Hrw-Amen

Looks really nice just like the real thing! Should look good on display. What are the other models you mentioned that will be displayed alongside it?

Is it based on any particular one you know of or did you just make it up? Looks kind of like some of those old electric railcars that they had back in the 50's & 60's.

A nice build so far, would like to see the rest and also with a train. I think the crossings are good if you can make them. With the sidewalks, I have used the CMF bases for mine as they give a mostly smooth surface but also some studs for attaching the mini-figures. Not sure if it would work out any cheaper though as you still need a lot. Also it would be black rather than grey, which is OK for me as where I live most of the pavements are black tarmac. Still very nice so far and I am looking forwards to see the rest of it.

Some of my bricks that were put away stacked in rows of ten for many many years are more or less stuck together. I had to really put a lot of effort into getting them apart. Once they were seperated though I could use them as normal. So in my experience the longer they are together the harder it becomes to get them apart, as opposed to easier.

Really hard to count them all as many are put away and many are on display. If I had to hazard a guess though i would say around 600?

Can I ask who the other chap is in the pirate ship? We have three dead people, Gimli, Legolas, Aragorn and a couple of orcs. Then there is this other chappy chained to the mast who looks a bit like Aragorn but I am assuming we don't get two of him and why is he chained up anyway? I just do not recall a person in this role in the movie?

That is a nice way of showing off your trains to everyone. Do you have a glass front for those shelves, it would be a shame for such a good collection to get dusty and dirty? I agree with the others though, it would be nice to see some of them running about on the lines.

A nice little shunter, I do like these small trains, maybe because l Gauge is quite a large gauge and you need such a big space for a decent layout, having these tiny engines enables one to make smaller areas for goods yards where they can operate on a reasonably scaled area and not look odd. But this a nice example and has all the gear to make it work., a nice example here of one of those tiny shunting engines.

Looks good, since seeing these I have been looking at pictures of these strange little engines online. There seems to be a few in India and they are running through sort of shanty type areas. Perhaps a hog-pog of ramshakle huts is called for at one point on your layout?

Whilst I would love more track options I doubt LEGO will produce them for all the reasons stated above. It is a shame that some other respected sellers have not yet come out with a range of track with wider curve etc. Maybe in the future they will, we will have to wait and hope?

Looks like a good design, how well does it manage corners and switches? Are you able to run it around track without it coming off the rails? I have been looking at pictures of some of these single tracked engines over the last month or so as there have been a few obscure mentions of them in threads. However your little build there seems to capture the essence of the idea very well!

This is a really nice station scene. I like how it is raised up and the road is underneath, there are some wonderful details on this bridge section that are very similar to ones I have seen in my travels. Also the signal box, it is simple but somehow effective and the little pipes with the control equipment coming out of the side is a nice touch. I could go on, but I won't. It is enough to say that I like this a lot. One thing you mention is about fitting the EN into the platform, I have this trouble with a lot of my steam engines, so make all my platforms able to take it and rebuilt the coaches to seven studs wide so there is not such a big gap for the passengers.

What are you asking for? There is always the Power Functions set up with the IR Unit and remote control for speed (Which works just as well for the old 4.5V system as it does the new PF system.) or the older 9V system where the power and subsequently speed is adjusted as in a standard model railway. I assume that you know about those though? Or are you looking for an actual controller wired between the batteries and motor that would actually be attached to the train some how?

I see, so you made it up, that is OK it did seem a little odd with the references to coat-hangers and the like. I can imagine that a few archaeologists would be very confused if they came across a tram wreck from the turn of the century that had scattered about some ready made postholes, they may think they had a stone age train on their hands?

I actually think it is the complete opposite. People come here because of what you can find on some other parts of the net and how bad they truly are. Eurobricks has for the most part always been a safe place to post and a place where you stand a good chance of getting a sensible reply. That is why people come here rather than go to other parts of the internet where things are really bad, or even just mildly bad. As I said on a personal note I did not like the joke, but that did not detract from it being a good joke to start with which I think everyone accepted when it came out as it was April Fools Day. It was only then when it went on and on without being shut down by the mods that people began to wonder what happened. I do think the lack of input by the mods made it worse as it seemed they where by not have an input agreeing with the change. The name changed is not what mattered, I think it was more the tone of the change, the way the whole emphasis of the site was skewed towards that angle. Really the change of name was by the by. Anyway, we have probably wasted enough time discussing it when we could now be reading about someones wonderful MOC in one of the other forums, so I am not planning on coming back to this thread again. (Hopefully!)

Actually the 8 wide trucks look really good. I thought about it but the windscreen put me off. I have got around to six wide and then extending the back to seven wide (With a six wide cab.) but would like to be able to seat two Mini-Figures side by side really, so yes I like these. I guess having to use two four stud windscreens is OK as long as they are both new and clean?

