PasDeChocolat

Coaster, When will the production restart? Is the delay impacting non metal orders?

Hi all, Could anybody give me some return of experience with me models? I know the debuts well rather slow but I'm curious about how the things are going now. I'm planning to order alternate lego tracks and me model is one of the possibilities. Many thanks in advance.

It's building time ! We came back from the lego shop with everything we wanted. We where second entering the shop and I jumped onto the Bounty. It was a good move as they only had 4 or 5 in stock. I spend a considerable amount of time sorting the CMF one by one to get as much Kendo Kai as possible + one plain Garmadon and one Lloyd. I got 3 Kendo Kai the Garmadon as expected and one SpinJitsu Training Mya instead of Lloyd (misjudged the shape of the the swords in the pack). For the rest, everything was available. The two happy little guys:

Well tomorw is the big day for me and the kids. Just hope evrithing is on stock at lego shop lille. Any one some tip about that ?

Hi all, I'm following this topci since a long time. We (my 2 boys and I) became NINJAGO fan, since I bought the 70751 Le temple de l'Airjitzu. Since then I regularly bought some sets and the kids, despite their young age, (2.5 and 4.5) never stopped playing with it. From that I started to save money as soon as I knew that NINJAGO movies/sets where planned by LEGO. Now comes the time to get to business: Saturday it is afol days! So I'll drive the 99km (from BE to FR) to go to the nearest lego shop and empty my wallet. I'll try to make that day one of the best of my kid's lives . by no shopping list is: 70618 Le QG des ninjas 70607 La poursuite dans la Ville 70606 L'entraînement au Spinjitzu 70608 Le pont de la jungle 70614 Le Jet supersonique de Foudre 70615 L'Armure de Feu 70617 Le temple de l'arme ultime suprême + some CMF + some pickabrick I'm just really worried about the stock at my lego shop. What do you think? normally everything should be there?

I'll also show up on sunday with family and friends. It a 2h drive but can't wait to be there!

Hi there, I've just been trough that bogie nightmare. I found one solutions with a "floating pivot point". You can see the details there... hope it helps .

Hi, I'm living near Binche, we are not so close :-) but I have family in waregem, zeel, sint-niklaas... so everithing is still possible. Brickmania? did not know anithing about it but from what I could see on the web, I'll do everithing I can to be there !

OMG, I'm just speechless; so many details, such an attention to proportions, and... the size of the whole thing ! Congratulatin for this marvelous work.

Hi all, A happy man is talking to you. I just spent a whole afternoon bricking! I really had a nice time. On top of that I managed to do some progress on my steamer. Here are some of the ideas I want to submit to you. Please comment if you know ways to improve my solutions. First, the front bogie: I was not really happy with an arm solution to hold the bogie in place because, in curves, the arm swings to allow the lateral movement of the bogie BUT it also moves the bogie backward. This means the bogie actually moves 2 axes. To me it was a source of problems. So I investigated a bit and came to a “pivot moving along an axel” solution. It actually has the big advantage that the bogie does not move forward backward anymore. In my final version, it even allows the train to run on non-flat track as it behave as some longitudinal pendular suspension. IMG_2890 by delaere.john, on Flickr IMG_2895 by delaere.john, on Flickr As you can see in the picture above I started with building a sliding pivot in the bogie itself and in between the piston fixation. This did not work well as the lateral movement of the bogie was actually too important. After a few test I came to the conclusion that only one sliding pivot was enough if you place it close enough to the front wheel of the central bogie: IMG_2908 by delaere.john, on Flickr Then I looked for a way to position precisely the pistons and the sliding axel in the model. I came up with a rather simple solution as I choose to put both of them on two longitudinal axels. This allows placing both pistons and front bogie exactly where you want them. With that, I managed to build a rather compact solution. IMG_2913 by delaere.john, on Flickr For the central bogie I wanted to avoid the friction of the wheels on the frame so I build it in 3 width. I also decided to put it on pendular suspension as the front bogie. The solution allowed too much roll of the suspended part of the chassis so I added two alignment systems, one in the front and one at the rear. I finally added some mean of tuning the wheel height. Really handy for fine setup or to accommodate with adding or suppressing the rubbers: IMG_2900 by delaere.john, on Flickr IMG_2914 by delaere.john, on Flickr Finally I added the rear magnet that I wanted to be combined with the chassis frame so that the push of motorized tender is well repartited… IMG_2903 by delaere.john, on Flickr I guess you fell of your chair; yes, indeed, big mistake from me. This solution moves the magnet laterally in curves; magnet needs to be on the last bogie, so I corrected: IMG_2916 by delaere.john, on Flickr By now I’m happy with the result. A bit afraid of finding issues when building the top structure or even during trial after finishing everything. But I guess I have no other choice. I really enjoyed this build, I find my solution a bit original but it seems to work.. for now J. I also appreciated that MOCing train allows to play a lot with technics (that I was practicing quite a bit before to come to train) so it is actually best of both world. I like the use of technic because they are present in the MOC to really implement functionalities (suspension, sliding pivot...) so my MOC does have some kind of mechanics in it and I like that. IMG_2912 by delaere.john, on Flickr All in All, it is far from perfect. Please advise if you see thing that would lead me into trouble.

