Powering the Toy Story 3 Train

[henryhotspurs]

I was looking at the box art. Has anyone with the set tried to motorize it? Perhaps make a 9v motorized tender? Does it work on standard 9v tracks? Are the drivers compatible with the tracks?

[Carefree_Dude]

yup. wheels are the same as on the emerald night. You can actually just toss a PF motor on there, and that will do it. Of course, I tried to motorize it and this is what happened:

[Lego Otaku]

yup. wheels are the same as on the emerald night. You can actually just toss a PF motor on there, and that will do it. Of course, I tried to motorize it and this is what happened:

I see you did a lot more than to add a motor. You added the extra wheels (blind wheels) that weren't used in original manual and more. I would think this looks a lot better than original version.

[vgsprites]

I was looking at the box art. Has anyone with the set tried to motorize it? Perhaps make a 9v motorized tender? Does it work on standard 9v tracks? Are the drivers compatible with the tracks?

I made a simple red and black tender with my 9 volt motor. It didn't have enough weight to push the locomotive alone so I had to add weight in the form of dead AA batteries. The motor was able to push the train around my simple 9 volt oval.

My girlfriend was pleased to see the train move on it's own power with the Toy Story characters on top.

Nice build Goldenmasamune. Looks more like the actual train from the movie.

[railway city]

I have! The driving wheels are now fixed to the boiler and do not rotate like a bogie, this means that the front bogie has to have side play to negotiate corners, the driving wheels have coupling rods, but not connecting rods. The tender is fitted with a 9 volt motor.

Craig

Second picture

[Carefree_Dude]

I love your idea of turning that tanker trunk set into train cars. Mind if I steal that idea and make a few changes? i'd get rid fo the train baseplate plate, make the tank taller (use red bricks instead of red plates maybe), and just connect the wheelsets to the technic holes on the bottom of the green pieces.

[railway city]

I don't mind you doing that at all, I build British trains and Toy Story is actually very tall compared with my usual rolling stock, I did toy with the idea of the stripe being a brick high instead of a plate, but decided against it. My intention was also to use a skeleton chassis like the one in the new cargo train set, but found that a 28 stud baseplate was much stronger and looks fine.

Craig

[Carefree_Dude]

yeah, i thought the TS train was also overly tall, so I made it shorter.

then again, the TS train i made used very few parts from the actual train. I still have a mostly built TS train body that i haven't destroyed yet.

[Solscud007]

Hey guys,

My fiancee got the Toy Story 3 train set. She wants to make a simple oval track and put it around the xmas tree.

How do I go about adding power to the Locomotive wheels? I have no idea how to do this. thanks

[roamingstop]

Hey guys,

My fiancee got the Toy Story 3 train set. She wants to make a simple oval track and put it around the xmas tree.

How do I go about adding power to the Locomotive wheels? I have no idea how to do this. thanks

There is a thread (somewhere on here) about the set, where a customer tender is made around a 9V train motor. This tender actually then pushes the train and pulls the carriages.

If you have no existing track or motors then it is time for a trip to either Bricklink or Shop @ Home to pick up the necessary bits. I.e. a power functions motor brick #8866, and battery box #8878. If you want to have it remove controlled then you need to add the IR receiver #8884 and controller #8879.

Note the new train sets (7898 and 7897) have a different motor / battery box combo - you can generally find these stripped out and available seperately on ebay. There may also be plans by Lego to release these as new kit elements in 2011 (I heard a rumour once) but no idea if it will come to pass.

[Solscud007]

There is a thread (somewhere on here) about the set, where a customer tender is made around a 9V train motor. This tender actually then pushes the train and pulls the carriages.

If you have no existing track or motors then it is time for a trip to either Bricklink or Shop @ Home to pick up the necessary bits. I.e. a power functions motor brick #8866, and battery box #8878. If you want to have it remove controlled then you need to add the IR receiver #8884 and controller #8879.

Note the new train sets (7898 and 7897) have a different motor / battery box combo - you can generally find these stripped out and available seperately on ebay. There may also be plans by Lego to release these as new kit elements in 2011 (I heard a rumour once) but no idea if it will come to pass.

Thanks. I have no idea what a tender is.

