tnmears

I would say that tracks and wheels are the most needed/essential parts. Most of the other stuff can be readily constructed from other basic pieces (stuff like wagon bases). In another way to put it, buying a set is like playing easy mode, building it up yourself is hard mode. Also, the more specialized the part, the more expensive it tends to be, especially over time. (i.e. monorail track)

This is genius. I also wouldn't mind the puzzle aspect of putting together the tile curves. In fact, this might be better than the normal monorail curves in some areas as they seem to have a tendency to warp. Not really a significant warping, but enough to disrupt placement.

I am not sure if this is the correct section of the forums to post this in because this involves LEGO and uses LEGO, but here goes... In addition to trains, I also like space stuff. Problem: I wanted to play tabletop miniatures wargames and didn't want to shell out cash becasue I already have beaucoups of Our Favorite Bricks and not other miniatures (e.g. warhammer, x-wing, etc). Solution: Write my own rule set. Sooo... I have recently been working on homework working on a extremely rough draft of a ruleset focusing on space opera style snubfighter combat with emphasis towards customizable ships. I don't have it quite in playable form yet, but I have a skeleton so far of ideas inching towards something usable for playtesting. By customizable, I mean something to the effect of D&D style player sheets for ships. Some of the other things are Power wrangling - the ability to route power around to boost systems in combat. Redlining - the chance of overloading systems with too much power Universe agnostic - you could have Colonial Vipers vs TIEs for all I care in this. Evintually expand to other things (ground, mecha, etc...) In short, I want to do something in the spirit/style of Evil Stevie's Pirate Game, but for spaaaace. The $2.39 question is, would this be anything other people would be interested in and/or worth my time to write? Does this even sound doable? Is there anything you would like to see in a game?

This looks like old set art!

I really like that boxcar. The bracing is a nice touch and it is nicely compact.

My eventual goal, if I did another show, is to do something that I saw an HO modular club do. They had their modules on their wooden foundations and then attached wooden sides to create a box around the module. I already have 4 4x8 baseplate sized tables to do that with, but I never got to the box part. This would save a lot of set up and tear down time for me, as the only loose things would be detailing and rolling stock.

When I did train shows, I used huge dark blue Rubbermaid boxes to carry stuff around. These can store massive amounts of bricks.

This is amazing and one of the better LEGO buildings I have seen.

If it did happen, I wish it would return to more of the style of the first game. And by that, the silly sense of humor that was just right for LEGO.

I must confess that I have bulk bought sets and haven't assembled them. Seriously avoid rural Wal-Marts after christmas. There are too many deals. TOO many.

Try the Wayback Machine? It appears to have downloads in the instructions section.

oh man, this theme... It's...just...so alien... and quite unlike any other LEGO theme aesthetically. This is one of my top favorites, and one theme I don't mind getting duplicates in. I somehow never got a 6975, but the 6979 is one of my favorite ships. It just feels balanced and the fiber optics is insane. And don't let anyone tell you otherwise, but the big quarter pieces are the best.

I think the design works well, as it is essentially what I used. Thanks. I don't have a video of it...yet. I'm waiting on finishing some more on a layout.

Have you tried a minifigure bracket for the seat back? I recently discovered them for use in tight spots.

Regardless of the height of the seats, that's a really great design on the seats. Which curved slope are you using instead of the cheese?

Livery-wise, Seaboard is one of my top favs. They were also interesting in the fact that in this era they had three separate liveries, one for passenger, one for freight, and one for terminal locos.

I do have some streamlined coaches, as that is what the Seaboard uses. I am using this as more of a background locomotive for my other stuff.

This is a model of a passenger unit of the Seaboard Air Line from the 1950s. This is basically the scheme that replaced the Orange Blossom scheme from the 1930s. The white colour should actually be a really light mint, but in almost any color photo from the era, it appears white. I kept the basic Super Chief shape for the nose because I think it is good enough for 6 wide trains. I'm probably not going to do much more with this one as it is a little late for for the era I am aiming for (30s - 40s), but it's still an interesting paint scheme.

I noticed that after taking the picture. It's the difference between building on a surface versus building on a track. I never thought the wheel flanges would make that much difference.

I've made a few changes... Changed the cylinders to a Technic based version based off of a SavaTheAggie design. Shortened the pilot truck by a stud or two and added steps and positioned the headlight better. Made the greebles on the front of the firebox have better positioning Made the back truck look better Better side greebles Better firebox shape Better tender, still not a vandy though, but still more prototypical but still working on its proportions This is still able to go around curves. I was also surprised that I didn't have to make a bricklink order.

This is amazing, but the brick built striping also sends it over the top. And that brake van is a stand alone MOC just by itself.

Is that a round 1x1 tile on the nose of the F? why does it look like a different red?

It's because the current design is held together purely by clutching power. After ~20 minutes of the piston action, gravity begins to take over. I'm going to move it to something similar to ALCO's suggestion. This would allow for better structure and a better looking design.

Do you mean offsetting one set of drive rods from the other by 90 degrees? yes... I think it's more of the cylinder assembly wiggling loose after running too much.

That does sound good. I had kept the window post there to give a faux forward facing window, but on second thought swaping the window with the bricks and then rplace the bricks with this should fix that. Thanks.