kyphur

LegoSjaak, I just realized how narrow your bridge is. You might want to widen it by a stud or two on each side...

Only Straight Track attaches directly to baseplates... Flex-Track, Curves and Switch Points can't and must be ballasted. Also, I like the look of ballasted track, what you see is not the final ballast design (which will be 2 plates high).

I think once I have the building MODed (with backs) and added a few more structures it with have the feel of a small rural hamlet in part due to the scale of the layout. That is my goal anyway. The Engine Shed is in a great spot, eventually there will be a warehouse workshop and offices in that general area also. The only problem is that some of the newer Engines don'e fit into the shed (3677, Maersk) as a result of this I'll probably move it to the Train Museum that will be between the Main City and the Urban Suburb. It will be replaced with a MOC Engine Shed that fits larger engine models though. I'm thinking that it will make the layout more interesting showing all of these little bits of life in different areas (Urban, Suburban Rural & middle of nowhere). The far will fill a few baseplates in the loop at the rightside end. It will have pigs, goats, chickens & cows. I might try my hand a MOCing a Harvester (Combine) for the rows of crops in the field. I just have the track off the incline as I'm replacing the good quality bricks with some "seconds" I have since the supports will eventually be covered-up with landscaping. The track is laying where the 2 lane highway will be eventually laid for traffic to go between all 3 cities and the 2 Train Yards. Thanks, he's a tough little guy and I know things will get on track for him once we get better educated on how to help him. I've been thinking about if I want to connect to two suburban loops to the main line and I can't say either way right now. That would be a nice way to sneak a couple of the double crossovers I have (seven in my collection in total) into the layout. One problem is that I have the incline on on side and I'm hoping to put a tunnel on the other side so I'd have to see where I could fit the spur line. Each short end of the oval will have a station or platform so I can't connect there either. BTW, the Holiday Train is sitting there just for storage at the moment. I'm considering building a motorized box car and using it on that loop but then it would be the only active (in the traffic pattern) Steam Loco on the Layout as all of the other Steam Engines will be at the Museum. LEGO is Gabby's favorite toy... We have to keep our eyes on him as he tries to abduct his older brother's sets all the time! He'll sit and watch my trains run until the batteries go flat and he never tries to grab them off the tracks. He loves to sit at the table with me and tinker with his blocks while i'm building my models. I've been thinking of having at least on representative Engine from each of the LEGO Train Eras represented in a static display at the Museum. The older models will probably be modern remakes as I don't own any trains stuff before the 9v era. I would like to have one running train on a loop around the grounds. I have a lot more plates to buy before I lay that track though...

Image is link to the Update Set I've got the track that will encircle the Village of Anna laid-out. The Winter Village sets will get slight modifications (like snow removal and backs added for the buildings) then I'll build some missing structures like a small firehouse, village hall and train station just to name a few. On the end near the Rail Yard there will ba a small train platform for the commuters who work in the Yard. Inside the loop of track on that end there will be a farm complete with a Barn, Farmhouse, Silo and a field or two of crops. In the Flickr Set you'll see that I now have the Fire Brigade Modular Building, it will serve the Urban Suburb but the fire truck fits into the winter village theme well so it gets transferred to the Village of Anna (a pic in the update set shows it next to the Postal Truck, they look like cousins). BTW, a little bit of Real Life hitting the bricks... Our little guy (4 years old) was diagnosed with Autism last month. He was born deaf and has Cochlear Implants so it's taken a while to get to the point where they could say his social issues are no longer hearing related. Since Gabby loves is own LEGO and really enjoy watching Daddy's LEGO Trains I've decided to dedicate my Layout in his honor to Autism Awareness. In the coming weeks you'll notice billboards with Autism messages appearing in the Flickr set and eventually on the layout. When I can start showing the layout at Cons and events I plan to leave the Autism messages in place in hopes to support Autism Awareness and encourage others to talk about the issues.

I've been on BrickLink since 2005 as a buyer and for about a year as a seller. I hate it when people pull stunts like this. You can never be 100% safe but you can reduce your risk by: Always paying with a payment processor that offers you protection (such as PayPal) and use a Credit Card or Debit Card acting as a Credit Card so you can dispute the transaction if the payment processor fails to recover your funds. Sadly I've had to file a few disputes, once PayPal actually told me I was right but the couldn't recover any money from the other party so I used that to get my CC to charge-back PayPal and I still got my refund.

Bricklink has them from both of the City Harbor/Crane sets. I bought this set, it's nice but if you just want the crane and dock pieces then you can get them and assemble the crane for much less...

Great looking truss bridge... After some of the criticism I've heard these parts getting it's nice to see them also getting some love. The incline leading up (and down the other side) is going to take a length of 10 and a half baseplates (336 Studs/105 Inches) on either side so it will take a LAARGE layout to support it unless you don't plan to run track under the bridge then you can make it much lower.

Not quite yet please... I will be including Docks in my Layout's Freight Yard but unless the contest runs for a few months I'm nowhere near ready to start on that part of the layout... But I do agree that would be a great idea for a building contest.

