First off, I apologize for the lack of updates over the past month or so. The Wasatch Rails show went great! We were pushed out of our promised ground floor area and into the corner of the second level by one of the bigger train clubs, so we didn’t have as big of a space as we were planning on. We were still able to set up an awesome layout though, and everyone had a great time. We had all the usual awesome MOCs and a bunch of new stuff, like our working train drawbridge we built back in September, the Moonbase, and a carnival with moving rides. Sadly, this show was the last display of Spencer’s iconic yellow skyscraper. It was retired to make way for a new tower which will be cooler than the last (or at least it had better be ). The large blue Moonbase module collapsed during transport back home, making this show its first and last display venue. Jason is currently working on rebuilding it with an improved design.

Reed’s Photos
Nelsons’ Photos (2 pages)
Note to anyone with photos from the show- please post a link in the comments so this can be updated. Thanks!

December Meeting
Again, I apologize for not announcing our Christmas ULUG meeting. It was held today (December 15, 2007) from 1:30 to 4:00ish at David’s home. After talking LEGO for a while and playing with David’s trains we held a white elephant gift exchange. Thanks to David for hosting!

This weekend is the annual Wasatch Rails model train show at the Utah State Fairgrounds in Salt Lake City. We’re going to have a great layout (as always :D) on the main floor of the building! Come and enjoy!

When - November 2nd (Friday), 3rd (Saturday), and 4th (Sunday), 2007
Where - Grand Building at the Utah State Fairgrounds (155 North 1000 West in Salt Lake City)
Hours - Friday 5PM to 9PM - Saturday 9AM to 6PM - Sunday 10AM to 4PM
Cost - Adults $5.00 - Children 12 and under are FREE!

We’d like to welcome Steven Bobowski to ULUG! October’s meeting was the first ULUG event he attended. He brought some very cool train engines and cars that he designed. We’re really excited to have them on our layout!

After the October meeting Nathan¹ wrote about it on his blog. After reading it Brian nominated him to be the club historian and we all voted him in to the position. From now on we’ll be taking advantage of his great writing talent and he’ll be posting recaps of all ULUG events.

ULUG met at the Nelsons’ house on Saturday, October 20th. Because of its location in West Valley, I was able to make a somewhat rare appearance among my fellow enthusiasts. It was a wildly successful meeting from the very start; I was greeted immediately on my entrance by a large Moonbase module built by Jason and smaller modules by Spencer. It was quite an impressive display.

I found the nearest empty seat, but no sooner had I filled it than Jason joked something to the effect of, “Are you sure they should be sitting together? It’s confusing enough just having two of them!” Indeed, I unknowingly sat next to the “other” Nathan Cunningham; it would be the first meeting of the LUG members with the same name.

“You’re Nathan Cunningham?!” I exclaimed.

While we waited for Brian and Reed to show up, the Nelsons presented a rare video they had acquired which contained several short brickfilms created by LEGO in the 80s. It was amazing, to say the least; the things they could do with basic elements was truly admirable. What’s more, the films were so random that our laughter lasted through the duration of the video. Then again, when a dog wins a hockey game and a flock of penguins starts causing seizures, what’s not to love? 8-D

Brian, Reed, and a couple others arrived when the video ended, and we just spent about an hour talking about our favorite Danish plastic. It felt so good to be able to vocalize what I normally keep to message boards; honestly, when one can use the term “SNOT” in any serious manner and not be looked at funny, it’s a beautiful thing. And that’s how we spoke to each other, enjoying enthusiastic hobbyist conversation to the fullest of our desires.

During this time crowds also gathered to admire various sets and creations. Most of my time was spent taking in the beautiful Moonbase module; remarkably, Jason was able to use very few supports underneath the structure, for which we teased him extensively.

Of particular interest also were Jordan’s mechs.

George showed off his 4958 Monster Dino, too, which kept us entertained for quite some time. It was surprising how emotional we all got when it finally tipped over after a long run.

At length we made for the basement, where we would spend some time in Nelson Studios and Luke’s bedroom. That kid’s room was the envy of us all, stocked full of a Lego collection few of us had even dreamed of at his age. There, after coveting Luke’s collection, we sat our cooperatively-built drawbridge from last meeting on the floor to test it with some track. And as far as I know, it was quite successful. In any case, however, the building itself was just plain cool.

While this was going on, Isaac showed those of us hanging around in the next room behind the scenes items of the latest Nelson Studios brickfilm, The Great Train Robbery. I’m looking forward to seeing the finished movie. ^_^

We gradually trickled back upstairs to sort pieces for the draft. What’s a draft, you ask? It’s simple, really: everyone who participates buys their own copy of the same set. Then all the sets are opened, mixed with each other, and sorted into piles of individual types of pieces. After that, we determine an order, and in that order we all take turns taking the piles we want. It’s a fun way to acquire large quantities of special pieces. ^_^

This month’s draft set was 7990 Cement Mixer. There was electricity in the air when we finished sorting all the pieces, for it was then time to determine the order in which we would claim our lots. First we drew 1×1 cylinders from a cup; mine was sand blue. Then one person would draw matching-colored cylinders from the cup, and our cycle was the order in which those colors were drawn.

