Walking through the front door of the Huntley Area Public Library was quiet as usual, but as soon as the doors to the children’s book section were visible, there was excitement buzzing in the air.
As soon as you entered the area, it was Legos galore. Buildings, gas stations, restaurants, castles, and even horses dressed as Disney princesses and Star Wars characters were on display for fellow Lego enthusiasts to enjoy.
The whirring of Lego trains running on the train tracks that surrounded the perimeter of the Lego city only added to the excitement of all of the colorful creations made by the members of the Nothern Illinois Lego Train Club.
One of the creations featured a mix of the Taj Mahal and Princess Jasmine’s castle from “Aladdin”.
“When I was in the military, I got to travel a lot of places,” Anna Nothnagel, a member of the Northern Illinois Lego Train Club, said. “I never got to see the Taj Mahal, and I always wanted to see it. Now that I don’t travel as much I’m probably not going to make it there any time soon, so I figured I would build it. It also fits the theme of Disney Princesses and Jasmine’s palace since they based her palace off of the Taj Mahal, so I figured I would do a mash-up of the two.”
Another member of the club, who has been a Lego enthusiast for the past 50 years, was also at this thrilling event.
“I build different things at different times,” Robert Snow said. “I built a courthouse that took about five weeks, and I just rebuilt a red engine that took about six hours to build.”
The group had booked this event about two years in advance, and all of their hard work has led to this very day.
“I have a C&O 377, I have a Hogwarts engine, and some boxcars,” club member Scott Hoffmeyer said. “The little boxcars were just ordering parts and putting them together. There’s actually a website that sells parts and has instructions for them. The others take a long time. I probably spent close to two years putting each of those together, but I don’t usually work on just one project at a time, usually I have about four or five different builds that I’m working on.”
Overall, it was interesting to see so many dedicated people working on things they are passionate about and willing to share with the Huntley community.
