LoneBrickerSG

The Soviets and/or Russian military had/have them, so I doubt it.

Not to slander your building, but does it actually work? Seems like it would just slide or tumble on impact.

That is just too cool to not like.

Yup. The biggest draw for me was the locomotive. I fell in love with it at first sight, but once I finished building it, I realized the design was not hard to mod for detail to make it really pop I keep forgetting mine's not actually finished... those doors and grey L-plates need to be replaced!

I can't get over how good these look. I would love to have my own as 'generic' modern passenger cars.

As someone who owns it and debated on it himself, get it! That locomotive is worth having. It's a great design on its own, and is very easy to modify to be better. I added siderods, shortened the pilot truck, added details to the cab, a custom crew, and I'm in the process of extending the tender to a decent length. Power will be installed inside an appropriate boxcar or baggage car when I am able to build one.

I sort of took a GP30 route when I modded my 60052 locomotive, although I see that I did not do it justice.

My biggest one personally is this guy USSR ChmE3 diesel. Supposed to be a six-axle unit but I keep having trouble with that, so I leave it at four.

Man The detail on the wheel sets is so very simple, but so very awesome.

That tower.. That tower AND those loco's...

Wow...

Trains have been my life-long love. I thought they were just plain awesome when I was a little 'un, and now that I know how the world actually works their sheer economic power is what makes me drool. I grew up in the 1990's, but I had no idea Lego made trains until the first 9v sets came out, although I didn't get one until the 4565 freight set. I am big into North American rail, though, so things like the Maersk train, the Lone Ranger train and 60052 are the ones I really like.

I don't think it's a problem, necessarily, but for people who want to minimize rolling resistance on trains these straight cars can be problematic. If I take the boxcar I mentioned and push it down the track, it will stop in the middle of curves.

That one is very close to the one from 3677, which I have. I can attest, the 3677 box car is really at the limit of how far a pair of wheel sets can be separated. This thing hates going around corners. That's why I added bogies to mine.

There is nothing inherently wrong with it. It still works as well as it did when I first unwrapped it 14 years ago. I would just like to be able to run as much off my PF controller as possible.

Really. See this was something I wasn't aware of.

That looks really good. Did you design it from the ground up, or did you borrow from something? Do you have any plans to make siblings?

Here's a question I originally meant to ask at the start. Eventually I would like to have a dedicated train table, probably not anything monstrous, but I'd like to keep the options open. If I wanted to run a system of 9v track, powered by a PF batt box and IR receiver, will I ever be at risk of the battery box not having enough muscle to power the entire line? For the sake of example we'll figure like a 15-foot by 8-foot setup, and assume the 9v track follows the edge and has a couple of sidings. Would I ever have a power shortage problem? I know this becomes a concern in larger scale model setups, hence my question. Maybe I could rig up some simplified "signals" along the route, too, just for the heck of it.

That was never my intention. This is my way of being able to use my original 4565 locomotive along with my other PF trains without having to hop between controllers. DCC with scale model trains has a concept that is kind of similar, where the system can operate digitally-optimized trains as well as one or two old school analog trains at the same time.

Honestly I refuse to ever buy into those. If PF is ever discontinued I'd rather be sitting pretty with AAA batt boxes than one that needs a proprietary wall charger. As a track power source, I'd spring for one of the larger AA ones.

Has anyone tried rigging a PF battbox and IR receiver to 9v track power? I recently re-constructed my 4565 loco and it's begging to roll, but my 9v controller is not working so well anymore. I started wondering if a Power Functions system could be connected to the 9v track system without damaging any of the electronics. There's a wire brick piece available that can connect to 9v and PF connections, I just have to get one.

I can't figure a reason why you would need more than one....

Ohhh... why did I have to see this.... this is dangerous for me...

That's a Russian loco, right? How well do those stretched-out trucks work? I'd like to build a ChME3 in the future, and they have similar truck designs.

Semi-related, have Lego said if or when the Heavy Haul cargo train will force 60052 off the shelves for good? I'm very disappointed that 60052 had such a short life compared to other train sets, and I am also disappointed that the new one seems to offer much less within the set.