I request some assistance

[dooleyc96]

Alright, so I first want to explain this project that I have been dreaming about doing.

The summer of 2013 I started to build a table to be specifically used for a lego moc. It was to be around 3 feet by five feet and feature an underground section. Well, after tearing it apart and rebuilding it several times, I finally finished in the summer of '14. Now I have moved out and have my own super tiny room and have the ability to devote some time to actually building the moc. The moc is going to be a hybrid. The majority of the buildings and scenery will be made of lego, while all the figures (except maybe a few statues) and 90% of the vehicles use will be mega bloks, specifically the Halo, Assassin's Creed and Call of Duty brands. Now this will be classified as a Halo Moc, while some weapons will be from custom lego weapons shops and painted by me. Now I do realize that some people like to keep mega bloks and lego separate, which I used to believe in. While I prefer the Mega bloks articulated figures, I still massively respect the Lego figure. What I need hep with is actually 100% to do with lego.

I ave never built a lego train. Never even held a train track in my hand. Fear, mostly, because there seems to be so much to learn. Well, I ran into a slight dilemma. I wanted to make a new halo vehicle, because halo is limited in it's vehicle, and I wanted to add my own flare to this hybrid moc. Six months of looking at vehicles that looked like pre-existing halo ones and still nothing. Then out of no where, I got inspired. I was watching a review of a train set on youtube, when this piece caught my eye. And thus the idea for a halo train was born.

Now the train itself I do not necessarily need help with. It's the tracks. And the engine. You see, I want the train to act as a supply/weapons platform, but I want it to wrap around my room, which has three HUGE problems. My room I live is essentially a bedroom where I share a bathroom with one guy and a kitchen with two others including him. So I have three doors to deal with. So then I thought, I can have the track wrap around the ceiling. Sounds cool, except that I have no idea how to make a train even run on flat surfaces. I don't even know how the darn things work. I have seen train tracks that were used to enable a train to go from ground level to another height, except that those systems tend to be larger than my table. I really only want the track to cross the table once, maybe twice. My idea is to have a train that can run in two direcetions, so that I don't have to create a loop. The wall that I intend to use to get a rail-ramp, for lack of a better word, gives me a good 6-7 feet to go from 3 feet of the ground to about seven feet off the ground. If anyone can help me, I would appreciate it.

What I need advice on:

1) I need the smallest engine possible, but with enough power to move uphill and pull one of the previous mentioned pieces

2) What is a good angle to use for the incline that won't let the train shoot back down uncontrollably on its way up OR on it's way back down.

3) How do I make a train go two directions? What kind of engine would allow me to control it? I was thinking Infrared, so I can just stop it at any given time

4) How to stop the train without damaging either it OR any lego pieces

Any advice anyone can give me will help. I literally have no idea what I am doing when it comes to lego trains. Thank you!

[dr_spock]

What does your Halo train look like? How heavy is it? If it has to climb up or go down steep grades, you could make a cog railway using 1x4 gear racks between the rails.

[dooleyc96]

The Halo train has yet to be built. I plan for it to be a light tansport, with just two mounted machine guns and some crates in the middle. I have thought about the cog gears, however I don't know how to turn on those and how to power them.

[Saberwing40k]

Oh dear, you've got quite a problem. I've calculated your Triangle, and it has an angle measure of ~33 degree at the near end, which translates to a roughly 60% grade. I have no idea how much of a slope standard Lego trains with standard wheels can climb, but to make things worse, Lego train tracks are not designed to do slopes that steep. I don't think that any train, Lego or otherwise, could climb a slope like that. I mean, the steepest non-rack railway in the world is a mere 14.5%. What I'm guessing you want is a single locomotive car, and a single car with machine guns at either end, and crates in the middle. At this point, I'd suggest you actually have a monorail system, with brick built tracks. That would give you the slope you need. I would recommend that you contact @Mark Bellis, because he has done a lot of work with that. But, since you are a new member, you will have to make 8 more good posts in order to unlock private messaging.

[dooleyc96]

Okay. Thank you for your assistance. There is an idea I have had floating around in my head, but I am not quite sure how exactly to achieve it. Is there a way to use a gear system to replace the normal train assembly? I'm not exactly how to word the question. It's actually quite ironic that you mention using a monorail system, which is actually what I first wanted try. At the time it seemed to be a little to far out of my wheelhouse so to speak.

[jrathfon]

In terms of Lego trains and normal inclines, the general rule is two PLATEs (1p = 3.2mm) per track segment to prevent slipping with a normal train and a normal load. Any change in angle you need to transition by one plate per track segment, i.e. to do a normal bridge incline you would do 1p,2p,4p,6p,8p...etc...100p,102p,103p,104p. So doing 4ft will be an issue. A cog railway (gears on the track), a spiral incline, or a track lift (essentially an elevator) would be the other options. Spiral inclines take a ton of space as the lego curves take room. At 33 degrees you would have an engineering challenge for the cog railway and the track lift would also be a lot of technic. Any of these options you are talking about hundreds of dollars of parts.

The most compact train setup for current systems would be a PF train motor (which you can hide under the baseplate), a PF AAA or LiPo battery box, and an IR receiver. That's the easiest solution which leaves room in the cab. You'll also need a "speed" remote control. Any PF components can go forward or backwards.

The easiest thing for you to do, if you go the actual train route, would be to buy a complete train set. This way you will get all the PF components you need, some track, and an idea of how the whole system works. Then you can moc from there. Although the cargo trains are more expensive, you'll likely be able to repurpose more of the parts then the white passenger train.

Cheers

Edited February 7, 2015 by jrathfon

[dooleyc96]

Okay, that makes sense. I actually rea arranged my room and now I'm playing around with some other ideas, also train related. Thank you all for your advice!

[coaster]

I'm going to agree with the above, you don't want a train, you want a monorail system (which, by the way, Lego really needs to bring back). First, have a peek at this awesome old set:

http://www.bricklink.com/catalogItemPic.asp?S=6990-1

There's only a single motor available for it, and it's this guy right here. It runs off a 9V supply, so you'll probably just use a 9V battery box like this one. The motor is geared and locks into teeth molded into the rail pieces, but what's really awesome about it is the direction control mechanism. There's a 3-position switch built into the motor, and is toggled by this track piece. When the monorail reaches the switch, it could either pass right through, stop, or reverse direction, so you could easily have it set up where it shuttles back and forth between two points.

The only disadvantage is you can't use that base you saw. The monorail only has this base that connects to the motor, and it must be used with one of these bogey plates. You can use exactly 1 or 2 bases.

Hope this helps. Some of those pieces aren't exactly cheap, but then, if you dig around the train world, they're practically a bargain.