At first it did seem like a joke as it was 01/04 when it appeared. That was fine everyone can take joke. However then some-one pointed out that it was actually posted on 31/03 so a little doubt crept in. Not enough to derail it though as obviously we are not all in the same time zone. Even as a joke though I found it distasteful as Eurobricks is a forum that is quite heavily modded and it seemed that the joke was going against the sensibilities of everything that the mods would have tolerated should a normal member have posted it. Nonetheless a joke is a joke and just because it was not funny was not something to get upset about. After a few days though and nothing changing and we were starting to get all sorts of nasty posts both for and against the idea it did seem that it was getting out of hand and again I wondered why the thread had not been locked like it normally would have been? I am sure if I had posted it the mods would have been all over me. So then because of that a little doubt crept in and maybe it was not a joke? At that point what I had been willing to accept as an attempt at a joke (Even if it was not my cup o tea.) did become a little worrying. Not worrying in the sense of it being the end of the world, but rather just a bit irksome that one of the good places to discuss ones hobby had been high-jacked by extremists and I think that was seen in the posts, some were very for the change and some very against it with little middle ground. By the time the poll appeared the joke side had been lost altogether and people were considering whether to pull out of the forum. Now you may ask why over a name change? But you have to consider that it was not simply the name, the name is really not the point here but the way that the apparent shift in focus was going to concentrate on an American sensibility and stuff the rest of the world! I think what the mods and anyone else who was involved with this have to remember is that a lot of people come here to Eurobricks to post because it is a safe place to do so. Out of all the forums on the internet it is the one that is heavily modded (Sometimes too much.) and people know that they can post here and expect a sensible answer with constructive but polite feedback rather than (As in most forums.) getting their ideas shot down in flames. Even if you post a MOC that is really awful people will suggest ways you can improve it in a reasonably polite way rather than telling you it sucks or is rubbish. That is something good about this forum. So when people see the mods, the very people who promote this sort of behavior apparently going off on a tangent to extreme views that is worrying to many. It shows that what they thought of as a safe environment is, or may no longer be a place where they can feel safe to express themselves. So i do feel that if it had started out as an April fools joke like so many thought it was, and it had stopped at that then that would have been it. Funny or not people would have just accepted it and moved on. However letting it run on for so long putting doubt in peoples mind about the direction the forum was going in, was only ever going to lead to bad feeling as an apparent safe place seemed as though it had been high-jacked by the same sort of mindless yobs that are so active on most internet forums, in effect removing the very reason why a lot of us posted here in the first place rather than on those other less well maintained and monitored sites. I do therefore think that the mods should also reflect on what they have done and possibly have a little bit of humility and accept that on this occasion maybe they pushed the boat a little far and rather than starting a thread to poke fun (By the way it reads.) at those who became distressed by there actions (Or lack of them.) they should just state that it did start out as a joke but accept that it went on a bit long and say they are sorry and that next time it will be much better managed.

Well, I grew up in the UK with frequent trips across the channel to France. In the part of the UK where I live we do not have overhead cables. Any electrification Nowadays is done by having a third line which the train uses to pick up current. But when I was a kid we had mainly diesels in our area and only over the last twenty years or so have switched to electrification. Also when I went across to St Malo or Cherburg in France although they have overhead lines they had a few diesels for shunting. Whilst in the UK we mainly had Type 08 shunters down on the south coast I do recall seeing type 17 with goods trains and these look similar to the red diesels apart from being in BR blue. Also across in France the shunters they had were again very similar in design, although in rusted yellow and green. So I prefer the red engine simply because it looks similar to those engines I grew up with. The yellow engine looks nice but around me there are no overhead wires and so I am just not so familiar with that type of power supply. Also it means unless you want your train to tun around apparently getting its power from the thin air, you have to model loads of catenary masts and these can get in the way.

It is a nice looking station and will be nice to see it made with some of your trains running through it or even stopping at it. It would be nice to have a room large enough to be able to have such a station set up. I don't know its exact size but 3 X 32 base-plates looks about right! When you have it done can you post some pictures with it and your trains running around and or through it? One question if you do not mind me asking? Where exactly is Kotanga, I have tried to Google it and am getting lots of stuff about an island in Thailand but not a lot for New Zealand other than a single reference to a valley that hardly anyone can find? Is it a made up place or is it real? (Beyond the island in Thailand that is.)

Well, it does still seem like a very ill thought out joke to me as there is no option for a non American theme in the poll. So I feel that I am unable to cast a vote as my vote would be for the option that if it has to change then it should reflect a global community and not in anyway reflect on one continent (Or country if you think that way.) so we really need a better more inclusive choice to vote for, or accept that it is still an attempt at a joke but one that has now got out of hand and is becoming rather offensive in itself.

Yes I have done the same with my Horizon Express. It was a very, very tight fit to get that polarity switch in and like you I have butted it up against the rear of the drivers seat. Like you say, nothing has popped out yet so hopefully after three months it will not!

I remember those old style garages, I am certain I have some of the base plates for them still. I find it is lost in fuzzy midst of time as to how they actually worked. If memory serves you had to push the car onto them and something was pushed down which released the garage door, but it is a very long time since I operated one.

Very good, I have stayed in some of those old colonial style hotels on my travels.

So if it was about half the price, did OLO sell any better in Japan than LEGO did, or was there still not a great demand for it?

I agree, the yellow cargo train is best for starters as you get so much including switch tracks / points. Also a good selection of trucks. On a personal note I do prefer the red cargo train, but for a starter the yellow is certainly a option. Post pictures of your train and city as it come along please?