To switch over or not....

[drevim]

I know there has been endless debate about which is better, but that isn't what I'm looking for here.

I have a 4559, obviously 9V, so I don't have a dozen 9V trains. With the extra sets I have around my layout, I have about 24 pieces of straight track, 1 set of switches, and about 40 curves.

Getting back into trains, and Lego has thrown the curveball of PF now. With the limited investment I made back in the 90s, do I convert over to PF? Or basically lay low with what I have and wait for the 9V straights to come down?

I read through the "Future of 9V" thread, but it seemed to become a which is better thread. If I do decide to convert, wouldn't the second car have to be redesigned on the 4559 to support the battery pack? I guess a third option would be to incorprate the new PF sets around the current layout, but have them run independent of each other, and add only to the PF track for now.

Thanks for any advice on direction to go, or please share your experience if you were in a similar situation.

[gambort]

I have a 4559, obviously 9V, so I don't have a dozen 9V trains. With the extra sets I have around my layout, I have about 24 pieces of straight track, 1 set of switches, and about 40 curves.

Getting back into trains, and Lego has thrown the curveball of PF now. With the limited investment I made back in the 90s, do I convert over to PF? Or basically lay low with what I have and wait for the 9V straights to come down?

I'm not sure what makes you think that 9V track will ever go down. There's a finite supply of it so, while you might sometimes get lucky on secondhand lots, the only way I see the price going is up. You didn't mention motors but they're going to be even worse as they break down eventually so the supply is actually dwindling.

Without a huge supply of track and motors already in ownership the question comes down to a simple one: do you want to spend increasingly higher prices to maintain 9V (which has a few benefits)? or do you want to buy the cheaper tracks and motors that come with PF trains (which has a few benefits)?

Personally I think it's a no-brainer and, although I probably own a similar amount of 9V track and motors as you do, I'll only be buying PFS track and electrical components from here on.

Tim

Edited September 23, 2010 by gambort

[SavaTheAggie]

In the long run 9v track is not going to get any cheaper. Sure it may drop a bit, but the older it gets the less there is that's going to be around to purchase. If you're going to wait till 9v gets cheaper you'll be waiting forever.

As for 4559, unfortunately it's a horrible set to convert to PF - there just isn't a whole lot of train there. You'll have to turn one of the passenger "pods" into a receptacle for the battery and IR receiver, most likely. Personally I'd just scrap the set and build something else.

But that also doesn't mean you couldn't keep 4559 as a 9v train, using the 9v track you already have, and just have other sections of track that's plastic. The PF trains don't care if they run on metal rails or not.

--Tony

Edited September 23, 2010 by SavaTheAggie

[drevim]

As far as the opinion on price, I personally thought it hard to think it would get cheaper.

I was just going with the this: http://www.eurobricks.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=43648&view=findpost&p=766591

(probably more hoping than realisim )

[fred67]

(probably more hoping than realisim )

Yes, that post is wishful thinking.

It's a difficult choice. I have a large investment in 9V, including a couple of extra motors I bought near the end and a lot (but not enough) track. I plan on experimenting with alternate electrified rail (Ken's Flex Tracks for LEGO Trains, but it's actually easier to use in place of straights (no track cutting... but it's interesting for it's arbitrary curves).

I have two speed regulators, plenty of curves and a decent amount of straight track, and I also have a number of MOT steam engines, BNSF, Santa Fe Super Chief, even a Hogwart's Express that was modified for 9V...

HOWEVER, I quite clearly understand that PF is the new mode of locomotion, and new trains built for PF are not out of the question for me (especially when the battery packs become reasonable - both in size and price).

Personally the only "PF" train I own is the Emerald Night (and Ruby Night MOD), but I haven't even bothered powering them yet, and can go either way with the 9V MOD or PF... I own many PF motors, and they are great for making vehicles, and I've been playing with them since before I even knew LEGO was switching (I had a mini dark ages that I came out of while working on a vehicle project with my son), but no suitable battery pack for trains, and I won't pay $75 for a rechargeable and charger. None of the train sets since I last bought 9V stuff has really interested me.

Realistically, though, if I only had ONE 9V train and not a lot of track, I probably wouldn't bother with it... you'll save yourself a lot of headache by switching to PF, and while I find there are disadvantages, there are definitely also advantages...

When is that AAA battery pack coming out?

[Carefree_Dude]

I currently have my 4559 turned into a black and yellow metroliner with two club cars. its pretty awesome and I look forward to turning it into PF.

another thing about the charger for the battery pack: You only need one. You can also use much cheaper universal adapters.

Though I feel the batteries need to be much cheaper, you can save on them by buying 5 PF things at a time. And you can also buy the AAA battery boxes from lego for extremely cheap.

Edited September 23, 2010 by Goldenmasamune

[ZueriHB]

I was in a similar situation like you, only I just had an Emerald Night to begin with and a bucket of RC-track. But after I acquired a 4559 for myself (I love this train) and only had a circle of 9V track, I decided early on to mod it to PF. Doesn't look too shabby if I dare say so myself.

Look here to see how I did it.

[drevim]

I was in a similar situation like you, only I just had an Emerald Night to begin with and a bucket of RC-track. But after I acquired a 4559 for myself (I love this train) and only had a circle of 9V track, I decided early on to mod it to PF. Doesn't look too shabby if I dare say so myself.

