Cranberry Township First Night 2024

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Viewing 25 posts - 26 through 50 (of 53 total)
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  • #61589
    Greg Schubert
    Participant

    Ok I can fill an 8 foot table, but there won’t be room to run a train around my winter village unless we double the depth.

    I’ll need to start setting up at least two hours in advance. Does anyone know what time we can get in?

    Will we have white tablecloths and white MILS’d plates for train tracks? I’m thinking that to run a train around my village, I would need 20 straight baseplates and 4 corner / 90 degree turn baseplates.

    #61596
    Tim
    Moderator

    We’ll try to do double depth at least in the front.

    I’m planning to be there around 2:00 pm. The event starts at 6:00 pm.

    #61601
    Bob Grier
    Participant

    @greg, here’s what the layout looked like in 2022, the last time we did this event. U-shaped with double tables on 3 sides.

    We’ve never done MILS plates for this event (it’s only 2 hours long), plus as far as I know all of the MILS stuff is down at the Trolley Museum anyway. We’ve always just run track on the tablecloths. @timf is bringing his dark green tablecloths again, and just put a white sheet down over top of that in the one area you can see in the photos. If you have white sheets or tablecloths you should bring them if that’s what you want for your area.

    We will have stanchions this year. I’m going down to Josh’s to pick them up tomorrow (11/15). Plan is to string lights on the stanchion belts.

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    #61605
    Tim Brown
    Participant

    I will aim for that 2pm time frame as well to help as best I can with install before I have to head out for Sav’s horseback.

    #61635
    Greg Schubert
    Participant

    Also, are we going to have power for running 9V trains? are MILS’D winter tracks or winter track beds going to be available?

    Is anyone planning to bring the 10254 Winter Holiday Train or the 10173 Holiday Train to the Cranberry Santa’s First Stop event? I have a lot to bring and I would prefer to avoid duplicating efforts.

    Lastly, I am going to bring the Christmas present version of the LUG logo to Cranberry but would be grateful if someone were willing to take it to the Trolley Museum the next day. @timf are you doing both events?

    #61637
    Tim
    Moderator

    @greg yes, I am doing both and I can take the LUG logo down to the Museum.

    Yes, there will be power.

    #61644
    Bob Grier
    Participant

    For space planning and coordination purposes, here’s what I’m planning to bring on Friday:
    * Christmas “Currier & Ives” Farmhouse MOC (4 baseplates, 2×2 pattern, all white baseplates).
    * Duquesne Incline (2 baseplates). I don’t think we’ve ever had the motorized Incline at this event, so I decided to bring it.
    * Pittsburgh at Night Microsaic (32″ w x 27″ d). Just completed, and this will be the first time out on display for my latest MOC.
    * 9v steam engine, coal tender and 3 rail cars.
    * 9v speed controller, power supply and connecting wires.
    * (16) 10″ segments of 9v R40 curved track.
    * (7) 10″ segments of 9v R40 straight track.
    * Extension cord and power strip.
    * (10) LUG Stanchions.
    * Partial box of LUG business cards, and small bottle of hand sanitizer.

    If you’re coming to this event and looking for things to do while you’re there, or you want to just come and hang out, I’ll have Project Support supplies there if you want to help build MILS single and double track bases or to ballast some track.

    Finally, there’s a report out that “Micro Santa” was spotted over downtown last night scoping out his route to Cranberry!!

    P.S. I also plan to get there around 2 pm on Friday.

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    #61656
    Tim
    Moderator

    @rcgrier3406 do you need 9-v track?

    I should be there between 2:30-3:00 pm Friday.

    #61663
    Bob Grier
    Participant

    @rcgrier3406 do you need 9-v track?

    I should be there between 2:30-3:00 pm Friday.


    @timf
    , yes please bring your 9v track if you can. If you can also bring a speed controller, power supply and connecting wires that would be good.

    Not sure what we’ll be doing for track layouts yet, but I figured we’d be doing something and I don’t have a lot of 9v straights. Thanks!

    #61670
    Tim
    Moderator

    yes please bring your 9v track if you can. If you can also bring a speed controller, power supply and connecting wires that would be good.

    @rcgrier3406 Yes, I will bring all that. Thank you.

    #61675
    Krista K
    Moderator

    I can be up there around then too. I have the banners. My stuff shouldn’t take too long to set up so I can help out however we need.

    On a completely unrelated note, does anyone have 2 of these in red that they could bring? I miscalculated for my tree and am short. https://www.bricklink.com/v2/catalog/catalogitem.page?P=6081&C=5#T=P&C=5

    #61677
    Bob Grier
    Participant

    @knb112, I have (1) of those 2×4 curved slopes with 4 recessed studs and (4) 2×1 curved slopes with 1 recessed stud, all in red. Don’t know if that will work for what you’re building, but I’ll bring them on Friday.

    #61680
    Kevin
    Participant

    Coop and I have to bail on this one. We have too much to do between now and Thanksgiving.

    #61682
    Krista K
    Moderator

    @rcgrier3406 You’re a lifesaver! That will be enough to make it look finished. I really appreciate it. Thank you!

    #61688
    Tim
    Moderator

    Coop and I have to bail on this one. We have too much to do between now and Thanksgiving.

    No worries. Have a great Thanksgiving!

    #61690
    Krista K
    Moderator

    Do you want me to bring the scavenger hunt sign? I have plenty of leftover Halloween candy we can pass out with it.

    I’m brining the table covers and don’t touch signs too.

    #61691
    Tim
    Moderator

    @knb112 Sounds good. Thank you!

