Hrw-Amen

Looks really big and powerful. Nice colour scheme as well, just like the original. The tender looks so much like it as well and I really like the way that you have caught the curve of it.

Perhaps you could give us a link to your short animations either on You-tube or elsewhere, then we could judge the level of detail you are expecting?

Zephyr1934: Those do look like the kind of effect I was hoping for, but using the LEGO LEDs. But I guess that is not possible for someone with little or no electrical background. Anyway, I have been onto Bricklink and order some of those single 9V lights and one of those directional switches to go with them. I have some 9v electric bricks and wire with connectors as well as a battery box, so we will see what that enables me to come up with. I will post some pictures once I have something that works, or maybe even does not work(?) depending on how good or bad it is. Maybe then someone can point out what I have done wrong in that case. But I have to wait for the lights and switch first. Yes that switch was relatively expensive. I think it is the most expensive single component I have ever bought from Bricklink. Lets hope it works! I got it from one of my regular sellers so am pretty sure it will be OK.

Can I ask what is exactly wrong with the Crampton engines? I did google them and true they are a little unusual but I would not really count them as wacky, there are many more strange examples to choose from. Is it acceptable to include cross themed carriages or trucks? For example a long time ago now I did a Blacktron railway coach and I have seen Friends railway stuff. Is this sort of thing allowed as I have an idea if it is that I may start work on tonight anyway, just because it is quite a wacky thing regardless!

Yes that does look like the 9V ones I have. I will seek some single ones out on Bricklink. Also I did not think about using those self contained light bricks. I have a couple built into my station building for lighting. I don't switch them on much so am not sure what the battery life is like in them? I guess they would have the same problem as the 4.5V lights in that they are quite bulky, whereas the 9V ones are reasonably small and can easily be concealed within a signal. The self contained and 4.5V ones would require a large ungainly signal to conceal them. If/When I get something working I'll post some photographs. Thanks everyone for the help and talking through the various options.

So what actual creation is it? Something to help emergency services sounds good, but it is hard to tell from the picture exactly what this device looks like in the full and what it actually does. Any chance of a better image of the actual LEGO device?

I thought the first one was good but this is even better. I do like the old fashion toilet, looks like a hideout for many a spider to catch the unwary toiletier! All the details are great, the trees, the doors, the spare wheels, how often have I past empty sidings apart from having a couple of axles and wheels in them? Why do they get left there I wonder, but they so often do?

Phoxtane: Yes, I am reasonably certain that is what we did on the old N Gauge layout. We got a load of three way switches from a car repair shop and used wire stripped from old telephone cables. (My father was in the building trade so could get a lot of it free.) then we just wired them up so that one way was red, the middle off and the other green. That is what we used the 'Grain of wheat' bulbs for. That is about the extent of my electrical knowledge. I did consider it but wanted to use PF bits if possible. It looks as though it may come down to this though. 1974: I did look at 9V lights although all the ones I have seem to be double flashing ones rather than single light elements. I have a couple of old 9V battery boxes and have no issues using these as they are real LEGO, I even have a supply of a few of those plates with the contacts in them to use rather than wires. I may have a look on Bricklink to see if I can find any single 9V lights. The same with the old 4.5V ones, I have one or two of them and a spare 4.5V battery box so if I got a few more of those 2X2 red/yellow light bricks I could probably get that to work I think. I am not sure but is it possible to connect the 4.5V ones so that the signal would show red when the leaver was pushed one way and green when it was pushed the other? Again I have to go to Bricklink to get enough actual lights to try it out. Paddyb98: So do those LEDs have all the stuff needed so that one could simply attach them to a battery and switch and they can be switched on and off, or do you have to be able to put in all these other components that are in the PF lights? If they can be just attached to a battery and work that maybe an answer but again like the 'grain of wheat' bulbs and car switches it is not very LEGO. We will have to see, I'll have a poke about on Bricklink and see what lights I can find and then give it another go before resorting to non LEGO parts. Perhaps if someone knows off the top of their heads the Bricklink part no's. they could post them. I am sure I can find them if not but it may save me a few minutes if you are just aware of them?

A good little diesel shunter there. I am sure it will do nicely pulling freight cars around your city.

Looks nice, post us some pictures once you have built it. It is not often that you see a tan coloured engine.

I agree that your steam engine is still good. How about some close ups of the trucks and coaches, some of them look interesting as well? Do you have a whole loop of mono-rail track for that engine to run around? Is it also powered, I cannot make out any motor, but i may of course be wrong? It is nice to see something different for a change and a mono-rail certainly is as we do not yet seem to get many of them. (At least not that I have seen.)

I got the impression from reading the advice from people that if I used LEDs I would need to include all of these other bits mentioned such as 'bridges' etc that I have no idea of what they are for and how they work or how to wire them in. I did look at the circuit diagrams from the link but to be honest I was a bit at the a loss as to what all the symbols mean? They are not the same as when I did basic electronics (In physics lessons at school in the 1970's.) when i was younger. I thought after reviewing this the above comments that it maybe better, if not exactly what I wanted, to stick with what I know. As I do not know about these other components needed with the LEDs I think it best to avoid them until I find some simple diagrams of how to wire them up. After all I don't want to start a fire in my house. I guess I have to accept that I am just an old person who has lost touch with modern technology. (Although I hoped that would not be for many years, it seems to have come earlier than I hoped for.)

