Snapshot

Common sense also says that people who don't start off so aggressively get better results.

Yes, that's the one from your web site that I'm complaining about. I don't know if it's the fault of the original .lxf file or what LDD's Building guide mode does to it but what comes out is not a working module and has some insane orders of building (like putting two liftarms together then adding the connecting pins several frames later). I have seen other complaints about errors in this file but, of course, I can't find them now. I've built the Bidule a Balles and Cradle Tipper from your site without any major problems but they were both from PDF files. I'd really prefer to build Torsen's original Cardan Lift but it means buying too much classic brick as I don't hold much stock.

I was hoping to take my copy of Nico71's Cardan Lift to a show in Reading later this month but I've got to the end of the LDD file and it's obviously incomplete as there's nothing linking or retaining the arm mechanism to the motor module. Looking at Nico71's video I can't see what's missing and I can't get the .LDR file to do anything useful so I'm stuck.....

Apologies for disappearing; it's what happens when one's mother is 94, lives 90 miles away and falls over. She's okay, more shaken than stirred. Hopefully we won't have to go back again until Xmas day. I've tried putting the file into BrickHub.org but it only found a single step. So it looks like a dead-end and I'll just have to live with the weirdness that LDD produces. FWIW I want to build Nico71's Cardan Lift GBC module so it's quite complex for LDD. I ran Lasse's Stepper Module in BrickHub and the instructions are a perfect example of how they should be. Thanks to all that tried to help.

I have to admit to losing patience with the whole LDraw infrastructure as it seems designed to prevent me doing what I want. So, yes please, some guidance would be greatly appreciated. I'd struggle on with the .lxr file but LDD does complex builds in its own completely bat-shit order so I thought LDraw might be better..... FWIW I have the complete 2018 v2 package installed.

Am I being exceptionally dim here but I can't find a way to step through a .ldr file so I can build the model? LDView seems the logical choice but I can't see how to do anything useful with it. All the tutorials are about creating .ldr files; there's nothing I can find about what the end-user can actually do with them. Please rescue an old man from approaching insanity......

Umm, there were twenty-five years between me coding professionally then learning NXT and I can tell you it was a real struggle. Any more than that may be more than I can handle these days. But I know I can write the logic for what I need so I'll have a look at your automated train code and see if I can mutate it as required.

Ah yes, thanks, I've just read some of the tear-down thread. What I want/need is two trains, each with two motors and a colour sensor so I think that's going to be some way off yet. I have a PC on my show layout anyway as I have an action cam on the train, streaming to the PC and a 24" screen. It seems it almost doesn't matter what the rest of the layout is like as long as people can wave at the train and see themselves on the screen.

Thanks. I realise I can't use Mindstorms sensors but I'm sure I saw someone in this thread using the Boost colour sensor as it has the same connector. He may well have hacked the app to do it but who cares?

Apologies if I've missed it somewhere but has anyone managed to get the PU app to control two separate PU battery boxes? I have a layout that would benefit from two trains stopping at passing points. I can do it with PF and Mindstorms but it's messy so two PU trains with colour sensors as already demonstrated here would be great.

Knowing Carl, it's very likely to be a vinyl sticker and the Brickshelf photo shows that it's been printed so is probably a later version than the one I photographed - ready for use in the Harry Potter video game of the time.

It's certainly closer to Bricktrix's original model from eight years ago, as shown in this (poor) photo.

It didn't work when they tried it before so they're not likely to try it again.

Although I had Lego as a youngster, it wasn't that developed then and I was more into slot cars (initially Scalextric leading to scratch-built 1:32 and 1:24 cars). Jump forward 40+ years to 2010 and I'm messing about with Lego stormtroopers, taking the series of which my avatar is part. I'm looking for something more complex to build than the City construction vehicles of the time and discovered Brick Express's Large Prairie. "Oh, no" I told my wife "I'll be happy with it as a static model." Obviously, I wasn't and things went a bit expensive from there.......

Coming to this late but I did this four years ago. https://www.flickr.com/photos/snapshot-jh/5792251575I had two trains pausing to pass each-other at a central station at this year's STEAM but couldn't get more working as a NXT-G fault on my laptop stopped me getting the motorised points working.

But it was a good way for me to get rid of my excess curved track.

I can send you the .pdf and .lxf for the Hobby Train model 22 that I started from but you'll just have study the photo to see what I changed. I do have a .lxf for the shared bogie but the Horizon Express design will work just as well.

So I bought two 60051 plus some 28-stud baseplates and enough extra parts to make two locos and four coaches. There were still a load of bits left over so I put most of them together with some help from the bits box and got this: I'm not sure there's a lot of point to it but it would run if I put batteries in it. It actually looks better sitting on track than it does lying on my desk.

I made club cars for my 7938/7939 hybrid train a few years ago but I also made some baggage cars and I repeated that for my extended 60051 And here's my extended coach (one of four). By using 1x2 bricks as the tables instead of 2x2 I was able to fit three sets of seats in the window area. I may have to steal frogstudio's utility box design as it's much more interesting than mine.

I'm doing the same thing but I'm stretching the engines too. I have one 60051 with another due to arrive in a day or two. I had four 28-stud baseplates in stock and there's a Bricklink order with another couple plus extra bits also on its way. I've built as a much as I can of the two end and passenger cars but need the second set and BL order to finish them plus a couple of extra carriages. I've used a slightly different design (the one from the 7898 engine) for the rear bogie on the trailing car as I don't like the 1x6 brick used across the middle of the current design and I've also used it for the front bogies on both engines. Looks a lot better with the bogies the same size. I'd like to get up to four carriages but preferably without buying a third set. Also known as 'sleepers'.

I've controlled trains using reed switches without resistors with NXT and the results are in the video here. I extended it to control multiple trains but found that as the IR signals are so slow to send it was only possible to have one train moving at a time.

I've been doing something similar with the IR Link for a couple of years - controlling a PF train or several on a linear track. The real problem is that its range is even less than the PF controller so a friend built me an IR repeater system to make it useable in display halls. Here's the Flickr video of my first attempts from two years ago.

This started as a PF version of Hobby Train model 22 but, as I wasn't limited by what was in the HT box, it gradually developed into what we see below. I think the only parts of the original design are the cabs and carriage end doors. The motor is at the front of the RH carriage with the IR receiver above it and a rechargeable battery further back. A 2 x 6 plate lifts off the roof to give access to the battery on/off button and charging point. It uses two of my usual shared bogies between the carriages and a 7938/9 dummy bogie at the rear. It looks good trundling around and, as it's very light, will go for four hours or more on one charge.

This should be fairly simple. It varies a bit depending on how many studs wide the trains are but Lego trains are roughly 1:40 scale. So 1.5km times 40 equals 60km. 60km in two hours is 30kph which is probably a bit slow over that distance for real life although Henrik's loco looked more like a shunter so 30kph would be very fast.

Not reading thread properly.......