[Solscud007]

Hey guys,

My Fiancee just got this TS train set. She wants me to motorize it. I will get a simple oval track at the lego store. they have the power 8293 functions set

http://shop.lego.com/ByTheme/Product.aspx?p=8293&cn=57&d=70

Is that all I need? I dont want to build anything too elaborate. just make the existing stock set powered.

thanks

[The Yellow Brick]

Thanks. I have no idea what a tender is.

This is a Tender

[roamingstop]

This is a Tender

Or more precisely the small wagon found behind most large steam engines - unless this be a strange Anglo-American problem.

Red Bricks link is perfect.

[WesternOutlaw]

How do I go about adding power to the Locomotive wheels? I have no idea how to do this. thanks

No need to post your question twice.

I've merged your topic with this previous topic started by henryhotspurs.

[Yoshi648]

While I don't actually own the set, it does look like it can be motorized without having to make any major modifications. On the locomotive, just replace that "block" that is holding the main driving wheels (the thing you start building on page 29 of the instructions) with this Power Functions Train Motor. Then to power it, wire it into a battery box. Your battery box choices are the rechargeable box which can easily be hidden away in the box car (and don't forget to buy a charger). If that rechargeable battery box + charger is to expensive, you could look into just getting the double-A battery box and make a few modifications to make it fit in the car or go to Brick Link and get this battery box which has the compact size of the rechargeable battery box, but uses standard double-A batteries (this would probably be your best bet).

[Solscud007]

While I don't actually own the set, it does look like it can be motorized without having to make any major modifications. On the locomotive, just replace that "block" that is holding the main driving wheels (the thing you start building on page 29 of the instructions) with this Power Functions Train Motor. Then to power it, wire it into a battery box. Your battery box choices are the rechargeable box which can easily be hidden away in the box car (and don't forget to buy a charger). If that rechargeable battery box + charger is to expensive, you could look into just getting the double-A battery box and make a few modifications to make it fit in the car or go to Brick Link and get this battery box which has the compact size of the rechargeable battery box, but uses standard double-A batteries (this would probably be your best bet).

Thanks!!! That is exactly what I was looking for. Great, so I dont need the whole power functions set. Thanks a lot!!!

[Duq]

One thing to keep in mind: if you use either of the battery boxes (the AA or AAA one) you have no speed control; the train would just run at full speed. The rechargable battery has a regulator on its output but you'd still have to grab the running train and open the roof to stop it.

The better but more complicated solution would be to add a receiver between the battery (any of the three) and the motor, then use the remote control to control the speed.

Edited November 14, 2010 by Duq

[Solscud007]

One thing to keep in mind: if you use either of the battery boxes (the AA or AAA one) you have no speed control; the train would just run at full speed. The rechargable battery has a regulator on its output but you'd still have to grab the running train and open the roof to stop it.

The better but more complicated solution would be to add a receiver between the battery (any of the three) and the motor, then use the remote control to control the speed.

how fast is full speed?

[Duq]

I can't try right now but I would imagine it's fast enough to fly off the rails. The train motor with small wheels is pretty quick and with these large wheels it'll go even faster. And that train looks pretty top-heavy...

[fred67]

how fast is full speed?

What Duq said... full speed is too fast. If you're going to power it with PF, get an IR receiver and remote. They're not that much more money when you consider the price of everything else.

In fact, it almost makes no sense without it.

[Cwetqo]

Even with IR and train remote on first level it's too fast. I tried it and it really "flies" (and derails). I'm now experimenting with lower voltage (3xAA = 4,5 volts or 4xAA = 6 volts). I tried it "on bench" with regulated power source and it works nice with either volatage (I was afraid that IR recievier would not work) and the speed ir really slower. Now I just have to modify battery box to connect just 3 or 4 batteries and see if it's still powerfull enough to pull 3 wagons.

[Solscud007]

damn.

Hey guys what are the spare red wheels for?

See this thread

http://www.eurobricks.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=48544&st=0&gopid=855493entry855493

[Snapshot]

damn.

Hey guys what are the spare red wheels for?

See this thread

http://www.eurobricks.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=48544&st=0&gopid=855493entry855493

They're just that - spares - so use them for whatever you want. The machines at TLG make a set of four flanged driver and two blind drivers as used (in black) by the Emerald Night. It's less hassle (i.e. cheaper) to do the same in red for the TS3 train than to re-jig things to just make the flanged drivers.

[Duq]

Hey guys what are the spare red wheels for?

Feel free to send them to me. ;-)

They come in very handy when building bigger steam engines.