coaster

Short of sourcing a 3rd party motor, you're probably limited to using one of these: https://www.bricklink.com/v2/catalog/catalogitem.page?P=2986 In order to keep it narrow enough, you'll probably need to attach a worm gear to the end of that motor and have it drive a small gear mounted between 2 thin Technic liftarms, though that may still be too wide. I'd have to play with it a bit in Stud.io to see what works. I'm not sure what his Eurobricks handle is, but Rob Hendrix has motorized a number of tiny locos. You can find him in the LEGO train groups on Facebook. Would love to see what you build. This sounds great.

I prefer connecting the first and last set of drivers via internal gearing. Probably increases rolling resistance, but it ensures the drivers don't get out of sync. The connecting rods are purely decorative.

You're probably catching the flanges of the XLs on the inside guard rail. This is the nature of the bigger trains; they simply can't handle the R40 switches. Since you can't switch to B-F-F, you would likely need to articulate the rear flange. You could even try a B-B-F arrangement, though then you'd probably be all over the place.

The factory reopened last week, and supposedly sampled the wheels on Tuesday. I should have news on those soon. I'll give the switches a couple more weeks to be finished up.

Maybe that's the case. Or maybe they changed their mind. I'm fine with either, really. As I've said before, I do very little business on BL, most of it is on my own site. It's the unprofessional "ignore him and he'll go away" treatment that bothers me.

At least you are getting a response. I still have no answer on why my tracks got nuked. I don't violate any IP or copyrights, LEGO was previously cool with it, and given that they have bought from me, I don't buy the "we can't check the quality" line. I suspect they don't have a good answer which is why they're staying silent.

The current ones are, but the switch molds are so complex that they were simply too expensive to have made here. It was either make them overseas or not make them at all.

Yes, a left and left for instance would perfectly space you on the stud grid. Not sure if I'll make it to BW Indy, but I will at a minimum have samples there in some fashion. Just to update everyone, the mold shop doing the tracks and wheels is closed due to the coronavirus. They were hoping to reopen today, but I don't believe that happened, so at this time I have no ETA on when these parts will be finished.

I'll consider anything, but likely won't be making wheel holders. If I did, they would not be the same. The folks that care enough to not want the new ones are most likely to be using ball bearings anyway, so if I did make a holder, it would be a complete 3x6 bearing block assembly, at which point though it's probably just as easy to build your own with ball bearings pressed into technic bricks. That said, I'm not opposed to exploring further if the community feels it's necessary.

Fortunately for me, a very small percentage of my sales come through BL, so in the end, it really won't affect me much if I do get the banhammer.

I, too, got the email notifying me my store would be purged. I emailed back and explained I had prior approval, and they agreed to review. I guess we shall see. I keep having this image in my head of Darth Vader saying, "I am altering the deal..."

1/38 is the scale of the tracks, so technically, "to scale" should be built to this (yes, I know most O-Gauge and similar model stuff is off-scale, but we'll ignore that for now). This also has the added benefit of 1 stud = 1 ft, which makes the math a lot easier. It works out to about 10w. There are only a few of us maniacs building to this scale at the moment, but I gotta say I'm glad to have made the jump. The trains just feel so much more substantial, and you can really get to a nice level of detail and really nail shapes and profiles. Some club layouts are too small to accommodate this scale, but I do believe it is going to be more prevalent in the future. And while the minifigs are definitely too short for this scale, the minidolls actually are perfect for it. I'm now that guy that steals from his daughter. Eventually she'll realize Anna and Elsa are riding trains. Whatever, I'm pretty sure she's pilfering from me, too.

You could try the crankshaft, as it only offsets 1/2 stud: https://www.bricklink.com/v2/catalog/catalogitem.page?P=2853&name=Technic Engine Crankshaft&category=[Technic]#T=S&O={"iconly":0} Though while I don't have any new ones, I have found the clutch on these to be notoriously poor.

It's a result of how the part is designed. The rails are thicker than the plate sections, so they cool at a different rate. ABS shrinks slightly when it cools, so the rails contract a little, warping the part upwards at the ends.

This is typical deformation. Most likely any replacements you get from LEGO will exhibit this same behavior.

Exactly what I was thinking!

For the smokestack, might I suggest a 2x2 round brick in black, a 2x2 round tile with the hole in the middle in red, put a 2L axle into that and then stick a train wheel with axle hole on top?

Of course! Generally, the friction between the axle and the bearing is going to be much higher than the internal friction of the bearing. Especially under load, it is highly unlikely the axle will slip before the bearing. You'll see this in testing for sure. The car should glide nicely along the track if everything is working properly. If a bearing is seized, you'll definitely notice the drag, and you may be able to hear it, too. Even the cheap bearings from China are sufficient for our purposes. I wouldn't waste your money on more expensive ones.

They should slide easily on. You aren't going to get a slight interference fit in stainless to feel like putting a bushing or gear on a technic axle. It's going to either slide nicely or require significant force to assemble. Now, if they wobble in the bearing, that's a different story, but they are held pretty tightly, so that shouldn't be the case.

Not the way I would have liked, unfortunately. There simply isn't enough demand to warrant the tooling costs. You're talking $250k in tooling to produce those switches. They could be 3D printed with the rails, but it's not something I'm going to be undertaking. I'll talk to some people though, there may be someone willing to champion it.

If it is of any help, I manufacture replacement axles that are ground undersized to fit perfectly with bearings. They're held much tighter than h9 tolerances.

@Ashi Valkoinen, I did have them on Shapeways, but they were removed in the great LEGO purge earlier this year. They were custom made for a few people and used the inverted HO rail technique. They were specially made by request, there wasn't ever a plan to produce them that way. @legoman666 has a few of them, I'm sure he could post some pictures.

Yes, 10W. And it is Southern green...in some areas... Thanks, I wanted to capture that classic toy train feel, and 10W just gives so much room to work that it's easy to put as much detail as you want without sacrificing structure. It also doesn't look tiny and out of place under a tree.

DO IT

Merry Christmas, everyone!