I have been asked several times what happened to the models which didn’t get selected. Well – they are effectively on the shelf. We have been encouraged to post them to LEGOFactory.com after March 19 when the LHT launches and I will do that with at lease one of mine.
Here is a sneak peek of a small train station which can be built from the LHT set. I actually like this one a lot as it is different in the fact that it isn’t a locomotive or rolling stock.
I am in Munich for a two day meeting this week. I had a couple hours today before my meeting started this afternoon and stopped by the LEGO Store in Munich which isn’t far from my hotel. Holger Mathes had been down to the store about a week ago and was intereviewed for a Swiss TV show about his involvement in the LHT project. Holger put me in touch with Nadine who runs the Munich store. I dropped Nadine an e-mail letting her know I would be in Munich and asked if I could come by and see the LHT since I hadn’t seen one yet. She said yes and fortunately my schedule allowed me enough free time to stop by.
I took a picture of Nadine holding the LHT when she brought it out of the back room. She didn’t really want her picture taken.
Nadine took several pictures of me but wasn’t happy with any of them (there was a lot of glare) and handed my camera over to one of her co-workers who took this picture:
So there it is – a real LEGO set which I was involved in. I never thought it would happen but it has and I am proud to say I was part of it. It really was very cool to finally see the set in person and see my name on the box. I also got an e-mail later today indicating I should receive a copy of it sometime next week. I am looking forward to that. I think the set came out really well. The box feels substancial – like most of it is full of parts.
A company called Eye for Image is interviewing the 10 LEGO Fans who worked on the LEGO Hobby Train. The profiles will be posted on LEGO.com in the Trains section. Four of the profiles are already up. This morning I had my interview. It will be interesting to see which portions of the interview they choose to distill into a profile. I suspect mine will focus on the family aspect of my LEGO hobby. It should be online in about a week as all 10 are supposed to be done before the LHT launch on March 19th.
A few weeks ago I was contacted by my son Travis’ former 3rd grade teacher looking for some assistance in locating LEGO elements at a reasonable cost. She had known about my LEGO hobby from when Travis was in her class and had come to see one of the NCLTC layouts one year. She has since switched schools and is now teaching the AG (Academically Gifted and Talented) program at Turner Creek Elementary School in Apex, NC. She is going to have her students work on a project where they will build a LEGO bridge. It is an interesting project as the color of the bricks are assigned a price so in addition to building a strong bridge, the kids have to be aware of the “cost” of their bridge.
I still have lots of unsorted LEGO in my basement which I doubt I’ll ever use so I decided to help her out by giving her a big tub of stuff. So I finally pulled togehter a bunch of stuff and gave it to her last night. Needless to say, she was thrilled and the kids will begin their project in about a week or two. Her is the project description. I have given her some feedback on the project – the time in particular is a little agressive. 
I am sure it will be tweaked again based on the elements I gave her. Hopefully I will get to see the bridges the class builds.
It has now been a couple of days since the Brick Journal image of the 10183 LEGO Hobby Train was released. ILTCO has posted a bunch of images of it too. Reaction has been all over the map. Some people really like while others are unimpressed. The biggest complaint seems to be the use of the 9v motor in the renderings but not including it in the box. Some posts have stated it is misleading. I don’t think it is but I am probably biased! Today I got to look at the final LXF files and some of the final changes which were made. Everything looks pretty good to me, I am looking forward to actually getting my copy of it.
Carolina Train Builders on Bricklink