I may end up having to just use very small bulbs like I used to on the N-Gauge layout as I am pretty sure I know how to wire them up with a two way switch like we used back then. (That is if I can get those small bulbs nowadays?) I think they called them 'grain of wheat bulbs' so some googling may be involved. The only trouble with them is they can get rather hot even though they are tiny. It is a pity as I really wanted to keep it as a LEGO solution, but looking at these wiring diagrams and talk of bridges and rectifiers has me lost. I am sure it is simple once you know what you are doing, but is a bot overwhelming when you have no idea. I just imagined that the LEDs would be wired in the same way as old fashioned light bulbs, but evidently not. I will see what small bulbs I can find at some point over the next couple of weeks, Thanks for your suggestions anyway. Now i know that I in fact I have been left behind and know nothing about modern electronics!

Spitfire 2865: I want to use only LEGO parts because it is a LEGO set up, made of LEGO parts. Werlu Ulcur: OK, yes I see what you mean. I think what I am trying to get at is that when the light on the signal goes green the engine in the siding can move off. Perhaps it would be easier to just have a switch next to the signal (Or at least nearby somewhere.) that I can flip to change the signal from red to green and back again. Not quite the solution I was after but I guess that would still do and as you point out I can then changed it back again if needs be. Peterab: Well I do not mind cutting wires on cheap'ish P/F parts, as I said I have used extension cables and cut them rather than say cutting a cable attached to an IR Unit for example. I guess lights are reasonably cheap so if that was the only I suppose I could do that. What I want to avoid doing though is cutting cable son the expensive bits like motors, IR Units and stuff. I know when I was a kid and my father and I had a model railway we used to have switches that we simply flipped the switch and the signal changed from green to red or the other way. I think that they had three wires, one main one from the battery (My father used a car battery for all the lights.) and then a single one for each bulb. I think the switch then used the main power line and changed between the secondary ones for the bulbs to change which one was on. I think what would be really good would be to have a double one that when it changed to green on the siding it changed to red on the main line. Then when it changed to red on the siding it changed to green on the main line? Locomotive Annie I just would like to have it changed with the point, but as I do not have electric point motors yet, I think I would for the on/off functionality right now. Maybe in the future tying it in with point operation would be good. You are right I am pretty sure that is how we had it set up on our old model railway when I was younger. I think that the problem I am coming up against is that there are two bulbs on the P/F cable and they seem from what I can work out have to both be on at the same time, whereas what I want to do is to have one of them on, then flip a switch, turn the first one off and switch the other one on. Is that possible? If so maybe a diagram of how to wire it would be useful so long as it is simple and not filled with technician speak. I did also try with some old 9V stuff I had lying about but the lights I had only seemed to flash on and off for ever. I do not really want to use the 4.5V stuff I have as the battery box is huge as are the lights themselves. Anyway, lets see what people can offer please?

Looks really nice, just the sort of train I would like to have running around my loops. I especially like the way you have managed to build the slops into bricks on the sides.

Please note that I no electrician so please make any replies in easy to use lay-man's language. I have been looking at designs for signals and reading various things both on here and that I have googled, but am a little at a loss to be able to work this out. I have tried numerous variations of wiring using P/F lights and also 9V and 4.5V but cannot figure out how to wire what I want to happen. I am trying to make a working signal for a siding that I have. Now I don't know much about real signals, but what I want to do is have a simple green light or a red light. I am not worrying about what happens in the real world so please don't hit me with lots of how certain railways really operate the signals. I just want to be able to have a red light on, flip a switch and have a green light on. I would prefer to use P/F lights and battery box if possible. So the P/F lights have two lights (Which is trains are normally used for headlights.) so how can I wire it up so that only one is on at a time, say in the red light, then flip a switch and have just the green light on? I thought that I may be able to use the switch that we use for changing directions of motors when we place two train motors in the same engine. But all that seems to do is keep both lights on, then switch it and they come back on again. I am assuming that there must be a way, but I cannot find it. Any help would be appreciated. I do not mind cutting wires and re-wiring them like I did in my 4.5V motors to run with the I/R unit. But if cutting is required I will buy a short extension lead to cut rather than the actual P/F unit, be that lights, I/R unit or whatever. What I am really hoping to do is have a small shunter on the siding waiting, have the signal at red, then when I get the train to move at the same time change the signal to green. I do not mind buying an IR Unit as then I can change the setting for the signal to match whatever channel the waiting engine is on in order to pick it up and change them. Any ideas of how to wire this in really simple steps using only proper LEGO (Preferably P/F.) parts? Thank you for your help, only my eyes are hanging out from staring at the screen most of the day trying to find what I am looking for without success.

