Hod Carrier

Thanks for the lovely feedback, fellas. I'm glad that there's been something in here for everyone. We do tend to build an idealised version of reality, don't we.

I'm conscious that I haven't posted anything for a while, primarily because I haven't really been building much of any particular quality that's been worth sharing. However, I thought I would just do a quick round-up of some rail-related stuff that I've been happy to enter into the Brick Train Awards. As is my way, I have chosen to model some slightly unusual prototypes. First up is a New York Subway garbage train. These are generally formed up with two or three R58 garbage flat wagons between motor cars of some sort. The city did buy some specific refuse motors but these lack air-conditioning and are understandably unpopular with crews and are frequently swapped for passenger cars instead. I have reflected this by having a refuse motor at one end and a pair of R62 passenger cars at the other. I did also try to create a subway scene to give the train context and illustrate the garbage collection process, but it made finding an angle for rendering as the picture below shows. I have also submitted a couple of entries for the Build Challenge, which requires the finished model to fit inside a 16 stud cube. The first is a country scene based around a Feldbahn and an old AEG electric loco. The second Build Challenge entry is of a training and assessment simulator. This build is divided down the middle to allow for two scenes to be included; the simulator itself with projector screen and the office area used by the assessor. I have re-used the design for the Stadler Flirt UK train cab rather than designing something from scratch which has allowed me to test build the design and check for any clearance issues. I hope you like my efforts. More photos are available on Flickr.

Awesome!!

I've never heard of the film so can't comment on the likeness to the original, but I can appreciate the time and effort put into the research and design to come up with a faithful replica of a real train. Congratulations, Glenn. All that hard work has really paid off.

Welcome to the list and congratulations on your lovely LE5100. If you wanted to make smaller round windows and have space for all five, you could maybe use Technic bricks. Admittedly with this technique you can't really represent the glass in the windows, but I don't think that anyone would notice too much.

That's some great progress you've made there. I also like the subtle way that you've shaped the cars to get the shape of the real thing and so that they are not too boxy. I'm relieved that the rodales are working well. I'm not sure how you couple the engine to the rest of the train. If you're using magnets you will need to be careful about how many hinge points there are, as too many hinge points will cause the first axle to be pushed out of alignment relative to the track and cause friction and, potentially, a derailment if the engine is ever at the rear and pushing the train.

That is a lot of fun. And the loco drives purely by adhesion from the standard train wheels...? Other builders have clipped their trains onto the tracks in the same manner as the official roller coaster train or driven the train using horizontal wheels gripping the side of the track, but I'm impressed that your loco manages the whole circuit, including gradients, without this.

These are just so cute. I really like the way you've taken LEGO City train proportions and made something very recognisable with it. While we all love to see huge scale attempts at real trains, the reality is that very few people have enough space to run such enormous trains. Going back to the roots of LEGO trains and creating something of more modest proportions brings realism and play opportunities to the home hobbyist, which I find quite inspiring. Thanks for sharing.

I have to agree with the folks on Reddit that it does have a real GT3-vibe about it, but then it was a very handsome loco and more really should have been made of it. I like your freelance loco very much and approve of the colour choice. Powering it with a train motor and large wheels will give you a very fast train (perhaps dangerously so), so I might go for a Technic motor and gearing. A 3-wide void inside the loco body will be enough for M or L motors, so you have options.

The truth is that I don't know. I've never experienced this myself and I can see nothing wrong with the images you've posted.

I can't imagine that it is a consequence of your design. The 1x3 brick you highlighted is held at the bottom by three layers of plates, two of which cover the entire length of the brick. OK, so I would normally try and support everything from underneath rather than from the top, but that's really just so that the action of gravity pushes the parts together rather than pulling them apart, but the clutch power of LEGO parts should be sufficient that it shouldn't really make such a big difference. It would be a major redesign, but if it worries you you could have the bogie attachments linked to a sturdy chassis using Technic L-shape liftarms and then build the bodies on top of those. This is what I did with the railcar, but that was forced onto me because of the way that the body sections were attached which meant that there would have been no other supporting structure.

Another vertical crack...? Where on the brick does it occur? From what I can see from the outside I can see no reason why the crack would have appeared, but it's hard to see if there's any structural weakness inside. Does the completed car flex? Does the car look straight when you look along the side? If the answer is "no" I would say that it's not a structural problem but that you've just been unlucky with the parts you've had.

But clearly the law makes a distinction. It doesn't matter if you are running a business on the side "as a hobby", you are still running a business and are, therefore, subject to all the rules, regulations and legislation that applies to business dealings. What you choose to do with the proceeds of that business really has no bearing on it. While I understand @UltraViolet and @dtomsen's view on the matter, I feel that it is based on a point of semantics rather than of law. As customers of HA Bricks, we are the "individual hobbyists", but HA Bricks is not. HA Bricks is a business that just happens to be run by a hobbyist.

This isn't the end of the world for the hobby, as I'm sure there will be ways around this. One option would be to sell a kit of parts (e.g. bearings and axles) that the consumer can then add to their own LEGO elements and to either offer a sticker sheet that the consumer can choose to use or to provide an optional parts printing service as outlined by @JopieK above. That said, it is a harsh judgment for HA Bricks. I don't know what the normal range of penalties for trademark infringement under European law are, but these costs do seem punitive. That said, there is a difference between thinking that you know where the boundaries are and doing your research to find out. As I hinted above, I think that, as a community, we need to get away from the idea that we're doing LEGO some sort of favour by helping to grow the hobby, as that leads to the erroneous assumption that they will somehow see and understand this and smile benevolently on us.

Ah OK. It wasn't clear from your earlier post that you were quoting from a third party. Either way, the point still stands. To be fair, we don't know that. The difference is that it appears that the SME quoted by @Phil B were happy to accept the terms offered by LEGO whereas HA Bricks did not, probably because of differences in the two businesses' offerings, and that LEGO refused compromises offered in return, creating an impasse that lead to legal action. Chinese courts are notorious for ruling in favour of their own indigenous producers, even where copying has been blatant. Ask virtually any brand about it.