snowvictim

I have 4 GEs.

Wow... I hooked this bad boy with a provisional drive system. Installed two 9V motors and tried to get him to go through a relatively straight layout with some curves. He managed the straights, obviously, the minor curves went fine, but the 90 degrees turns didn't go that well. I'm pretty sure I'm going to have to adopt Lego9VTrainFan's long-curve system, involving an ENORMOUS amount of straight tracks... which basically translates into an ENORMOUS amount of money...

Thanks, I might be building the passenger cars soon. Updated the topic with pictures of the actual build.

Seems like everyone's got the Maersk train. It's a really pretty model. Hard to choose between Maersk or BNSF/Santa Fe Super Chief...

The roofs are symmetrical. One's just lower than the other.

I like the blue wheel module. Very clever design. I don't like these huge GBC shows. They bought all the balls from BrickLink and have like 10,000 balls and they're flying around everywhere, and then you're wondering why they cost $1 a piece at best.

Depends on how you treat Lego. Personally, I treat it as a tool. Dimwits say Lego is a toy. Well it isn't. Lego are components, pieces, materials, resources, call it whatever. You buy a Lego train. Okay, that's a toy. But what ignorant people don't understand is that you can disassemble whatever you build and then build whatever else you can imagine. I think treating Lego purely as a toy is a serious misunderstanding of the product.

I'm looking forward to seeing how the engine comes out. Good work so far!

Well, so I did revive my train collection somewhat... Some trains are still incomplete, but at least they're mostly assembled. This is a quick snapshot. As you can see I've got the 4511 High-Speed Train, the 60052 Cargo Train, the 7939 Cargo Train Loco (wagons still unassembled), my custom Red Engine, the 7938 Passenger Train, and a complete 10233 Horizon Express. 4512 on order from BrickLink, currently shipped. Also, I've finally got the bucks for selling my 10179 Millenium Falcon so I'm ordering the BNSF engine, the Santa Fe Super Chief, the Red Cargo Train, another 4511, and probably one or two 10158 Train Cars depending on how much money I have left. Right now it's running a small oval. I was lucky enough to get my hands on 117 9V rails for $70 from some guy in the countryside. I guess they don't know the value of that stuff over there. But the small track for the 4511 isn't because of a lack of rails, it's because of a lack of space. I'll be relocating my railway to the attic soon where I'll have an enormous amount of space. Then there's the 60052 Cargo Train. Got this one yesterday. In my opinion it's much better than the 7939 Cargo Train to the left of it. The 7939 is still incomplete, ordered the doors to the storage hold from BrickLink along with some of the roof parts. I got the stickers though, so that's good. This is my custom Red Engine. It's nothing fancy but I like it. I haven't got any 9V switch tracks yet so it's just standing on the RC track waiting for that BrickLink order to arrive. Front wheels need some rework though. Also, the City Windscreen on the other side is transparent. Got a red one ordered already. Emerald Night rebuilt just today. Stayed up till 5am redoing this badboy. My sister has a little dog that has a very bad habbit of going to the toilet in the house. Well, you kind of get why I had to make a rebuild. Disassembled it, washed the parts, dried them and the reassembled the finest Lego model (in my opinion). As you can see there's still some parts that need to be added or replaced, but at least it's in working condition. Car. Still missing some elements from the roof and the hull. Got those ordered too. There's currently nothing inside as I haven't decided whether I want this to be a sleeping car or a passenger car. I'll definitely make more of these. Unfortunately I'll also have to invest in a XL motor, the M motor isn't doing full speed with this empty car. This is a custom train station I've made. Nothing amazing, but it does the trick well. There's Dracula in the top right corner, but you can only see his legs and cape. Passenger Train, also rebuilt very recently. I'll need to buy an IR receiver and a train motor for this guy, took them out to power up my double Horizon Express. Right now he's just sitting on the track waiting for the power functions. As you can see the engine is missing a few parts, but I have these lying around somewhere so I won't have to order them. There's my double Horizon Express on the outer track. I alternate between the Horizon Express and the Emerald Night on the outer tracks, but the passenger rail is connected with the cargo rail anyway so I can pretty much put any train on all the tracks (except the 9V rails as the switch tracks haven't arrived yet). Well, I'll get an update done once the BNSF, Santa Fe Super Chief and Green Cargo Train arrive. I'm off to the mall now to get some more track and start the relocation to the attic.

Not-So-Emerald Night

Pics or didn't happen.

Does it require a 4 foot long curve to turn?

