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If you have only one bad magnet, then put that one on the front of the engine. Sometimes these magnets connect with little holding force. In that case, pull the two cars apart, with about 1/2 inch between the two magnets, then wiggle the two magnets until you hear it go "click", that's when the magnet inside has turned to the correct position. Then let the two cars come back together again. This time, it will hold. Each time you add another car to the train, if you pay attention you can feel if the magnets are connected properly or not, because if the magnets are turned the right way, you feel way more pulling force when you attach the next car. If you don't feel a good pulling force, just wiggle the magnets until you do feel it.

Depends on how long you want to wait. You can buy 12v parts on eBay, but it can take time before the right item appears, and the selling price is unpredictable. If you bid 40 Euro's on a 12v motor on eBay, with some luck you end up buying it for less than that, but often someone will outbid you in the last 15 seconds. If the motor is running well, then 40 Euro's is a good price. Of course, you don't always know that. Track can be cheaper on eBay than on bricklink, but again, it can take time before you get some at a good price. For the electric cables, there's no real need to use official lego wiring, any wire will do. The light bricks are not terribly expensive, but a drawback is that when the train goes slowly, then the light is dim. I've considered replacing the light bricks in my 12V trains with the new PF lights (and put a 9V battery in the train to power them). This way the lights are bright, whether the train is going slow or fast. Perhaps you already know this, but a used 7740 (even an incomplete one) is worth quite a bit of money.

The 7939 looks more like a European engine, and the 3677 looks more like an American engine. If some of us prefer 7939, and some of us prefer 3677, then it makes sense for lego to put both on the market. That depends. I bought a 10016 tanker on eBay, but it did not fit well my 6-wide trains (the 10016 is 8-wide). So I ended up selling my 10016 on bricklink.

I too think the pricing strategy is unreasonable. But I don't think that US prices are being subsidized; I'm pretty sure that there is still a significant profit margin in this US $159. More likely, the pricing is based on what lego executives think that the market is willing to pay. With the PF trains, the white-red passenger train was selling for $89 plus tax. After they sold out, for about half a year there was no lego train offered in the US. During this time, the white-red passenger train was typically selling for $150 on eBay (even used ones fetched prices close to that). I think that lego got the message quite clear: lego trains can be sold for much more than $89. And indeed, the next passenger train (the current one) is selling in the US for $129 even though it is quite comparable to the previous one. $40 more. So apparantly lego started to think that they can get more, for basically the same product. For some reason, I don't know why, they think that they can get still more (much more) in other countries. The Australia price looks really outrageous. I'm surprised that they think they can sell a useful number of trains at such high prices. Are other toys also very expensive compared to the US?

The first thing to do is to search on bricklink.com

I have a 9V motor where the DC motor inside it is broken. I removed the broken DC motor, and I've searched online to find another DC motor of the same size, to replace the broken DC motor. I did find one that I think should fit, but I didn't buy it because it had an axle on only one side (to drive all 4 wheels, you need a DC motor where the axle sticks out on both sides). There is not really room to put in a bigger (more powerful) motor. But you probably can make it longer-lasting by putting in a higher quality DC motor. PS. Do not throw away broken 9V motors, they can most likely be repaired (and probably be made even better than the original) at a modest expense. Especially when you're running them at 18 volts, you're likely to break some at some point; don't throw them away.

You can easily sell it for much more than that. None of the pieces in this set are expensive, so it'll be cheap to complete this set, if you need to. I'd definitely buy it. The cheapest price on bricklink is $123. With 12 pieces missing, it's still easily sellable for more than $100.

It depends mostly on the weight of the train, not on the number of cars. If you have a 6 car train and a 4 car train, with the same total weight, then the load on the motor is the same. For example, my 4511 train has 6 cars and is 5 feet long. These cars are light-weight, and 1 9V motor can pull it without struggling. This is on a track that is 80% straights. If you have a lot of curves in the track, then I'd take off one of those cars. Pulling 6 cars on the straights is less of a load than pulling 5 (or even 4) cars through the curves. All of the 9V sets are short and light-weight trains, so if you don't add cars, the load on the motor is small, and the motor should last a long time. I see no problem with doubling the load, but I would not go much beyond that. One 9V motor can pull two 4561 trains (two 4561's also makes a 5 feet train) but I would not go beyond that (and again, if the track had a lot of curves, I'd make the train shorter than 5 feet). For longer trains I'd use two 9V motors. I'd be a little bit careful with 2-motor 9V trains, you have to check up on them every once in a while (i.e. check that they don't get too warm). If one motor were to get damaged and no longer pulls its share of the load, then the other one gets to pull a double load, and then wears out quickly. So one bad motor can cause a good motor to die too. Anyhow, out of the box, the 9V trains are very light-weight, and it's no problem to add some cars, but I wouldn't overdo it. Just because the train moves does not mean that the motor can handle the load for a significant amount of time.

