Building a brighter tomorrow with LEGO® bricks

Great American Train Show, November 2004

On November 27-28, 2004, we participated in the GATS in Pleasanton for the third time. We won third place again!

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BayLTC “Dress Rehearsal” Meeting, November 2004

My digital camera troubles continue at this meeting. This time I brought it, but with three sets of nearly-flat batteries. I only managed to get 5 pictures.

This meeting was held at Bruce’s church gymnasium as a “dress rehearsal” for the next weekend’s Great American Train Show display.
We set up the tables and track along with major landmarks to make sure that it all fits.

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BayLUG Meeting, October 2004 in Fremont

I forgot my digital camera when I went to this meeting, so I took pictures with my cell phone instead. Apologies for the poor quality.

This meeting featured a Halloween contest as well as several space and Technic models not shown before.

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BayLTC Museum Show, July 11, 2004 (tear-down)

Turn out the lights, the party’s over…

Sunday, July 11 was the last day of our month-long display at the Amador-Livermore Valley Historical Society and Museum. After the museum closed at 4pm, we took down the “sneeze guards” and table skirts for a photo shoot, culminating in a group photo.

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BayLTC Museum Show, July 3, 2004 (parade)

For the penultimate weekend of our month-long display at the Amador-Livermore Valley Historical Society and Museum, we put together a 4th of July Parade. Only problem is, the museum is closed on the 4th. However, I took these pictures on the 3rd:

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BayLTC Museum Show, June 26, 2004 (new models added)

These pictures, taken two weeks after the opening of our month-long exhibit at the Amador-Livermore Valley Historical Society and Museum, show some of the models added during that time.

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BayLTC Museum Show, June 12, 2004 (post-setup)

BayLTC was invited to put on a display at the Amador-Livermore Valley Historical Society and Museum.

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BayLUG Meeting, May 2004 in Fremont

A number of new creations were unveiled, including many for
BayLTC‘s train layout.

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Christmas 2003: Santa Claus Bust

Initially I wanted to build a complete Santa Claus model, but Christmas came and went and I had only built the head and neck. So I finished this model as a bust.

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St. Patrick’s Day 2004: Leprechaun

This Leprechaun was built for BayLUG's March 20, 2004 meeting, where we had a St. Patrick's Day contest.

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Train Collectors Association Show, March 2004

The Train Collectors Assocation had their “Cal-Stewart Spring Meet” convention at the Santa Clara Convention Center on March 27-28, 2004, and BayLTC was invited to display our layout in the vendors’ hall.

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Modular Downtown Buildings

These buildings were made for the BayLTC train layouts. Fellow club member Kenny Paul and I agreed on a standard for the placement of Technic pegs to connect the buildings together. However, with practice it turned out to be easier to not connect them, but to just place them next to each other.

The pegs are placed in a 1×2 Technic brick with peg hole, at the 7th and 8th studs in from the street, at the 3rd and (optionally) 8th brick heights. In addition, pegs may be placed at the rear, also at the 7th and 8th studs from the edge. The backs and sides of the buildings are incomplete because they are not visible; the rule is that from street level to the 6th stud, and everything above 12 bricks in height, must be decorated.

The tan building has a removable wall on the right side. This allows it to be a corner building or to be in the middle of a series of buildings. The removable wall features a fire escape.

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Great American Train Show, February 2004

On February 28-29, 2004, we returned to the site of our first GATS, the Cow Palace near San Francisco. We got a third place ribbon.

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BayLUG Meeting, December 2003 in Fremont

This was our last meeting of the year, where members brought their latest creations for display.

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Pokémon

With the Pokémon Go game being such a huge hit at the moment, I thought I’d post about some old MOCs that I built 15 years ago. Sorry about the photo quality – this was the early days of digital photography…

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BayLTC Meeting, June 2003 in Newark

This meeting was held in Bruce’s church gym. The meeting was a planning meeting for the July San Mateo GATS show.
We planned and practiced setting up our layout so that we wouldn’t have big problems at GATS, like we had in the past.

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Great American Train Show, July 2003

Pictures from the Great American Train Show, July 19-20, 2003, at the San Mateo Expo Center in San Mateo, CA. Our layout won second place in the contest!

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BricksWest 2002

Pictures taken at the Legoland Grand Pavilion during the setup on Friday.

Next: Saturday

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BricksWest 2003

Pictures taken at the Legoland Test Track Diner (the Grand Pavilion was flooded) during the setup on Friday.

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Maneki Neko

This LEGO sculpture of a Maneki Neko (Japanese good-luck cat) was one of my earliest models, after building the Pokémon out of basic bricks alone, I allowed myself the luxury of plates as well, in order to approximate the script on the coin. The cat itself is just basic bricks though, except for the arm detachment mechanism.

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Articulated light rail vehicle

This is my second LEGO train model, a modern light rail vehicle (LRV). It is inspired loosely by the new vehicles that have recently entered service for the Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority (VTA) in Santa Clara County, CA. Like the VTA LRV’s, it has three sections, with the middle one having a wheelset fixed to it, and has a “low floor” design, so that there are no steps to climb from the platform. This gives easy access to those in wheelchairs, with strollers, or with other limited mobility.

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Great American Train Show, November-December 2002

Pictures from the Great American Train Show, November 30-December 1, 2002, at the Alameda County Fairgrounds in Pleasanton, CA. Our layout won first place in the contest!

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