Evans

Nice build, proportions seems quite good. You've nailed the prototype pic ! Your sideways doors are ingenious. I'm tempted to try something with big red "steam" wheels to replicate the wheel structure of the crocodile

Thank you all for your feedback ! Good idea ! I would like to enlight some lampposts for a future smaller layout. I wanted a more 80s feel, so I had to skip 90s sets. In fact, I have troubles building in proper 90s style, as most of what I want to do can be done in 80s style. Where are you from? There are often exhibitions, but more usually in the far suburbs. I'm from north of Paris, so I usually have to travel south or west. I really wanted to have the feeling of a town centered on its railway and industrial economy, so from this base I tried to dress a sort of history of its developpement to stay coherent. And as I don't like having a unidirectional loop as everyone does, I wanted this mainline with two return loops. It works well and kids are always excited to see the train going in the tunnel. Level crossing is also very important for them. I have ideas to make the back part higher, but I would lose the crossing. There are so much possibilities with 4 wide, and it's also a warranty to keep a unified scale across the layout. I don't like the facvt cars in City theme are 4 and 6 wide, and some big wheeled vehicles are 8w, which is so oversized compared to the 2003-2013 City I grew up with. I indeed rarely see many 12V MOCs, MODs are common, but true work to reproduce real prototypes is not common. My goal is to use all the small locomotives sets as private shunting locomotives, whereas the mainline will run my SNCF MOCs with electric and diesel machines. I'm also working on some French steam locomotives, to go along my French donnerbüchsen.

Hello ! I present you my Classic Town and 12V diorama of 6.80mx1.50m, with nearly 30m of 12V track installed, presented to the public at the exhibition in Parmain (north of Paris, France) on October 8 and 9, 2022. The assembly time was very long, and I took 16 hours in all from the installation of the tables to the working of the 12V loop without any operation on my part. I realized that in spite of all the energy I could put, I have already reached the end of what I can do in terms of size in such a short time, all by myself, with a method requiring me to partially dismantle my sets for transport. Having no space at home, I started from a plan elaborated from Bluebrick software, but I came up to a limitation of the software: it does not manage at all the complex wiring of a 12V layout. I went back to paper to plan the stop zones and to cut the circuit in 4 sectors to better distribute the power of the transformers and avoid slowdowns because my cars are quite heavy (I have a lot of MOCs). This diorama represents Lego Town, a small industrial town 30 km north of Paris. For the record, the railroad came to Lego Town quite early, around 1860, and the industry started to prosper in a moderate way. The Lion d'Or Hotel Restaurant on the road to the castle is a testament to that time, and the factory owner's house still stands in front of the station. The goods station and the Sernam hall, a key place for the transport of goods in the city. Lego Town has gone from a village to a small town, the medieval downtown area has been well preserved. The SNCF depot is only used to park trains. Steam locomotives remain to build a railway museum in a future diorama. The gas factory closed in the 60's and the gasometer is abandoned. The urban sprawl of the 60s and 70s, many houses were built around the old center. A modern district has been built on the castle hill to accommodate the workers who commute to Paris. The SNCF VB2N rolling stock was put into circulation for the great comfort of commuters. The highway bridge also allows minifigures to avoid the level crossing and the often congested downtown area of Lego Town. Lately, in 1980, the station was rebuilt on a functional and very modern building, allowing cars to park easily. It still watches the Paris-Ruhr Trans Europ Express to Germany (Molière and Parsifal) passing by, pulled by the SNCF CC40100. The castle was restored in the 70's and is used as a municipal museum where many historical reenactments are organized. The goal for next year is to completely Frenchify the diorama by changing the Dutch stickers of the promotional sets. Evans

You can ask Chris Bull who is the one specialized in restorations of pre-1980 glued models. He owns a lot of display models, and he have a wide network to find accurate reference pictures. He will indicate you the best ways to work on these. Here's his Flickr : Chris Bull | Flickr

Nice little layout, and good idea. I also once tried a double motor articulated 4,5V locomotive, with power from track to do some tests on ramps and heavy trains. It was quite unreliable and I did only see a little traction gain, as I was not using motors with similar use as I should have done. Is it a modified switch the 10233 is standing? Do you have any pictures of it? I would also like to make such a switch with no space between tracks, but I have yet to resolve the electrical issues when used on double track.

Excellent ferry, its size is perfect for a small service and would look perfect as a set ! Very good building style ! Do you plan on building a layout to showcase this beauty?

Very good upgrade, I was working on such a project, after I got an incomplete set. I am searching for a way to make it entirely bi-level with the 6x34 bases, but I haven't figured out a way to place the motor yet.

Nice one, Ole! You should just have an ornithology lesson!

Wow, a lot of informations there! Excellent layout and pictures, as always!

It's sad to see this small church being replaced by... a flat concrete space. It was a true landmark to the town and was giving this particular atmosphere that was making me inconsciously travel to Man Island. It's now becoming a more impersonal town with less character and history. I've been actively followed your town evolution since 2010 and the more the old buildings disappear, more it's loosing its originality. The loss of the modern 6000 idea book feeling with MODed buildings that were going well together is quite a departure from the original idea. A city must evolve, but can't forget what made it what it is today.

Your parts are "Brittle Blue", it was a very large production error that affected many parts in 2007-2008. With time, these are darkening like this. Just try to stick it to two studs, tilt it a bit, a normal part will deform and stay good, and yours will explode in pieces. So this is a known problem, which is very far from being genuine dark purple. I did the experience with a friend that wanted to give me his bulk lot from 2007 (production code on the bucket), I showed him with a 1x6 brick, it was the first time I did that deliberately... But unfortunately, my childhood sets are also affected, as the City concrete mixer for which the mixer part is brittle blue. I don't want to touch it, that would be a too impressive explosion... I did an experiment to de-yellow brittle blue parts and it did work fine, I've just been afraid to use these yet!

You can always ask a store clerk to see the original bag and to take a picture of the label, there would be nothing bad about it if it's for common knowledge. They are quite uncomprehensive in my local store (Paris Les Halles), they can't even fill properly a PaB cup without me being very insistant, so I believe bringing a bag from the storeroom would be too much work for them.

The pat number is indicated on their original bags. The parts comes in 200 per bag and the pert number is on the label, I saw this last time they refilled BAM, but I didn't take note.

I mean if this foreign metal part is not the only one that ended with ABS pellet, chances are big that the wire part would have gone in the brick rather than half in and half out which is quite impressive. But you could make reinforced bricks like concrete would be if needed!

This brick is a collecor item! Keep it apart, as I find the fact it's dangerous as a really intrersting manufacturing defect. It's the first time I'm aware of such defect. I believe the wire part is usually invisible as completely moded in the brick, but this is a unique defect. Congratulations on finding this, just don't mix it with other parts!