pirzyk

But there are people on this forum who do....

Not dead yet or rise from the ashes :) Didn't this happen with the R104/120 curves?

Yeah, amazing coincidence they released those a week after we announced the Kickstarter... Not the first time this has happened either, they also have several amazing coincidences from 4DBrix...

I don't know about the R40 3D printed double crossovers but I have an R104 Double crossover from BrickTracks/Shapeways: https://www.shapeways.com/product/UK4BHY826/r104-double-crossover-base-for-lego-reg-trains?optionId=63279204 Had it for a few years now and it works fine in our club layouts. I will say the clutch power to the other tracks is weaker than when I first got it, but since we have it ballasted, the track is not moving anywhere. I guess the takeaway is make sure clutch power is not a critical component of your build, or don't disassemble that part of the build.

Sadly not one Target w/ several hundred miles have it for me :( Seems SoCal seems to be the hotbed (or not) of availability.

@toastie Just don't drink the medial alcohol in the states, it is denatured. One of the lasting effects of prohibition.

Agreed, left one. As for the right one, maybe put the tile grills in yellow behind different color plates and see how that looks?

Also with the surface being a different texture you have color matching issues, depending on how much OCD you have. The BrickTrack curves are closer in color to LEGO track than the ME Models track is or any 3D printed track I have seen. The 3D printed track does stand out to me, like the ME models did. The BT curves you can't tell are not LEGO unless you recoginze the shape is nothing that LEGO produces :)

Nice!

Me too! Very interested in how you automate something so small

Dark Green wheels? I also like the idea of having the two tones wheels but that is really complicated, unless you do it via rubber bands or a similar idea.

I wonder if they just decided *not* to publish the notes how to motorize it because the PU parts were not going to be ready in time. I would not be surprised TLG would assume the AFOL community would be able to motorize it and deciminate that info. Might be an interesting article for BMR or other sites like that. Years ago there were articles how to motorize the Consitution train on RailBricks.

Find others to do the same thing.

Also probably doesn't have the fatal flaw of the Double Crossover (can't run it in a non crossing mode for the same direction).

Pics? I use a sharp utility knife when cutting tracks, it provides a clearner edge. I am not sure how the plastic fumes from using a hot blade are compared to the plastic fibers.

Sounds great. I did find the initial setup of the PFx Brick was trivial. I want to add more lighting and relabel the buttons to make it easier during shows to operate.

Here's my photos of the prototype switches before they were sent to PennLUG: http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?f=574683

Last I saw it was used as part of Indiana Transportation Museum's Polar Bear Express (December 2017), which puts it closer to you than to me :)

Thanks for the poll. Hrm, the nose is an interesting point, I'll have to play with it a bit. I did cheat here as the motors are only dual axle yet the Type E are triple axle bogies. I had originally tried to powered triple axles but they ran like crap through the switches and kept derailling. So I kept the decorative sides to hide the lack of an axle :)

I decided I needed a second engine for my City of New Orleans Train but I didn't want to just do a second copy. I have done several IC[G] diesel engines with different liveries in the past so that is what I deiced to do. Canadian National bought the IC line back in 1999 and eventually they refurbished a pair of the EMD E9A engines using a modernized paint scheme, using the last IC logo (aka the deathstar logo). It was used for several years as the CN Santa Train before being sold to Iowa Pacific holdings. Here I present my MOC of that engine (some of you may have seen it in person at the Uke's show or BrickWorld Chicago): The new IC-101 along with it's CoNO's twin. Here's a close up of the deathstar logo: Back shot: Both engines are powered by dual LEGO train motors and are controlled by PFx Bricks. The 101 has a 4MB version while the CoNO will be upgraded to the 16MB version when it arrives, I need the extra room to store the City of New Orleans song on that one! I'm looking forward to running them at our next show. Here is the reference photo I used for the build: This leads me to a question [poll if I had enough postings ;)] for the forum, port windows or no port windows? I am leaning towards the former as it provides a bit more interesting details but I will entertain arguments against them. Here are side by side shots of the MOC:

Re color matching: You will never match exactly because of the differences in material and reflectivity, it is just not going to happen. You maybe able to get close under store lighting conditions but once you get it home, you will notice a difference. LEGO even has color matching issues, see reddish brown, dark red, etc... As for baseplates, are you a member of a LUG? I got a large percentage of my baseplates being a memeber. We get contacted by people anting to unload their collections and other deals, like store closeouts, etc. Good luck and welcome back!

And I could develop one myself but I don't see the need. Too many other items on my wish list! R104 switches and double ceossover, 3 axle train motor, etc.

I build in 6W so that makes it harder. I know I can build some that work but to do what I want sometimes the battery box is my limiting factor. I also have several LUG members that have to take their MOCs apart to get to the battery box to change out the rechargable batteries. Most of my MOCs I just have to pop a cover and plug in the charger. Much faster to get charging up. I just send out a new MOC that is waiting in the wings.

I am in the other camp, I do not like using the recharable AAA batteries in the normal battery box. Having to destroy my moc to get the non rechargeable battery box out to swap batteries is a large PITA. I have 11 recharable boxes right now and the oldest one is going on 10 years. I have not noticed a drop in the charge anyone holds that can't be attributed to friction of what the train is pulling. My current record is 7 hours on a single charge (with 3 auto turn offs to deal with, every 2 hours). Also with the AAA rechargeable batteries you have to get specific ones (envelop?) otherwise they won't fit properly in the LEGO box.

i bought a set of wheels maybe 2 months ago. They arrived really quckly ( sub week).