Toastie

Not really a stiff lever - rather more flexible ... I am using this to switch 7994 from either all straight to all diverging, as I don't (or maybe no one doesn't really) need any other combination ... Here's a little more detail - the driving mechanism builds on using the flex system tubes and some nylon wire stiff enough to firmly push the point blades to the corresponding rail when in diverging position (or whatever that is called ...) and securely retracting them for going straight. This is a very invasive mod though as I removed all the stuff from the bottom of 7994 (covers springs, levers) but the blades, then drilled four holes receiving the flex tube terminals. And into the blades of course The nylon wire responds nicely to heat; it is straight forward to make that sharp bent ("hook") at each blade terminal. When cooled down again it is pretty rigid. The wire is not glued to the blade, just sitting there. The wires are flexible enough though to smoothly move within the flex tubes: One PF M motor easily takes care of operating "four" points by pulling (and pushing) the strings. Other than that it is all genuine LEGO. And it is entirely TLG's fault that I had to do it . Here is to feeling good! I have no idea but firmly believe that this must have been done by others before. If so: All credit goes to them. Haven't done a decent search on this, I have to admit. When you know about that, let me know, I'll reference that here immediately! All the best, Thorsten P.S.: Forgot: It tolerates "8 + a bit wide" trains max. I am almost exclusively running "6 + stuff on the side" wide trains. This limitation is caused by the location of the driving mechanism - I thought it would look good on my layout to have it rather close (almost "on") 7994.

Hmmm. Old as in "used" or as in "a long time ago, from a galaxy far, far away?" Or does old apply to every set not available from TLG anymore? BTW, depending on your age, the late 2000s may be felt as "yesterday". I'd answer with "yes I do, but very, very rarely" - simply because the sets I personally declare as "old" are from the blue or gray train era - which usually drives the cost up to levels I don't want to pay for - well - plastic bricks. Plus you can replicate them with modern bricks and plates and purchase the still costly phased out stuff from BL. But I did, yes. Hmmm. So what is "old"? Best Thorsten

Yes I can see that! I came from the "never enough" LEGO bricks available world - as there were fiscal issues back then. And for some reason I inherited that: I cannot leave a set I am either getting or buying unopened. I must admit though, that this is entirely my problem: I always "need" parts - and build on the basis of variety and availability. I hardly plan. Maybe in retro-perspective, when polishing up. I simply need to look at what is there. Which renders the existence of an unopened box meaningless - to me. And only to me! All the best Thorsten P.S.: I do not buy or get LEGOs or sets at any rate as some other folks here on EB. And that is purely my very own decision, of course! It does change the perspective though: When you have considerable funds at your hand you are happily investing in LEGO, then you can surely leave boxes unopened! I am fully aware of that - and my reply to your post was a bit - nasty. Sorry for that!

Wow, this is very nice. Most of all, I like the diverse robots really looking happy to do what they do. Best Thorsten

Yeap. When they do that, they lost their soft brain. This is readily fixed. However, an NXT not responding to other than "dumb" touch sensors, i.e., not responding to sensors that need to rectify power from the NXT, >may< hint to a hardware issue. Could that be? Are the sensors not working of the type that need power to operate? Best Thorsten

Why would one keep LEGO bricks mint - in factory sealed boxes? My parents gave me some LEGO boxes back then - they remained in mint/sealed condition until they handed them to me - I guess for a maximum of seconds. Best Thorsten

Most probably there other reasons as well but for me that was the case. I usually buy sets for parts - and that rather randomly and almost always in a store, so I can touch the boxes, turn them around, see what else may catch my attention. I am really enjoying doing this. None of the Hidden Side sets did that to me - I had a hard time in figuring out, what really is inside. And then I swiftly lose interest. I never purchased one, even when they were on sale. Yes: Confusion was is for me. But then: This was made for kids wanting to have fun not for (old) AFOLs browsing (randomly with no plan at all) for pieces ... Best Thorsten

Davide, this is (again and again) beyond belief. My take is: With LEGO: The smaller the scale, the harder it gets. But it seems as if you are just - negating that. This is such a wonderful, detailed rendition ... I can't believe it. Wow. What I like even more so: Going from your Garden-Railroad models to this H0 scale. I have no idea, how you do that - but you simply do that. Thanks a lot for sharing! All the best Thorsten

