I’m new here - Hi!

[Barkmi4]

Hello all, I’m Mike and as the title suggests I’m new here.

Around 2 months ago the penny dropped, now that I’m an adult (the ripe age of 28) I can spend my money on what I want - enter Lego (or brick) trains.  Well the Lego spending started around Christmas, but (much to my partner’s dismay) the train spending only started 2 months ago.

It started with a Hogwarts express train to accompany the Hogwarts castle, which was shortly followed by a 60198 Cargo train and a 60197 Passenger train.  I also bought a 60051 High Speed train off Facebook market place (not sure I’m rushing to buy from their again after an hour spent washing the set in warm soapy water), and purchased the components to build an Emerald Night and 6 MOC passenger cars.

There are a few off brand components that have been used, after all this is a hobby rather than anything else and some genuine Lego parts are ridiculously expensive.  What I’ve used; 1x4x3 tan windows & glass (BlueBrixx - would recommend), train wheels and shafts (BlueBrixx - would not recommend, just don’t run as well as Lego), Plate with Bow 2 x 4 x 2/3 (BlueBrixx - would not recommend, the part is not as glossy as Lego pieces).  I bought some ‘felph’ straight track pieces from Amazon, these have pretty good reviews but I don’t like them.  They cannot attach to base plates as the anti stud on the female connectors is wrong and does not allow for a stud to recess correctly.  Also the track surface is far from flat or uniform, and sits slightly higher than Lego track.  The track isn’t that much cheaper, so definitely not worth it in my opinion.  I’m not trying to endorse anything here, just trying to share some knowledge that I struggled to find when I looked myself.

I built my EN at the weekend (bar a few pieces I’m still waiting on), along with 3 MOC carriages which turned out to be much larger than I anticipated, not sure I need 6 😅.  I’m intending to power it up, but haven’t decided how to do it yet.  If anyone has any suggestions feel free to post.  I’ve read railbricks 7 and a few threads.  I’m most likely to use the Powered up system as I’m intending to by another 60197 set to modify thr original, hence I’ll have spare hub.  I’m a little worried about the friction, to move the EN and 3 carriages takes both the passenger train and cargo train, and it still struggles with a lot of wheel slip.  I’ve modified it to use 2 technic axle holders already.  The 4 wheels on the front bogie seem to have a disproportionately large amount of friction when rotation on the axle pins - no solutions to that yet.  I guess I’ll end up with an XL powered up motor (assuming it fits).  I will be looking to modify the trailing wheels and bogie to allow a degree of vertical movement as I like to run setups with inclines, and currently it seems as though even the slightest gradient change will cause the drive wheels to lose traction.

In the near term I’d like to modify the passenger train, and get my hands on some new track.  The injection moulded track looks more appealing but then your limited to R104 switches.  Not sure what my feelings are on that yet.  I like the idea of a few double slip switches and compact corner switches, but that means 3D printed track.

Thats probably enough for today, feel free to say hello,

Thanks,

Mike

 

[SD100]

R104 switches is really not a limit, it's almost a minimum to run trains without derailment. Every Lego train I have goes on the ground if you hit a Lego switch a little too fast. Bricktracks R104 switches have made my layout so pleasant I'd never consider anything else. At a prototypical level I don't know how common double slip switches are in the UK but they're really limited in actual use outside of the major metro areas in the US, and from actual experience, encountering a hand operated double slip switch has cost me enough real life hours with dumb conductors I don't ever want one on my layout, lol.

SD

[Murdoch17]

Hello @Barkmi4! Welcome to the Train Tech sub-forum of Eurobricks, and to being a AFOL!

I have a single set of 3D printed track, by the way, (seen above) and it is fantastic. Sure, the assembly could use some instructions (it doesn't connect the actual switch part to the three end tracks' clips normally, you have to slip it in from below.) By beyond that it's fairly self intuitive.

I would love to see some pictures of your MOC coaches (I don't think I'm alone in wanting that!) but just a reminder, - in case you didn't know - that the forum only has a little space for certain things, such as your avatar, and you'll need to make a Flickr (or any other photo-hosting site) account for getting picture posted. Moderator's like @JopieK can help you more in that regard.

 

Good luck on your LEGO journey!

[zephyr1934]

17 hours ago, Barkmi4 said:

I’m a little worried about the friction, to move the EN and 3 carriages takes both the passenger train and cargo train, and it still struggles with a lot of wheel slip.  I’ve modified it to use 2 technic axle holders already.  The 4 wheels on the front bogie seem to have a disproportionately large amount of friction when rotation on the axle pins - no solutions to that yet.  I guess I’ll end up with an XL powered up motor (assuming it fits).  I will be looking to modify the trailing wheels and bogie to allow a degree of vertical movement as I like to run setups with inclines, and currently it seems as though even the slightest gradient change will cause the drive wheels to lose traction.

Welcome aboard!

Yes, the EN and carriages are heavy compared to most sets (and very light compared to many 8 wide MOCs). That is probably why the EN was powered by an XL motor. The wheels will slip before the motor stalls and your weakest link will likely be the magnetic couplers. The roller bearing wheel sets (homemade or from many third parties) will go a long way to solving all of those problems- especially the large amount of friction from technic axles. In the mean time one thing you can do is remove the traction bands from the wheels on the pilot truck. And yep, the stock EN was designed to run on a pretty flat surface. Many steam engines have the problem with 3 points of contact lifting the middle wheel set off the rails. You should be able to add some clearance so that the front and rear trucks can flex upward to keep the main drivers on the rails.

