hoeij

LegoSjaak, A couple of days ago, I bid on some 12V train items on eBay, didn't won anything though (they all sold for almost twice my max bid !!). Looking at those prices (not just 12V, but 9V has become expensive too!) it makes a lot of sense to buy new trains, just like the way you've done (looks great!). I'm definitely buying 2 copies of 10219 (that still costs less than one 7740 train!).

Yes, the Passenger train would give you everything that you need (track, battery box, PF receiver, PF controller, and train motor). Actually, $99 is a really good price for the Passenger train (it's $129 on lego.com). You may want to buy some additional straight track (not cheap though, it's $20 on lego.com for 8 straight + 16 flex, where 1 flex is the equivalent of 1/4 straight, so you'd pay $20 for the equivalent of 12 straight track).

The new motor 88002 does better at low speed settings because it has a lot more torque, it is simply a much better motor. It is more efficient, and I'm sure it'll last longer too. The hum is not caused by the motors themselves, it's caused by the PF receiver. The way it regulates the speed is by rapidly turning on/off the power to the motor. So at half speed, your train is not running at 4.5 volt, instead, it gets 0V, 9V, 0V, 9V, .... The frequency with which the PF receiver turns on/off the electricity can be heard through the motor. Any DC motor connected to the PF receiver will make that sound (I tried this out with the old 9V motor, but logic tells me that any DC motor will make that sound). Question for the experts: I've been wondering whether or not it would be a good idea to connect a large capacitor to the motor, in order to dim the sound. Could that harm the PF receiver?

A toy train with quite some playing possibilities? That's exactly what parents want to buy! The current cargo train is selling well. My guess is that 3677 will do the same, and that you'll find it in toy stores as soon as the current cargo train sells out.

The design is similar to lego's BNSF train, and also similar to model #4 in the hobby train box. I have both (with some modifications), so why should I want yet another train with a very similar design? The answer is obvious: look at the color scheme! I wouldn't buy 10219 if it were in red, because then it would look similar to a train I already have. But as it is now, if I add 10219 to my layout at our next local train show, nobody is going to say: Hey, those trains are the same.

The current cargo and passenger train come with track, and I'm sure that the new train 3677 will also come with track. So it doesn't take very long before you have more curved track than you know what to do with. I've sold RC track twice now on eBay, and if I buy 3677 then I'll probably sell the track that it comes with as well. I'm really not waiting for one more loop (if you try to sell a loop without straights, you'll get only a few dollars on eBay). It saves me a good bit of time to not have to do that for 10219.

It looks like the current cargo train is selling faster than expected, and that lego's response is to release the followup train 3677 earlier than originally planned. My guess would be that the current cargo train will be on the market for a shorter period of time than the previous cargo train was.

That's very helpful information. I used it for the E.N. in a small layout at a local event here, and the train stopped after about 2 hours. I assumed that the 8878 was empty by then, and replaced it with a AAA battery box. But in retrospect, the 8878 was probably not empty (it is supposed to run the EN for 3 hours, and I have done that in the past). For technic lego, I can use AA rechargeable batteries or the 8878, but my AA rechargeable batteries are always empty when I want to use them for something, and the 8878 never seems to be empty (only exception is at the train show when the train has run for hours in a row). So it's convenient to have.

bricklink has this part (name: bb466) for around $20.

At the LEGO website in the US, if you order it now, you'll get it in a month from now. This was also true during Xmas (some friends wanted to buy a train for their son, but they had to buy something else instead because the trains were on back order and wouldn't have arrived before Xmas). The current passenger and cargo train are quite a bit more expensive than the previous passenger and cargo train (the current passenger train is $129 while the previous one was $89). At these prices, one would expect lower demand, but that hasn't happened, these trains are still selling like cupcakes. I'm sure that profit must be really good nowadays.

I bought a lot on eBay and bricklink few years ago, but lately, I can't find good eBay deals anymore (a good deal meaning: buying a used set at a price that is lower than the price of a new set). But the biggest problem is where to put it. I've sold a few items just to free up some space, and decided I would stop buying trains. However, I won't be able to stick with that decision because of the color scheme in the new train 10219. I see LEGO's strategy: they're making items that look so good that you can't help but buy them even if you don't have room for it.

There's really only one explanation that I can think of, TLC must have decided that trains are profitable.

Where can we get these motors?

Download the latest issue of railbricks magazine, it discusses the modifications you have to make to the E.N. to make it run properly.

In red it should be no problem if you have the hobby train set. But it's the color scheme that makes this train exciting. It might be not so easy to get these pieces in the right colors. I'll simply wait until this train becomes available, that's probably the most economical way to do it.

