Ashi Valkoinen

No, it is not a problem. I guess all the people who preordered these switches are waiting for them by years, some people for more than a decade. Now I think it is better to get a nice product with on more month delay. Just imagine, getting your switches yesterday and something is not working perfectly in it!

@Vilhelm22, when did you visit Hungary? Are you planning to return in some time again? Thank you for all of your nice comments. For me, it seems, building new trains is a little over, at leas, I hope, no Hungary-related railway operator will by Stadler units in the following two years. :) This article picked my interest tho, after selling my Railjet train in the first months of pandemic I would be really happy to have a train with this colour pattern again - a Stadler KISS unit in dark red!

I am really happy to present a new MOC train to you again. The Siemens Desiro ML train was bugging me for a while, I found LDD-attempts on my computer from 2018, too, when my electric motor unit fleet was way too tall. I got stuck with the curvy front of the Desiro ML unit - the GySEV/ROeEE version has a biiig yellow front, curved in two directions. The big corner slope piece worked nicely on my fictional "Velo" train I designed only in LDD, but unfortunately this piece and it's relatives doesn't exist in yellow. This year I made an another, finally succesful attempt, when an idea came to my mind while playing with rigid 3 mm tubes used on my IC+ cars. The other useful piece for this was the 1×2 inverted curved slope - if I remember correctly, they weren't available back in 2018, especially in yellow. This was the test piece for the front cone: When I built this I realised I can do this and completed the design mostly in LDD, including this front. However I knew due to the forces induced by a curved, stress tube it will be surely different in real, the LDD-design worked in most of the train. This is the entire train in my garden after first fully assembly. As usual, it has front-tail lights and indoor lights, using - of course - LEGO power function led lights. The train is driven with two of PF train motors, lights and motors are controlled via SBrick (which is sadly currently out of prouction). For the lights to work I cutted some light transmitting cables for the desired length: Since this EMU doesn't have shared bogies and I didn't want any wobbly cables on the roof which look ugly on R40 curves (on these curves normal 4-axle car ends can be really far away from each other), I used an experimental magnet coupler here. I bought some 10 mm diameter, DC conductive magnets from China, and cut PF-cable were soldered on their outputs. Except the magnet and the halved cable all structure is pure LEGO, including putting the 10 mm diameter custom magnet into old fashioned LEGO magnet holder. The old magnet holder can turn on plate 1×2 with bar - with 6 mm long horizontal part. This is an old part design, the longer horizontal bar allows enough space for the cable and magnet holder to turn. The new part design with 5 mm long horizontal part doesn't work here, So the power for indoor lights and other ends front-tail lights are connected throught the bogies. It allows also quick putting together of the full train. Since this technique worked nicely, I plan to update my Stadler KISS with these to finally add interior lights to that train, too. Some further images: Front view. I think, it is quite remarkable! The front once again with roof details. The completed train. A photo taken right after it was completed. Note the "Ventus" pattern - it is brick built. Honestly, it should be done with a sticker since the letters can't be proportionally higher than 3 plates, but firstly, I hate stickers, secondly, I wanted to include it with brickbuilt pattern. So, bigger, but we are still playing LEGO-bricks here. :)

And a creation I totally forgot to post here - my second Stadler Citylink tramtrain unit built on the request of Stadler Trains Hungary Ltd. Fortunately - similarly to their previous orders - they requested a stationary modell, so for the bogies and joints it wasn't necessary to make them turning - resulted in easier build and cleaner surfaces. Stadler delivered 123 FLIRT units, 40 KISS units and 12 Citylink units for the Hungarian Rail Operator MÁV-Start, and Stadler Trains Hungary (who is responsible for maintence and train body manufacturing in Hungary) ordered LEGO-replicas from me of each different trains. Currently I am working on the KISS unit which will be delivered for them next month.

I think you can share the same thoughts about your MOC what you have written in my topic previously. Before spending too much money on bricks for the MÁV-Start version, I advice you to step back and think, what you really want to build, what are your future plans. Your Eurobrick account says you are from the USA, so it is little suprising you started with a European FLIRT train (okay, German trains are well-known) and then you switched to an Eastern European train, like the Hungarian FLIRT. It is okay, I mean, it is cool if people build our trains, but give some thoughts to your project. 1. Why are you building trains? Seems an obvious question, but worth a shot. For your own fun? To run it at home? To participate later shows? 2. Do you plan to build another one? You need just this one train to your LEGO City, or you build more? You build a region (Germany, Hungary, Europe), or you build mixed, all trains you like, and do you plan run them mixed on your layout? If you have nearby an LTC (LEGO Train Club) to meet up in person, or attend their shows, I'm pretty sure that adults of those groups can give you more advice to go on. Keep building, you have nice start, and between two BL-orders think about the points above. It will be worthy! :)

Replying to @Duq about the R64P elements. Basically I needed 17 switches, but no R64P curves at all. It would be really unhappy for me to buy 18 switches and 18 R64P curves, what I would never use. And since R104 is becoming some new standard in scaled lego model railroading I guess many of us will never insert the sharp R64P into layout and will use the non-perfect but working P40 + 2x R104 curve solution to come paralel. (Since divergent route is 22,62 degrees instead of 22,5, there will be a little stress on the R104 curves but they would surely work.) Maybe you need a box of R104 for your siding (4 pieces you need), so you may spare a box of R64P and the special straights. However P40 switches haven't arrived, I was wondering if the developement and tooling for a crossover version could be the next step using all the experience you got from the P40s. I mean, only the end of diverging route and the middle crossing part (which is electrically a hard part) must be designed, while the switching mechanism and jumper under the P40 switch base can be used with no modification at all. :)

UPDATE: Items are available for pre-order again at FX website.