That's how a resistor works, but it's not at all how a motor works. The current depends linearly on the torque, but is practically independent of the speed or the voltage. That's why, if you use reasonable voltages, then the lifetime of the motor is affected mostly by the weight of the train, and not by the speed setting that you decide to use. Of course, 18 volts will drastically reduce the lifetime of the motor, but the way that motor is used matters even more. If you use the high voltage to pull a heavy train, then you'll wear out the motor much faster than if you use it for a light-weight train. Pulling a long heavy train with a single 9V motor (even at a lower voltage, say 6V) will wear out the motor faster than a high voltage (say 12V) with a light-weight train.

My guess is that they first want to produce more copies of this item before they start to advertise it. If they advertise it before having made enough copies, then a lot of people that try to buy it won't be able to get one within a reasonable amount of time. It's better to wait with offering it until you have enough copies to actually meet the demand.

Oggy, you did not put the wheels on correctly, the left and right wheels should be rotated 90 degrees with respect to each other. Your post tells me that your left/right wheels differ by either 0 or 180 degrees.

Initially, mine also worked OK without modifications. Just like in the railbricks article, the problems didn't start until it had run for some amount of time. These problems can be solved (solutions have already been posted here on E.B.). Apart from the solutions posted in railbricks, I would also recommend to put the rubber traction bands only on the rear driving wheels and not on the front driving wheels. This makes it go better through curves. The problem is that the wheels themselves have the correct width to go through curves, but the combination "wheels with traction bands attached" is too wide to drive smoothly through curves. The E.N. does ride a bit bumpy through curves (removing the front driving bands reduces the problem, but does not entirely eliminate it; you can't remove all traction bands because then it won't move anymore).

With the Maersk train, there was a link on lego.com a short time (one or two weeks?) before the train was available. There is a 3677 link on lego.com (at the moment it says: not yet available in the US). So if history is a guide, you should be able to order this train very soon. Some people here have already ordered it via ToysRus. lego seems to be selling trains so quickly that sometimes certain items are not immediately available, and costumers end up having to wait for train sets, motors, battery boxes, etc. [guessing mode on:] I think that the sales volume was higher than anticipated, and that to meet demand for trains, they are releasing this train sooner than originally planned. [guessing mode off] (by the way, that would also explain the high price point, if these things are selling like hot pancakes anyway, then they have no reason to make the price low). In any case, it is quite unprecendented to release a new train when so many train sets are already currently available. Things must be going very well for the lego company.

Actually, that's a good idea. We probably have way more flex track than we actually use, so it's no problem to modify a few of them.

That's a much lighter load than pushing an E.N. engine. By the way, if you need more 9V motors, this is what I would do: Look on eBay for incomplete 9V sets. For example, a complete 4561 already goes for a pretty low price, say $50 plus shipping. If you buy incomplete sets, it'll be lower still. This way you get: a motor, a light, some more track, and especially valuable: train wheels, train plates, magnets, etc. For example, an incomplete 4561 train car is pretty useful because it's easy to make nice cargo cars out of those low-center train base plates. If you figure the value of the train wheels and other train parts, then, by buying incomplete 9V sets (especially the less popular ones like 4561), you end up with motors that effectively cost less than 20$. You could have bad luck and get a nearly worn motor, but chances are that most of the time the motor is as good as new (most kids don't run the train for a lot of hours, and besides, sitting in a light-weight train the motor would last a long time anyways because when all it has to do is pull a 4561 train, the motor will never get hot). I would think that if a used 9V motor does not come from an AFOL that owns heavy trains, then it's almost sure to be in good condition.

Answer: don't you already have a pair of earrings/shoes/etc ?

PF trains work fine with 4.5V track (crossings, switches, etc.), including the Emerald Night. There are also some tricks that let you go from PF track to 4.5V track and back (you need 2x1 plates with just 1 stud on the top, because you have to create a 1/2 stud distance to close the gap). The 4.5V track is flexible enough so that you can, if needed, add a little bit more distance between the sidings in your 4.5V-track train yard (if you park two E.N.'s next to each other, then the 4.5V sidings might be a little bit too close to each other. But this problem is easy to solve).

I overlooked that you were using two 9V motors. I think two 9V motors should be strong enough for this load, but you have to be a little careful with them and check up on them every once in a while. The risk is that if one of the motors is bad, then the other one will end up having to do too much work, so you can lose a bad and a good motor in one day. I have two long trains that two motors each, and if I run these trains for a long time then I occasionally check up on them (picking up the engine and feeling if the motors are getting warm). A couple of years ago, when I burned out a 9V motor, I did two things: (1) bought a whole bunch of spares (which at the time were still available at reasonable prices) and (2) for each of my 9V trains, I measured how much current each train was using. This way I know if they're overloaded or not. I have not lost any 9V motors since.

