Anyone running Lego train on OO/HO track

[mobi]

So far all my Lego collections are Technic only. I also collected some OO gauge model trains (Hornby, Lima, Bachmann) earlier in my life.

Now I want to lay tracks in my garden. G scale garden railway is too expensive and OO/HO is not suitable for outdoor (due to live tracks). I tried to find battery operated locos (like Lego PF) in OO/HO tracks but have not found any.

So I am thinking whether it is possible to create my own Lego locomotive but making it run on OO/HO track instead of Lego's own tracks.

Sounds feasible?

[kieran]

don't see why not, I guess the main issue will be getting the wheels to work with the non l-Gauge track. There are loads of examples of people creating custom drive solutions using PF, including some to mimic the old Monorail system from Lego.

like this one http://www.eurobricks.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=77105

Edited January 8, 2013 by kieran

[Duq]

Have a look in this thread as well.

[peterab]

OO/HO is quite a lot smaller than most LEGO trainheads build, and a lot of us have difficulty getting the results we want in L gauge.

You'd have to find some way of driving HO sized wheels, or use non lego motors. Hiding a LEGO motor in a HO scale train would be very difficult (it can be problematic in a 6 wide LEGO train which is closer to O ). Also you'd probably have to be happy with far less detail than the average LEGO train MOC at that size. Not that any of this is impossible but there are a number of compromises compared to using LEGO track and building larger.

[English Electric]

  On 1/8/2013 at 12:53 PM, mobi said:

Now I want to lay tracks in my garden. G scale garden railway is too expensive and OO/HO is not suitable for outdoor (due to live tracks). I tried to find battery operated locos (like Lego PF) in OO/HO tracks but have not found any.

Why not adapt 00 models to run on RC? There must be RC receiver modules and batteries small enough to fit in 00? Alternatively have you looked at 0 gauge?

I can't imagine any of the lego wheels being suitable for use on 00 track, as the flanges will be taller than the rails.

But on the subject of 00 outdoors, I'm pretty sure people have done it still using powered rails, modern track has nickel rails so won't corrode, and I assume you wouldn't be planning to run it in the rain? Keeping debris off the track would be the biggest challenge!

[Spitfire2865]

A very interesting thought. But if you are going to go outdoors, Do it in G scale. It has been shown to work with Lego wheels. Just look on BigBenBricks gallery. There are one or two G gauge Lego trains

[Lazarus]

OO/HO is about half the scale of lego, G scale is the closest. I would think it would be very hard to down scale a working loco to that sice. the flange alone on the lego wheel are taller than the rail on OO/HO track.

As i have advised before PF track should more than withstand quite a bit outside and you will just need to use PF hardware in trains. Price wise PF track is alot cheaper than any other type G scale 9v track.

[mobi]

G scale is best for outdoors but it is way too expensive.

I already have a collection of OO models and tracks. But I could not find any RC/battery operated OO/HO locomotives.

I understand Lego Trains are 2x bigger than OO/HO trains but I can treat Lego on OO/HO track as narrow gauge trains (Somewhat similar to On30 trains).

If I can build a chassis of Lego PF motors driving wheels on OO/HO track my problem is solved.

[mobi]

To further narrow down my problem statement, I just want Lego train wheels which I can fit on Technic axles (with custom spacing as to fit on HO/OO track). Once that is done, rest is very easy as I can easly fit some cogs to drive the axles via PF motor. In fact as long as I can vary the spacing of wheels on axle, I can run it on any gauge by just changing the spacing of wheels on the axle.

Since I have never used Lego trains, I don't know whether such wheels are available.

Edited January 9, 2013 by mobi

[alainneke]

As noted before, the flanges of the available LEGO train wheels are too tall to fit the H0/00 tracks. If you don't mind modifying them, just run them down on a lathe.

[mobi]

  Quote

he flanges of the available LEGO train wheels are too tall to fit the H0/00 tracks[/Quote]

My plan is down the pan then - unless someone has developed smaller flanged Lego train wheels.

Edited January 9, 2013 by mobi

[Electricsteam]

  On 1/9/2013 at 11:55 AM, mobi said:

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My plan is down the pan then - unless someone has developed smaller flanged Lego train wheels.

They fit my O guage track

[mobi]

Then there is still some hope.

But how do I fit technic axles to flanged wheels? I don't have any Lego trains so not sure if that can be done.

PS: Found the part - http://rebrickable.com/parts/55423

With this it is possible to put Lego trains on any custom width gauge (as long as flange doesn't touch base).

So trains won't be limited to just 6 studs wide.

Edited January 9, 2013 by mobi

[Lazarus]

YES

[Bamos]

O scale rail is almost the same size as lego track but the gauge is different so you will have to hand lay everything.

[peterab]

  On 1/9/2013 at 12:32 PM, mobi said:

PS: Found the part - http://rebrickable.com/parts/55423

With this it is possible to put Lego trains on any custom width gauge (as long as flange doesn't touch base).

So trains won't be limited to just 6 studs wide.

Technically yes, practically there will be limitations to what you can do. Using only the wheels that fit on Technic axles will mean each of your wheelsets have higher friction, and as you seem intent on building wider trains they will probably be heavy. On of the guys in my club builds 10-12 wide narrow guage stuff on LEGO rails and has some locos which require four XL motors just to move themselves (they're 12 wide and quite tall) It has taken him a couple of years of redesigns getting his full train to run reliably. The torque required to run the locos also becomes enough that you can start to strip gears, particularly the half width ones. He now uses the old 12V motors because they have stronger internal gears than the technic gears.

One of the old 4.5V motors can drive a technic axle, so that might also be an option, though it would limit you to a gauge wider than the width of the 4 stud wide body. I think there's a topic covering using PF receivers with 4.5V motors and battery boxes somewhere on here.