About the price tag and the people's need for these switches: All NEW elements sold out in pre-order in one day (my local time is + 6 hours compared to EST). In Europe JB-Spielwaren already sold 50-60 boxes of 1L+1R, 120-140 boxes of 2L; 2R boxes, in total approx. 300 boxes. In one single day.

JB-Spielwaren preorder active: https://www.jb-spielwaren.de/suchergebnis/?query=Fx tracks 170 EUR/pair in Europe, each box contains two switches. 2 right, 2 left and 1-1 in each bix. R64P alignment special curves sold separetely (80 EUR for 8 pieces). S1.6 and S3.2 alignment straights sold separetely (90 EUR for 10-10 pieces). As far as I have seen, touched and used in my layout the prototype switches at BSBT2022, I find this price totally fair. Not cheap - I know, but this is something I waited 15 years for. I'm sure quality will be superb as by previous products. Three long months waiting for my order, will be an eternity. :)

For first, I guess you need to open a new topik for your creation, because you posted into mine. It is no problem for me, but you can get more attention and help, if you have your own. Navigate here and click the brown "Start new topic" button on the right: https://www.eurobricks.com/forum/index.php?/forums/forum/122-lego-train-tech/ Giving a single image won't be enough, tell us something about your creation. How long it is, how did you plan it (virtually or just starting with real bricks at home), etc. For me it seems you are quite young and you built your FLIRT train from whatever bricks you found at home. Your build is a good start, but surely you can do better if you can order some additional LEGO-bricks to build every part with right colours. For the doors (they are 4 studs wide) I recommend to use SNOT (studs not on top) technique to get more detail, like this door (just buidt it taller).

S32 straights, injection molded, 2,3 EUR/piece at TrixBrix S32 9V straights, injection molded + 9V ability, 9,375 EUR/piece at JB-Spielwaren. Costs four times more compared to injection molded product currently. And since FX S32 gets out of stock quite quickly when a new batch arrives, I guess, them same will happen to P40 switches, even for the estimated price written above.

Wow, thank you! :) Fortunately I have good communication with the two Hungarian raiwlay companies (MÁV and GySEV), and also participated with my LEGO-trains on some of their events. And it is not even an unique power - I summon @Sérgio to give us some fresh photos of his portugese trains! :)

Last year at BSBT 2022 a price of 150 EUR / pair of switches were estimated by Michael. According to logistics and prices going up it can be surely above this price. Honestly, thinking about the quality of the points I have seen and used last year in Schkeuditz, and the quality of the large radius curves (R104) and double straights I do own I'm totally fine with this pricing, including the fact that they didn't raise crowdfounding for this project but did it at their own, risking theit money, not the community's. For double straights were a 3 boxes / order limitation at JB-Spielwaren (Germany) when they released the product - I expect the same limitation for the points, too.

I am really happy to tell, that finally I made some photos to the album titled "LEGO and REAL" with my GySEV/ROeEE railway company FLIRT units. GySEV workers helped me to arrange a quick setup at their storage yard, where a FLIRT3 (435 series) and FLIRT (415 series) were presented for me. I redesigned my train fleet in March, 2022, but barely had time to visit the western part of Hungary where the company GySEV operates. But now! GySEV Stadler FLIRT: GySEV Stadler FLIRT3: GySEV Stadler FLIRT3 and FLIRT together! Hope you enjoy these photos! I really enjoyed the journey taking them - and for the coupled setup unfortunately I had only half an hour, because the trains had strict schedule to arrive and leave!

I'm happy to present my latest creation, the ARmz passanger car of the Hungarian State Railway operator, MÁV-Start. This type of passanger cars were made in Hungary, the ARmz is a 1st class coach with a short bistro section, which can serve a limited selection of foods and drinks onboard. The LEGO-MOC meant an extra adventure to take, the angled yellow stripes (this is for the 1st class) and the colourful pattern with different angles gave me really hard task to complete. The windows are 6,5 plate tall and 4 studs wide, while the separation between two windows are 6,5 plate × 6 plate black parts - again a nice size to fit with LEGO-bricks. And of course, I like to keep the interior free of SNOT-techniques to give seat to my minifigures, so everything on the side should have been done in the depth of 1 stud and the half-plate thin part of minifigure neck bracket. As usual, no decals were used to get the patterns. Basically my hardest limitation on the pattern is the non-existence of medium azure brackets and half-plate item - the bottom horizontal blue lines would be better to be built in 1,5 plates + 1,5 plates, while the upper ones at the angled roof part as 0,5 plates + 0,5 plates. However, I can live with this compromise, but if medium azure half-plate LEGO-parts will be available, I'll redesign the side wall to get more accuracy. Other side of the train: Car end 1. - side 1.: Car end 1. - side 2.: Car end 2. - side 1.: Car end 2. - side 2.: And this passanger car is third coach in a full consist I was working on - now with the previous inland intercity cars I can have a short train with two 2nd class cars (one for bicycle transport, too) and this 1st class car with a short bistro section. From left to right: IC+ ARmz, IC+ Bbdpmz, CAF Bpmz coaches and Siemens Taurus locomotive, with Hungarian State Railway livery. This patterns cost a lot in parts and weight - the coaches consist of 1500+ parts each, interior lights with their own battery box included also. The locomotive (just as my others) works with two PF train motors, a big battery box and V2 IR receiver to have enought power to pull these cars - actually, it can pull even 9-10 cars on R104 tracks with no problem.