 

17 hours ago, Barkmi4 said:

In the near term I’d like to modify the passenger train, and get my hands on some new track.  The injection moulded track looks more appealing but then your limited to R104 switches.  Not sure what my feelings are on that yet.  I like the idea of a few double slip switches and compact corner switches, but that means 3D printed track.

Not at all, I've got R72, R88, R104 and R120 loops now, but most all of my switches are the normal R40 switch geometry. The EN will take those just fine, all of my rolling stock will handle R40 switches just fine, including 52 stud long cars. Of course I do not use the yellow switch lever which might get in the way. R40 pros: take up minimum space, relatively cheap; cons: they look stubby, can't take the diverge at high speed, really long equipment will not work on them. If you have the space and money you can't beat the BT R104 switches, but the normal R40 (in theory) lets you pack more switches in a tighter space. I say "in theory" because the normal R40 returns to parallel, which winds up taking about as much space for a ladder of R40 as it does for a ladder of R104. I've recently gotten trixbrix R40 yard ladder switches that I'm looking forward to trying, those look to be a huge space saver. Though I'm not completely convinced I like their switch mechanism.

 

 

[Barkmi4]

@Murdoch17 The MOC coaches are not my design (unfortunately), but a design I bought from rebrickable.  I’ve got plenty of ideas for modifications/designs but currently I’m learning a lot before putting any of it into practise.  Regardless I’ll post some photos soon once I’ve got an account setup elsewhere to host the images.  I’ve made a few tweaks to them; 1 reduced the stud gap between the carriages by 1 stud by using 1x2 plate(s) with 1 stud to mount the bogies.  I’ve currently got a few different setups of tiles over the train buffers as these keep disconnecting.  Not necessarily the designers fault - the Lego type 3 buffers don’t have very strong grip through the anti-studs. Also as noted their is a lot of friction and this seems to be the weak point (before the magnets surprisingly).

@zephyr1934 I’ve had the traction bands off of the truck wheels, although it hasn’t made a noticeable difference (unfortunately).  The technic pins are definitely causing significant friction.  I won’t know how much of a problem this is until I get my hands on a motor for the EN itself rather than push/pulling it with the cargo/passenger train.  I’m interested to know more about the roller bearing wheel sets.  I’ve only seen them on HA bricks.  Do you have any recommendations/reading suggestions?  I’d be interested to learn how to make them too.

I’ve modified the rear truck, switching the orientation of the cross block and switching out the technic pin with a technic axel to pin connector which now allows for movement horizontally and vertically.  I need a few parts for the front - debating whether to spend £2 on shipping for £0.40 of goods 🤔.

I’m having a lot of internal debates (before payday) about track currently.  It’s inevitable that I’ll buy some off brand switches, as you can’t use the Lego switches to implement a switchover on tracks running 8 studs apart (ignoring the overpriced old switchover piece).  The ongoing debate is do I need/want R104 switches?  Or are R40 switches sufficient?  Seems like a good time to decide before investing in anything significantly.

The BT R104 switches seem better value than trixbrix’s R104 (and the fact that BT are moulded too) the downside being the shipping costs/minimum order value for free delivery to the UK.  Doesn’t seem much point ordering from HA bricks as they have a huge markup.  Basically means a $200 order for free shipping which is steep.  R104 switches aren’t cheap.  Which brings me back to R40 switches.  R40 would be fine now, particularly as I’m space limited, but I do like to run a longer train which means the R104 would be more suitable.  Having said all that, in the short term I’ve only got R40 curves, which will likely be complemented with R56 soon.  It will be a while before I get bigger curves due to space.

I too quite like the look of the rail yard switches.  The geometry means you can gain a lot of space in a setup, really good design by Mattze.

 

[zephyr1934]

16 hours ago, Barkmi4 said:

 I’m interested to know more about the roller bearing wheel sets.  I’ve only seen them on HA bricks.  Do you have any recommendations/reading suggestions?  I’d be interested to learn how to make them too.

google "eurobricks roller bearings" and you should find a bunch of threads on them.

 

16 hours ago, Barkmi4 said:

The BT R104 switches seem better value than trixbrix’s R104 (and the fact that BT are moulded too) the downside being the shipping costs/minimum order value for free delivery to the UK.  Doesn’t seem much point ordering from HA bricks as they have a huge markup.  Basically means a $200 order for free shipping which is steep.  R104 switches aren’t cheap.  Which brings me back to R40 switches.  R40 would be fine now, particularly as I’m space limited, but I do like to run a longer train which means the R104 would be more suitable.  Having said all that, in the short term I’ve only got R40 curves, which will likely be complemented with R56 soon.  It will be a while before I get bigger curves due to space.

If you have limited funds and do not yet have a need for big switches then starting with R40 switches probably makes sense, they are at least 1/5 the cost of R104. Aside from the trains looking a bit silly as they traverse R40 switches, they do not prevent you from running long trains. You can always retrofit R104 when you need them or when you are able to finally go back and address deferred maintenance in your trackwork (grin). This way you could focus more of your resources on wide radius curves. You will ALWAYS be going through the curves and only occasionally going through the switches. If you have the space and the money, going larger than R40 curves looks so much better and the lower resistance helps the big trains too.