I got the Hobby train and the Holiday train at 50% off, but that was the last time I managed to get really nice sets at 50% off. Since then, for most sets (especially the more expensive ones) it seems that the moment you see "50% off" is the moment that it says "sold out".

That's the price from almost 2 years ago. What I don't understand is how they can offer free shipping from South Africa.

I don't know which one will be discontinued first, but I do know which one has been available the longest, and that's the 10194 Emerald Night. My guess for the first ones to sell out are 10194 (because it's been available the longest) and 7597 (because it's tied to an event, namely the movie). When 7597 runs out, my guess is that the prices on eBay will not go up quickly, and that one will still be able to find one used for less than what it costed new. However, when 10194 runs out, there is the potential of a significant price increase; we are after all talking about one of the most spectacular train sets ever sold by lego. It is not certain that prices will go up a lot, that of course depends on how many of these sets are out there, but the possibility of a large price increase is certainly there.

I think the current train offering is quite good. If you wanted to buy a train from lego in the past, you typically would have had two choices (a cargo and a passenger train). Sometimes there were more than two choices (e.g. My Own Train gave a lot of flexibility because the train cars were sold separately) but that didn't happen very often. In contrast, lego has currently 3 train sets for sale, cargo, passenger, and steam train, and soon to be 4 when Maerks comes out. So compared with the past, lego is still coming out frequently with trains, including a number of very interesting ones. If they keep this up, then it won't take long to build up a very nice collection. That's why I recommend, on eBay, to bid only what it's worth to you, and not more, because it's just a matter of time before interesting things will become available directly from lego.com PS. I have a BNSF and most of the other 9V train sets too. But if you had to buy them now, well, there's a BNSF listed on eBay, and the bid is already $160 and that's just for the locomotive. Then you still need to add container cars (the TTX double stack are expensive too) and then you still have to motorize it. The new Maersk train (my guess: $120) is very nice, and already comes with container cars. I love my BNSF + TTX so I'm not going to sell it (even though it'd give me a big profit because I bought mine used at a good price) but at the same time, I don't think I would pay $160 for just the locomotive, when a very nice 10219 is just around the corner.

My Santa Fe ran very poorly until I treated the wheelsets, you have to cut out a small corner where the wheel rubs against the wheelset (described in one of the railbricks magazines). Without the cuts, you're driving with the breaks on. With the cuts, it runs faster with one motor than it used to do with two!

Track can be bought at lego.com (they have a box with 8 straight pieces and 16 flex track, those 16 flex are the equivalent of 4 straights, so one box can count as 12 straight pieces). At the moment, they don't sell curved track, but when you buy 7938 then you'll have enough curved pieces anyway. The BNSF and TTX Intermodal's have become quite expensive, so financially, the new train 10219 will be more attractive (and besides, 10219 looks spectacular!). I've bought most 9V trains used, but prices of the 9V trains have gone up since then, and, lego keeps coming out with great products like the Emerald Night and the 10219, so if I were building a collection now, I'd probably focus on new trains. With the My Own Train cars, when you see them on eBay, just bid what they're worth to you, not what they're worth to someone else.

I have quite a bit of track too, though perhaps not quite as much as you. Here is my layout at the local train show last year: http://www.math.fsu.edu/~hoeij/t/Layout2010/ and The file tables.jpg shows the table sizes (they're 8 by 2.5 feet and some are 6 by 2.5 feet) and the other file Layout2010.pdf shows the track. Note that I have 3 trains running on the same 9V loop, and 2 on the same 12V loop. Here in the US it's rare to see 4.5V or 12V track on eBay, and shipping from Europe is expensive, so buying things at a reasonable cost has meant lots of patience.

Expensive stuff! The remote controlled crossings, lights, switches, all hard to find.

I have an 8878, and I use it for the train, but also for lego technic (it's very convenient for that!). At home it lasts a long time because it's unusual to have it running non-stop for a long period of time. I also used the EN at our local train show, and if I remember correctly, last year it ran 3 hours on the 8878 and this year only a little over 2 hours (don't know why). However, this year I brought a 88000 as a backup. If you're using this battery box for only one thing, then I'd try to save some money and put rechargeable batteries in the 88000. I have not tested how long it will run on 6 rechargeable AAA batteries, but my guess is that it'll be at least a couple of hours. Note that you have to make a couple of changes to the EN train itself, otherwise it won't run problem-free for several hours (there have been a number of threads on this issue, and it's also in railbricks magazine #7 (you definitely want to download that and read it)).

I have an observation car made with those. It makes for a fairly tall car (taller than the Emerald Night cars).