Part of the reason people don't stray too far from the 6 wide (7 & 8 are common) of the official sets is once the weight climbs getting reliable operation gets more difficult. It's not imposable though, just a lot harder.

BTW you may find the Bricklink catalogue is good for looking for parts, for example there are also larger driving wheels that might meet your needs. You might also want to google Big Ben Bricks who also produce a larger range of sizes and colours of LEGO axle compatible wheels.

  On 1/10/2013 at 2:27 AM, Bamos said:

O scale rail is almost the same size as lego track but the gauge is different so you will have to hand lay everything.

Or you just avoid all the 9V and 12V fixed width wheels and use standard O gauge track with only wheels that mount on a technic axle so you can set the width to O gauge.

[zephyr1934]

  On 1/10/2013 at 3:26 AM, peterab said:

Technically yes, practically there will be limitations to what you can do. Using only the wheels that fit on Technic axles will mean each of your wheelsets have higher friction, and as you seem intent on building wider trains they will probably be heavy.

...

Part of the reason people don't stray too far from the 6 wide (7 & 8 are common) of the official sets is once the weight climbs getting reliable operation gets more difficult. It's not imposable though, just a lot harder.

...

Or you just avoid all the 9V and 12V fixed width wheels and use standard O gauge track with only wheels that mount on a technic axle so you can set the width to O gauge.

Peterab brings up some great points about switching gauges. However, if you choose to deviate from Lego track, you do not have to stop at the track. You could also adopt the trucks and couplers of the new system (potentially addressing the friction issue with technic axles), perhaps even the motors to overcome the limits of the lego motors and plastic gears. If you go as far as keeping the motors of the new gauge, you would effectively just be building a shell to fit over the new host gauge. For the cars you could probably just screw the trucks into a technic hole (e.g., in a train base or a technic plate).

In this case you could go all the way down to N-scale though getting satisfactory detail would be quite the challenge.

Moving to larger gauges will likely make more powerful motors available. I suspect incorporating parts from a larger gauge would ultimately be more expensive than an all lego solution, but it does open up more possibilities both in terms of track geometry and propulsion.

[mobi]

Hmm, now I realize why most railway modelers prefer track powers! Battery is indeed too much work for trains.

I couldn't guess that 10+ stud wide trains will require so much power to move. May be for trains steel wheels on metal rails is best option (at least by physics' laws)

[hankdelsi]

  On 1/10/2013 at 2:27 AM, Bamos said:

O scale rail is almost the same size as lego track but the gauge is different so you will have to hand lay everything.

I noticed to O scale rail the other day in my hobby store and they looked close in size to lego track. I don't know anything about model railroading or electricity etc. but is it possibly to run 9v trains on these. I'm still waiting on the ME tracks. I'm pretty sure the answer is no but figured someone here knows the answer. Thanks.

[Anticyclone]

Interesting to note is this pic taken from LEGO Discovery Center in Grapevine, Texas. They used what appears to be HO scale track and train wheels, everything else is LEGO. I've never seen this done before and the train looks really good too.

[Locomotive Annie]

  On 2/7/2013 at 12:43 AM, hankdelsi said:

I noticed to O scale rail the other day in my hobby store and they looked close in size to lego track. I don't know anything about model railroading or electricity etc. but is it possibly to run 9v trains on these. I'm still waiting on the ME tracks. I'm pretty sure the answer is no but figured someone here knows the answer. Thanks.

'O' is 32mm gauge, Lego is 38mm gauge. Close, but yet so far unfortunately. Re-gauging to 'O' would be possible, but the standard Lego motorblocks couldn't be used as they would be too wide and you would have to build your own chassis and mechs from Technic parts or use 'O' gauge ones which aren't cheap. The garden gauges such as 'G' gauge on 40mm track would be possible, but weight is the big issue here. I worked in 16mm scale on 45mm gauge track for a while, not using Lego, but scratchbuilding my own locos and rolling stock. In this size models definitely have weight, inertia and rolling resistance which would make Lego trains in this size very heavy and in need of powerful mechs to push them along. Even with building as I do in 8 wide there is a noticeable weight increase over a similar model built in 6 wide and while I did consider 10 wide it only took one experimental 10 wide coach built in Lego to make me change my mind.

Those Lego trains built to run on HO track look awfully nice though. The coach and the loco look very convincing, though I think the tender is a wee bit oversized and needs to be coupled closer to the loco.

[mobi]

If you use wheels from http://bigbenbricks.com/ you can put it on Technic axle and thus it will work on any custom gauge.

Although he couldn't confirm whether his wheels work on HO/OO gauge but he confirmed it works fine on G gauge.

The picture of that train on HO track looks interesting. I wonder what wheels they have used.

[UrbanErwin]

This might be interesting.

It is done by Bricktrix.

[Locomotive Annie]

  On 2/7/2013 at 3:20 PM, UrbanErwin said:

This might be interesting.

It is done by Bricktrix.

Absolutely amazing to see Bricktrix's GWR loco alongside a finescale 'O' version. The man is a Lego god who builds incredible scale models.

[bricks n bolts]

  On 1/10/2013 at 3:26 AM, peterab said:

Or you just avoid all the 9V and 12V fixed width wheels and use standard O gauge track with only wheels that mount on a technic axle so you can set the width to O gauge.

You can with some fiddling about mount the old '70s red wheels onto technic pins (you need specific older style pins with the right inner diameter). Not well enough for drivers but should be OK for carriages, etc.. That would still limit you to the length of two pins (4 studs) or over unless you also shorten the excess length from the pins.

  On 2/7/2013 at 7:06 PM, Locomotive Annie said:

The man is a Lego god

Often have the same thought.