AussieJimbo

Yes, you can use the AAA battery box or the rechargable box, they are interchangeable. :classic:

Interesting, I hadn't noticed the difference before. :classic:

Hi Sava, thanks for your kind words. That Mikado of yours really is a beauty and now that you mention it, I think the reference to the movie might have been what put me on to it in the first place. I agree with your comments about the stock engine. It is a bit too high, as are all the cars due to the use of standard framed doors at each end and the cartoony look of the original from TS3. I think the design was also made this way to accommodate the taller than usual Woody minifigure. The tender mitigates this a bit as do the longer cars so I decided to leave it as is. I note that your 400 needs a motorised passenger car so I've got you covered there. Your loco would look awesome pulling this consist. Did they use the Vanderbilt tender in the movie? I thought it was more of a standard wood hopper. Oops, it is a coal tender in the movie. I used wood fired because it seemed right for the TS train with that big wide funnel and I had a few small brown bricks on hand. :-) :classic:

Yeah, I saw a box of Series 2 at Belconnen TRU the other day. :classic:

Superb work, brickcitydepot and brother. I particularly like the tree/vine up the back of the tan house. Great buildings. :classic:

Wonderful Parisian streetscape, 74louloute. So many great details as others have mentioned. The round billboard thing is a particular feature that adds to the French feel. Very well done. :classic:

Great design, _bIG_fM_. I'd love to see this in the brick one day. :classic:

Looks like some great action from the trailer, I'll check it out if I can find the full movie, Thanks mate, I'm really pleased how the traction engine turned out too. Cheers, LT. Whilst it was tricky getting a good shot, here's a pic of the interior of the "express" car for you. -wink- (This time I was ready for you but you didn't ask) -laugh- Large :classic:

No, just two RC (not PF) train motors on the standard RC integrated receiver/battery box train base with a passenger car body. I've tried powering the loco directly before with a train motor powering the large driving wheels directly but wasn't happy with the results. :classic:

Thanks LGG. I had fun putting this together. One thing I would like is red wheels on the tender but I need to have a look around for brick built bogey designs. On at technical level, the dual motor "loco" (passaneger car) in the middle I didn't think would be ideal but it actually works really well and I've had no trouble running the train through complex track work and minor grades. :classic:

That looks great, LT. Did you get the functionality you were aiming for? :classic:

Thanks Brickster. The backdrop is cobbled together from Monument Valley pics I found on wikipedia. Hope you get round to putting your original set together. It's a nice fun build. :classic:

Wanting to do something a little different with my extended Toy Story train, I set upon the great train chase scene from the American movie "How The West Was Won". I've also been impressed by some of the earlier extended TS MODS posted before so I've probably been influenced by them, though not deliberately. Usually I'd have a reference image or two but this time to get started I recommend you have a look at the youtube clip from the movie below so you can check out the train and the action I've tried to model: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PfAk8ljuEcQ I've added a tender to the TS Loco, extended the passenger cars into an "express" car (baggage car) and a longer passenger coach that conceals the dual motor RC system loco that powers the train. I extended the caboose and added a few freight cars with interesting cargo as in the film. For added fun I included a few play features which you'll see below: a hinged barricade you can "smash" through, a timber car with shifting load and the traction engine which falls off the train near the end of the scene. So here are few photos of How the Western Train Chase Was Won. Large Large Large Engineer there's a barricade ahead, open it up, wide open! Large Large Large Large Large Large Large Large Large A closer look at the custom wagons: Large Wagon with traction engine. Large Wagon with steam winch and boilers. Large Timber wagon. Large One loose chain and it swings out a little. Large Two loose chains and the load of logs tumble. Large I hope you like it. :classic:

Thanks mate, glad you like it. :classic:

Top job, alois. Great little piano, very clever. :classic:

I put dual motors on my yellow Maersk and it is the best performing loco in my fleet. Eats up almost any track or terrain you throw at it. I do have traction problems with some of my other single motor locos at times. I'll be grabbing some extra motors at some stage to dual motor a few more of them Flex track does have some issues (doesn't look good, can have traction problems in some circumstances) but it's also incredibly useful in fitting layouts together. Some track combinations just don't work without it, other take up much more space using standard track pieces. All in all I see it as a valuable addition do try to hide it away if using more than a few pieces in the one place. :classic:

Thanks Brickster, much appreciated. Turntables can be tricky but I was quite surprised how easily this came together. Building it three straight/48 studs long (49 if you count the half stud rail overlap) to accommodate the Emerald Night made for a perfect outer circle of 50 stud diameter. The 8 wide support blocks with hinges then fit together at 22.5 degrees, the first track just needs one curve to bring it back onto the grid. One of those great Lego moments when their underlying design consistency just helps things fall into place. I also have to thank Lego for the nice Log Cabin colour scheme, one of the benefits of using multiple creator sets is they've usually put a pretty good set of colours together for you to work with. As soon as I saw it I knew I wanted to use the bricks for the working buildings of my railway, turned out I needed quite a few of them (OK Legoist I used about 16 of them and various other bits and pieces from elsewhere). It's a smaller set than the Apple Tree house sets I used as a base for my station and signal box. Of course there are plenty of unused pieces from those sets that I'll have fun finding a use for though I'm scratching my head with what to do with the dozens of chicken legs I've now got at my disposal. :classic:

Thanks LT12V, that's very good of you. That blokbrick turntable is interesting with it's off centre point of rotation. You'd better watch out, this build just started out with the turntable but once I'd seen how nicely the tracks lined up something had to be done with them and it snowballed from there. Cheers mate. My locos are very happy. I'll take some more detailed photos when I've progressed the interior and tweaked the way the roof is supported. :classic:

Thanks OzVP. The handrail is made of black water spouts, skeleton feet and 6 long bars. It will be tweaked slightly when I put a little control station on that wider bit in the middle of the turntable. :classic:

Thanks mate. It works really well. The clearance on the rails is no more than a millimetre and the geometry worked out perfectly so the gap is the same for every track. The turntable itself spins very freely. At the moment I use a couple of 1x4 tiles to secure things when a loco is running across it but I'm looking at adding a little latching mechanism of some kind. Beyond that I have plans to automate it with mindstorms using a drive belt or Lego chain drive (probably belt drive for greater precision) You're always after me for interiors. -laugh- That's the missing 10%. I've got a few things planned to go in but it needs a floor yet. (I still haven't finished the interiors of the station either) :classic:

Thanks Legoist. Yeah, there are a few additional buildings that I'll want to include down the line. A maintenance shop with locomotive lift, a sanding/coaling/water tower, maybe and ash-pit siding. I can run plenty more tracks off the turntable so there's plenty of scope for expansion but it will need heaps of room. Don't you want to have a guess at the Log Cabin count first? To get you started, it's more than ten. :classic:

Great little light modification. Those tiny LEDs work really well. :classic:

Thanks for the great review, Brickster. I look forward to picking up this one, that rotating light mechanism is an unexpected bonus in a Creator set. :classic:

What a great train. You've achieved some excellent detail with the 8-wide format. Those carriages are fantastic. :classic:

Time for a few quick shots of my latest piece of railway infrastructure, a three road engine shed and turntable. It's built to accommodate locomotives up to Emerald Night width and length and Toy Story Loco height. That wasn't too hard to achieve for the turntable, building the shed big enough was a different matter. It got a bit out of hand really but once started it had to be finished. Lucky the Log Cabin set was on special recently which limited the pain slightly. There are an embarrassing number swallowed up in this build. As it stands I'm about 90% complete, with the interior still needing a floor, equipment, spares, tools, etc. I hope you like it. Large Large Large Large I'll post some more pictures as work progresses. Comments and suggestions appreciated. :classic: