HoMa

Looks great, keep going! For the interior check the building inductions from 7838, 7839 and police/fire/space stations from that time to find some inspiration. Nothing to do with 7777, but MOCs like these two green ones also might fit into your 7777 project. Best regards, Holger

@coaster, finally I was able to set up a test layout to see your 3D-printed switches in action. They work so well, fantastic. And my trains love to change over to the inner track on your switches! Any plans to make the R104 switches in molded ABS in the near future? Is there another kickstarter comming up for the switches? Great work! I need a pair of left switches now :-) HoMa

What about a 7745-4558-cross-over? If rebuild the famous 7745 in the colors of the 4558 Metroliner ...

Great to see 7777 comes alive, thanks for sharing! And don't miss my article about about 7777 on brickset showing my childhood version of the grand layout with the yellow bridge: https://brickset.com/article/25119 This layout will be on display at LEGO fan weekend in Skaerbaek 2017. Holger

Thanks for sharing this here ... The English version well not only be a translation of the original German version. I added a few more pictures and renderings and I've added a section about the latest developments in third party products. amazon.com and amazon.de list the English version for pre-order. Looking forward to your feedback! Holger

Looks great, you've catched the iconic style from the early/mid 80s very well! Compared to today's LEGO sets and MOCs that era proved that building with limited colors and shapes wasn't a limitation in creating both great toys and model railroad. Looking forward to see more of that stuff! Holger

Great Mallard engine! You've captured the real one very well and seeing it in motion with front lights and moving rods is LEGO train MOCing at it's best! And your other models are also impressive. Thanks for showing. Holger

Great news and sounds like a valid plan. R120 - wow, definitely something I am interested in. And R104 switches in molded ABS would be fantastic. And yes, go for Power Functions first to make sure to serve the needs of the largest group. Good luck, Holger

I also use 2x4, 2x6 or 2x8 Technic Plates to attach the pin of a train motor to my train base plates. If they are build in odd width, I use jumper plates or 1x2 Technic bricks with either 1 or 2 holes to get a stable half stud offset. Here is an example: Another good option are 1x8 or 1x10 Technic plates with holes on the end if you want to attach a 4x6 boogie plate to an odd width base plate of a locomotive or wagon. Holger

I also ordered a bunch of XXL drivers and blind drivers. Shipping was quick and no stress with extra tax because the DHL parcel came from the Netherlands to Germany ... both (still?) in the EU. The wheels look amazing and it is a totally new experience to build with such huge wheels. So much space below the center axle. Some Technic holes seems to be a bit too loose so the wheels slip on the axles. But this is just a minor issue, I can chew on the ends of the axles to get more fiction. Unfortunately I can not show pictures, just started to work in a Pacific style engine. For me and other German stream train heads red drivers with standard spokes and the counter weight would be a great addition. But overall: great that we have a chance to purchase such helpful add-on for our LEGO hobby! Holger

My me-models Kickstarter timeline: 2014, April 17th ... pledged 85 US$ for a full loop of metal R56 rails 2014, May 17th ... the Kickstarter project was funded, estimated date for delivery was announced for September 2014 2014, September ... nothing happened 2015, January ... ABS rails became available in the regular me-models online shop. I purchased all radii of ABS rails. Shortly after I updated my website with a little report 2016, July 17th ... special pre-order option for metal R104 and metal R88 for those who didn't received rails from the Kickstarter campaign 2017, January 7th ... email with shipping confirmation and tracking number from me-models 2017, January 26th ... picked up my rails from the local customs office here in Germany, had to open the parcel and present the contents too the officers. "Is this LEGO?" "No, but it is compatible with LEGO." "Ok, please pay 19% tax on the amount for the rails and the shipping." (Yes, this is the way it works in Germany if you buy outside the EU). Finally got my reward from the Kickstarter campaign and the stuff if ordered last summer plus a little extra conversion rails. Unbelievable, almost 3 years waiting and now finally receiving a very valuable add-on to the LEGO train hobby. The weekend is ahead, so I might find time to set up the metal stuff and see how it performs? I hope everyone with a similar history with me-models and Kickstarter will finally end with all ordered rails very soon. Holger

Great idea! Unfortunately I can not help because I am over the pond at the other side and I even won't be able to visit Brickworld this year. For the grey era layout I would suggest some trains and buildings from #7777. Good luck, can't wait to see the pictures! Holger

Hi, the RC motor is very weak and does not perform very good as a train motor. The cable is not fixed attached to the motor, the cable is the old 9 Volt cable. It requires a special train plate to provide enough space for the cable connector between the plate and the motor. The Power Functions motor is much stronger, it comes with a fixed cable which has a Power Functions connector/plug. Also the holes were to insert the axle are orange. Checkout this page for detailed technical information about LEGO motors: http://www.philohome.com/motors/motorcomp.htm Holger

Hi Shupp, thanks for sharing your efforts making even bigger train wheels available. I am interested and I need to figure out if I can order them from outside the USA? Did you contact Ben Fleskes if there is an option to co-work and make ABS versions of the XXL train wheels? Would be great to see these wheels in ABS in black and red! Holger

I got a shipping notification email from Mike from ME Models back on January 7th. Will see how long it takes to ship the rails from the US to Germany?

For me the book itself is the compensation for all the stupid people who try to make money misusing somelese's intelectual and creative work. Maybe it sounds to negative. There are such bad people around from time to time, but the majority enjoys to rebuild a MOC from someone else for their own pleasure. And similar to Tony, I want to share my way of building and hopefully my instructions are not only instructions to rebuild my MOC 100 % but also are inspirations for own models for other. The publisher dpunkt in Germany discovered my LEGO hobby related website and straight away they offered to write a book about LEGO trains. Stay tuned, the English version of my book is on it's way ... Holger

I would define myself as a "Seller" or better "Creator" of Instructions. Why am I doing this? In the past I was not keen on creating instructions for my MOCs, there is too much abuse around where people rebuild the models and sell them without mentioning the original creator of the model or sharing the money they've earned. Things did change a bit when I had the offer to write a LEGO train book. The publisher wanted to see building instructions in the book. So I sat down to MLCad, LDView and LPub and finally to InDesign to create a bunch of instructions. The instructions for two of my steam engines didn't make into the book (because of page limitations), but I do offer them for free now on my personal LEGO hobby related website. Actually I didn't had much of a choice which model will go into an instruction. For a majority of models featured in the book I have created instructions. All my model are created because I like to build trains with LEGO. Creating instructions or publishing them in a book was never my main goal. So for me the model is always first. And I am very poor in designing a MOC just virtualy, I need the bricks in my fingers to figure out if the model works or not. Creating instructions is a subject itself. For me it takes 5-10 times longer then designing the model in LEGO bricks. It is not only about the recreation of the LEGO model in MLCad, if you are making instructions you need to devide your model in chunks which allow a nice building experience for everyone who did not design the model. For me this is a very enjoyable but also time consuming part. Another challenge are special elements like cables, wires, rubber bands which are very complex in a virtual model. For proper PF cables in an instruction you might need 2/3 of the time of creating the complete instructions. LPub is love and hate at the same time. I am happy that there is such an open source software tool around which allow to create building instructions. But the arrangement of multiple steps with sub-steps on one page is a real nightmare. You never know what the page will look like and you need to wait till the page layout is re-rendered. And the measurements are also confusing to me. You can define margins and others at 0.000001 – but what is the unit and where is the 0.0 reference point? After many nights, this is still a black box to me. (Maybe someone can suggest other tools to create instructions with more control and more WYSIWYG?) Another thing which is a little bit anoying is the behaviour of some "users". If you offer instructions, they ask for part lists. If you offer part lists, they ask for part numbers. If you offer part numbers, they ask for a wantedlist to upload to bricklink. And they want me to tell them the one bricklink shop which offers all elements needed to build the model. Very often "newbies" which have never build a regular complex LEGO (train) set will start with the most complex model. And then they get frustrated because my high-end AFOL models are tricky and complex to build ... even with instructions. Hope that helps? Holger

Hi Cale and all the others from BMR! Thank you for setting up this new resource for our LEGO train hobby. Here are some further suggestions what could be added: Some historical stuff which I wrote down about the 7777 ideas book and which was originally published at brickset: http://brickset.com/article/25119/7777-the-1981-trains-ideas-book Instructions which were originally published at railbricks.com and which can be found in the webarchive at: https://web.archive.org/web/20160301051000/http://railbricks.com/instructions My BR 10 and BR 80 steam engines and the free building instructions at: http://www.holgermatthes.de/bricks/en/br10.php and http://www.holgermatthes.de/bricks/en/br80.php Thanks and good luck with BMR! Holger

Great work, well done! I really like modern high speed trains build in LEGO. You did extremely well with the streamlined nose and the shift from the slope nose to the roof section. And you covered the color scheme extremely good with bricks and minimum stickers. Merry Christmas! Holger

Ashi, that looks really great! Well done. Now you need some R104 curves! Would be great to see your RailJet and my ICE 3 on the same layout some day. I will need to shift from 9V to PF and include various train motors, batteries and SBricks in my ICE as well as you did. Best regards, HoMa

Thanks for sharing your pictures. Unfortunately I haven't had time yet to set up my R104 switches which I've got from BrickTracks recently. But they really look promissing! Could someone who already painted the white 3D print prototypes give some advice about the type of (spray?) color which was used to color the tracks in gray?

While scanning my 7777 I had the idea to write down some memories about my LEGO train childhood related to this fantastic ideas book. Huw from brickset not only was happy to offer the scans in his document library but also published my #ThrowbackThursday article about LEGO ideas book 7777 some hours ago. Feel free to jump over to brickset.com and read through the article. If you like, leave your own childhood train related memories here as a comment. And maybe some of you can confirm the original price of 7777 in your country (if it was ever available). Best regards, Holger

Hi Ben, welcome to Eurobricks train forum! Taking pictures of your model in its natural environment is great. Thanks for sharing here. A Flickr account is highly recommended for LEGO fans. I've been to that museum last year. Gray to see the original engines. Unfortunately most of them were standing in the round house so it was impossible to take nice pictures. Holger

Just added my support, good luck for this project! Holger

Great layout and very nice train MOCs. Just great to see trains running on long curves. Can you give some further information about the electrification of the tracks? 9 volts or more? How many feeds are used along the long loop? What kind of modifications have you done in the speed regulators? Keep up with your great work, HoMa