coaster

First batch of pre-orders ship out tomorrow, the rest will ship out on Monday (I can only do so much in a day). I'll have some sets available after next week. This has been fun, but boy am I sick of sorting parts!

If you haven't seen the announcement, Brickmania has launched a pretty sweet looking Mohawk, designed by @Glenn Holland. You can check it out here: https://www.brickmania.com/new-york-central-mohawk-l-2a-4-8-2-steam-locomotive/ Go get yourself one. And buy me one too while you're at it.

Lots of options. The turntable piece has an axle hole that goes all the way through it, so you could motorize it from above or below. Alternatively, the throw are has a bar end fitting and uses exactly a 1-stud stroke, so you could make your own mechanism to drive it if you like. What the actual best way is, I don't know! But seeing what you guys come up with will be fun!

Probably early next year. Design work is all done. I just need money for tooling. :) We're still on schedule at the moment to ship by 12/15. If I get the parts in sooner, I'll certain send them out. We did find a small bug on one part that needed to be reworked, but that shouldn't really slow us down much, if at all. COVID, on the other hand, could easily start wrecking havoc on us. If something should change though, I'll post it here and on Facebook. I'll send an email blast out too.

Some 9V plates were used in the creation of this prototype, yes.

Haven't decided about production yet. I for sure need to let the dust settle on everything else first. Unfortunately, these prototypes cost me about $100 apiece to build and take 2 hours to assemble. Production would certainly be better, and would only take a few seconds to assemble, but making the prototype involves scavenging ports from various LEGO elements, including a 9V motor. Its sacrifice will not be in forgotten.

As it's almost Halloween, a little project (and subsequent thread) necromancy seems in order. I've had time while waiting for switches and other things to come in, so I made some new prototypes utilizing ball bearings and made the cover facades removable. I've minimized the footprint to the best of my ability. No idea on what it would cost to mass produce, and frankly I'm not sure I want to deal with another production project yet either. But here it is nonetheless.

They do hold a design patent for the look of the PF connector, but seeing as how it is a functional element (much like the stud arrangement), it's likely not very enforceable.

Yes. We'll be releasing one in conjunction with OKBrickworks late this year. Can't say more than that just yet though.

Different power systems, but not track. The 9V track system was introduced in '91 or so, and the "downgrade," if you will, to battery powered trains didn't force anyone to move to the plastic track as well. The track changeover occured organically as LUGs expanded or rebuilt layouts and simply sold off the more expensive 9V track, but while that occurred the PF trains ran happily over the 9V rails. Going the other way though would be a much greater burden, as now it is imperative you change the tracks too. Would I use 9V tracks? Absolutely, and still do. I'm in the #9V4eva camp. When you hear about LUGs dumping their 9V stuff, it's often me buying it. I can't even use the tracks I make! 9V isn't dead, but it is on life support. It could be revived, but would require capital for tooling and patience. From a passion for the hobby standpoint, no problem. As a business decision though where you need to consider the return on investment, it's not very appealing. If you can get 100 people to commit $5k, I can make it happen within maybe 2 years. Heck, I'm in for it, so just need 99 more people.

It is a new system because it would require everyone to replace all of their PF track. Granted, some LUGs may still have a few ballasted 9V track sections, but overall you'd be asking for them to rip it all up and relay their tracks. Unfortunately, we're all about 20 years too late to this party. The time to get this done would have been before 9V was discontinued and still ubiquitous in the field. I'm not trying to be a downer or discourage anyone from pursuing it. It's a phenomenal idea and exactly what the community needs. There just aren't enough of us. I'm really not kidding when I say you are talking about a quarter-million dollar project, if not half-million. If 9V tracks do come online, then there is a chance. If it does, I will restart my power pickups project, which, if you haven't seen it, looks like this: Old version, but illustrates the point.

Considering how many builders don't use the normal train motor, this would be a poor venture. A better approach would be a power pickup wheelset that could feed directly to a motor, an IR reciever, or a DCC node. We made prototypes of a power pick up wheelset, but it would be costly to tool. We would also need Fx Bricks to come through on 9V tracks. I hope they do, but we abandoned making them as we just couldn't justify the cost. It's a fine idea overall, but there aren't enough of us to make it viable. You're talking about a huge capital investment without enough of us LEGO train nerds to warrant it. Not to mention, it'd be an entirely new system, so you'd have to convince everyone to effectively start over, which will be a tough sell.

Yes.

Would be a custom piece, but I think you'd be better served lining up the switches and then customizing the curve segment to line it back up with R120 curves.

Here is the layout for building a switch ladder:

Yep, I'll work on it and post it up.

Someone asked elsewhere, so I may as well share here too. Here is the underside of the switches:

Absolutely, in fact this is one of the reasons I split the base into 2 pieces. Once I recoup some of this cost, I'll start working on the mold for the double crossover piece. We only need one new piece to do those. Regarding the switch ladders, remember that funny 1.6stud straight track I have in the short straights pack? There you go! #2 would be a pretty narrow use case. You're right that for molding it wouldn't make sense, but we could certainly explore making it available to 3D print via BTD. We are exploring a few options with them, especially now that I've finally rounded off the R104s. Between this and the Christmas train, I've got a pretty full plate through the end of the year.

Sorry, missed that one. I talked to Hein, HA Bricks will indeed carry these. Not sure if they're taking pre-orders yet, but I imagine they will be.

Just like in that picture, they're modified to bring you back to where you need to be. The switches terminate at 22.62ish degrees (which is what you need for the crossover), and that extra .12 degrees results in you being about half a stud off, so the A and B curves compensate for that .12degrees.

1) It is the same, certainly at least for the R104Bs. The A's are a touch shorter, so while it should ballast the same way, depending on how you do it there may be some slight squeezing of your parts. 2) right now their just sold in the pairs. I considered doing them separately, but adding in the additional packaging costs it comes out cheaper for all of us to just keep them in sets. You might be able to find someone that wants all your rights though. However, if you buy 1000 switches I'll certainly make an exception. :) 3) right now, no. The parts are all pretty tough, I've certainly dropped them a number of times in testing. I may make the switch stands be a separate item though, as those could easily get lost. Also, they could be useful for other custom switches in the future (hint hint).

I will open the switches up for pre-orders starting tomorrow. Here is everything that is included in each kit:

Consider the picture of my bridge above. In it, the top horizontal "girders" are under compression, whereas the bottom ones are under tension. As such, yes, there are the stops on the axles, and that stop would be loaded against that technic brick. As such though, the axle would be loaded in tension, leaving you only the little bit of clutch the technic brick w/ axle hole exerts on the axle to hold it in place. And since it is so close to the bending moment of the system (think of it like trying to open a door by pushing on the hinge) it will have very little effective strength. It doesn't matter that you have another axle there to back it up; the bottom portion will physically expand. Add in there is no truss structure to aid it, and you won't be able to span very far at all. If you want to be able to see the trains, you can flip the truss over and put it beneath the tracks. Doing so you could also then use the side of the shelves to push against the truss, giving you further support.

Of these 2, number one is by far the better option. The way number 2 would load would result in the top axles being in tension, which will effectively pull them out of the bricks with the axle holes. Either way though, you're going to get flex just from the track itself. Simply making the joints rigid won't prevent sagging in the middle. You're going to need some additional structure to span the shelves. How much is a matter of how far you want to actually span. I have this going in my son's room:

Tooling is complete. Production will start soon. Once I have an ETA, I'll open it up for pre-orders.