Redimus

Yeah, that's pretty much the same as UK ones. I think one or two narrow gauge railways might have had roof-less van height wagons, but they hardly reached fast speeds.

I don't know about the US, but in the UK, even when there were cattle wagons, they were vans, not open trucks (imagine how the cow is going to react to being out in the open at 50+MPH).

I'm noticing the AFOL community seems to have a real American/European bias split. For me (as a primarily European trains guy) this set (and the yellow one before the current one) were vastly better sets than the current blue one. If I'm being honest though, all three sets are *very* toyish (no really?!?), and for me the killing blow for the blue one (other than it simply not comparing to my only other US outline Lego loco) is that cattle wagon. I can just about convince myself that all the flat wagons and the tanker and mineral wagon belong behind a modern loco, but that cattle wagon is at best anachronistic, and, in all probability, representative of exactly nothing in history.

Why? Anything that fits within the loading gauge can be fit on a train, and it makes more sense to transfer a helicopter long distances via rail or road rather than under it's own power which would be expensive.

You can never have enough Helicopters... or police cars... or fire engines... or breakdown trucks... lol Also, this is a train themed forum, surely derailing a topic is always a little on topic!

From my point of view, this new set is better, rolling stock wise, than the previous one. The locomotive is a reasonably decent representation of a European loco, as compared to the blue engine, which is an unimpressive and somewhat weedy looking representation of an American loco (especially when compared to the Maersk loco), and as peterab said, that cattle wagon is an absolut joke of a wagon. It's totally anachronistic in a 'modern' set, and probably doesn't really have an equivalent from any point in railway history. Ironically enough, that wagon is one of my favorite official Lego train builds, although it goes without saying that your version is a lot nicer!

That's looking *really* good, especially for a loco that is largely based on your imagination (I tend to struggle to make it look 'right' without having something real to base it on).

Really smart moc, it's a shame Lego's windscreens don't come in 5 wide though.

At some point I really want to work out how Techno Andrew managed to pull off such convincing Bullied Spamcans, but until then, I'll have to settle for the Q class or my generic blue thing (which really ought to be my next upgrade) lol.

A lot of us have our railways on tables. Tables have the unfortunate habit of being a fair bit off the floor. Also, due to space limitations, the track is normally near the outer edge. Also, Lego uses toy train curves and rubbish point geometry. All this leads to potential train suicides. This is the reason most people worry about crash worthiness. (There are some who just like to create train crashes, I don't understand the fascination with that either.)

Instructions and parts lists are all easily and freely available (Lego themselves should have them), so you should be easily able to bricklink what you don't already have to make your own. Or you can do what I did for my extra wagons, LDD the existing instructions then play around to see what they look like in different colours and bricklink those instead. And while you're at it, the containers aren't beyond improving (I gave them more realistic doors for instance). It's a fallacy to think you need the original set to benefit from popular designs.

So, as a kid, I had a couple of 6830 Space Patroller. I loved it. I saw a complete with instructions one on Bricklink for cheap, and decided I wanted to relive some childhood joy, so bought it. Although it's still a fun little design for it's time, it's hardly a match on today's designs. I started to wonder what I could come up with as a homage to it. Here's what I came up with. And for reference, the original: It keeps all the major beats, twin mounted front cannons, opening canopy, twin removable robots, swing wings, plus I added landing gear, and engines that aren't also robots. All in all, I'm not 100% satisfied with it, I think I strayed too far away from the basic shape, but I thought it was good enough to show off here none the less.

On the layout (ie collisions and minor derailments), my builds tend to be every bit as solid as Lego builds (I tend to over engineer where space permits). As for bigger incidents, none of them have fallen off the table yet (largely due to them being reasonably heavy, and powered by the rail powered motor which isn't as powerful as the PF one, plus the fact I like to trial and error them until they're reliably stable), but I find it hard to believe any of them explode as spectacularly upon hitting the floor as Lego's own Horizen Express. Where my mocs do fall down compared to Lego's own designs (other than sheer cost/parts count), is that some of the assemblies can be a real bitch to put together (the 6 wide Pullman's ends are exceptionally fragile until everything is in place). EDIT: ​It just occurred to me that the Q class did fall off the table once too (I think it was a cat related incident). The boiler separated from the main loco and the tender broke into a couple of assemblies, but other than that, the only real problem was the 50 odd loose black 1x1 cheese wedges that I use for coal. Those went *everywhere*!

Really? Take a look at *any* of my MOCs (I've posted several on this forum). Tell me honestly that you think they are not better than official Lego builds. About the *only* Lego design that comes close to the level of detail that I expect from my own mocs would be the Maersk train. Sure, not all mocs are created equally, but to write off the vast majority of train mocs because you've seen some first time mocs that weren't very good is a little unfair to the rest of us.

