HiFish

Here someone posted quite detailed instructions on how to build such a Power-pickup DIY-style :-)

This could also be done quite cheaply with a color sensor.

No, i was thinking of something a bit simpler. I only read up on the Details for Germany on this, since i work in IT and have to deal with (occasionally international) procurement. When Importing Goods and Services online there is a difference between (both virtual and physical) goods and services, and also between companys and private citicens. the simplified version for business to business transactions is this: You have to pay the tax of the place where the good or service is delivered or rendered. So if i pay for an ebook and download it i have to pay the VAT-Tarrifs and so on, just like with regular goods. But if i pay for services, like accessing an online learning course on a platform running somewhere outside the EU, i legally don't have to pay german import-tariff, but instead the VAT of the country where this service is rendered. For example, as far as i know, a german company could pay Coaster (his company) to run a website/webserver/online shop in the US for a price of his choosing, including the "license rights" to his trademarks and whatever else you can think of that is needed to run a shop without infringing on his rights without having to pay german import-tariff / VAT on that, except the regular VAT that applies at the seat of his company (hopefully Delaware ;-)) He could sell the tracks to this company the regular way, but as a reduced price to compensate for the regualr import-tarrif on regular goods. This should be done in a way for him to make his usal bottom line, without loosing any money by selling to us Europeans. Once the Tracks are in Germany, they can be legally sold by the aforementioned company, which should be so small it is a registered "Kleingewerbe" (tax exempt), so there is no additional VAT. Im not sure if this works for all EU country's, because so far i have only dealt with imports. If you think this is crazy, yes, german tax laws on the whole are insane.

Oh wow, i'd love one of those! Here is my Suggestion on how to deal with the import-tariffs and VAT: It could be done in a way similar to the scheme used by nike or the other big multinationals, as explained in the paradise papers. At least for now this seems to be legal. A quick summary can be read here: https://www.theguardian.com/news/2017/nov/06/nike-tax-paradise-papers. This could be structured to avoid just VAT and tarrifs instead of avoiding all taxes in general like they do :-D

Thank you! The hardest part was figuring out a way to avoid a collision between the 9V-Box an the window piece at the top. The solution can be seen in the last picture: I used the old-style pieces for the 90-degree rotation of the studs, which have excatcly the same thickness as the window-piece-frame. This allows the closed window to slide in exactly next to the 9V-Box.

I have seen several Images of Monorail-Conversions based on the 9V-Brick, but couldn't find a version I was happy with because it blocked to much of the tram. I spent some time over the holidays fiddling with my own tram and found a vertical solution i am happy with. Basicly i mountet the 9V-Block in a way that it fits verticaly inside one of the 4-wide windows. I tried to give the engine block a somewhat futuristic look, fitting an "all-glass"-Tram. I am not perfectly happy with the second carriage, maybe i will redo it when i get 2 more windows. Sorry for the image quality, i could get a focused picture with the whole tram, the Images of the Details are better. Click on the Tram to view the Image Gallery: The ownly downside so far is that now the Airport-Monorail looks quite ridiculously small next to it :-/

If you build a dedicated charging siding it might be easier to use a single classic 9v rail for this, combined with a custom pickup wheelset as described here: Alternatively you could use a broken 9V-Motor-Bogey which as a pure power-pickup after you remove the motor.

There is also some great inspiration to be found in the Fallout-Game-series, design wise. Here a Nuclear Engine from Fallout 4: https://vignette3.wikia.nocookie.net/fallout/images/9/9f/FO4_Locomotive.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20151116212444

Very nice, i am seriously considering backing this. Some hurdles though: - 33% shipping cost to germany is quite painful. on top of that the unlucky recipient might get hit with an additional 19% VAT(on everything including shipping costs), if it gets picked up by customs. Ist there a way to do Bulk-shipping to the EU ? I volunteer, but im sure you'd want someone in a country with less VAT ;) - At the end of the Process it asks me for a Credit Card. I dont have one, and i dont plan to get one just for this. Around here people commonly use bank cards. Isn't there supposed to be a way to back Kickstarter projects with my amazon account or Paypal or something? Is there any chance you will expand this to metal Rails? You know, for us "you have to claw that 9v-engine out of my cold dead hands"-people... Oh, one more question, are the Switches made in a way that you can automate them reliably without modding? Greetings from Saxony :) PS: the Monorail Stuff you guys are doing looks great!

