pirzyk

Since they effectively become single sided and a matched set as long as Rob manufactures them the same, i.e. all innies have South Pole to the top and outies have North Pole to the top the polarity will be consistent. It does force all your cars to be the same orientation and determinant on the power source car.

I do not think that solution will work for the train motor. It only has studs on the ends.

Don't invite the parents over?

There were instructions on railbricks on how to improve the running. The back issues are at: http://brickmodelrailroader.com/index.php/2017/01/06/railbricks-magazine-now-available-heres-to-the-first-successful-week-at-bmr/

I had to double take on the Hanjin container, that looks to me the corrugated panel. I did not know they made them in blue now! I'm going to have to order some and redo my CSX containers.

Nice!

They are modified BrickStuff Pico LED lights. One cable is driving both lights and I used the PF power cable to run them off the same battery as the motor. I could have run 2 cables and been unmodified but I had some broken cables and thought this would be a good use to recycle the LED. I have been picking prototypes that show off the different livery colors of IC/ICG. I already have a GP-38 in that livery so I need to find another interesting one. If I make it non-motorized, it would be easy to build.

Said wonderfully. I was thinking the same thing but could not put it in words.

Damn... that is a good suggestion I'll try that later today.

You get the switches that have the lever on the outside/straight side. The only one that would be a problem is the crossover switch where you get the one on the inside/curved side.

Here's my first attempt at making a small switcher that is PF powered. There are no special techniques in play the design should be self evident in that the PF components drove the design, though I think it turned out OK. I was even able to put in working headlights though they are a bit large. and for good measure, here is my reference photo:

What radi are these switches? Looks like R40.

ME models, BrickTracks is not shipping nor has a funded Kickstarter campaign, yet.

You can't break the cardinal rule of gluing LEGO since these aren't LEGO bricks. I have glued all my ME bricks together and then ballasted with LEGO bricks, which aren't glued. I am planning on replacing my R104s with BrickTrack ones when they are available.

Here's the video from this weekend. I will say the Big Boy handled the R88 Curves just fine :) We did not really test anything other than the R104 and R88s, though you'll note the R72 and R56s are in the video.

Yep, I really wanted to have some keystone cops music playing...

Bumping this old topic. ALCO joined NILTC this past weekend at the Geneva (IL) Library show and he ran a couple of his trains. Here's the first video of them in action

Don't cross your streams! :D

As a backer of the ME curves years ago I received all 4 radi. The R104 and R88 are the most used and popular in my LTC. I only just opened my R56 this past week. We have standardized on the 88/104 setup and I believe I asked for the R120s as a way for Bricktracks to distinguish himself from ME. If you want R56 curves, they are already available from them and very rarely out of stock. R104s are the hard ones to get.

There are 2 options: 1) Space out the gaps between each 2x8. That is what I did. 2) Follow the l-gauge.org R88 Ballasting standard. - JimP

+1 for black but I did IC instead:

Correct the flanges should support the wheels for the gap in the track, we just have very precise tolerances. Hence the wear taking care of the issue. As for the CoNO, I think it derailed at the crossover part and not later at the recieving point. I can't remember if that point was thrown. I do know in later tests all the points were thrown but I *think* I did that for all the tests.

The last 2 weekends NILTC has participated in shows, first at the Abbey in Fontana WI and last weekend at the Arlington Heights (IL) Library. We were given the first prototype R104 double crossover from Coaster to try out. Ballasting was straight forward as seen here: The track is sitting on 2 32x32 and 1 16x32 baseplates for a total of 80x32. I was nervous at first because the flanges of the train wheels were bottoming out. This could have been a problem because we had the crossover on the mains but this only seemed to be happening when the trains were switching lines. When we ran the trains on the straights there was no problem. As the show went on, we saw less and less issues with the trains switching lines. It was like the tracks just needed a breaking in period.I created a video from my phone of the different trains going over the crossover at the Abbey show. It got to the point I wanted to see how fast I could do the crossing and with the exception of the CoNO, speed did not seem to be a problem. Overall I am pleased with the crossover and look forward to Coaster's next iteration, which will have more studs on the stringers. Coaster, I saw in another thread that Shapeways does a polished 3D print. Would that be an option here? Thanks to the CrispyBassist CMF for collecting all the telemetry data.

I use Rubbermaid Roughneck totes in the 3, 10 or 14 Gallon size and the use foam wrap to prevent rubbing and rolling around. Orientation is very dependent on the rolling stock. These work well for taking the trains to shows.

I believe the standard IR receiver limits amperage to 700 - 800 mAh range, so swapping batteries probably will not show a difference. But it is good to double check this. If you want to be sure, you can get yourself a V2 IR receiver from bricklink.