Redimus

It's not fantastic. It's also about the only modern attempt at a Steam Loco (certainly the only one that replicates actual motion gear). Beggars can't be choosers.

I'd imagine most developed countries have thriving model railway communities, I know the UK does. Where Germany (and the US) have the advantage is both their larger populations and the fact that a lot of their locos appear in very similar guises in other countries, making the market for certain models larger.

Lets be fair, they have yet to actually produce a decent German outline steam engine... Hell, I'm not all that sold on Emerald Night either, the proportions, both for the A3 class of locos it was supposed to be based on, and in general for British steam are all wrong all over. Not only would a German outline loco be a nice choice, it'd also be easier to achieve if the sheer number of examples online compared to British outline locos is anything to go by.

Gotta be pedantic Rail CO, HE's based on the original SNCF TGVs.

I really like the fact the trucks are in scale with Lego City, the thing that puts me off that Creator Merry-go-round set is the fact the truck is *far* too big to go with anything else in City.

So, I was happily building the second of the two secondary builds (the flower shop) in the #31026 Lego Creator Bike Shop and Cafe set when I noticed that not only does that build have an astonishing number of parts left, it also has no form of motorised transport in it's instructions, despite all the parts left spare. I felt this was a crying shame (because it's a very nice build as are the other 2 (3?) builds, and why should it be the only one with no car!?) and seeing as Creator is supposed to be all about encouraging you to get creative, that is exactly what I did: The Driver isn't from the set (I just picked up the first minifig who happened to be close, which happened to be a Star Wars Rebel). Sadly I had to take apart the van (and the shop) to build the main build of the set, but it was a lot of fun coming up with a way to build a decent and consistent looking van using the pieces left from the shop build. I intent to build a larger version of the same basic idea that'll fit in with the modern style of Lego vehicles.

As far as I understand it, the original intention for Lego was as a scenery builder for HO trainsets (I would say model railways, but it's rather obvious from the resulting lego designs that that these were intended as a toy, not a serious modelling tool, lol). Dutchiedoughnut, is there any chance of seeing your frames? I'd quite like to make my own 'Gronk' at some point, but have been largely put off by there being no real way (I can see) of pulling off a decent looking set of outside frames and connecting rods within the limited space available with Lego.

I dunno about the US, but in the UK, I din't know *anybody* who didn't have a fair bit of Lego when I was a kid in the '80s and '90s, when Lego was still pumping out a lot of railway stuff. The main difference between Lego then and now is the design process seems to be a lot better and the discovery and perfecting of franchise lines. None of that particularly stands in the way of a railway system. Also, the idea that 'they were smaller, therefore they could afford to make less successful things' is frankly a bizarre piece of logic. It might be that their design and manufacturing capability hasn't grown enough over the years to include all the old areas plus all the new franchise areas, so the less popular ones have been set aside, and it may also be that they simply don't see a larger trains section as worth the effort any more, but to say they could get away with it before because they were making less money makes no financial sense.

I actually think the square windows really do help make the HE coloured coach look like a Great Western Railway coach. Although he could use the rounded windows on that coach, because that colour frame was only available from the HE set, they are *really* expensive.

Overall, they look like a really nice generic British steam era coach, but I'm not sure about the inset doors. I know it's a pain to get doors that look like doors (at least without engineering them to open, which isn't easy with those curved sides (believe me, I've tried and (so far) failed).what if you tired having them at the same profile as the rest of the coach, but ensure that no bricks overlap (on the outside at least) and include one of the either of the two styles of brick bellow to act as a door handle: or I may well take a closer look at the design, I've got a generic mk1-ish design that is 6 studs wide but at some point I'm gonna want to widen em and add the curved sides and my first LDD design was both overly complex and *way too long* for Lego curves!

Nice. You should try to do this one next!

Oh yeah, it's working now, cheers! Not looked too hard at it yet, but I love the effort that's gone into the tender!

Just says the folder is not yet public.

Me too.

I dunno about the receiver, but it's well worth duel motoring your HE if you intend to have the full 6 car set. Mine's currently got the motors top n tail, which makes it faster (although the oldish batteries negate some of the extra possible speed). It avoids the problem of the back bogie being one stud shorter than the standard motor bogie, but is a bloody menace when it comes to s-curves (in my case, on a passing loop). I may have to resort to both motors in the same power car, although that would really restrict what it can do going backwards.

Turns out the Technic cables worked fine, however, top n tail power units don't really work well with the (fully) articulated coaches. It's fine on straits or curves, but when it gets wobbly, things get derailed. Trainweights may be the solution, or possibly breaking down and just powering both bogies on the one powercar. I want to do some more experimenting before I settle on anything though.

You do realise what sort of money the Santa Fe and Crocodile set go for right?

Fair enough. I'll give it a go anyway. Hopefully the extra PF cables will be arriving in the next couple of days. I've quite enjoyed upgrading the HE, it may be a lot more complex than the normal City trains, but because it's pretty much all brick built rather than specialty pieces means it's actually easier to customise without losing the intended look of the set. When it's finished, (or at least at a level where I'm happy to leave it for now), I'll try and do some instructions for the changes for others to muck about with.

Hmm, that means I may not be able to use my old epicly long technic cable, at least for the 2nd motor.

I have to say I'm not that keen on either of those 9v odd looking high speed trains.

On inspection later that night I came to the same conclusion. For that reason alone, I chose not to do the double powered front loco option, because having the front and back locos different distances away from the coaches would annoy the crap out of me, as would having the distance between corridors further than it need be. Turns out I have some stupidly long old Technic wires that will easily stretch the length of the train, so I am trailing two from the front to the back (one for motive power, one for lights so I can maintain the red for go, blue for lights set up) and using short modern cables to act as connecting points between the locos and the coaches and to convert from the old conducting stud system to the new whatever that is system (why not keep the old conducting stud system? It was so much simpler).

Hmm... I may have suffered a brainfart, I'd convinced myself the back bogie was shorter... lol In which case, I'll just double up the power on the front loco until I can lay my hands on some extra wires (would still rather have power at both ends for better dual direction driving).

Looking good!

How did you over come the fact the rear bogie is shorter than the front bogie?

I like the new tank, but actually prefer the old smokebox for some reason (I think it's the technic holes that put me off).