The Horizen Express is based on the TGV, a very fast french train, so that fits better with the parisian restaurant :-)

It's so pretty! How does it run on the standard curves and switches? Is it meant for running or more for a diorama?

That's adorable! And i am suddenly very glad there was no youtube or internet when i got my monorail at his age :-D

I think it would look very nice in a rural layout, as i guess is intended. Only thing bugging me is the missing Stairs / Ladder to the second floor. That's like the modern lego trains without doors, in kind of breaks the immersion. I guess the double-seats (which cannot be used) are meant as benches? Maybe you could use some brick-built benches that offer some more detail for the station and are more compatible with the minifig anatomy? Just my 2 cents, i have only non-moc stations so far :)

It looks real great, even running around the sharp lego rail curves!

Wow, that comes together realy nice. We have a similar Parkeisenbahn here in Dresden with steam engines from the 1920s, but the scale (Liliputbahn) is so weird that it would not work out in lego with figs. Love the Details on the flowers and trees (especially the bee-minifig)!

I'm not realy against it, i just wanted to point out that it interferes with this kind of siding: But i guess once there are different length straights availble you could simply offset the switches so the switch plates don't collide in the middle. If i had to choose between the 2, then parallel sidings it is! It would be great if the final switch plate design was compatible to manual and powered switching, powering the stock 9v switches hasn't been much fun for me.

Something that's quite hassle-free for interactivity is the classic monorail control mechanism when you preset it to stop somewhere and allow the kids to turn it back around. I had zero derailments with that ;-) I just have to place it better in the layout next time. Seek and Find is a good idea for "hands of"-Interactivity, but for this reason also quite common among the small scale "hands off" non-lego model train exhibits...

So pretty! Do the big ones go around the standard curves/switches?

Hi, I like the idea of pneumatic switches because it offers a completely different way of integrating into the layout, with tubing instead of wiring, maybe getting a dedicated building for a compressor... Although its way out of scale it looks a bit more natural like a hydraulic switch, compared to the thing i used with all kinds of gears visible. I used a motor based version in my last exhibition with very mixed results. All my switches have different ages and "pressure points", after some testing only 2 of those worked somewhat reliably with the design i had which is a adaption of this: I have a bunch of old 9V Technic motors (1990) with different levels of wear and performance, see here: The 2 switches i used ended up working 2/3 of the time. The problem was not jamming but simply not enough power. According to this chart it only has roughly half the power of the motor i should have been using, but so far have never seen in sets here in germany (maybe missed them due to dark ages). Sometimes it would help to rapidly move sewsaw style to get it to switch to the other position. Sometimes the problem seemed to be not the motor but the clutch gear giving way to early. I settled for replacying the clutch gear with a regular gear on one of the switches, but that only helped a little. I would like to test the pneumatic version, but the ldr file i got from the page has no cyiliders and so far i did not quite figuere out how its supposed to work. could you maybe post a couple of close up fotos from the side? Thank you for your efforts in findig a workable solution. baard, have you tried your solution "out in the open" or do you only use balasted track that always gives you enough room to hide the big gear and motor?

Thank you for your responses, I guess i makes a big difference if your'e on your own or an organised group of people for what you can pull of. I put the show in the middle of a vacation-week and convinced some relatives to drop by and help out for 2 hours each day, but still it was more exhausting than i expected. I seem to be living in an "Here Be Dragons"-Area of the map LUG-wise, at least so far i havn't stumbled upon any nearby. Thats a great idea, i had no real use for the one 9v-crossing i got so far! But i bet a proper tunnel takes a lot of bricks.. I set up a second set of 9v controllers on my side of the table, so i could do emergency breaks or keep the kids from running backwards. Im not sure if that's the reason one of my controllers burnt out during the show :-/ several time i had siblings to do cooperative freight-loading, meaning the big one was controling the train, and little one the crane. That was one of the biggest hits, and since there is no fast driving involved this turned out to be less stressful that the few kids trying to constantly go full speed and crashing with the Metroliner or Horizon Express. I plan on setting up a dedicated play-train and freight station in the next layout, so it doesn't interfere with the regular trains. The green table-cover-thingys in the pictures could be set up as symbolic barriers, but i guess the only real solution in a cramped environment like this would be plexiglas... My long term project is to convert everything to digital control with a RasPi and implement at least some form of collision protection, but that's far of. Thats one of the reasons i cling to 9v. i fully agree, i guess i have to look harder for next time ;-) We had some wooden trains and some garden-sized toy trains set up on an unsupervised table nearby, but that attracted mostly the realy little ones like duplo would. One thing that caught me by suprise was that several kids managed to operate switches whithout me noticing because i placed them in unfortunate positions.