Sure! Just press this button: You are so right Davide, there is nothing more to add I also truly believe in every word you said, Davide! All the very best, Thorsten

Yes: When you take "Standard" as in: What the standard LEGO clients (apps) tell the LEGO servers (hubs) what to do. It is a different game, when you do make your own soft stuff and tell them (Almost everything "original" made in the Great West or Old Europe is ... embarrassing performance wise for the high price. But when we leave the holy grounds of TLG we can mostly live with that - well that is my very personal opinion!) No: When you build your own stuff - as I do. Get yourself a ESP32 Arduino clone (sigh** same old, I guess; +30€ for the real deal, 7€ and even less from ... da clonnies ...), some software on GitHub and go nuts on the PUp hubs. I mean Buzz and Wizz is nothing but 3rd party BL/E stuff + LiPo. And they are not THAT cheap, to be honest. More diverse, yes. Less restricted on the plugs/sockets, yes ... but then: Simsalabim has stuff to take care of that as well. Plus there are soldering irons. So I don't blame TLG's hubs - it is their software. And of course: The sockets. If they'd stay with PF: Fine. But I can tell that a hub knowing what it has attached to it ... gives you "some" more options. I do TLGs hubs from BL + my own "mods". All run on LiPos ... and I do that because I have no clue how the firmware/protocol on the buzzes and wizzes is organized. Oh well, this will be a never ending discussion - just do what suits you best. As always in life. Yes I know that you know that. Best and skål Thorsten

No, mine Best Thorsten

Getting there ... will post more details soon # And yes, the glass of white wine is in focus, and everything else is not. Merde. So far the ZX Spectrum can control RCX equipped trains. Which is a 1985 -> 1998 "connection". The Arduino in the pic does just that: 9600/1/8/None to 2400/1/8/Odd protocol conversion and nothing else! The NXT (had display issues, thus dismantled, fixed) is supposed to do the RCX IR messaging to PF IR command translation via HiTechnic sensor, but so far it is reluctant to do so. Guess this is due to timing ... time was less "fast" in 1985 ... Stay tuned (yeah, weirdo ...) Best Thorsten

Yes and No . Time? Time appears to be - endless. Or timeless. I like that about time the most. Life? Life will continue as long as there is time. On different time scales, but on scales that "we" cannot encompass. I believe. It is what it is? "Mostly". But still, I like to challenge that - every second of my life. Failure to that attempt of challenge - is boldly painted on the horizon, of course! I don't believe in horizons though, I believe in time. Go out and change. Should it not work out: Do it all over. Does that make a difference on the "big" scale? No. But "we" are more than 7 billion people. Does that make a difference? For sure - provided >7 billion people care about changing the world. The truth is, most of "us" need to secure food for the next day. So to change the world idea is a bit of a rich worlds' idea. On the other hand: We can certainly work closely together with "3rd" world countries. Should we decide to want to. And thus, no, it is not what it is. It is what we - tolerate or accept. I believe. Best Thorsten Very well phrased. As every other word in your post! As far as I am concerned, most AFOLs are just kids who never grew up, but - unfortunately - grew up. And they look at things from a perspective, kids (that is the best part) don't yet have. Fortunately. Best Thorsten

I got the 323 train set in 1965 Best Thorsten P.S.: It is still showing on a shelf I built in 1978 from scrap wood my father gave me ... Edit2: With 5 pieces missing - and serious bite marks ...

Well sort of the same here - but the renderer ... in an all in one solution ... I build my stuff in MLCAD (I know, but I have learned to use efficiently for countless years now, so don't get started on how bad that program is - it is not) then import it into studio, fix a few things and ... hmmm ... wait for the render to finish. Every time I can't believe the result being so nice, regardless how stupid my build is. Best Thorsten

Nice one!!! How did you do that? Best Thorsten

Ever played with IrfanView? (https://www.irfanview.com/) Public domain (well, I donated), blistering fast. You can either resize or resample and upon saving set the file size. There is batch processing and numerous more options. Very little memory demand and overhead. Nice plugins - should you be wanting to going crazy. And as said: For free. Best Thorsten