I was never a massive train fan. Went through my childhood buying Harry Potter and Star Wars sets. I remember seeing 4511 on the shelf at the Lego store I went to. It always looked interesting, but I always had to buy Harry Potter or Star Wars... Now I'm buying all these sets overpriced (duh) at BrickLink. It's nice that at least I can get some of them relatively cheaply. Anyway, my adventure with trains started in 2012 when I bought the Emerald Night, followed by a red Passenger Train and the yellow Cargo Train after that. I got bored and I scrapped these models. Recently I've gone back to trains with an unprecedented enthusiasm paralleled by nothing. I'm trying to get the Emerald Night back into shape. The passenger car is totally trashed. Gonna have to rebuild it from scrap. Other than that the train is in "decent" condition. The Passenger Train... oh God... I salvaged the parts from it for my GBC modules. Yes, I am stupid, you don't have to point that out. Managed to rebuild the engine of the Cargo Train, few parts missing so I had to substitute. Bought a 4511 and 2 Horizon Express sets. I've managed to sell my 10179 Millenium Falcon on BrickLink for 1200 Euro and I'm putting all that money on trains. I'm gonna get the Cargo Train Deluxe, another 4511, the Red Cargo Train, already ordered the 4512 (prior to getting the cash for the Falcon), a BNSF, a Santa Fe Super Chief, and basically anything I can get my hands on from the 2003 and newer sets. I'm going in there like Gordon Gekko on that Teldar Paper stock, baby. Oh, if anyone asks if I don't feel sad about selling the Falcon. Hell yeah I do. But I figured, it's too big to play with (just sits on a desk, not even in my main room), and all it's really good for is pleasing the eye and gathering dust. Besides, some pieces fell off due to a... accident. So to sum up: 2x 10233 Horizon Express 1x 10194 Emerald Night 1x 7939 Cargo Train 1x 7938 Passenger Train 1x 4511 High-Speed Train 1x 4512 Cargo Train 1x MOC Red Engine (actually looks nice) To buy: 1x BNSF 2x Santa Fe Super Chief 1x Santa Fe Carriage Either 1x 4511 or 1x 10158 and 1x 10157 (more inclined on getting 4511) 1x Red Cargo Train

I'd go for a cargo train.

With some layout of course it is possible. I do believe you'd need flextracks though since conventional curves would be more resilient to achieving such a layout. I don't see a problem with 8 studs between the rails though, the space between seems just right - not too wide not too narrow.

In the end it's going to be a bit different. The dark bluish grey slopes beneath the train base will be white, and the motors themselves will be the black 9V train motors. Don't know why but I decided to make passenger cars for this train.

Just thought I'd give a quick update on the train. All the parts for the engine have been ordered apart from the wheels and underplate elements. I'm not going to use the elements I already have, instead I'm building a dedicated base for this train (which it definitely deserves). I'm going to track down the necessary parts for the underbase in the afternoon. Meanwhile, here's the complete engine:

As for the Schools Class. Might be a bit overscaled but for the front and back: http://www.bricklink.com/catalogItem.asp?P=30099 Then use dark green plates with dark green tiles on top to fill that in. Put some inverted slopes in the middle to thicken that section. Alternatively: http://www.bricklink.com/catalogItem.asp?P=6005 Then build the rest of the arch with 1 x 1 Dark Green Bricks and do the thickening with 1 x 1 Modified Dark Green Bricks (with a stud on 1 side) to which attach a 2/3 Dark Green Slope tile. Personally, I think the first one looks better, but the second one fits better with the scale.

I'm definitely going for 4 wheel bogies. Makes turning much easier. Besides, I think it just looks better anyway. Just ordered most of the parts (the whole model is 600, got 572) off BL for a surprising $68.84 (excludes shipping costs)!

Thanks! Have you got any idea how these long trains do on normal turns (4 curved tracks)? I was thinking because they're longer and the wheels are further apart they will require a longer curve to turn. I'm planning to hook this badboy up to my 9V setup when he's done but my current track layout isn't that long (putting all money in assembling him, will have to buy 9V tracks later).

=== UPDATE === So the parts arrived today. I managed to get most in parts in 1 order, but there's still a few things left to put on the train. Anyway, here are the photos: As you can see, I'm missing 16 2x1 Dark Blue Curved Slopes, 12 2x2 Dark Blue Curved Slopes, 16 2x1 Dark Bluish Gray Slope Grilles, 2 2x2 Dark Bluish Gray Plates, some Dark Bluish Gray Bricks for the bottom, 4 3x2 Dark Bluish Gray Plates with Pinholes on 1 end, and 1 more 9V Motor. I'm also going to need a shedload more of 9V straight tracks, but I already found those so they'll be arriving shortly. === END OF UPDATE === Hi folks! This is my first train build. I used LDD and then I'm going to order the parts from BrickLink. I bet this engine is going to cost me a fortune - the dark blue parts are hard to come by and are quite expensive relative to other colours. But I'm dedicated to this project so what the hell. I built and 8-wide diesel engine based on a Southern Pacific engine I saw. Please note that this is my first train engine build so go easy on the hate. Constructive comments are welcome - I honestly had no idea what to put in this engine. Looked up some pics and just went along with what looked good in my opinion. Here are the pictures: Note: there are no wheels etc. on this train because I don't feel comfortable doing them in LDD. It's quite annoying for that bit. I'll build them with actual Lego pieces and then post the entire base for the engine in this thread as I already have the parts for that. Also, I'll be getting custom decals done. They'll probably be in Polish since I want to keep this project "patriotic", despite this train being based off an American one and containing a strong American colour motive. I just really liked the Southern Pacific train and wanted to build something similar. I could scrap the dark blue elements and use white or red in order to make it more Polish, but the dark blue just composes so well. Older pictures:

4 sets are good. Then you keep the 2 aditional engines on a side track. Or just do what I did and put them up for BrickLink. :D

I like the design of the wagons, but I think it might look better with the light grey top being changed with a white top. Red, white, blue composes nicely, as you can see with many flags.

These modulars Lego released are pretty sweet for city layouts. I remember when Green Grocer and Grand Emporium came out. Phenomenal and unprecedented. I think Lego should really go this way because the older City buildings were a tragedy...

Last one I got was the UCS Millenium Falcon. It was the only UCS I was missing so I got it, even though I gave up collecting Star Wars sets quite a while before that.