LEGO Historian Can I ask if you know if any of these cars and lorries were made using the same molds by other toy makers at around the same time? Only I am almost certain that I had a load of these cars and lorries, the Jaguar above (Red.) looks so familiar to me and also the red fuel tanker that you have posted a few times. I know that I have these in a box in my mothers attic, but I do not recall them being of LEGO origin. That may well of course be because when I was a kid playing with them I was too young to worry about where they came from, I don't know? I do know for a fact though that they must still be there even if they are in dented / played with condition, as my father was a keen collector of model cars & trucks as well so never got rid of any. (He had all the original matchbox ones in the matchboxes.) The trouble for me is that being a cripple it is really hard to get up into the attic at mother's. I keep meaning the try, but if I know they were only made by LEGO and no-one else it would be more of an incentive to try! Trouble is something is telling me they were from promotional sets the type you got with cereals and stuff back in the late 60's early 70's, but that could just be a trick of my mind, or even from LEGO promotions for I know! My certainty level increased somewhat the other day when going through a box of old LEGO I managed to retrieve that i found a pair of the old HO/OO scale petrol Pumps that I know were LEGO to start with. Those tiny little yellow ones, but they are not in that good condition and the sticker is barely able to be made out, but I do recall them being amongst my cars when I was very young. Edit: Note that I ask here rather than PM as it may also be of interest to others who think they may have some from their youth?

Most (Well nearly all.) my trains are British or European. I have a few box cars on my flickr pages that you are welcome to look at for inspiration if you like, but not sure how suitable they would be for US trains!

I like this cab and it does look like the old APT to me. It is a pity it never came to anything in the UK as for a time it was looking like the way to go. Still glad that others managed to get it to work and we have them now anyway.

When I get like that I tend not to be building anything, but I can still place an order on Bricklink or even with TLG PAB online. They can be small ones, say around £10.00 / $10.00 (Depending on what you have where you live.) I just order bits that I know I use a lot but are running short of. That way when that small order comes I still have a LEGO related activity to sort it all out into the relevant tubs at my work station, which keeps it alive in my mind even though I have spent very little and not done much.

Nice vampire, he looks very white and vampire'ish. However is he running out into the day light (Even if it is a thick jungle.) surely that would not do him much good, unless he is one of the Twilight brigade?

The set for building the cavalry looks good and I guess multiple ones will be bought by most, but are cavalry not horse mounted troops (at least in the era in question.) and there seems to be a distinct lack of horses except for the character who is not a cavalry man?

Thanks for the feedback. Werlu Ulcur The IR unit is placed right at the rear end of the engine, it is practically the last thing there is except the rear wall of the engine that is. It is right behind the rear grill patterned 2x2 round tile. I have covered the grey studs with two black modified tile grills. They are not there on the original engine however but then the IR Unit has to go somewhere.

I have been thinking about one of these for a while now. On my old N Gauge layout that my father and I had when i was a kid we had a couple of these, one in green and one in BR Blue. We used them mainly for pulling freight wagons around the layout as opposed to passenger coaches or shunting duties. I would have liked to make it in dark green, but the bits I needed were not all available. Also I had come into possession of two of those green cab bits with all the windows which seemed ideal. On viewing several photos to work from however maybe they were not the best choice as the cab was more rectangular, but I had no other green windows (Or at least not of the right size and quantity.) to use. Also it had a useful cut out for the wiring to run through. It has taken me a while to construct it, a lot of thought and a lot of versions until I got something that looked like the engines in the photographs. I particularly wanted to get the grey stripe running along the top. Several versions I made were too high to go under my station and it took quite a bit of work to lower the battery box so that the overall engine could be reduced in height. Also i think in doing so it had made it more realistic looking as it does now look like the N-Gauge version only much bigger. I don't think it was the most popular British Rail locomotive as they did not seem to be in service long and I had read that they had reliability issues, but nonetheless I like the look as they do seem to resemble to large extent several continental European engines which I have seen in my travels. I have built it on a 7 wide stud base with the front beam being 8 (As I could not make a 7 stud long section with the brackets I had.) Not to worry as other bits stick out in places like the handrails. I have equipped it with two PF train motors, the direction controller for one of them acting as a back rest for the drivers seat. It also has two sets of lights, white at the front and red at the rear. I have also photographed it with my BR Type 2 shunter in order to compare the relative size, which I think matches the N-Gauge versions as well. I plan to use it to haul freight when running diesels and electrics rather than steam.

I had similar problems with my Type 08 Diesel that I used Medium wheels on in an 0-6-0 configuration with the centre pair un-flanged. Whatever I did they seemed to run for a few minutes then grind to a halt. I was using a PF Medium motor with technic gears. I tied loads of different ways, changing the gear ratio, changing the wheels around so different ones were un-flanged, loosening the rods, tightening the rods, but nothing worked. In the end I changed the rods to single bit Technic lift arms.Then it worked perfectly OK. Sometimes it is the obvious solution, I think using the beams I just had too many joints that i could not get the right tension or all of them being the same, whatever, but it worked. I assume of course that you have got them off set? Otherwise that will tend to cease them up. But I think the point being is that it was the rod set-up rather than the wheels.