Hello everybody, I just spent the weekend at a model train exhibition, for the first time with a pre-planned layout. Im still to tired to finish unloading the car ;-). But i have some questions in my Mind while everything is still fresh. Oh, and i got some pictures a bit further down. First some words about the Setting: It was a Model Train exhibition in a nearby small town, about half a Soccer-field in size. Mine was the only Lego-centric booth (so far i never heard of an lego-exclusive event in my state). Since "real" model train layouts are "hands off" i was one of the few "interactive" booths. I set up 2 controllers for a big and a small track which the kids could control, and a little freight-unloading-station to play with, but i basicly spent the whole time supervising kids which got quite stressful. I havn't figured out what is a good line between "no touching" (easy for me but rather boring for the little ones) and "fully interactive". Do you have any recommendations or experiences to share? one a high note: Most parents were quite helpful/responsible, i only hat one annoying "customer" during 2 days, and as far as i know nothing went missing. As usual i was limited by the number of straights in track design, and any comments on improving the layout are welcome. Now something to look at: My Layout planned in BlueBrick: https://goo.gl/photos/KJX1NiBE3Ui2bBRC9 Everybody setting up on Friday: https://goo.gl/photos/rN5j4Yoer4MAdScv6 My Layout: https://goo.gl/photo...NuDiTKM1dgW8K76 https://goo.gl/photo...U8gwKiTazefCWdA Some of my trains: https://goo.gl/photo...V8xvwk74aau8BA8 Everything in action: https://goo.gl/photo...cr59MgE8cgHd8G8 https://goo.gl/photo...cszAxpeCttEtyt9 I apologize for the link format and quality, most of those are taken waving a smartphone around and i havn't found a way to include google fotos as pictures because the urls dont end in .jpg .

I second that, love the snowplow!

Hello everybody, Although i already said hello via the general "Hello! My name is..."-Forum, im nowadays mostly interested in trains, 9V to be precise. I re-purposed most of the bricks from my childhood knight, pirates and space collection for this (havn't found a proper use for the castle walls or blacktron windshields yet ;-) ) I also have about one and a half monorail sets i like to mix in there. Sadly i don't have the room for a permanent layout, so most of my trains are packaged up most of the year. I also got some remnants of 4,5v which i inherited from my Dad, which i have so far only kept for nostalgia because i could not figure out a proper use for them. I also got myself a sealed Horizon Express box for my birthday last year to complete the one I already got running, but so far could not bring myself to open it. Which kind of defeats the purpose. Maybe for the next trains show... Greetings from Germany / Saxony / Dresden, Michael a.k.a HiFish

Hi there! I just wanted to say that i love the cloakroom-idea. I found the original set to be too small and the "double palace theatere"-MOCs to big for a small layout, This is a realy nice in-between. And now you even have a Valet-Parking-Lot for the fancy Limo. Did You sacrifice another complete set for this, or just got a bunch of fitting bricks?

Hello Everyone, its been quite some time since i first stumbled upon Europrics after coming out of my Dark Ages, but so far I have been a silent reader. Since i will be Attending my second (very small) exhibition this weekend, i finaly decided to get a bit more active and to introduce myself. When i was in kindergarten in the late 1980s I inherited my first lego from my Dad, which was quite rare back then in what is now the eastern part of germany. It was one of the old big basic Legoland sets with a 4,5 V Motor to build houses, windmills and the like. I also liked trains from the beginning, but the only set we got was 147 - one of the old refridgerator-train-cars ( seen here ). Then came all the "Excitement" of the early 1990s, and with it a sudden availibility of colorful lego catalogues and not enough birthdays and christmasses to get everything in them ;-) At that time I enjoyed all themes, with space, pirates and knights as the favorites. My Dark Ages startet around the time Computers became available for regular people and ended about 4 years ago. Nowadays I mostly enjoy trains and modular Buildings. I still cling to 9V track, and plan on modding all my motors for digital control in the long run. If i ever get around to it, i would love to control all theat with a RasPI and not use one of the "ready to buy" model train digital control systems. Ok, thats about it for my first Post, Greetings from Dresden in Saxony/Germany, Michael a.k.a. HiFish (the nickname is a mildy funny pun that stuck to me as a teenager, because "Shark" is pronounced this way in german)