[WIP] Lego monorails. [Custom Rail Systems (CRS)]

[Man with a hat]

Great to see it all together in your layout. It looks amazing. And i like hat bridge.

[Masao Hidaka]

I respected "60226 Mars Research Shuttle" and made this monorail.

 

[Rijkvv]

While I liked the colour scheme of your previous (Futuron) monorail, I think this looks much better. Less blocky. I like it. 

[Masao Hidaka]

My monorails run in KBP 2019. :)
https://youtu.be/B6oaJOY1Ckc

Edited August 30, 2019 by Masao Hidaka

[sed6]

17 hours ago, Masao Hidaka said:

My monorails run in KBP 2019. :)
https://youtu.be/B6oaJOY1Ckc

Your monorails run so smoothly. They handle the curves and inclines with ease. Very nice work and a great layout!

[Arefalalmani]

If you like Monorails, maybe then you like Solorail too!

https://www.instagram.com/p/BzJAVYPIJvc/?igshid=3emvmmiwjcmh

And this Topic is great! So many constructive Comments and Ideas!

[zephyr1934]

8 hours ago, Arefalalmani said:

If you like Monorails, maybe then you like Solorail too!

https://www.instagram.com/p/BzJAVYPIJvc/?igshid=3emvmmiwjcmh

And this Topic is great! So many constructive Comments and Ideas!

That is sooooo old school (almost 50 yrs) but still a great design

[Arefalalmani]

1 hour ago, zephyr1934 said:

That is sooooo old school (almost 50 yrs) but still a great design

Awesome! But my Solorail is motorized!

https://www.instagram.com/p/B05_tVvoCzc/?igshid=qygrb4b4wal1

Invented by Arminpfano

https://www.1000steine.de/de/gemeinschaft/forum/?entry=1&id=297870

 

[Digger of Bricks]

It may not be a true monorail per se, but @RyszardBosiak's most recent submission to LEGO Ideas may be of interest to custom monorail builders here... 

LEGO Ideas - M-Tron Space Train | Eurobricks - [MOC] M-Tron Space Train

 

[RyszardBosiak]

@Digger of Bricks, thank you for share my MOC! :)

[Rijkvv]

Very nice creation. Clearly an upgrade of the '90s sets, while still being recognizable as M-Tron.

I took my first steps in trying to create a monorail.

I took the diagonal motor idea from Masao Hidaka, but altered the connection and used a Technic liftarm connection.

TECHNIC pin joiners which should be able to roll. Since this gives less traction I hope it'll provide a smooth ride in corners. The diagonal motor should provide a low center of gravity. I do hope that I can put enough weight above the weel, so that it'll provide sufficient traction.

I have no idea about the looks yet. I do like the retrolook of several monorails that I've seen already, but I'll try to not just copy-paste it. :D But first I better get this thing working.

Edited October 27, 2019 by Rijkvv

[Holodoc]

On 10/24/2019 at 1:36 AM, Digger of Bricks said:

LEGO Ideas - M-Tron Space Train | Eurobricks - [MOC] M-Tron Space Train

Fantastic build, nor only the colour sheme, but also the overhead track!

Is the train able to run on curves as well?

[Paperinik77pk]

On 10/24/2019 at 1:36 AM, Digger of Bricks said:

It may not be a true monorail per se, but @RyszardBosiak's most recent submission to LEGO Ideas may be of interest to custom monorail builders here... 

LEGO Ideas - M-Tron Space Train | Eurobricks - [MOC] M-Tron Space Train

 

I love it!!! It is not a Monorail, but it gives a right idea of futuristic train used on the Moon or Mars! ?

[Rijkvv]

Finally I have designed something that looks like a monorail. Well, the train itself that is.

For some reason LDD wouldn't let me place the seperate parts.

Designing digital makes it unclear if my build is rigid (though I tend to over-engineer, even creating trouble with my assembling my signpost a while ago ). But this also has to run, and being able to take curves and preferably also inclines. Considering I don't have any experience whatsoever regarding building monorails, I hope I didn't put all that effort in a flawed concept.

I'm curious what you guys think.

[Digger of Bricks]

On 10/26/2019 at 5:26 AM, RyszardBosiak said:

@Digger of Bricks, thank you for share my MOC! :)

You're most welcome!!! 

On 11/2/2019 at 4:52 AM, Holodoc said:

Is the train able to run on curves as well?

I'm afraid I wouldn't know, though I'm rather certain @RyszardBosiak should. 

[MonsieurCaron]

22 hours ago, Rijkvv said:

Finally I have designed something that looks like a monorail. Well, the train itself that is.

For some reason LDD wouldn't let me place the seperate parts.

Designing digital makes it unclear if my build is rigid (though I tend to over-engineer, even creating trouble with my assembling my signpost a while ago ). But this also has to run, and being able to take curves and preferably also inclines. Considering I don't have any experience whatsoever regarding building monorails, I hope I didn't put all that effort in a flawed concept.

I'm curious what you guys think.

First, I really love the look of that Space Monorail.

Second, I really love it! ;-)

Third, it might be a little heavy for slope, but I still love it. 

Good job. 

[Trekkie99]

On 11/3/2019 at 2:02 PM, Rijkvv said:

Finally I have designed something that looks like a monorail. Well, the train itself that is.

For some reason LDD wouldn't let me place the seperate parts.