Look here to see how I did it.

Very nice, I think this would be a very doable mod., and like you said, not a lot of loss in the space area of the train. Plus I always thought it weird to have a dining car in a cargo train

Sounds like I may be heading to TRU for the 3 for 2 deal and see if they have the passenger and cargo train in. I looked at the track prices at Lego, and they are scary cheap by comparison. Don't think I'll abandon the 9v set yet, may use it as a commuter between the train station and the airport, and get the PF track going for the rest of the layout.

Appreciate all the info guys, please continue to share your thoughts. Although it seems to be a majority...

[Toastie]

I read through the "Future of 9V" thread, but it seemed to become a which is better thread. If I do decide to convert, wouldn't the second car have to be redesigned on the 4559 to support the battery pack? I guess a third option would be to incorprate the new PF sets around the current layout, but have them run independent of each other, and add only to the PF track for now.

Thanks for any advice on direction to go, or please share your experience if you were in a similar situation.

For now, I would't make this decision into a "which is better" thing - rather I would go with both PF and 9V and wait for future options. PF does have advantages - I simply have difficulties with running on battery power, for whatever reason. This here has been around for a while and there will also be an article about PF + 9V in the upcoming RailBricks issue, just to summarize:

9V is not supported anymore and most probably will never get back. The single crucial part though for now is 9V track and 9V motor. 9V track? Has been amply discussed, as long as 2x8 plates exist and as long as O-gauge track is around (and these folks do not change their entire system any time revenue is slightly going down) you can make your own 9 V track (Ken's Flex Tracks for LEGO Trains). What actually happens when a 9 V motor dies? The motor itself. That can also be replaced; open up the plastic casing, replace the motor. And while you're at it: Modify the terminals to make it into a power delivery + motor thing. Along with a PF rechargeable battery, you can have your PF trains running for ever on 9V track or simply charge them on isolated stretches of 9V and the remaining track is all plastic PF. This will cost you $50 - you don't need to buy the LEGO power supply, see above mentioned thread.

That said: Just enjoy the best of both worlds, get whatever is appealing to you 9V or PF stuff, and have fun!

Regards,

Thorsten

[Lego Otaku]

When is that AAA battery pack coming out?

It's already out... if you don't mind spending $130 for the train set. Or on BL for about $15 to $25

Officially they should be available separaely when Lego decides they've milked us enough with rechargeable box and power supply.

[fred67]

Officially they should be available separaely when Lego decides they've milked us enough with rechargeable box and power supply.

Luckily, since I'm still happy with all my 9V stuff, I'm a very patient man.

[hoeij]

I know there has been endless debate about which is better, but that isn't what I'm looking for here.

I have a 4559, obviously 9V, so I don't have a dozen 9V trains. With the extra sets I have around my layout, I have about 24 pieces of straight track, 1 set of switches, and about 40 curves.

Getting back into trains, and Lego has thrown the curveball of PF now. With the limited investment I made back in the 90s, do I convert over to PF? Or basically lay low with what I have and wait for the 9V straights to come down?

If your 9V track is too small, you have several options:

(a) buy more, on eBay you'd pay $185 plus shipping for 50 pieces of straight track,

or

(b) sell your 9V track and use the money to buy RC track,

or

© buy more RC track, keep your 9V track for now, and decide later what to do it.

I was in a somewhat similar situation with the passenger car of my Emerald Night train. I had a number of passenger cars from other train sets, making a nice train of about 8 feet long (the XL motor in the Emerald Night can easily pull that). The problem was this: The passenger car that came with the EN was the nicest car among them, but its color clashed with the colors of my other passenger cars. To solve this problem I had to either: not use the other passenger cars and get more EN passenger cars (but they're expensive), or, not use my EN passenger car. I waited about a year to make up my mind, but in the end I decided to sell my EN passenger car for $58 on bricklink. My EN train is now one car shorter but the color conflict has now been solved.

Regarding prices, I don't think that they simply keep going up. The blue 12V track I've bought in the last couple of years was cheaper than 9V track. A lego 8868 air claw can be bought for less than $100 and this is consistently rated as one of the top 5 lego technic sets. Same for the metroliner. It's true that some sold-out items are very expensive (cafe corner and 9V straight track) but there are lots of nice lego sets that didn't go up in price. If you're not sure, you can of course always go with option ©, invest in RC track, and if you later decide that you put too much money into lego you can still decide to sell your 9V then. My guess is that the price a few years from now will not be much different than it is now. 9V straight track prices have been constant for some quite time now (switches and crossings have come down a bit in price).

Edited September 23, 2010 by hoeij

[CarrollFilms]

I don't know about you (this is from my preseptive) but 9V track for me is cheap, $2.50 for one piece of straight track, that is as good as it'll get. I have both RC and 9V track. I still buy both, they are both reasonabley cheap (not the trains) I buy as many RC staright track as I can, (usually the boxes with curve and straight) and sell the RC curve for really cheap so I can get them off my hands. You really only need 24-28 curve if your making a big layout with at least 6 turns. Conversion wise, go ahead, well.....it's not really converting it's consuming both from what I do. It doesn't matter if you like one better than another it just depends on which you plan on spending most on.