This is so true. Thank you very much @zephyr1934 for phrasing this so clearly in this thread. As you have done in the past elsewhere. Best wishes, Thorsten

When you write certain "clone" brand names, i.e., Chinese manufacturers of LEGO compatible building blocks, or the equivalent of merde in English, The Big Brother of the Forum changes that to Mega Blocks. So I was referring to the weird situation we have in the LEGO world: When using a third party piece - worst thing: one of a Chinese clone brand - then this is generally perceived here as ... questionable. Now in the H0 world there are as many Chinese, American, European and companies on all other continents as well - maybe except for Antarctica, but who knows what they do in their research cubicles during winter time there - brands. I bet some are regarded as good, bad, and worse. I don't see anything even close to naming something "clone". It is there or not. That is my impression. I don't do though H0. I was just curious ... Best Thorsten ... and they have "Power Features" (PF) as well (https://www.maerklin.de/en/lp/2020/welcome-to-my-world/) The cool thing tough is: Märklin is regarded as one accepted supplier (surely not for all! See above, comment of @Pendra37) - and they do now clone stuff - which makes this discussion even more interesting ... Best Thorsten

That is what I was asking: I simply don't know ... There are other manufacturers - (Fleischmann, Roco, ... and then all others around the world ... just google "H0 manufacturers" ... Best Thorsten

Oh yes. Absolutely! Best Thorsten

Fair enough! Good luck on entering a new world! And: Very wise to keep the SuperChief!!! Plus: I may be wrong, but can't you use as much "Chinese"/"clone"/"Mega Blocks H0" stuff as you want within the H0 system(s) - without having to be "true" to one brand, because they don't have that type of religion over there? Is that so? Is the H0 world in the truly free world=market or do you have to play the chords of brand chimes of THE TRUE H0 SYSTEM provider? As we apparently have to in the LEGO SYSTEM? No wait, wrong, we can do that in the LEGO SYSTEM as well, when we decide to do that. But ... we should feel a little - or more ... bad about it. Or even a little more than more. But we should not talk about it - I mean here! No wait: Also not true - there is an extra forum to do that So what ... Just have fun and enjoy freestyle!!! All the best Thorsten

Nice, very very nice! What I don't get though: What exactly is "chaotic" or "mad"? To me it looks like a very nicely organized laboratory. Nice machines, still some space for more stuff. I should maybe take photographs of my labs for comparison Best Thorsten

I think this is a different (but important of course) aspect. Finance. You were asking for alternatives to powering systems though, as far as I understood. Also regarding your investment. When comparing PF with PUp I believe motor power etc. (physical things) are certainly important. But there is more to it. PF is/was a dedicated 1:1 controller/receiver "pair". With all the limitations of IR and available channels. But a dedicated 1:1 pair is exactly that. Kind of hardwired. You always know what is going on. When your train behaves erratically, some other PF controller is interfering - or you lost line of sight. That's it. PUp though is a very different "model". There is the smart device (cell/pad/...) + App (= client). There is one of the "hubs" (=server). Client and server have brains (= firmware, memory, app) that negotiate was works and what does not, depending on the hardware hooked up. A PUp train motor is "dumb" - and just reacts to "set power". Other PUp motors are smart and may do something else, like keeping axle rpms constant. All I am saying is: Don't just look at the power/plugs ... price. PF "replacements"? Go China. Over and out. As others have said. Best Thorsten

This is certainly not about being wrong or right! This is about perspective. I can clearly see and do appreciate your perspective. But then - this is LEGO. Rebuild worlds. Some do buildings, others do cars, then there are scenes, machines, very old-fashioned totally energy inefficient steam locomotives. From a today's perspective the latter are climate killers. But: These are LEGO models. Renditions. See, when you go along your line ... head over to the Military Forum. For those who love peace a true nightmare. But once again: Renditions in LEGO. Again, I can clearly see, what you are aiming at. It is - from that perspective (which I do share) - more than difficult. But that is Starwars as well. And pirates killing each other - with hardly any females present, but rather cannons. Personally, I love this model - and of course I do not share what it stands for behind the scenes. It is very difficult. And entirely OK when you don't like it. There is absolutely nothing wrong about that. In contrast. Best Thorsten