John Lasseter's secret train room

[Leland Limited]

Nice video featuring a glimpse of Disney/Pixar's CCO's model train layout. The train portion begins around the 3:30 mark:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m5HN3-l_ ... r_embedded

The trains and track appear to be LGB; I'd love to see the entire layout now. Anyone around here got the pull to suggest a future article for Garden Railways???

Enjoy!

[Dave Van]

Both trains and track are MTH 1/32 scale items. MTH is the only manufacture that makes 'G' scale track with built in roadbed....and a GG1 that will operate on that small of a curve radii.

A little off topic....but this doc sure shows Hollywood's retched excess with everything....homes, offices and even food. What has been spent on these items could solve a lot of ills. But this excess is catching up with them....Cars 2 is being panned and Brave will be Pixars first super flop.....IMHO only.
Sorry for the editorial.

[Locoboy5150]

Cool video - thanks for posting the link.

My philosophy is that if people work hard for their own money, they should be free to spend it in any way that they want to as long as it's spent legally. That most certainly applies to the subject of this film.

Also note that Pixar Studios is not in Hollywood. It's a Bay Area company. (True, it's owned by a La-La Land company though.) Lumping it in with the guys "down there" is blasphemy amongst us Californians. Yeah...silly, I know. The Northern/Southern CA rivalry has been going on for a long time.

Oh and if you're upset by the excess of the guys down in Hollywood, you'd go bonkers about what the venture capitalists in Silicon Valley, the *REALLY* wealthy people, do with the fruits of their labor. They're just not as well known about it because they tend to prefer to keep their lives more low key.

[Dave Van]

Yes....I know Pixar is not in Hollywood but is VERY much part of the Hollywood machine.
Yes....they can do whatever they want with their cash. But much better animation came from shacks on WB back lot (and Disneys own shack in Burbank) so the NEED for multi-million dollar buildings is a want and not a need.
Coming from a banking background, now retired, I have come to hate all 'high finance' we have today....it will lead us to ruin.
I probably should have kept opinions to myself....but if you have read about my California visit to some Hollywood folks and how much the embrace greed and other negative things....you may understand my ill will toward some of them.
Thanks

[Steve]

My philosophy is that if people work hard for their own money, they should be free to spend it in any way that they want to as long as it's spent legally. That most certainly applies to the subject of this film.

Yes, I can't say I would spend my money much differently if I were in the same position.

Cars 2 is being panned...

I just don't see why that its. It's every bit as delightful as the first movie was. In fact, the rest of my family (without me - I gotta work!) is going to see it again today.

[Steve DeGaetano]

I just don't see why that its. It's every bit as delightful as the first movie was. In fact, the rest of my family (without me - I gotta work!) is going to see it again today.

My kids really liked it; my wife got a little dizzy during some of the action scenes, however.

[Locoboy5150]

Yes....they can do whatever they want with their cash. But much better animation came from shacks on WB back lot (and Disneys own shack in Burbank) so the NEED for multi-million dollar buildings is a want and not a need.

But remember that Pixar Studios are in the Bay Area, not Southern CA like the other animation studios that you mentioned. In the Bay area, to attract top talent, you have to have a modern campus. People here in Silicon Valley spend *SO* much time at work, they have grown accustomed to having all the comforts of home at their workplace.

These super nice campuses started WAY back in the early days of Silicon Valley. I worked at one of the very first high tech campuses in San Jose that opened in 1947 (I believe) and it had a golf course, multiple tennis courts, health club, etcetera. It started back then with the pioneering companies, continued through the dot-com boom with the Googleplex in Mountain View, and it will continue through tomorrow with the new Apple "donut campus" just approved for Cupertino.

Yes, we very happily do things differently here in the Bay Area! Jeans, t-shirts, fooseball tables, and dogs are common at our workplaces as are complimentary laundromats, oil changes, haircuts, and caffeterias. It's just the way we do things here.

[Roy]

So Lasseter is from Whittier, huh? I've been trying to interest our Sam Towler in Cal Arts. Maybe he'll find this Fortune Magazine article interesting.

And please tell me about the wonderful human values of Eastern coal mine owners.

[Dave Van]

And please tell me about the wonderful human values of Eastern coal mine owners.

Hey....I'm a product of California!!! Whittier and La Palma to be exact!
(you can even see my houses in my CA log below! CATRIP)
The excesses in this country are not limited to one area. They are in every area, many companies and the leader of the pack is DC!!

As for 'wonderful coal mine owners' never seen or known one. Read about them and many other hated corporate types....some that earned the rep....others that didn't. Wasn't our beloved Walt labeled a tyrant a number of times???

[Roy]

...The excesses in this country are not limited to one area. They are in every area, many companies and the leader of the pack is DC!!...

If by "excess" you are referring to the redistribution of wealth to a relative few, this is what voters have been in favor of for thirty years. The Republicans are trying hard to sell the idea that if there were lower or no taxes(and little or no Federal government) Americans would have the maximum number of jobs. The truth is, there would be more jobs, but in China, Mexico, and where ever else wages and other costs are minimal.

Republican-tilted American workers are thus eager to show that they will clean toilets with their tongues for two cents a decade. To them, the worker who's making a few bucks more is the villain, not the cash-overstuffed business owner. So what can be done about excess, when the people won't have things any other way?