jrathfon

FYI, this is now available (again?) at US shop-at-home! Just ordered mine!

FYI the heavy haul is for sale at the Downtown Disney lego store in Orlando, so it's state-side.

Nope. ME Models is actually under zero obligation to ship anything. Many funded Kickstarter projects fail in this way. Essentially they hit their pledge amount, which is a bottom threshold for a successful business model, 40% of backers don't pay, and they are left with only 60% of the required capital to pull off their project. I've seen a number of projects get funded but fail (and no product is ever delivered). ME Models is doing a stellar job of fulfilling their commitment! This is why they are explaining the secondary sales to get enough capital for more production runs to meet their backer obligations (the ones that paid, that is).

As a side note, I wound up backing too much and the wrong size track for my setup, it was a guess way back in the day. I am currently running my R56, 72, and 88 track and LOVE IT. I have an extra full loop (two packs) of NEW R104 (one pack was opened, but not used) I would like to recoup my costs on. If anybody is wanting some (currently sold out) R104 track please PM me. I would go $68 and I'd pay shipping.

What you just described is downtown Nashville by Titan's stadium. We have a scrap metal yard and all day they use front-end loaders and magnet cranes to move scrap metal into open half-height gondolas. Not sure where they go after that, but those gondolas are BANGED UP! Here

Yes, it's a crummy cell phone video, and yes I turned it on end at the end (tried to edit that out on my camera, but...), BUT here's a video of the HE and Maersk running full speed on some R56, R72, and R88 curves. Unballasted and unbase-plated, no shift, no plates popping off, pretty solid. The HE is running two PF train motors, the single Maersk is stock with one motor, the EN shown also drives well on this setup (the switches are the issue as normal for the EN). Vid here Can someone tell me how to imbed a flickr vid?

That's hilarious. The IDENTICAL door, but left opening instead or right, is ~$0.35, not $25!!! 73436c03 not 73435.

I have done the top cut, where you just cut the curve end straight off. If you ballast and level your track there is no issue lining these up. I would say if you aren't anchoring to base plates, there can be some shift keeping two opposing switches together. The cut off end from one switch can be used for a turn out end on the opposite switch. I would say this is the biggest advantage over the first technique versus the split cut 2nd technique. The big advantage of the 2nd technique is you can use a 2x4 plate to anchor two switches in a cross over. I would say the 1rst technique is likely a LOT easier to do the cutting (one straight cut). I used a fine toothed hobby saw and a mitre box and it took seconds. I was surprised, I did like 8 switches in 30 minutes. Cutting in between tracks would prove difficult in terms of clearance with a saw, I believe.

ME Models said they would be releasing a narrow gauge track connector. No word yet. edit: ah, got beat to it!

This is an extremely good point. A number of sets that make it to 10,000 and most of the sets that have actually made it to production are broad appeal. As Duq said, TLG may not have intended it to be this way. Ideas like the space sets and movie sets (ghostbusters, BTF, Wally) were voted on by a large base of people who aren't actually interested in Lego originally, or have that nostalgia from childhood, but aren't active Lego users now. This is more obvious in sets like the AdaFruit maker space set or even the SWE (Society of Women in Engineering/Science) themed sets of the Research Institute. I have seen Lego Ideas links all over the interwebs in places like Reddit and FB, drawing a lot of other type of AFO geeky stuff over to Ideas, cause a lego DeLorean is cool! I myself have that appeal, I am extremely into trains, but got the DeLorean, Mars Rover, and Ecto-1 because geeky stuff is even cooler (and geekier) in Lego! To sum it up, Ideas get a lot of non Lego fanboy exposure and this is a big reason votes can climb much faster on these sets versus trains. This is not discounting that these sets also have mass appeal inside the Lego fan scope.

The fact is you are missing my point. I originally commented on a post that said Lego was unoriginal, but said there were new ideas to the set. The new ideas part wasn't true as I provided examples of cranes and a front-end loader/digger (I conceded that a helicopter ON a train is a new idea, yes). I never made any statement that this set is "New" to new/young people or that TLG caters to my wants or needs (or to any AFOL's needs). I was simply stating that these ideas are not new. I then further stated that this makes a number of AFOL's disappointed in this set (as shown in this thread). I never made any qualifications that TLG either listens to us or cares about AFOL's, that's an entirely different discussion. I will restate that the set is un-original (citing sets 4543, 4565, and 7939), that is my opinion and I am not missing a point. Yes it's new to new people (yup...) and yes the target audience is not AFOL's, still doesn't mean its not uninspired, unoriginal, disappointing and dull in my opinion. So no reason to contradict me, I think it's disappointing.