So, here's the finished design in LDD. As before, all red (and light pink because that bit doesn't come in red) pieces are pieces that won't be visible when complete. The black 2x4 tiles will slot into the door arches, and the 2x2 turntables will sit studs inwards in between the other set of arches (to represent the toilets). The tubes will form (with a bit of butchering) the undercarriage frames in between the bogies. Before ordering the bits for the coach body, I will order the bits for the undercarriage, so I can make sure it will fit with any degree of comfort around my layout as it currently stands. Complete Coach: Frames: Body: And a complete train: Assuming the first coach is a success, I will then dismantle the original (6 wide) Pullman in order to make the 2nd coach cheaper. EDIT! Looking at inspiration for a brake version, I noticed three things; 1: The end windows were too small. 2: I had completely forgotten to include a way of putting a lamp on the end of the train. 3: The buffers, whilst in line with my other builds, are far too short when compared to the corridor. So here are the ends of the coach with the minor modifications: I was also reminded that the doors really are rather wide compared to the real thing, but sadly, that's something I can't really fix without settling for less accurate windows (and they wouldn't be in scale with minifigs if they were).

I can't see TLG taking that much notice of a small number of AFOLs on a forum somewhere to be fair, especially on a product that isn't aimed at adult collectors specifically. Anyway, wasn't it expected to be a store exclusive? I'd assume those get less publicity than the available everywhere stuff.

Heh, no worries. That's why I post half complete LDD designs on here. You guys are a great source of ideas and techniques. If I post a half done LDD file, people are more than willing to offer useful and welcome critique. If I wait until I have it fully finished in the plastic, no matter how half baked it is, no one will offer me any ideas, and I've already spent money on the bits anyway. My Q Class (which I'm rightly proud of) would never have been half as good without that exact kind of critique!

Thank you kindly. :) Yeah, it's a side effect of not being able to use the standard Lego train bases. Luckily, the previous design used virtually the same bogies, and in the plastic it sits lower than LDD will allow it to (plus the undercarriage detail will make it look less open and empty). The red is just the colour I chose for this design to indicate it doesn't matter what colour these bits are. The final one will use a 2x4 black tile held in between the two arches as a filler piece for the window. I had hoped for such a thing as a 2x4 clear tile (in which case those red bits would be black), but alas, no such bit exists. As for a clear plate, have you got a photo of it being used, I can't say I'm convinced I'd like it, but I'll give anything a go once.

EDIT #1 WiP.... /EDIT EDIT#2 It liiiiiiives! /EDIT So a while ago I build a pullman coach. All in all, it was a success, but still very much on the toy end of the scale still. I had intended to build more, but got side tracked with m 7 wide Q class and rolling stock. By the time I had (mostly) finished all that, it seemed rather daft to build more of the existing design when I felt there was still room for improvement and it wasn't even my chosen 'scale' anymore (6 wide vs 7). I also had already come up with a few ideas in the original design process that I wanted to try out but knew wouldn't work at 6 wide. So, here comes version 2! With the Q class. New v Old This is still a work in progress, but it is already a vast improvement on the original. The red bits are bricks that won't be visible in the final version, the arches will hold either 2x4 black tiles or 2x2 light bley turntables with a black frame. As well as the length, I've added more accurate sloped ends to the coach, raised the end roofs and added an extra grey plate to the main roof to more accurately replicate the difference in where the roof ends in the different parts of the coach, replaced the standard Lego buffers for buffers in the right place, the frames are 6 wide the whole coach long (as well as more prototypical, it is also an easier way to build the different width parts) and I've added some extra markings to make it look a little less plain. I also added a second set of toilets, which I thought was more prototypical, but on further investigation, it comes down to which coach you're looking at. Still, it makes the coach symmetrical and (in my eyes) look better. I am aware this makes for quite a long coach and I will buy and build the frames on their own before investing in the rest of the coach so I can test out the viability of this length of coach on my current layout (although, even if I don't end up with these as a regular runner, they may well get built for display purposes). Still to add: the rest of the roof (duh), interior (I have a few ideas on this, not yet sure which I'm going to go for) and undercarriage detail.

He does use magnets, they're just the old style (which are removable from the buffer beams, allowing you to not have to have the coupling attached to buffers you don't necessarily want).

Really nice! I like how much the livery looks like the livery I grew up with, Network South East's colours: (Edit: Also, how boring was this photographer? There's a Merchant Navy sat at that station and he's photographing a run of the mill southern electric!)

They look good. My only suggestion would be to reduce the firebox (the larger part of the boiler) on the western loco. I've never seen a steam engine who's firebox takes half the loco, lol.

For me, it has to be pure Lego, part of the reason being it is a *lot* easier to reconfigure and pack away than traditional model railways (which as the layout sits in a place we often use for LAN parties, is a must), but mostly because I prefer the ease of Lego building over the messier traditional model railway techniques and I prefer the consistency of using only one style of construction. *However*, if I was planning an exhibition quality layout to be finished anytime this decade, I would probably go for at least some model railway scenery (although probably only ballast, grass and trees, not buildings). My layout is very much just some track for me to run my trains on, the scenery is just something to liven it up a bit, it really isn't intended to be a proper 'model railway'.

That's a very valid point. I nominally model in 7 wide, but my only loco in that scale so far is entirely 6 wide with a 7 wide running plate (it was the only way to easily achieve both the consistent width and look running plate on both loco and tender that I wanted and to achieve the small but distinct difference in width between the cab and the running plate and the tender's main body and the running plate. I also intend to build (at some point) a Terrier, which being a tiny loco may well have to be entirely 6 wide.

Id rather have interesting wagons than long ones, and these ones look more interesting that any of the wagons from the last set.