Designing digital makes it unclear if my build is rigid (though I tend to over-engineer, even creating trouble with my assembling my signpost a while ago ). But this also has to run, and being able to take curves and preferably also inclines. Considering I don't have any experience whatsoever regarding building monorails, I hope I didn't put all that effort in a flawed concept.

I'm curious what you guys think.

Very cool!

Any chance we could get some pics of the underside and inside? Might be able to help you determine how well it would work. 

[Rijkvv]

Thanks guys! 

5 hours ago, Trekkie99 said:

Very cool!

Any chance we could get some pics of the underside and inside? Might be able to help you determine how well it would work. 

I hoped my pictures last week would give a bit of an insight, but here you go:

The idea is that every car rests on one side on a wheel with tyre, and on the other side on a pin joiner (in pink here for clarity) that is attached with some frictionless pins. Looking at a view straight from the front or the side, those pin joiners and tyres are placed in such a way that the cars should be level. I had done this with a smooth ride through curves in mind. Because of available space and desired aesthetics I came up with this idea, otherwise I would've gone with one of the proven solutions shared here (which I already partially did with the drivetrain, Masao Hidaka came up with that idea). I have no intention to re-invent the wheel.

Weight might become an issue. I tried to place bricks and plates as logical as possible, and I tried to avoid it becoming top-heavy. But I have to build the complete train in real life to test that. The technique and things like the long nose on inclines I could possibly test with a simple test vehicle. Time to order parts I guess.

[Trekkie99]

@Rijkvv Ma-bad I totally missed your previous post talking about the monorail base.  

Using Technic pin connectors for the non driven wheel makes a huge difference when going around the curves. However, I have seen it cause some pretty heavy marking/scratching on the track tiles. My suggestion is to replace the single "two long" 62462 Technic connector with two "one long 18654 Technic connectors, or anything comparable that will allow the non driven wheel to function as two independently spinning wheels. A little sewing machine oil/baby oil/mineral oil on the non driven wheel's axle will help as well to keep the wheel spinning and not dragging across the track. Also, a layer of electrical tape around the connector wheels should work nicely to give some light grip so the wheel will spin, but not scratch the track when it does slip.

Cheers.  

[Rijkvv]

Wear on the track, I haven't thought about that. I should take that into account as well. I'm kinda hesitant to use any non-Lego stuff. I'm quite a bit of a purist, I even consider building Masao's old curves as to not stress the elements.

I think about remodel this into a three car train. That would give much more room to fit the equipment and to fit proper tyres, although one of the main issues is the height of the battery box.

A more traditional "city" design could lead to more room in the height of the train, but I'm not confident in my designing abilities in those yet. I can use my fantasy more freely with a space design I think.

[Rijkvv]

As I stated previously I do want to build the track first, so that I can see if my train designs can negotiate everything and be stable as well.

There were fine examples in this topic about curves and switches, but I couldn't really find anything about inclines. So I decided to try something myself, and if that wouldn't work to ask advice. That being said, I am curious what other designs you came up with.

Maybe nothing too special, just a diagonal piece of track, but it was a bit puzzling because of the geometry. It still may not be 100% "in system" but I'm pretty sure if it can work in LDD, then the tolerances in real life are big enough to properly align everything.

One wish I have for my future layout is that it'll be easy to set up or to take apart to store it away, and thus I tried (as far as that goes with digital designing without physically be able to test it) to create an incline that didn't need baseplates or big structures, I only used the baseplates as a measuring tool. The yellow incline takes 80 studs to rise 10 bricks, the blue one takes 64 studs.

I use three mixel joints at the hinge points, with a plate 2 x 2 with towbar at the bottom. That towbar is slightly longer, thus creating the angle. I hope that'll give a good result, as in keeping its shape when a train moves along the track.. It does create large gaps between the sections though, and I have yet to find a way to fill them with the blue incline.

[ruebezahl]

Did you see the photo back on page 8, posted by @MonsieurCaron on Aug 25, 2018? He shows a beautiful transition from the hill to the top horizontal track.  I wonder if that transition is also designed by Hidaka?  I didn’t see it on his youtube channel.

Edited December 13, 2019 by ruebezahl

[MonsieurCaron]

On 12/6/2019 at 12:25 AM, ruebezahl said:

 I wonder if that transition is also designed by Hidaka?  I didn’t see it on his youtube channel.

I confirm that I was reproducing the slope based on Masao Hidaka design as found on his YouTube Channel. I had to stop the video a lot of time to get the idea right (and to cut come LEGO too :-) ) 

Since then, I found a smooter way to build a slope. Photos are on my Flickr.

The idea is to make the slope the same way we do the curve, but by flipping the rail 90 degres on its side. I have 7 2x2 at the top going down and 7 2x2 at the bottom going the other way to make it bend. The middle is just a strait rail 5 plates thick. The hard part was to make the link between the rail and the slope. I will have to take more photos to show you how I manage that, but you get the idea. (Hint: I used 6016172: Angular Plate 1,5 Top 1X2 1/2 and the bottom one -  the 2x2 in light gray in the photo).

 

Edited December 7, 2019 by MonsieurCaron

[ruebezahl]

MonsieurCaron,  this is wonderful, and so helpful!  Thanks for the info.  I’m looking forward to experimenting with these slopes later this weekend.  

[Rijkvv]

Is this self-supporting, or does it rely on baseplates?

That was the main reason for me to come up with my idea, but yours look way better.

Definitely something to keep in mind if my own idea isn't what I want it to be.