custom lego railroad

[system]

Hello

I need some help with building custom railroad :)

I bought some basic Lego City trainset a while ago. And my kids enjoy it a lot. But the problem, is that if i add more tracks, it become too big for my appartment. Currently width of tracks are 3.8cm. I'm thinking of smaller tracks tracks with 2.1 (anything between 2.4 - 1.6) cm

Was inspired by this video:

Another problem is that my kids like railroads, but not trains :D

For me main requirements are:

Much smaller size than current lego city. I could go as smallest as possible, as long it could carry motor and cople of minifigures.

Tracks done from non-rare lego pieces.

Run multiple independent trains at once controlled via remote controlls.

Connecting cars is not important to me at all. Train could look like a block/platform with couple of minifigs on top of it.

There should be switches and preferably intersections. I should be able to make elevations with rails (to make bridges etc).

I need help with finding if it is possible and what parts i could use.

1. What suite me best: powered rails or trains with batteries? I'm going to make powered switches anyway.

2. Switches. What would be good way to power them and how they could be done? Puting wires across is not a problem. i'm going to have 20-30 switches.

3. Curves and elevations. Would be good if curve could have 15cm radius.

4. Voltage. If batteries I prefer to stick to 1,5-3V if possible.If powered rails, everything goes.

5. Motors. I will need 3-7 of them, so building or buying custom is not a problem.

6. How to put axis? 2axis on each side of car? or maybe some better suggestion?

Further ideas.

a) Switches operatable from train remote controll.

E.g. a NFC mark placed near switch. Trains controlled trough central server (remote contolls talk to server instead of trains). When train comes close, to switch, it transmits NFC mark to server, and on control user could press "switch button". Everything could operate trough BT or some other wireless technology.

b) Traffic lights. Probably controlled by server. Any available software? Could setup linux/win PC for that.

PS: I know that there are model train sets for HO and S scales, but i'm looking for Lego solution.

[zephyr1934]

It is difficult enough to build nice looking 6 wide trains. Going smaller will be tough. The propulsion is one of the big limiting factors, the off the shelf PF components are all 4 wide, making them hard to hide. It is certainly doable and there have been some nice solutions, e.g., here, but they tend to be a little more delicate than the regular lego sets and many are unpowered.

[system]

I actually don't care at all how they look like, as long as they run on rails :) They could have opened battery boxes, wires, etc.

Btw thx for link, I'll investigate more on the idea with Brio tracks.

[dundarach]

I'm always thinking of new ways to mod and be silly, hence the whole Lego Scalextric stuff...

We've talked on here about outdoor railways using Lego and how well, or not, the track would hold up.

Why not either try, monorail - not the Lego one, but a single track with the suspended car underneath kind of thing, or do a search for the wacky building challenge, didn't someone post something about a single rail and wheeled kind of train.

That way you could use old blue or grey track and build really small.

These will be very easy to build and cheap, you can have a single rail - railway all over and away you go.

[JopieK]

I use Arduino for remote control stuff, together with standard PF. I indeed use NFC technology for setting switches / signals.

[system]

  On 2/26/2014 at 8:04 AM, dundarach said:

Why not either try, monorail - not the Lego one, but a single track with the suspended car underneath kind of thing, or do a search for the wacky building challenge, didn't someone post something about a single rail and wheeled kind of train.

I'm not sure if I understood you correctly. Could you provide some pictures? Can I buy needed pieces from ordinary shop or bricklink?

Is it something like that?

  On 2/26/2014 at 11:03 AM, JopieK said:

I use Arduino for remote control stuff, together with standard PF. I indeed use NFC technology for setting switches / signals.

Could you please explain a little more, how NFC is used? Or may be some link to read.

I'm thinking to build 50-100 meters of rails total.

Thinking more about what I want:

I'd like to avoid batteries and radio communications to trains. DCC seems right way to go. Train controls could operate via BT/WIFI in future (initially only from PC).

DCC functionality:

- trains

- speed (none, x1, x2, x3)

- direction (2 cases)

- lights (I'd like to support 3-5 independent lights)

- sound (1 signal bundled with train is enough)

- switches

- what is better, define new position or "switch action"?

- lights

- traffic and buildings

- bridges

- turntable

- other structures

Powered rails. Suggestions for small gauge? Like this one: http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?i=5656858

Should it be rails, or something in the middle? Also i wonder if any powered monorail exist.

Just remember my old metal toy:

http://i.ebayimg.com/00/s/MTIwMFgxNjAw/$T2eC16RHJFoE9nh6nwCEBQUPS!CdTg~~60_57.JPG

With this i could make any curves, elevations, slopes etc. Still easy enough to setup/disassemble. I could make switches, intersections. It may transfer power, and plastic pieces could separate powered blocks.

The only problem - I have no idea where to get it nowdays. Meccano seems a bit expensive, as I need mostly straight rails.

PS: still open to ANY ideas :)

[dundarach]

Yes the monorail, that kind of thing :)

Right found the one I wanted, it was in the wacky locomotive challenge thread, as proposed by Locomotive Annie..

It a Ewing railway...as at the Patiala State Monorail in India.

http://www.douglas-self.com/MUSEUM/LOCOLOCO/patiala/patiala.htm

http://www.trainweb.org/railworld/Trip%202001/PSMT/

Hope this helps :)

[system]

Still investigating various options. Is there any switches for 4 wide tracks? I saw some video with them, but can't find any detailed images/instructions.

Another question: what about metal rails with combination of middle rail for power supply? E.g. rails have + and middle metal rail have -. Then trains could go in any direction. Of course this will require some modifications :)

[baard]

Hi

There are attempts to use Copper tape on the plastic rails. I have tried this with a plastic 6 wide switch and to be fair; it did not work out very well. A 4 wide track can be made by good use of the old plastic rails, e.g. the blue or light grey versions. Electrifying them will be the challenge. If you are not having troube with modifiing Lego bricks or plates, then fixing metal rails normally intended for model railways is the way to go. Good luck and hope to see your solution.

Baard

[system]

I wasn't able to find good way to electrify 4 wide tracks.But I was able to rearrange furniture in my flat, so will use standard tracks.

After reading this forum I decided to follow advices and not go extreme at first :) I'll start with basic RC trains, and will add centralized power later.

Now just need to decide should i get 9v tracks right now, even for RC trains...

[Ashi Valkoinen]

  On 3/1/2014 at 1:17 PM, system said:

Now just need to decide should i get 9v tracks right now, even for RC trains...

If you have the money for it, then you should.

[zephyr1934]

  On 3/1/2014 at 1:17 PM, system said:

Now just need to decide should i get 9v tracks right now, even for RC trains...

If you stumble on a deal on 9v grab them, but if you do not have a ton of 9v already (or a ton of money itching to be spent) I'd suggest just living in the pf world. It is a lot cheaper and there are some things that you can do in pf that you cannot do well in 9v (e.g., anything with an XL motor). The one big downside with pf is that you have to hide roughly 12x4x3 worth of battery and receiver somewhere.