andythenorth

Your engine will go too fast or too slow :) Primarily, in this context gearing affects speed. It also affects torque, but that's usually limited by traction / adhesion. You get more adhesion if your motor drives a lot of wheels and/or you have a high adhesive weight over the driven wheels. The most likely cause for burning a motor out is running it near-stall speed for long periods. The only way to have that happen in a train is to have an awful lot of adhesion, I reckon you'll see slip before then. But PF motors have stall protection anyway (far as I know) I have one XL motor driving this truck. http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?i=3053953 The wheels have a lot of grip and the motor will stall before the wheels slip (if driven against a fixed obstacle for example). The stall protection eventually kicks in on the motor (probably not something to test too often I could probably be more accurate on the physics, but the above is a good basic rule of thumb for MOCS.

It's not anecdotal The PF Train Motor can deliver approximately twice the stalled torque of the RC Train Motor, and approximately 50% more stalled torque than the 9V Train Motor. It's also more efficient than the older motors, delivering that torque with lower power consumption. Extensively tested here.

I don't understand? I have a PF Train Motor in front of me. It's not simply the RC motor. It has redesigned internals. The characteristics of the motor are totally different. It has a PF connector on it. The mouldings are mostly identical with previous RC motor - the cost of those moulds is sunk. There's no new development there. The electrical components have already been redesigned, that's now also sunk cost. The only additional cost to a PF train motor is maintaining the mould and stocking inventory. Given that the RC motor currently on the store retails for about £10 sterling, the marginal costs on the part can't be that high, or they'd charge more for it - the costs on some other PF and train parts is high. I'd expect the PF Train Motor to sell around the same when it hits the store. This isn't an argument that Lego won't discontinue trains...just that the PF Train Motor *is* the PF Train Motor. It is all jut guess work, but I'd be surprised if there was some 'other PF Train Motor' around the corner

I have no facts to support this, but I don't think Lego are going to produce and stock inventory for two very similar motors (PF and RC) in the longer term I would bet that the current RC motor in the Lego store will be replaced by the new PF Train Motor when current inventory of RC motors is sold. I also bet that the motor is a slow selling item, due to limited audience. The new train motor is a true PF motor - it's got the PF connector. The system is defined by the connector type in this case. cheers, Andy

Engineering is difficult.

Have a look at Lifelites. Just about the only non-Lego part I'll use with Lego. http://www.lifelites.com/

Put more vehicles behind it, that will slow it down

Nice proportions and colour scheme

Ah ok. I think I have these wheels already

Interesting. Are these on lego.com anywhere?

The PF motor has more torque than the RC motor, but it can't get the power to the ground due to wheelslip. More driven wheels should mean less slip. So I wondered, if the RC motor is lower torque, does it also draw less power? And then how might battery life fare with 2x RC motors (not close to stall) compared to 1 PF motor which alternates between wheelslip and near-stall? I did study physics in school, but electronics never stuck in my brain

One reason would be to gear down to get high torque at low revs. To avoid wheel slip, both bogies would probably need to be driven. I haven't tried it so I don't know how well this would work. I'm planning to build a small highly geared PF switcher sometime though :) That will be challenging, the batteries will have to go in a separate wagon, which also means less weight for traction :o Perhaps some boat weights will help...

Straight track. Here's the situation right now: - Lego sell straight track only with curves. It's an expensive way to end up with more curves than is fun. - Straight pieces are *really* expensive in the secondary market (eBay / Bricklink). I could buy boxes of track and sell the curves, but they're so cheap in the secondary market that it's not worth the trouble. Result? I don't buy any track at all. No sale for Lego :)

Stick up a better picture of your mods to the red cargo van?

I'm only interested in RC / PF trains... ....but I've seen some used 9v sets that I would quite like to buy and convert to PF. However the eBay / Bricklink prices are too much even for incomplete sets, and in many cases I'm left with metal track, motor and power regulator that I have no use for Is there much demand for 9v parts? Enough that I could resell the 9v parts easily (I don't want to start a Bricklink store or pay eBay listing fees).

Looks like one of these: http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=189845&nseq=478

Chrome-tastic :D Were a lot of rare parts used? I did just a little building with orange Technic parts and it took some work to find all I needed

I think the 2010 trains are great I also think the RC trains were great. These trains are fun to play with. I'm happy that Lego have continued producing trains. They won't please all train fans....I've known plenty of train fans, there's something about trains that attracts argumentative people with strong opinions on 'how things should be'. I guess I'm no different....I strongly think things should be fun.

Thanks for the input. I will find a use for these stakes somewhere. Every part has a destiny...it just needs a bit of thought :)

Interesting idea. I'll think about it. I see these expensive MOCs on ebay and wonder who buys them though? I always figure the parts are cheaper on Bricklink, and building is part of the fun. I guess finding all the parts on Bricklink is quite some work though, maybe some people don't like go to that trouble :)

Same issue with the front buffer/coupling part on the front of the 2010 Cargo Train - falls off every now and then. Doesn't happen with the rear buffer.

I thought of changing the colours. Thing is, the only reason I tried this MOC is because I have the red stakes spare from Technic tractor sets and wanted to use them up It could look better as a two axle wagon, but I have spare train base plates that I should use up (bought them on Bricklink for tanker wagons, but now don't have any need for them) Even if the colours were better, it has bad play value...the stakes detach too easily. So this one will go back to parts. I'll find another use for the stakes somewhere. Anyone need some black 6x24 train baseplates? I have seven, I can only think of good uses for maybe two of them

Created this, but I don't like it. It's a failed MOC I've tried different colour schemes and build details, but the look of the red stakes just isn't working for me, so this MOC will become parts again soon

Nice :) Shame TLG don't have parts in those colours :(

I can't just give in and buy one of these... ....I need to wait until I can afford two :) Has anyone combined two of these sets? I'm figuring that a nifty MOC will produce an extra carriage (or two!). A couple of extra wheelsets would leave a motor spare for another MOC, one motor is probably enough for maybe four carriages. Or put both motors under one engine for extra pulling power? Oh...and hi Melfice. You get around ;) Are Andersl and Belugas here too?