Completely agree. I’m far from being able to build a working MOC in LDD. I also prefer to play with the bricks and mess around. Indeed. Until now, I identified tree ways to do get a 4-x-x working: 1) The pistons are part of the central bogie. That allows having that bogie on a pivot point. Maybe it helps going through curves. Of course it is best suited for a non-motorized loco. I personally prefer that solution for a 2-x-x so that the front of the train is not too long as I did. 2) If I understood well, there is your option witch consist of having the pistons are in-between the front and rear axle of the “4” bogie. This is the option I personally prefer 3) Simply have the pistons above the wheels of the “4” bogie. I don’t really like that option, I find it visually unbalanced. 4) Anyone other options ? One think I’m also considering, is going for 7st width, as it will allow more confort for lateral movement of the bogies.

Hi dries, I also live in Belgium, and also started to build train layout and MOCs. Looks like the virus has reach the country (a few of my friends are also preparing big things). I don’t have much experience but did a lot of thinking already (see Compact double level track layout). One point I want to bring your attention to is the playability aspect of your layout. Let me explain: you have a 6y old boy and I’m sure he I will be playing a lot with your project. In respect to that, and it is something I completely missed in my first attempt, is the accessibility for the little ones. My 3y boy had to carry along his little chair to stand on it and play with the train. But he was never able to actually reach something 40cm further form the table border. What I and maybe you should consider is the have the layout laying lower AND don’t have tables setup wider that what a little guy can access in the middle from both side. I’m not sure if I’m clear, but it just means that I would rather have a hole in the middle of the table that the boys can access from below so that they can reach every area of the layout. It may also help you if you need to switch the tracks at the other end of the table. I hope it will helps , anyway all the best for the realization of that ambitious project!

Nice MOC, I like the massive look of it. Just a little question: with so many wheels, can it actually turn on road travel?

Really these are marvels . Both trains are close to perfect in my opinion. Congratulation for the achievement. On another hand, I'm also planning to get rid of the Power function IR command. I was thinking to use wifi (esp8266). Nowadays, I'm more looking toward a 433Mz solution. Could you explain more on your control mods?

Yes, you make me think about it and definitely this will improve the behaviour. I'll work on that too. For that point, As I'm planning to improve the look of this loco drasticly, I prefer to go of a "modern" technic option. Anyway thanks for the advices , I'll try to implement that asap.

Sure! I'll start with that. Lets do the obvious first . By the way Is there a best position to place the pivot point of the "4" bogie? OK! Fisrt big learning for me : I allways tought that rods had to be opposite: left on 6h -> right on 12h but indeed it tends to naturally block. I must say that is the first time I hear about that. Never seen something on the net about it. It is maybe too obvious... but to me it was not .

+1 Breakdown, I'm solving parts problems that way: buy complete trains. You just wait for some good deals . Like for the sales after christmas for example. I got Red cargo for 82 euros that way .

Hi everyone, First of all allow me to put this topic in context: I’m submitting you this MOC attempt to collect your solutions and opinions about my bogie and piston setup that does not work at all. So please forget about the ugly boiler and cheap and dirty look of this model, especially after the amazing post of Murdoch17 . It is just an long 7710 build to put some weight on the wheels and give some chassis rigidity. I’ve been looking around the web for different solutions but did not find something that really fit my needs. Let me list the things I dislike or want to improve on the model : As you can see, the pistons are much too far from the head of the Loco. I simply could not move them forward as they would prevent the “4” bogie to move laterally. Talking about the “4” bogie, it just moves way too far laterally, as you can see it goes beyond the 6 sutds width of the loco. So the whole model is actually completely unstable in the turns. At medium speed, it just jump out of the track. I was rather happy with the design of the central “6” bogie. It is compact and rather well proportionated. BUT when putting it on track, it turns out that putting the blind wheel in front to hide it behind the piston, was a mistake. It seems to increase the lateral move of the front of the loco and leaks in stability. My first thought was to remove the rubbers around the big wheels, in order to prevent power to be lost in putting the piston bars in action. I also did not put the left and right wheels on a single 6std technic axel in order to allow differential speed on the inside and the outside of a turn. All this seems to be also a mistake as finally nothing moves and the piston bars tends to get blocked straight away. Finally, I also had difficulties to have everything “flat”: it is not easy to compensate the wheels differences ( with and without rubber). Actually even plates are too tick. So this is it: this model is rather unstable not well proportionated (regarding the piston position) so please, if you have some expertise to share (and I know you have :-) ) , please comment. I’m really wondering how you guys worked out those issues.

Impressive leverage of this rather common train (at least in my appreciation). I was not appreciating this set too much but with what you turned it into, it really stand out. Nice realization, just hope that Mr LEGO is seeing that. By the way, did you add a motor or do you stay on one?

Many thanks for the comments. Indeed, there where collisions in the beginning. But after you get some practice in coordinating the track switch with the trains, the things run rather smooth. After a while, you definitely to get some driving skills while running the third train from one loop to the other. You also needs the train to be quite responsive as you need to accelerate fast and break often in order to synchronize with the trains running on the top and bottom loops. I came to such an idea but more in the form of an elevator being able to take some cars from one level to the other but I'm really lacking time to complete such a project.

Thanks for all the comments it is much appreciated And a lot of interesting questions… You guys know what you are talking about To Rail Co, -It is indeed cluttered and that was the intention as the goal was to get my 2y+ little boy to start with lego, I wanted the whole thing to look fascinating to him... and it worked -To me the maximum train you can actually run on the layout is tree. There would be one on each level running the loop at fixed pace and the hird one that you operate to navigate around that. To Man with a hat, There is no problem of overhang but the question is really pertinent. As you spotted, the pillars of the low level are rather close to the track. They actually don’t allow the red cargo train to pass, as he is too long. That is why I designed the yellow/red MOC so compact, to allow him to go on both track level. The push along train has of cours no problem there. To Cgarnison, Yes I’m really happy with the “compactness” of the layout. But I need to say that I’m not sure it is the best options to go to a show. The track is imosible to cary in big bits, when the tracks are disconnected, the structure tends to become quite fragile. The only solution is to put everything appart to move it. And belive me putting back all those pillars would take a lot of time before a show. Unless you spend half the night Anyway, thanks again for all the comments, don't hesitate to shoot

Yes, all train are powerfunctions. the two 3687 red cargo train are stock both on same channel. the 7710 push-along train has a medium power function overgeared, and the MOC does in deed hav a lot of power. It was actually the main criteria when I builded it. It has two train powerfuntion engines and, I'll say something special for a train this size, a technic power function battery box wich is heavier because of the AA batteries instead of the AAA. That gives a lot of grip. I'll try to create a topic about it.

Hello everyone. First of all, I’ve been following this forum for a long time now. I’ve always been amazed by what you guys are capable of. I don’t even dream of matching your bricking skills someday. I anyway tried to start somewhere and came up with a track layout that I want to submit to your critics. Context: According to the WAF I had to create something really compact (we have a small house) and rather cheap. With the help of BlueBrick, investigated quite a few options for track layout and came to the conclusion that to get at least a bit of playability, I had to build something over two levels. I also came accors the post of BrickBuff where I found the way to avoid having two inclines which, as you know, are really space consuming. (-> thx again). From that I had to find the cheapest and most esthetic support construction to put my second level on. After quite a lot of bricklinking, I figured out that the simples things are often the better. I decided to go for a full brick solution which has a really 80’s look that I just love. https://www.flickr.c...N06/16695656408 Result: This is what I get at the end. There is no landscape, it is rather raw but I’m really pleased with it: It is so compact, quite good looking to me (looks like it comes straight out of an old lego idea book) and my son and me just envoy the playability. https://www.flickr.c...N06/16695241680 https://www.flickr.c...N06/16262642743 https://www.flickr.c...N06/16694988488 https://www.flickr.c...N06/16882589535 https://www.flickr.c...N06/16696438539 And finally a little video to for you to see the whole thing in motion.

Hello everyone, As newcomer in the forum I’ll try to do a quick presentation. I'm a LEGOmaniac at least that's the way my wife calls me . On BrickSet, I've 119 sets dated from 1977 to 2014. Since my early ages, when my father started to offer me technics before I was 6, I've always been playing with bricks. I came back to it when I finished my studies and got a job. I've been collecting and really trying to do something out of the "studless technics" but came to the conclusion that I just hate them... sorry about that but it is not Lego anymore, you could as well play kenex or any other construction toy. By now, I'm the proud father of a little boy, so I decided to go back to the basic themes as town, city and trains.