Phil B

While I love all these builds, looking closely there is hardly a LEGO stud in sight. Almost all bricks are clone brands. Might not fit with the theme of this forum.

+1 vote

Not directly related to solving any of the problems you are facing with this build, but for me this is the magic of building trains in LEGO: Often you are stumped on a problem, which seems unovercomeable .... and then your brain starts working overtime. Maybe after doing something else for a while, maybe after a few nights of sleep, something will come into your head that allows you to think about the problem differently and unlocks you ... and you can move on until you hit the next roadblock. Many examples here of people who have been working on a train build for many years - either waiting for the right pieces to be produced by LEGO, or just tinkering over-and-over until things are just right. Keep on keeping on, @Imanol!

I think I am settling for this plow design. Some inaccuracies, but the snowshoe technique didn't work out as planned.

First attempt at the plow. I have placed an order for the old snowshoes to see if I can make this work IRL.

There are a few more pieces I wish existed in regular Orange. You might notice that the side grill uses a 2x2 slope convex, for which I picked Bright Light Orange, as it doesn't come in Orange (yet). I am still making a few tweaks - the plows are next on my list. Thanks for the suggestion!

I have been working on transforming BrickTrainDepot's EMD GP60 into an Indiana & Ohio Railroad EMD GP38-2, specifically engine #3527. This engine pulls local freight trains on the spurs around my neighborhood twice a week. I have reached the stage where I am satisfied with what I have, and will start ordering bricks. Decals will be needed to complete the look as well. Here is what I have so far: Original (not my pictures): My Studio model (about 70% BTD's model, 30% modifications that I made):

Got to see and hold (and partially rebuild, because some parts of the build need a little work) this engine during BrickWorld Chicago. The BDP team is already working on a few fixes (the roof is way too flimsy for example). But it is a great set, a true railroad modeling version versus a play version. I have dropped a few hints that they should up the limit to 4 so we can use the set to build an A+B+B+A consist ;)

Check these out - and then you realize the scale is probably spot-on :) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Overland_train

BB Code no longer works (for me at least). Had to grab the actual image URL from the BB code, and then use the forums "Other Media" dropdown box in the editor to get those pictures displayed.

I have used Flickr for the last 10 years, but they are going to reduce the quality of pictures as of May 15th for anyone not on their paid Pro plan.

Thanks! I am looking into better hosting for pictures, as the above ones don't showcase the train well. The doors have some trickery - If you use the DBG train/plane window right-side-up, the window is about half a plate too high. I ended up inverting the window so it is facing downwards.

This has progressed far enough over the last year for some preview pictures (also spurred by another user posting their progress on a similar Eurostar train). Train set 60197 always reminds me of the Eurostar high-speed trains between the UK and France, especially the original e300 (which was an adaptation of the French TGV). I am attempting to recreate this train as a 6-wide, in iterative fashion: First as close to 60197 as possible, reusing the roof and front design from that set. Then I hope to proceed into making a custom roof (with curved studless slopes versus the current 45 degree slope bricks) and a custom front. Here is the Stud.io plan I am working off of: I have so far built 5 cars (one half of the trainset) - 3 are already connected with wheelsets, the others are nearing completion. Here are some potato pics of the first 3 cars: The consist is powered with PoweredUp (as in the original 60197) - one hub and 2 motors under the front carriage. Some color-vomit in the undercarriage due to missing pieces. (NOTE: I need to find a better setup for pictures, and a better place to share them than Flickr. They are disallowing downloads/sharing of high-res pictures starting next week (May 15th). My apologies for the crappy detail on the pictures above - was in a hurry when I took these and posted them. As I continue to complete this train, I hope to get better pictures posted as well).

Train wheels on the subway car are the horrible plastic axle ones though ... Not much value in picking those up.

There is a leaked picture on Reddit in one of the leaks/rumors subreddits. What is most exciting is that there are 2 new rail pieces, both modified 16 stud straights. Not sure what they do, but if I were a betting man one is a programmable NFC/RFID tag that is embedded in the rails. Others say it is a rerailer. The second piece seems to have a 2x4 extension to the side, perhaps that allows for some interactive behavior. EDITED to remove link and provide more description.

I think it just means that they are having trouble getting an electrical system out there that meets all their technical needs, all their customers needs, and all their financial needs. My 2 orders of 2 train motors that I placed in December have finally shipped. US listings for the hubs and the motors now show "Will ship in 60 days".

Both Hub and Train motor are "Backordered. Ships by 3/30/2025" on the US site.

Train Motor 88011 now has a backorder date of 3/30 on the US Shop at Home site. Looks like this was just a temporary shortage.

Now that's a thing of beauty ....

The Hub was on sale (I bought a few of them in December), and they just shipped last week. So to me that sounds like the sale is not a "Clearance" event.

The Train motor is still showing as "Temporarily Out of Stock" on the LEGO website in the US, which is the status that LEGO assigns to products that will eventually come back. I'm keeping my hopes up.

The hubs I ordered in December finally shipped and arrived today. The train motors are still backordered and (according to the CS lady) have no ship date assigned. She was going to remove them from my order but I told her kindly but firmly to leave them on.

Also, the left-most track (furthest from the building) is 3 studs from the edge of the plate. If you want compatibility with the MILS standard, that should be 4 studs, so everything should shift 1 stud over to the right. Still ... great looking build. If you can find a way to accommodate for the track alignments, this would be a slam-dunk.

LEGO RC train geometry dictates a 16 stud distance between track centerlines. That corresponds to an 8 stud gap between 2 track pieces. Your MOC has this on the two left tracks, but only 2 studs between the parallel tracks under the bridge. A two-stud gap is hard to get with standard (non-flex-track) LEGO track pieces, unless it is a completely independent track circle.

I love the build, but have some concerns on the track geometry. Doesn't feel like it would fit with any standard track setups, given the spacing between tracks. Have you considered this?