Hoexbroe

I have PF. I come in at around 100 straights, 2,5 circles worth of curves and 6 switches. Just enough to set up some trackage at expo´s. If it was 9V I would certainly to expand muy collection much beyond that, but for PF what I have now is more than enough for me, unless i want to wate more time and money changing batteries. More train running at the same time isnt really feasable either, as we already have problems with intereferrence from other IR controllers doing other things... <sigh> Sucks!

Yes, that must DEFINATLY be the main reason, because... I dont think the molds are THAT complicated. TLC produce many other products terribly more complicated. And as to Switzerland... TLC can EASILY move ANY production and equipment to ANY other of its production centers!!! Absolutly. I´d actually claim that the 9V system was (is) so excellent that it shoulod not have been discontinued. ME looks promissing, but has very few products (no switches!) and is not readily available. As to 9V being the standard for conventions; There´s not a whole lot of it around here in Spain. Some groups (LUGs) DO use it, but others simply has started too late (like is the case ofr me), and is thus equipped with PF materiel. I´ve even seen people here use cunducting copper-tape on PF-tracks to get 9V systems going at Expos. (which does not look good!) PF is good for so many things, but precisely for TRAINS it is such a huge step backwards, that it hurts!

Very funny. Nice diorama; original idea, -and I love the colours for the tow-truck!

Wow. Fantastic. A very complex combination of construction tecniques and colours. Also very good presentation and photos.

Hi again, So, the diorama was showed again; this time at a small local Xmas Expo in a town very close to where I live. I took the opportunity to take a few more photos... To show some new details, and some of the sticker-work done on the cars. Here they are; The colours of this car was first done "because I could". Later I discovered that I accidentally had made it "Portuguese"-coloured. -So it got flags from Portugal. A shot of the whole pit-lane. The green and the black Porsches. The green seems to be the favorite of the visitors at the shows. It does look nice, and it IS an authentic colour-scheme from the American Le Mans Series. -And finally the MAIN reason for why to bump this thread; The inclusion of the obligatory champagne-scene! Thanks for watching.

I absolutly agree; If they could do that with almost no modifications, they should. I know that Playmobil teamed up with LGB for the track, until they too began to do their own all-plastic tracks. I would say that there IS a huge market for the in-between totally toy train and "real" model railroading to exact scale; One is dirt-cheap -but useless for anything serious, and the other is extremely expensive and complicated.

I agree. That, and the hm.. "change" in product quality is fast turning me into a Lego-basher... <sigh>

That´s simple to answer; The only right thing is 9V, or rather better phrased; Metal Rails! Because metal rails allows the incorporation of stadard DCC equipment, and opens the door to the "real" model railroading world. PF system and plastic rails are a disgrace -at least when realated to model railroading. (For a small kids toy the PF system is very nice, though!) The CEO of TLC should be hunted down and forced to re-introduce a decent railroad system.

Excellent job. Good design quality all around. Beautiful!!!

Lugbulk! Both the 4x3 and 2x3 windows are from Lugbulks some years ago. -And the 4x3 glass too! And now that I think of it; The 1x3 dark grey curved slope too. Thinking more; Yellow 4L bars... Train wheels... Straight PF track sections... All in all there are pieces from 4 years worth of LugBulks!!! It is finally coming together to something usefull. (Getting only a handfull of train-oriented references every year does make it take a long time. This year there wont even BE a train-group in our LUG )

Nice, I like the style!

Thanks for your comment. No, I didnt take a photo of the other side. As the locomotive is completely symmetrical, such a photo wouldnt bring much new information. Only the roof-details are not-symmetrical. (There are less, when seen from the other side)

Hi All, Swiss-Inspired Trans Europe Express (TEE) Train. A quick build for a mini-expo at a local Christmas market. The style is deliberatly held completely and utterly CHIBI, in order to go well with standard Lego City sets, and maintain that quaint look-and-feel oficial Lego sets have. The locomotove is a free fantasy build, inspired by swiss epoc III electrics. The construction is 6-wide, and the snot build 2x3 windows are of course inspired by a build by Valgarise. Standard Power Functions. The rake consists of 4 coaches. The livery is of course more-than inspired by classic Trans Europe Express coulor scheme. Grossraumwagen, Aussichtswagen, Speisewagen and Abteilwagen. I´d even claim that it is a totally realistic consist. Construction is deliberatly kept simple. All the waggons are 100% standard SOT-build. A close-up of one of the waggons; The curious Aussichtswagen; I think the glass-dome came out particulary well. It should be easy decorating it with minifigs, and I think the solution is also easily adaptable to 7- and 8-wide models! The whole consist doing some test-rounds on my floor. It negotiates curves and turnouts perfectly well. Seasons Greetings! Ciao

Thanks for the nice comments guys! Dont forget to check out the video that fellow HispaLUG member "celesmen" did;

Thanks. I´ve added a link to popiders photo-stream on Flickr, to my original post. I´m a little saddened if somebody feels that I am not giving credit, as I always go to great length to mention when design parts are from somebody else. (although I dont usually link. Maybe I must link more in the future... )

Everything is!