That was a fun short contest... It's great seeing so much action in the Train Tech forum. I hope the next contest is for number of green baseplates in a single photo!

The Freight Yard will be where all three converge, The water will actually be the negative space around the tables so a couple of ships can dock on two different sides and be off-loaded to truck or rail cars. My cargo ships will be on small movable platforms that I can set up against the docks. I have updated the map in the earlier post and on Flicker to represent where I hope to place the docks and also access roads into the freight yard and both suburbs as well as the gap between the suburbs.

The gifs in your sig are mightier than any special tag. I wanted the Metroliner *this* much when I was a kid. Maybe for Christmas this year... I hear you on that Woolie, but to be honest I really do want a Train Tag of some kind. I was a LEGO Star Wars collector for over 6 years before I liquidated a nearly complete collection to switch themes to trains last year. I won't say anything bad about the LSW community but it is a different atmosphere than the EB Train community. I'll admit that my SW MOC were never that great but I always tried to be an active member. For some reason the encouragement never seemed to come. Now here in Train Tech there is a lot more encouragement and that's what's driven me to design my layout to the scale I have. Having a Train Tag would just be something special, you can be sure that I'll jump at every chance to get one. I'm really wishing I hadn't been to busy during the holidays and had taken the time to participate in the first Tag Event.

I thought this was a lot of fun both to participate in and watch as it unfolded... While I've taken photos of the progress on my layout this was the first time a staged a photo on the (very incomplete) layout. The section of track in the pic is actually the Wye in my switching yard. Eventually there will be a level crossing going over the Wye, just not at that exact place. My whole idea was inspired by my newest LEGO Addition, 4308 Off Road Fire Truck which I has just purchased the day the contest was announced. I look forward to the next chance to get an elusive Train Tag...

It's nice to see what others are doing on such a massive scale...

Now that's what I'm looking for! AWESOME... While I won't make mine Steam Powered I'll surely use his impeller design. Since my reading on these units says they all seem to have their own power-plant but only use is to power the impeller I think I might borrow an idea from the LEGO Official set and drive the impeller using wheels in contact with the track (so no on board electrics) and have a Loco push the unit along the tracks.

If you look at my cut-away images you'll see that the pole reverser fits with room to spare. The advantage of turning the motor around is to reduce the chance of it binding up as the train negotiates curves.

No, it will cross the tracks with level crossings. The road from the city to the switching yard will have a T intersection that passes under the train bridge and into the Freight Yard for direct Semi-Truck access. This actually puts the freight yard closer to the big city to reduce pollution!

Prevention & maintenance... First, I'll eventually cover it with a thin sheet of plastic when not in use. Second, I'll impliment a regular cleaning schedule so that each section gets the once-over every so often.

Now you should have put your's up on cinder blocks and lamented how only a madman would steal the wheels off a train, I mean they're not even street legal are they...

Fracking Awesome! I'm not into the old steam engines but your stuff sometimes makes me both wish I was (so I could have engines like yours) and glad I'm not (because I'd have to learn how to build some of those beautiful monsters)... As my little would say (in his best train Whistle voice), "Wooo, Wooo"!

As discussed here, I have no idea when I would be able to get around to it (especially with SCUBA season right around the corner), just wondering if anyone else has thought of this. BTW, I do have the official LEGO Model, Set #4533: I find it cute but somewhat lacking...

I love that heavy crane, can we get some more details on it?

I stand just over 6 feet tall, I can reach everywhere on the layout (tested that before going to the expense of constructing the hardboard sub-surface).

I had to vote for MrRed... As someone who's own Maersk Engine was a victim of crime I have to applaud the apprehension depicted in his entry. Also as someone who in real life has spent the last 3 years to legally immigrate my wife and 2 stepsons I have an appreciation for the system and disdain for those who skirt the system.

I just wanted to warn everyone who has this set... Sebulba was apprehended a few hours ago and he cracked under interrogation! He admitted that the burning of my Maersk Engine wasn't just a simple retaliation over a lost job, it's part of a much larger plot to eliminate as many of the Engines as possible. At first he was trying to implicate the Hutts but his story just wasn't making sense so the detectives contacted Imperial Security Forces and they provided an Interrogation Droid. After the ID was finished we had the full story: A dark and mysterious figure known only at "The Brickster" had put out a bounty on Maersk Train Engines. He wants them destroyed! The police secured a copy of the Manifesto he broadcast to Bounty Hunters near and far. In it he claimed to be MAD that the value of his Maersk Engines wasn't up to his expectations and blamed it on the popularity of the set. He said the limited edition set must be off the shelves soon so he wanted alreay sold Locomotive destroyed which would in turn increase the value of his own stock! Now that's MADDNESS I tell you....

There are actually a few Train Museums in my area (Greater Chicagoland Area) and I haven't been to one yet. I think I might move the official Engine Shed (10027-1) onto the Museum grounds. I want a main building, a workshop (the engine shed) one working loop and a few static display trains. Of course I'll make sure to visit a couple of them before I actually make mine. BTW, Suburb Two has a name: Anna, in honor of my wife. I told her people don't name Cities "Anna" but I was wrong!