Blacktron2

As long as I can run the new train on my layout, I would be a happy camper. With regards to the high cost... who knows? It might include a mini-station suitable for the Orient Express theme.

I have been following Mattzobricks for a while and even implemented their system using ESP32/Rocrail/MQQT. However, I feel that it is quite complicated for the simple automation I am shooting for. Your approach might fit just that! Thank you for sharing.

Very lovely! Thank you for sharing. Beautifully detailed models (trains 10 studs wide / track 8 studs wide?).

Hello y'all! Tom from North Carolina, USA. Originally from Prague, though. As a (not so wealthy) European kid growing up in the 90s, I never had any trains. This was somewhat rectified in my late 30s. I got back into LEGO again in 2019 and have been able to buy most recent trains from eBay and BL, some for top dollar and some for less than that. As of now, I enjoy the standard LEGO-designed trains (6 studs wide) but I suspect that once I have built all the trains I will want to experiment some. Since my space is constrained at the moment, lots of my trains are still in their original boxes waiting to be unboxed and built. We are in the process of moving from a townhouse to a larger single-family house, sot my little single-loop layout shown below will get upgraded to a proper ~3m by ~1.5m layout in the coming months. I am also hopeful that my 2-year-old twins will be into LEGO. One of them likes to push buttons on my Powered Up controller, the other likes to draw instead.

There is a review of Studgate on Brickset- https://brickset.com/reviews/65274 I have found the review to be quite well-written. The only thing that has caught me off balance is the spacing between the two parallel tracks - it is apparently 6 studs instead of the standard 8 studs. I hope that it will be simple to get the standard 8-stud spacing. My Studgate will arrive later today.

Thanks for the details! A very neat layout. Looks great with all the buildings - especially the train shed.

I am quite shocked to hear that the alkaline batteries last so little. https://www.batteryequivalents.com/aaa-batteries-size-chemistry-types-and-replacements.html#:~:text=Alkaline AAA batteries are practically,capacity of 850 - 1200 mAh. Based on this table, the mAh capacity of alkalines is quite comparable to NiMH, though the terminal voltage is higher (1.5 V compared to 1.2 V). This should give a higher motor angular velocity at each PWM setpoint since the average voltage applied across the machine winding should be higher, resulting in more current and higher back-EMF. Anyway, that's just an irrelevant technical detail. Assuming constant current draw, the actual current should be 6 A (6 A = 6000 mA , 6000 mA * 1/6 h [10 mins] = 1000 mA/h as per the table below). That's a lot of current for these tiny cables. If I am not mistaken, do PU Hubs have overcurrent protection? It has been a while since I looked into it. My guess is- busted batteries. Chemistry Common Name Rechargeable Typical Capacity (mAh) Voltage Zinc Carbon R03, 24D No 500-600 1.5 Alkaline LR03, 24A Mostly No 850-1200 1.5 Li-FeS2 FR03, 24LF No 1100-1300 1.5 (1.8 max) Li-ion 10440 Yes 350-600 3.6 - 3.7 LiFePO4 IFR10440, IFR10450 Yes 250-300 3.2 Li-SOCl2 (10450) No 600-800 3.6-3.7 Lithium - Yes 400-600 1.5 NiCd KR03, 24K Yes 300-500 1.2 NiMH HR03, 24H Yes 600-1300 1.2 NiOOH ZR03 No 1000-1200 1.5 (1.7 max) NiZn - Yes 500-700 1.6 - 1.65

What a great panoply of 9V-era trains! And since I am oblivious to the inner workings of the track, can you independently regulate the speed of each train? It seems that you were doing so by - not successfully at the bloopers section!

Hello all. For those of you who have built and run the new trains, what do you think of the new plastic, decoupled wheelsets? I am in the US and the new trains have not yet been released. Using the standard 40-stud curve, my older trains slow down considerably since the inner and outer wheel angular velocities would prefer to be different but cannot be due to the coupled wheels (no differential in trains!). This makes me hope that the curve-induced friction will reduce due to the decoupled wheelset approach. On the other hand, the old wheelsets were a combination of plastic housing and a steel rod, which had a relatively low friction coefficient. I suspect that the plastic housing / plastic rod friction coefficient might be higher. Thanks!

I also love the new cargo train. The locomotive looks great and the rolling stock is refreshing. The passenger train locomotive and the rolling stock look blocky compared to 60051 and 60197. It is a bit reminiscent of 6738. It feels like a throwback to the 90's-style trains. It also contains more straight track (8x) compared to 60197 (4x). The front lights do look quite nice. As someone pointed out it might be a new design.