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brickbuilder711

NEW Layout at Train Museum

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Hi Friends,

While I don't have too much to show about it as it is under construction, here's a sneak preview of a new layout at the Gold Coast Railroad Museum in Miami!

It's based off the FEC lines in Florida. The layout is 12'x4' for now, hopefully to expand soon if successful, and PF based but at the moment 9V can run on it. Lots of buildings have yet to be added but hopefully it'll be all ready by June 4!

Enjoy! :classic:

Edited by brickbuilder711

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A video of the updated and more progressed layout has been posted. Its 'premiere' is June 4.

Nice! Good luck with the premiere in 2 days!

Edited by pirzyk

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brickbuilder711,

You are a brave soul to send those EVOs at speed into the wishbone. Not that LEGO gives much in the way of options but that wouldn't matter anyhow seeing as space is a premium for your display. Truth be told, s-curves are the real killers to long stuff. They keep derailing my Bo'Bo'Bo'Bo' testbed. At least all the rest of your rolling stock makes it through without any hassle. They look really good by the way! And I love all the railway crossing tidbits.

I wish you best of luck with the event.

+1 for the bring your own train advertisement.

PS: Will we see a Charger in the future?

3D LEGO

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Oh Lego... we need to talk about your curves.

Behind the drug store...

... with my baseball bat.

LMAO! Yes! If I show you a video a fellow volunteer took with a GoPro, you just might want to add spikes to that bat.

I've looked into grand curves and R104s... but not much money or space available at the moment ....

brickbuilder711,

You are a brave soul to send those EVOs at speed into the wishbone. Not that LEGO gives much in the way of options but that wouldn't matter anyhow seeing as space is a premium for your display. Truth be told, s-curves are the real killers to long stuff. They keep derailing my Bo'Bo'Bo'Bo' testbed. At least all the rest of your rolling stock makes it through without any hassle. They look really good by the way! And I love all the railway crossing tidbits.

I wish you best of luck with the event.

+1 for the bring your own train advertisement.

PS: Will we see a Charger in the future?

3D LEGO

Yep LOL! It was a narrow display and I wanted to keep things interesting with trackage. Wanted to make sure these curves were more fail safe and at least so far no real problems yet :).

Unfortunately, no one ran guest trains... but I am sure that will come soon. The layout came together so last minute that I don't feel it was properly advertised. But similar scale events are not too far away at the museum.

To answer your question, you could suppose the future IS indeed "bright"! Maybe those will like the curves better..... :D

Thanks!

Nice! Good luck with the premiere in 2 days!

Looking great :-)

Thank you all for the comments! The premiere, part of National Train Day, went quite well. Many enjoyed the moving LEGO trains and got images and video of them. There are things that can be improved, such as placement and lighting of course, and part of that is since this is a pilot for a possible huge future footprint at the museum's models.

More media is coming but I raise a pic of a CSX train:

27432688831_7a8062049f_c.jpg

Edited by brickbuilder711

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brickbuilder711,

Indeed!

(Que missing sunglasses wearing smilie.)

But hey, even if no one brought a train to run, you at least put it out there. A large percentage of the model railroading community takes a hands-off approach with their displays. While it does preserve the display from errant hands it still is susceptible to distracted engineers... That being said, being open and welcoming of guests does much to instill a greater love for something if given the opportunity to participate. Who knows, you could be inspiring the next Cale!

I have personally thought about the same thing as well. I am sure any kid would die if given the chance to drive a train.

3D LEGO

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I've just got to say; that layout looks great! Where are the battery boxes on the CSX locomotives, or are they 9V?

Thank you! They are located in the long hood where the 8 SNOT tiles are. A fairly clever trick :)

brickbuilder711,

Indeed!

(Que missing sunglasses wearing smilie.)

But hey, even if no one brought a train to run, you at least put it out there. A large percentage of the model railroading community takes a hands-off approach with their displays. While it does preserve the display from errant hands it still is susceptible to distracted engineers... That being said, being open and welcoming of guests does much to instill a greater love for something if given the opportunity to participate. Who knows, you could be inspiring the next Cale!

I have personally thought about the same thing as well. I am sure any kid would die if given the chance to drive a train.

3D LEGO

True! Actually the display is plastered with DO NOT TOUCH signs on the outside plexiglass.... yet of course if they bring their trains I can assist them in setting up.

Indeed, having the option is a win win. Plus the added benefit of offering track time to something other than 4 GEVOs which will, in their pairs, max out their battery life.

GFLUG was always very nice to have me run at shows over the last 12 years, here are some of my earliest models, this rather oddball CSX pair in Clearwater back in 2004! (dug up on Brickshelf). Those were the days... Now to simply pay it forward.

32b08b279e9f618d71d69bb4204586d3.jpg

Edited by brickbuilder711

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Early September was the close of the layout due to the beginning of the semester. Unfortunately, one of the GFLUGers who made my hobby possible, and did a lot of what you see in the above photo from post #14 of this thread, passed away the same day. 

Since the layout was successful, and I didn't lose any noticeable pieces, I am committing to a bigger display beginning this winter.

Here's the video of the runs including POV video from front and side of train.

<youtube>http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SeOfG4kR0nQ</youtube>

 

Edited by brickbuilder711

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