The PF-train motor produces the same torque and speed as a 9V motor (google: lego 9V motors compared). The Emerald Night is usually powered by an XL motor. This combination has a ton of pulling power. Some people build engines with one or two M-motors, those can also have lots of pulling power because you can choose the gearing. I overloaded an old 9V motor and it burned out. I opened it up to see what was going on. I removed the DC motor inside it, and when I apply electricity to that DC motor it produces lights, which is a sign that the brushes are worn and are now producing sparks. That DC motor spins irregularly, it is basically useless. Getting back to the E.N., this dead 9V motor can still power the E.N. train, as follows: remove the DC motor inside the 9V train motor, then put this dead 9V motor in the tender, attach a cable to the dead 9V motor (lego has cables with a PF connection on one side, and a 9V connection on the other side). Attach the other side of that cable to an XL motor that is placed inside the E.N. engine (as in the instructions). So the dead 9V motor (with DC motor removed) now serves only to pick up electricity from the track, and you feed this electricity straight to the XL motor. This way your train is controlled by the usual 9V controller, and is XL-powered so it won't have any troubles pulling a whole bunch of coaches. Your motor won't heat up, and that means that it should last a long time.

Unnecessary quote of entire post removed by moderator The Emerald Night is too much of a load for a 9V motor. The coal car and two passenger cars is not much of a load, but pushing the Emerald Night engine takes a lot of force, which means that the 9V motor was pulling a lot of current. Over time that is sure to kill the motor. What was the lowest speed setting at which the train would move? One more test you can do is: does the motor also stutter if you connect it directly (with a 9V connection cable) to the regulator (without any track). If it does, then that's a sign that the DC motor inside it is done for. What happens when you use too much current (i.e. when the motor has to deliver a lot of torque) is that the carbon brushes in the DC motor evaporate. Once all the carbon is gone, the motor is finished. It does not matter much if you're using a low or a high speed, either way will kill the motor if load on the motor is too high.

I think that there is a design flaw in the PF remote+receiver. If you turn the dial, instead of broadcasting "dial is in position #3" the PF remote broadcasts "one step up" "one step up", etc. But if you turn it quickly, you might turn the dial 5 notches while it only broadcasted 2 notches. So the position of the dial now no longer corresponds to the speed setting. With the usual DC controllers, the position of the dial corresponds with the speed, so it's easy to put it at speed setting #3. With PF, the position of the dial doesn't matter. All that matters is whether it is turning left or right. So if you want to be sure to get the train in speed setting #3, you have to look very carefully and count the steps you make. As for accidental derailings, in one of my PF trains, I put only 4 batteries in the AAA battery box (and added some wiring). This way the top speed is only 6V, and it doesn't derail at that speed. A simpler thing to do is to use rechargeable batteries, their nominal voltage is lower and this might be just enough to prevent derailings (haven't tried that with PF, but with the previous passenger train, the one that uses AA instead of AAA batteries, this slows it down just enough to prevent derailings). Note that rechargeable batteries are also preferable for other reasons, they can produce more amps, so they are better for long trains. For long trains they'll also last much longer than alkaline batteries. PS. the wireless internet does not interfere with PF, it's a completely different signal.

I was tempted by the BOGO 50% at TRU, but even at 75% of $159 it still seems expensive to me. I like the engine and that last car in the train, but I have enough spare train parts that I should be able to make something like that at a lower cost. I'm going to hold off on this one.

Thorsten, The trouble is that the train can't move from the non-electrified stretch to the electrified stretch, because the power pickups bump into the middle rail and then get stuck. But, mr_jrt posted a solution to this problem in post #5. I have not tested it, but it looks like a good idea that should work. It's not clear though how to make the 12V power pickup slide over 9V/RC switches.

This train is now also listed on lego.com, although it is not yet available (at least, in the US). http://shop.lego.com/product/?p=3677&LangId=2057&ShipTo=US

Yes, you don't want kids pushing a 12V train motor, or a motorized Emerald Night. I would take those off the track. For the very young ones, it's better to have simpler trains, they don't like motorized trains anyways, they want to push the train. For the ones that are a little bit older and that do like motorized trains, in one of my PF trains I put only 4 instead of 6 AAA batteries (I added some wiring inside the battery box to make this work). This way the train won't derail when it is in the top speed setting (at the train show, I sometimes let kids run one of the trains, but I don't want trains to derail because they could fall off the tables and onto a concrete floor. At home I don't worry about derailing trains.).