Well, lucky me, sand blue was the first color drawn, and I would lead the cycle. Of course, this made my day, if not my weekend. For my first turn, I claimed all the 2×2 light gray rounds. Things got pretty intense after that, but I was able to get nearly everything I wanted (only two piles I had my eye on were taken by anyone else, I think). I eventually went home with all the 1×2 light gray grill tiles, 1×1 white bricks with studs on all sides, 1×1 blue plates, light gray “cannon barrels,” and light gray 1×2 Technic bricks with cross-shaped axle holes. Good deal! ^_^

After the draft we indulged in milk and doughnuts, followed by some more chatter and family photos. Indeed, we are a big, happy family. Don’t we look like one? ^_^

All in all, this was a really good meeting. As far as I know, it was our best turnout to date; only two or three people were missing, I think. Combine great people with a great toy, and you get great fun. I definitely can’t wait for our next gathering!

More pictures!!!

By the way, we’ve got a show at the State Fairgrounds November 2nd-4th. Everyone is welcome to drop by!

ULUG’s next meeting will be this weekend on October 20 at 10:00 AM. The Nelsons will be hosting in West Valley. Email the newsgroup for directions. Here’s what we’re planning to do:

• Moonbase Modules
• Drawbridge tune-up/testing
• Draft (probably the new cement mixer set)
• Show a collection of stop motion shorts produced by LEGO in the late 1980s
• MOC display, if anyone has anything to show

Incidentally, this is the 1-year anniversary of the forming of ULUG!
Correction: September was actually the 1-year anniversary. ULUG turned 1 and we didn’t even realise!

The GBLT&C recieved a last minute invite to The Eagle Rock Railroad Historical Society’s Railshow 2007 in Idaho Falls. The show will be this weekend (October 13-14, 2007). The show will be open from 9 AM to 5 PM on Saturday and from 10 AM to 2 PM on Sunday. For more information go to the ERRHS at http://www.ida.net/org/errhsi/

We’ve recently had a few new people join the LUG.

• Nathan “Nate” Cunningham (not to be confused with the Nathan Cunningham who has been with the LUG for several months) is a LEGO Castle fan and lives in Ogden, Utah. He came to the September meeting at Spencer’s house.
• Ryan (goes by “thavok” on the web) has been building for about 20 years and recently has started to get into LEGO Trains. He says he’s “generally stayed in the Space themes but love[s] them all.”

Reed also met a couple people at a train display at Hill Air Force Base- Gray, who said he’d like to donate all the bricks his kids left behind when they moved out if we ever set up a permanent display somewhere; and also Chris, who has been involved in the Tuscan LUG in Arizona. He’s also co-written a book about Mindstorms NXT!  We hope to be hearing from them soon.

Welcome to all the newcomers, hope you enjoy being in the LUG!

This month’s meeting was held at Spencer’s home in Wendover, Nevada.

The agenda was as followed:

1. We toured Spencer’s new LEGO room. The room is located in his
   basement and is 15′ by 20′ with metal shelves to hold his collection.
2. Spencer is on the decline of sorting his e-bay purchase from
   March. However, during the meeting Spencer discovered that his sorting,
   at times, was insufficient to produce a known part at a given time.
3. The LUG choose to build a working drawbridge to use in our train layouts.

The LUG has been unable to build a circular layout due to access to the interior (no one enjoyed crawling under the tables).

The bridge turned out great and was a classic LUG collaboration with everyone pitching in the help. George and Nate worked on the bridge understructure and towers. Isaac, Luke and Bill worked on the bridge side trusses and the towers. Luke contributed two “U-LUG” mosaics to integrate into the sides of the towers. Bill, Brian and Spencer designed a motor and pulley system to lift the bridge. Our expectations of the weight of the bridge were too high and the gear-down too large
and slow. In fact the motor probably could have lifted a small car
without problem. The highlight of the day was when we put all the pieces
together and the bridge worked on the first try!

Please review the film here: (link coming soon-ish)

We would like to thank Spencer for the opportunity to meet at his house and the wonderful lunch Cindy (his wife) provided us.

Large portions of this post were written by Brian Pilati.

Our next monthly meeting will be on September 15, 2007 at Spencer’s house in Wendover. The meeting will start at 11 AM, so the carpool group(s) will be meeting at 9 AM-ish in Salt Lake. Spencer has said that his store will be open, so we can search through his unsorted LEGO bricks and buy what we want. Also, all Spencer’s bricks will be available for everyone to build something for the train shows. Most of us will probably be working on a UPS building. Lunch will be provided (hamburgers) and we might build some  MichLUG-style tables to use for shows. Driving directions are on the Google Group.

We just got done with another great show. We had a great location, right inside the doors of the Evanston railyard’s restored Machine Shop. There were lots of great comments from spectators, although there weren’t nearly as many people as we’ve seen at other shows.

Some of the highlights- We finished building Brian’s model of downtown Salt Lake City’s Grand America Hotel. Spencer brought his 6′ (?) tall skyscraper with a new addition that makes it look quite a bit like the Empire State Building. Luke brought a great model of the Dawn Treader and he and I also brought a MOC Hogwarts Castle. Jason brought a bunch of really cool Classic Space sets again and displayed them on a corner of the layout. As always, there was lots of motion in our display. We always had something like four trains, three monorails and two race cars (powered by train motors) running at a time.

Reed is the only one who’s posted pictures online so far, but I expect there to be a bunch more in the next several days.

-Reed’s pictures- There’s some great shots there. The aerial shots especially are very much worth a look.