Redimus

My current set up is one loop with a long passing loop and a small set of sidings coming off the inner passing loop. The initial 9v plan is to ensure the inner loop and the rest of the mainline are 9v track, including all points off it. When ME bring out their short 9v straits, the outer loop will also go full 9v, but unfortunately, until then, I have to rely on the plastic flexi track to make it fit in the available space and still be long enough for a full 6 car Horizon Express. Unless I can find one extra cheap set of points, the sidings will remain plastic, as the IR set up seems to be a little more responsive than the 9v set up (but will probably be 9v too eventually). As for trains, all city releases I buy (currently only got the yellow freight train) will remain IR. My custom steam loco will go 9v, because I'm not happy with the tender as is, and any other custom steam or small diesel will go 9v too. The only real quandry I have right now is the full HE. One power unit is too weak for a full train. I have several options, including 2x 9v, 2x completely independent IR locos (probably won't do that) 2x IR motors (one on each loco) powered by either one or two battery packs but controlled by only one IR receiver (will require a fair bit of wiring either way). On a not completely unrelated side note, how much of a difference to grip do the old train weights make on the two types of 9v train motor?

I'd totally settle for that.

I'm not likely to build any American outline locos any time soon, but I'd totally like to see you publish the LDD file. The most frustrating thing for me when I first got into Lego trains was that next no one who makes really good steam models, who have a decent knowledge of steam loco building techniques, seem to want to share their LDD files.

I've seen the coach on it's own for £100... It's insane. I wanted to make my custom Mk1(ish) coaches Blood and Custard, until I realised that I'd have to pay around £50-£60 per coach for windows alone because the only cream coloured train windows come from.... The EN set... Someone said part of the cost of EN was the new wheel molds, and I'm sure that would have been a slight factor in the cost, but seeing as Lego wouldn't have made the wheels had they not been confident they'd go on to use them (which they have a couple of times, and hopefully will again), I can't see the one new mold used upping the cost of the set *that* much, otherwise all sets with any form of new mold would be hideously expensive compared to everything else. All new parts are designed to be used in several sets over a large period of time. Otherwise they wouldn't keep making new bits.

Long trains are nice, but you don't need em to be too long to look impresive in L Gauge, especially if you're used to 00 or N, they look so big in comparison.

I have very little interest in the actual 9v trains (although one or two look nice if I can find em cheap enough), and only got into Lego trains recently. However I have decided to make my layout 9V compatible because battery packs and IR receivers are very hard to hide in British outline steam locos, and I refuse point blank to have em pulling around a coach to hide the power pack (I like to shunt as well as tail chase). The track's not too expensive (although getting a lot of it is obviously not cheap either, best bet is to hunt around for bulk lots on ebay until ME models start producing their own track), and the motors are still relatively cheap (although I suspect they'll become rarer), so it's not a bad idea as long as you start early. I'd hate to have been collecting IR for years then descide I want to convert everything to 9v.

As much as I'd love it to be steam, I'm not all that impressed with the Emerald Knight but their modern image stuff has all looked really good, so I'd totally settle for more of the modern stuff.

The way I understand it, it's been at least 3 years since the previous City trains were released too.

I think the footplate at the front needs to be a couple of studs further forward, looking at the pics on google of similar engines, none of them have that much smokebox overhang (and it would also hide the grey technic bar the coupling is connected to too). Otherwise, really nice job.

The bullet train is cool and all, but it's a bit too close to the TGV in concept. Realistically, we're probably not gonna get any new City trains for a while, so the next release would be a Creator one, so yeah I can't see it.

I worked it out, there's a saving of a couple of £s, not really worth going for the more expensive option when, as others have said, the normal battery box is a *hell* of a lot cheaper.

That looks really awesome.

True.dat

Wow... Another reason I ain't rushing out to buy this one.

What's the yellow bar running along the bottom of the boiler? Is it meant to be a pipe, or handrail? If the latter I'd suggest making it so it's near the top rather than the bottom of the boiler. Otherwise that looks really nice.

There were several of the 'normal rail with wagons going up and down' type in the early days of railways in the North East of England, and they were always called 'Inclines'. And yeah I think you're right that the passenger ones are 'Funicular'. But from a modelling point of view, you're probably gonna build and control them the say way regardless unless you have no wish to automate it (and again the design process for either one would probably be similar).

Aye, a lot of electric trains in the UK make a very similar sound to the PF motor too. It's one of the things that really impressed me about the design, it effectively provides it's own sound effects (for electric trains at least)! Lego is also the only small(ish) modeling medium where a complex enough set of steam loco running gear makes actual clanking noises.

Only if it's a freight incline, if it's one of those tourist ones, then it needs a motor. Also, manually adding and subtracting cargo would be labour intensive for a display piece.

I think, as much as anything, I'll need to do one clean because most of the track is old and has clearly been gathering dust for a while. It's good to hear it won't be a regular thing to have to do. Track and wheel cleaning is easily the biggest ball ache of traditional railway modelling.

New stuff! First off, the completed first iteration of the 2-6-0: (Picture links to my Brickshelf folder for this engine,) She's stil la bit of a work in progress, there's a few bits missing and a few changes a want to make. The biggest change will be when I have enough 9v track for a complete loop of my current set up, O'm not happy with how high the tender is, so I'm gonna knock at least one row off it and go 9v track powered. I also mean to get some nice connecting rods at some point too and experiment with different types of cylinders.

It's a brave man who test runs his Horizon Express on a line that high for the first speed test... I made the mistake of running a HE loco on it's own fast round my much lower lever track, and had to pretty much rebuild it from scratch afterwards!

I'd love that set, sadly only really got into Lego trains this year. Despite being into British steam I'd actually prefer the Maersk set over the Emerald Knight (mostly because one is a really good L Scale representation, and the other really isn't).

I'm really lagging behind when it comes to buildings for my layout. I know enough about trains to be able to design custom trains, there's more than enough road vehicles in Lego's current catalogue to either populate my roads or act a basis for my own customs, but most Lego buildings are either seriously lacking, or for the space I have, overpowering and expensive. I've got my eye on a couple of sets to give me some ideas for building work, but I'd totally have a play with that last design (the small station) were the LDD file available!

The trick is to set up a motor and some string to make it work.

I'm a great believer that, if I can find someone else's idea and it looks better than I can imagine doing myself, to borrow their designs, follow them, then modify them for your own uses. That said, not sure this design needs all that much tweaking (not overly familiar with American locos). There's no shame in learning from other's work, I could bash bricks together for ever and not achieve what these people have, but once I've recreated their building techniques, I am able to go on and design my own stuff with the new skills learnt. Just make sure you give credit to them when you show off your heavily inspired models.