Thank you.
@emperorofthenorthpole Parking at the convention center is probably the only option if you’re bringing more than about one box and costs $15 for the day. The garage entrance is at 139 10th Street. You’ll need to go to the East Lobby to the Exhibitor Will Call booth to get a ticket, tell them you’re with Steel City LUG. Once you go up the escalator in the East Lobby, turn right and you’ll see our display once you get around the KDKA mini-stage.
There’s a couple spots where clearance is tight, but we’re running @playingwithechoes ‘s Schnabel car with no collisions so most stuff is probably fine?
Here’s a map I drew for Greg on where I find street parking.
I also recommend doing the pull off under the convention center, putting on your flashers and locking your car while you drop off a box to the display. Then, you can go park at the stadium and take the free shuttle back and submit a reimbursement for the $8 parking, with receipt.
All you have to do to get into the show is go to the vendor booth and tell them you’re with steel city lug and they’ll take care of the pass for you with a hand stamp.
Great to hear @emperorofthenorthpole! As far as getting your boxes in, @playingwithechoes (Michael Lynes) is there tomorrow from 9:30 am until 3:30 pm, and if you want to coordinate with him to drop your boxes off before you park, he can meet you at the lobby where the Vendor booth is near the corner of 10th St. and Fort Duquesne Blvd. His cell number is (727) 259-3367, and his voicemail doesn’t work so best way would be to text him. Let us know what time you think you’d be coming in so he knows when to look for your text.
Thanks all-
Seems like clearances should be fine for me.
I’ll have a few large but manageable totes, and with the right help, I can bring everything inside in one shot.
I’ll try to be there no later than 9 to get in and set up before public appears.
Here’s my black van with 4 spots behind me on 9th today at 4p.
Anyone recognize these 2 fake candles???
@emperorofthenorthpole, at my suggestion @rcgrier3406 left the R104 clear for you to run your trains in the morning. I’ll be in 9:30 so if you show up at that time, I can help. Show doesn’t start till 10. Just text me if you need me to pick up the boxes. I have a small rolling platform with handle bar and elevator is near the escalator.
You should have a couple lines in the switch yard too to store some rolling stock. And that Behemoth Bascule Bridge was built with LGMS clearance (per advice from Monty) so full sixteen studs each track, 32 overall. Overhead clearance exceeds LGMS standard so plenty of headroom for your steam engines. We had both my giant trains rolling on the bridge at the same time so you shouldn’t worry about weight, given that the Schnabel car was 5 pounds by itself.
When we activate the Behemoth Bascule Bridge during the day for fans and LUG video recording, we’ll give you a heads up so neither of our trains visit the floor.
See you tomorrow. Hope you like the bridge. 🙂
@playingwithechoes and @emperorofthenorthpole, confirming that we left the R104 loop clear for Glenn. Michael’s Big Boy is parked on the outer loop by the rail yard, and the Challenger is parked on the first siding in the rail yard.
Michael, we pulled the batteries from both the Big Boy and the Challenger and put them in the chargers overnight. There were maybe 11 batteries charged and in the fully charged bag when we left, so you should be in good shape in the morning.
I changed the Incline batteries at around 6 pm, so they should have another 3-4 hours left in them. Replacements are also charging.
@argonvesher, here’s what the Castle area looks like with my LOTR figs added. The additional castle was built by Adam while he was staffing today. Space is still open towards the notch for Tommy’s castle and figs tomorrow. The box for my figs is under the table if it ends up being too crowded and you decide to pull some stuff out.
For those of you who haven’t been here yet, here’s what the Behemoth Bridge looks like in place, but the picture doesn’t do it justice. You need to see it in person while it’s here!!
Couple of factoids that Michael told me:
* The counterweight (gray panels labeled “Phoenix Train Works” on the Tower) has 6,000 1×1 plates in it!!
* The bridge can support 12 pounds, more than enough for 2 of the big trains crossing at the same time.And if you think you’ve seen Gabe’s Big Crane before (like at Ross Park Mall for International LEGO Day) think again, because this version is over 2 ft. taller than the previous one! In addition to all motorized functions he had previously (boom and jib, base rotate and individual crawler), he now has the counterweight platform in the back motorized to extend out and provide him with more lifting capacity.
And yes, that’s the Fern Hollow Bus that it’s lifting with ease!
So the red train motor seemed to get tired around 630. Even with new batteries, it barely ran and kept stopping so I turned it off. The other train ran until we ran out of batteries which was about a half hour later.
All the rechargeable batteries are charging now. They last up to an hour but that’s all. I spent most of the day changing batteries. There needs to be a better system for this as it’s very time consuming. Could be the motors being tired too from all day running but I for one am not going to spend the whole time managing those trains.
If it suddenly stops, it may need a cool down. If it crawls slowly for a while then stops, then it’s the batteries needing changed.
For cool down, simply turn off for a while to cool, like 30 minutes. Batteries should be about up to 90 minutes, though sometimes they go as far as 2hrs.
Overall, they were quite good when I ran them yesterday and today from 9:30 to 3:30 and they were great at CSC Locomotion weekend. @argonvesher, you might have gotten the tail end of the long day as weekends are extended hours compared to the coming weekday shorter shifts. So I understand the frustration.
Thank you for putting the batteries in the chargers. Whoever ends the shift tonight, please empty the trains of their batteries and put them all on the charger for overnight for a full recharge of all the batteries. (The chargers have a feature to not overcharge batteries left overnight.)
I know @gabevistica and @rcgrier3406 have some batteries about so if in need, you can ask them to see if they could spare a round. Overall, I have about 64 rechargeable Powerowls AAA (three chargers that charge 16 each) and a bag of disposable duracell AAA as backup/emergency power. I was able to pace both trains’ battery usage on Friday but if it looks otherwise through this week’s evening shifts, I may up my rechargeable AAA inventory to over a 100 for future shows.
I did leave my lego rechargeable battery box there-any opinions on using that, either way, @playingwithechoes?
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