The Boston Red Sox were a big hit at the 1st Annual Westside Train Show in West Springfield, MA.

On February 28th, NELUG displayed at the West Springfield Middle School, on invitation of the area's PTO. We fielded a 14' x 14' display, which contained a large rail yard, several industries, a small town, and Fenway Park, contributed by one of our newest members.

Trains of all varieties were on display, and the yard was kept busy throughout the day as several regional railroads took turns on the tracks. Spotted in the lineup were locomotives from The Green Mountain Railway, Vermont Railway, New Haven, and Rutland, as well as a 20 car Amtrak passenger consist. The Brickling Brother's circus train was on display, as well as the ever popular Thomas The Tank Engine.

We'd like to thank our host, the John Ashley PTO, for the effort that they put into making us feel at home. The coffee and donuts were much appreciated!

Photos of the show can be found in our media gallery.

On Saturday September 27, 2008, members of NELUG participated in a fund raising event entitled "Mito Walk and Family Fun Day" for the United Mitochondrial Disease Foundation. The event was held at LEGO Systems, Inc. headquarters in Enfield, CT, and featured a 5K Walk, LEGO raffle, a skateboard demonstration, LEGO displays, a free build area, and a huge floor mural. NELUG helped by providing three displays; a moonbase, a large castle complex, and an exhibition of several city MOCs. The center of the moonbase display featured Spacely Towers by Teddy Welsh. Two modules (a Sponge-Bob themed Sandy's Greenhouse and a Classic Spaceport) and a moon monorail train were built by Jonathan Dallas, a Robot Museum module showcasing the likes of the Silent Running drones, B9 robot from LIS, Robbie the Robot, Rosie & Uniblab from the Jetsons and Oliver Wendal Jones' Banana PC Jr 6000 from Bloom County was done by Dave Gwon, three modules (Crystal Hotel, Moonbase Cafe Corner, and Market Street Moonbase) created for BrickFair 2008 were displayed by Mike Ripley, and connector modules in classic space and Blacktron colors were built by Linda Dallas. The castle display highlighted a large castle layout by Matt Mann, a castle and dragon scene by Dave Eaton, and a model of the Jabberwock by Jason Wolfson. Dave Gwon also provided two city MOCs, Bill Bourn had a robotics demonstration for the kids, and Steve Doerner provided extra hands to help with setup and tear down. Several NELUG members also walked in the 5K Walk that followed a somewhat damp, swampy and mosquito ridden path around the LEGO complex. A Channel 40 (ABC) news team was present for the grand finale, which featured a ring of people lying on the floor around the giant floor mural featuring the word 'Hope' adorned with - LEGO! As a result of everyone's hard work, over $38,000 was raised. And as a special treat for NELUG, we were given a tour of the new work spaces for the Master Builders in Enfield. It was great to hang out with Erik Varszegi, Dan Steiniger and Steve Witt, and to be invited to participate in the event! To see all the pictures taken at the event, please visit the event picture area in our Media Gallery.