locoworks

i suggest that for even the static model it is jacked up and the wheels and motion actually move. to look good it needs a 'chuffing' effect , on the old hornby models that had smoke there was a small cylinder and piston that basically sucked the smoke in and pushed it all out in a chuff so there was a pulsed smoke effect and not just a gentle wisp of smoke.

BB8

reminds me of the last time I drank too much.....

I think smithers head top is like an oreo biscuit.

nice work. annoyingly Gordon is an A3 but they only gave him a 6 wheel tender!! should be 8.

I expect all 3 rings to spin as one disc, I don't see the middle rings moving in different axis just because the gears are there, why would they want to move when it is easier for all 3 to spin??

they are Gresley coaches not Grisley , named after the designer Nigel Gresley who also, as it happens, designed the A4 Mallard

I realise there are some things you just cant do with lego and what you have done is very good. could you cheat and widen the cylinders to get clearance? and then use two bits to make a stepped connecting rod? it would only give you 1 stud extra clearance either side but it may work?? maybe another option is redesign the front bogie so nothing that moves laterally is higher than the wheel flanges? would gain more space further forward for stuff?

nice improvement on the front bogie, a couple more points, the piston rod in the cylinder lines up, even if the cylinder is mounted at a slight angle with the main driven axle centre line, usually the centre axle on a 6 coupled loco. it would connect to the same crank pin as the coupling rod journal the piston rod lines up with. it connects centrally so the deflection angles are the same +/- . I cant recall a connecting rod ever attaching to a coupling rod between journals except perhaps jackshaft drives?

very nice. :thumbup:

a key feature of the kings was the front bogie, it looked to have internal and external axleboxes/hornblocks, not easy to model??

a central diff is required because when turning, more so in sharp turns, the front wheel travels in a sligtly larger radius/arc to the trailing rear wheels so not only do the wheels on each axle have to rotate at different speeds, both axles have to rotate at different speeds also, not by much but without it one there is extra drag/resistence in the drive train. EDIT:: and while i'm typing a picture is posted that shows what i meant.

Cock O the North.

ok , i get your timing knightmare now. not actually as much destruction as you would expect going by the piccys. looks like it was fun

are they all pf or all 9v??. if pf just set all the receivers to the same channel and use 1 tranny. if 9v just isolate all the transformers at the wall and flick the switch

on the timing front, I suggest a way to do it would be to position the trains at the meeting point, set all the controllers to reverse and set them all off a once with full power settings. then stop them all, reverse direction to forwards and set them off again.

being pedantic, would using the cardboard box, plastic bags, instruction books,and any other packaging provided by lego count as using lego???? or does lego just refer to the plastic bricks?? i dare say with enough big 'ZURG' capes or sailing boat sails a wing covering could be created. also would a lego glider count as flight?? or does it have to be able to take off from the ground under its own power?? a giant cardboard plane made from lego boxes with a lego motor spinning a big prop might be capable of free flight???

the springs add nothing to power or overall torque. they actually reduce power to the wheels as they compress. the motor can only generate so much power and if it is comporessing a spring it isnt turning the wheel. once the spring is compressed the wheels are getting as much torque as the motor could provide without them. what the spring will do ( though maybe of no great use ) is to give a sudden increase in the speed of wheel rotation for 1/4 - 1/3 rd of a rotation of the wheels whilst not under load. they may act as a bit of a cush in the drive train though which may just save a gear???

why not use PP3's, you can wire them in parallel to get higher currents if one battery doesn't give enough power.

is this current or any Lego sets? I think the space shuttle was quite big, but so was the silver F1 car

a big double decker bendy bus please

got my set today, 'numb thumb' set in after i'd found most of them. something i wasn't expecting, and glad i got a full set rather than just the 10 not with the house which i also have is that the family and flanders are not the same parts/outfits/looks as with the house. flanders, homer and marge have different body tops, homer and barts eyes are wide open as minifigs and half shut with the house. maggie looks sideways as a minifig and forward with the house, and lisa also has a eyes wide open as a minifig but only sort of 3/4 open ( sad faced ) with the house.

I'd like to see LEGO do the X MEN characters, could be some good figures out there.. not just the very few they've done a decent big sentinel would be nice.

with all the 3D printing available these days it should be fairly straight forward for someone to come up with draft box that takes kadee O gauge knuckle couplers and sets then to the correct height from a common height below standard footplate height of lego trains. better still would be the standard lego buffers/coupling piece with the coupling section remoulded into a draft box to take a kadee coupling. this way it just fits where lego have fitted their own magnetic couplers. maybe use just a draft box for the front of steamers.

Troy McClure