    #61708
    Greg Schubert
    Participant

    The Cranberry event went well in the newly renovated space. We spent at least 3 hours setting up and eventually had three train loops running.

    I realized on the drive home that I only got one photo. 🫢 Thankfully Bob documented our display, including a panoramic of the crowd from inside our fortress of tables.

    A big thank you to everyone who stayed to help and tear down. ❤️

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    #61723
    Bob Grier
    Participant

    To add on to what @greg said, this event went very well. Even though it was a rainy, dreary night there were lots of people in attendance as you can see from the “behind the fortress” panoramic below. I think we had 11 or 12 LUG members participate or attend, and we had no trouble filling the table space we had, so thanks to all who participated and helped make this event a success!!

    In my opinion, we had the best space in the house for this event. We were in the newly renovated Council Chambers space at the front corner of the Municipal Center, which is much larger than the previous space and has huge bi-folding garage doors that open out onto the Armstrong Great Lawn. At 7 pm, they opened up these garage doors for the arrival of Santa and the lighting of the Christmas tree, which is why you’ll see some of us in winter coats in the pictures!! More importantly, what that did is funnel most of the people at the event right through our space, which was great!!

    Couple of footnotes for future reference for next year’s event:
    * The venue provided tables were 2 ft. x 5 ft., which were much smaller than the previous years but there were plenty of them available. They were brand new and had locking wheels which made them easy to move around and then lock into place. Most importantly they were level with no sags so we didn’t have to do anything to level out table heights for running the trains.
    * We went with a “u-shaped layout”, with 4 double tables (2×2) on each of the 3 sides and each side leg placed on the outside of the front section. This gave us an 18 ft. frontage, with 10 ft. on each leg and 4 ft. in table width all around.
    * We used a total of 10 LUG stanchions (4 across the front and 3 down each side) which fit the table layout perfectly and gave us both a place to string Christmas lights and blocked off access into the LUG space inside the “U”.
    * We used @timf’s dark green tablecloths and had plenty of them to cover the table space.
    * We used (3) of the LUG Logo table runners, one on each side.
    * Set-up took just under 4 hours in total, with some of that dependent on when members were able to get there. In addition to several members bringing their carts, the venue did provide one cart for us to use which was helpful because unloading and parking is now all in the back of the building. With everyone’s help we were able to tear down and get everything packed back in the cars in just under an hour.

    Pictures from the event have been uploaded to the Gallery. To view them, click on the “Gallery” tab at the top right corner of any page, and then click on the “2024-11 Cranberry First Stop” folder. I know other members took photos as well, so if you post them here or send them to me I’ll get them added to the Gallery.

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    #61735
    Jim Rolfe
    Participant

    So sad I missed this event to both participate in and attend! Glad it went great!

    #61739
    Krista K
    Moderator

    We got a mention in the Butler Eagle. The article was behind a paywall, but I used a website to bypass it. Here’s the article:

    CRANBERRY TWP — Despite his never-ending list of responsibilities during this time of year, Santa Claus doesn’t forget to rank Cranberry at the top of his destination list.

    Thousands of children and parents greeted jolly Saint Nick as he made his way to the township’s newly renovated municipal building for his first stop of the year on Friday evening, Nov. 22.

    “We love the fact that he decides to make the first stop of the season here in Cranberry Township,” said Dan Santoro, township manager. “Our parks and recreation department, along with our public works department, do a great job of getting the grounds ready for Santa. It just gets better every year.”

    Santa’s First Stop is a tradition dating back several decades in the township. Each year draws a crowd that quickly fills up the hundreds of parking spots surrounding the building.

    “The families, the kids and just all of the people together,” said supervisors chairman Mike Manipole about what makes the event so special. “You can always feel the excitement here, and everyone is just happy to be here. It’s so great seeing neighbors, families, grandchildren and grandparents celebrating the common goal of niceness.”

    This year’s event featured a Polar Express Experience, festive photo booth, live reindeer and a room devoted to Lego building courtesy of Steel City LUG. Members of the Dutilh Church sang carols, and the library hosted arts and crafts activities for children.

    There also were numerous local businesses and township employees who set up activities in the gym while thousands of children waited to greet Santa Claus.

    “Our employees love this holiday,” Manipole said. “This is a great place because our employees really do care about the community and the people we serve.”

    Just a day before the event, township officials and partners gathered out front for a ribbon cutting to celebrate the opening of the Armstrong Great Lawn. While the weather was less than ideal, it did not deter township staff from setting up a multitude of bright lights and Christmas decorations for families to enjoy as they made their way inside.

    “We’ve made this (municipal center) a destination, a place where families can all be and where everyone can get together and celebrate what’s great about our community,” Manipole said. “It’s so exciting because this is just a kickoff of events that will stay in families’ memories for a lifetime.”

    And the only photo with our display is attached.

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    #61741
    Krista K
    Moderator

    @rcgrier3406 I sent you an album in Google Photos. Feel free to use and much or little as you like.

    #61754
    Bob Grier
    Participant

    @rcgrier3406 I sent you an album in Google Photos. Feel free to use and much or little as you like.

    Thanks @knb112, I added a bunch of them to the Gallery! Some different angles and good closeups that I didn’t have! Click on the “Gallery” tab, and then on “2024-11 Cranberry First Stop” to check them out!!

    #61790
    Krista K
    Moderator

    @timf When you get a chance, can you fill out this form for the event report: https://forms.gle/LSEKertTVFiXFqkw9

    Thanks so much! It was awesome this year.

    #62062
    Tommy L
    Participant

    Hi,

    Besides Q3 business meeting, this is the first LUG event I attended. How can I see that my participation is logged/cups too? It was great and happy to participate in the event!

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