It´s a salute to the excellent design of that particular model from TLC. I´m not usually a fan of their models, but this one fitted the job quite well, and I didnt see the need for doing another one. Don´t you like it¿?

Wow... That cash register. Consider it stolen! -ehm; "borrowed"!

I suppose you refer to the red Ferrrari, right¿? I´d rather not reveal that. -But I can tell you that only about 33% of the cars actually rolls at all. You must look at how the car is parked in front of the boxes. Lot of tricks and work-arounds has been applied on many of the cars, as I only own 3 sets of the PERFECT new wide wheels (the ones that came out recently with the Octan Racer) The Audi doesnt even HAVE wheels, just some static Technic gears and several tyres around them... The other (Gulf) Ferrari use another solution alltogether.

Yes, there will probably be a little follow-up to show all the "sticker-work" done. Next exhibition is late in december, so I will shoot the photos then.

Hi! Thanks for the nice comments, and THANK YOU for the frontpage! Wow! :classic: The launch of TLC´s Speed Champions is totally coincidence. When I began working on this layout 6 months ago, I dont think anybody except TLC´s own people knew about that series. Here´s a bonus photo. These two excellent cars does not really show in the other photos. They are my creations, but are (almost) reproductions of builder "popiders" (https://m.flickr.com/#/photos/popider) digital creations. Credit where credit´s due! The yellow crane is of course a slightly modified one from a an oficial Lego set. But the REST, including the Porsches and Ferraris are 100% my own creations! ´Nuff said; here´s the bonus photo; Vroooom!

Hello all! It has certainly been a long time since I posted something new. But I havent stopped building. I have quietly been preparing this years new "MegaMOC" for the annual HispaLUG Expo. This time in Granollers (Barcelona). This layout was shown publicly for the first time last weekend; 29th and 30th of November, 2014. And here it is; "A Day at the Races" A Le Mans Series Racing Diorama. *** First off, we´ll start with the boxes. The diorama shows 8 boxes from 4 of the teams. Some heavy partying going on on the balconies... The above photo is probably my favorite of the whole series... A view to the boxes from across the straight; *** Next up, the main Plaza. With the Safety Car standing by. (I think it is going out just at this moment!) There is also a big-screen live pictures of the race. I borrowed my daughters MP4-player, and loaded it with a continous loop of a 8min long video showing racing, to add to the atosphere with real images and roarings sounds. (Probably a bit annoying to my neighbours at the Expo, but heavenly sounds in MY ears...) The local TV6 broadcasting van is parked nearby too, and the (in)famous Loretta Legs is just now doing one of her interviews. Most of her male audience only bear with her for mainly two big reasons... Then, we have the main race control building, with administrative offices and tower. There is a VIP party going on at the terasse. (Elvis is in the building) On the winners podium, an event is taking place, with famous movie star presence. *** The chicane. Shortly after the starting-line, the cars a funnelled through a chicane, and some of the best tribune seats are located near this, from which the spectators can see almost all of the action. The cars are using the curbs to cut off the corners, but during the Expo this situation was continously corrected by hundreds of small childrens hands, which put the cars back "correctly" on the track. Oh, such innocence... ;-) Todays event has drawn a full crowd! *** The accident. Always prone to accidents, today is no exception for this chicane; a car has run off the tracks. (or pushed, or maybe just a little "nudge". Nudging is what racing is all about, you know...) The rescue vehicles and service personal are already busy cleaning up, and extinguishing the fire from the car. The driver certanly looks upset by the ordeal. -Or maybe he is just worred about the horse-sized needle the medic is preapring to use... A helicopter view of the zone. *** Overviews. Talking about helicopter view. Time to "break" the illusion, and show the whole size of the diorama. The whole thing. Eurobricks forum dont allow high resolution photos, but you can see the same photos in high resolution in Flickr... *** The Expo. The next photo below was taken duirng a rare quiet spell; most of the time the show was totally full of visitors. *** The diorama holds 15 race cars. 5 service vehicles. (Much) more than a 100 minifigs. Tecnical info; 10 bp long. 2,5 bp deep. Blue sky-backdrop is 50cm high. (not Lego) Thanks for watching! Extra! See the video that fellow HispaLUG member "celesmen" did;

Looking good, and I am sure the result will be absolutly stunning! Too brick-intensive for me, though... ;-)

Very clever. Well done!

Very nice, good job! Although I understand that this is a personal interpretation, I miss some more "french gimmicks": Like food, cars, painters, fashion, etc...