Greenberg’s Great Train and Collectible Toy Show in Upper Marlboro, Maryland on February 12–13, 2000

This show was under the auspices of WAMALUG before the founding of WamaLTC.

We got a ribbon for our effort!

To say we were the hit of the show would be an understatement! Of the approximately 2,500 visitors to the Showplace Arena in Upper Marlboro, Maryland, 300,000 of them must have come to our table at some point during the weekend to stare in amazement at the layout.

Setting up on Friday.

Taking advantage of our play area.

Our final layout was 10′×13′ with 3 independent train loops and somewhat more than 50,000 bricks. We also were able to set up an extra set of tables just out from the main display where we could set up other things (like the eye-full tower—with working elevator—and a Supercar display). The separate table was great, as it let us play and build during the show. We used it to show off a “history of the Supercar,” including a motorized 8448 Super Street Sensation.

Highlights of the Show:

• Our expanding bonus area.
• Keen-o crowd barriers (even if they kept tilting).
• 
  The touchy-feely table with supercars.
• Our “special table” for other displays (even if Richard W. Schamus didn’t like being relegated to it!) :-)
• 
  Rich’s “eye-full tower” (complete with elevator and observers).
• Rich reassembling his tower every hour.
• More visitors than we could handle most of the time.
• 
  The track to nowhere and the construction crews digging it up.
• A visit from Buffie! [Buffie Shervington was the manager of the LEGO® Outlet Store at Potomac Mills Mall at the time.]
• 
  Chris is not allowed to build bridges anymore. :-)
• Protests at city hall (with police snipers keeping a watch).
• Hungry shark.
• 
  A spectacular downtown mainstreet.
• Spectacular secondary streets.
• 
  
  The campus fire scene!
• WHIPs (Wamalug HIghway Patrol). :-)
• A great yard with lots of little turns and twists.
• 
  The employees eating lunch for two days on the skyscraper.
• The looks on the kids’ faces when they saw how much LEGO® was there.
• The eternal I didn’t know LEGO® made trains! from 127% of the visitors (some said it many times).
• The cat in the tree, the cat in the trash cans, the cat in the hat...
• The unusable turn into the station due to platform placement.
• The MindStorms container grabber, we have to work on this for next time.
• Cletus’ roadrailers.
• Chris talking to a guy about “botball.”
• The cohesive nature of downtown and the’burbs.
• Record take-down time (45 minutes).
• ...and at least 100 more things I could list!!!

Brickshelf gallery of Kevin Loch, Brickshelf gallery of Dan Boger.