Nope, my point was it's not creative nor new from Lego's standpoint. Sure nobody recalls 9V sets from the mid-90's, but it's disappointing all of Lego's "New" City sets are just stamps of the previously discontinued City set (either passenger or cargo). As lightningtiger said, Lego is not being original, and as I said, these are not new ideas. Sure 12 year old's and amnesic AFOL's may think they are new, but Lego is just rubber-stamping set after set (police, fire, city, trains). Which is why most of the AFOL's on this forum think this "New" train is disappointing. Make a consist of 3 coal hoppers and all of us would rejoice!

I would argue that these are not new ideas. Yes, first helicopter on a train, but come on, this is all old hat: http://www.bricklink.com/catalogItem.asp?S=4543-1 http://www.bricklink.com/catalogItem.asp?S=4565-1

In terms of Lego trains and normal inclines, the general rule is two PLATEs (1p = 3.2mm) per track segment to prevent slipping with a normal train and a normal load. Any change in angle you need to transition by one plate per track segment, i.e. to do a normal bridge incline you would do 1p,2p,4p,6p,8p...etc...100p,102p,103p,104p. So doing 4ft will be an issue. A cog railway (gears on the track), a spiral incline, or a track lift (essentially an elevator) would be the other options. Spiral inclines take a ton of space as the lego curves take room. At 33 degrees you would have an engineering challenge for the cog railway and the track lift would also be a lot of technic. Any of these options you are talking about hundreds of dollars of parts. The most compact train setup for current systems would be a PF train motor (which you can hide under the baseplate), a PF AAA or LiPo battery box, and an IR receiver. That's the easiest solution which leaves room in the cab. You'll also need a "speed" remote control. Any PF components can go forward or backwards. The easiest thing for you to do, if you go the actual train route, would be to buy a complete train set. This way you will get all the PF components you need, some track, and an idea of how the whole system works. Then you can moc from there. Although the cargo trains are more expensive, you'll likely be able to repurpose more of the parts then the white passenger train. Cheers

The old 9V connector and the new PF are slightly different. Using the current PF extension cables, the 9V can be connected to one end (I believe only on the bottom) so you can power older parts. So although 9V and PF has SOME compatibility, it is not readily interchangeable.

Nobody has mentioned, although your 9V motor cannot be powered by the new PF track, it will still roll on it. And as Gareth said, you can do a hybrid where you run your 9V motor just like you would the new PF train motor from an IR receiver and battery with the addition of an extension cable. My point is the 9V and PF track are identical in shape and can be clicked and ran together. So if you get a new PF train, you can easily run it on your "vintage" track AND the metal rail looks better! You can also run your 9V motor on the same track and have independent control of two trains on one electric circuit. I run an outer loop of 9V and inner loops of plastic PF track on my layout:

Yup! I wish I had mentioned the USPS delay sooner. Eric and Mike were super quick to rectify the USPS's mess up. Thanks for the quick response!

Hey Mike, I got a USPS ship notification 2+ ago (Jan 3rd), but clicking on the tracking info, I only get "Pre-Shipment Info Sent to USPS". Will this order ever ship!? Been patiently awaiting my package! Any info would be great. Thank you, Jeremy

I've always wondered though if Micro-Sol effects ABS though, did you see any discoloration or dissolving using the Micro-Sol on your legos? I have some bubbles to get out of some of my water slide decals. Thanks!

Hey Everybody, I've just started building a semi-permanent layout upstairs at my house (i.e. not on the floor) and thought I would share. Comments, suggestions, etc. are welcome! This is just the start, I obviously have to move my modulars in, get more baseplates/roadplates, throw a couple more trains on the rails (metroliner, custom E7 set). I will also be adding a tunnel with mountain above for my WIP narrow gauge layout. More on the Tweetsie (shown here) layout and custom E7's in the future. I'm awaiting a few BrickLink orders for ballast, trees, scenery, so more to follow! BlueBrick plan: Full layout (with trains moved for clarity): Yard view (looking head on to the trains): Album with full-res here.

Hey Alex, thanks! I'll eventually have everything covered up with landscaping and baseplates (whenever you can actually buy them in the US), so I'll be skipping painting. That and I HATE painting!

This is actually all in the brick now. I'll post photos in a bit when I get finished with decals/striping. The tender is powering this train with an M-motor. The loco works fine in the tight IJ turns due to having a blind medium driver in the middle from BBB. The tender motor does however tend to slip a bunch, I am going to do some troubleshooting and will probably add better/stickier o-rings to the drive wheels on the tender, as well as add as much weight as I can inside the tiny space (houses an M-motor and the IR receiver). More to come!

Just ordered my two from US!!! Dang I was hoping I would get them for Christmas instead of having to pay for them!! And yes, I'm a 32 year old adult who gets sets for Christmas still... no shame.

Number 2 is the cleanest!

Absolutely! Doing 10-wide for a diorama type piece makes perfect sense! Not having to deal with running on switches makes things much easier. As others have said, making large, to scale, drivers at 10-wide starts to get challenging. In that same vein, you've seen big ben's wheels right?