Hrw-Amen

Looks good so far, but how does it work, how does it get its power?

Good looking trains there, always nice to have some maintenance trains around.

Yes it is hard sometimes when you know what you want to build but do not have the parts you need or want. Very fristrating, but you have to make do with what you have got at the time. Still, it looks good and with some adjustments as suggested once the parts are available to you.

I'd love to be able to build something like this but annoyingly my knowledge of electrical circutes is quite low. Nevermind it is nice to see all of yours. I do recall once on our old N Gauge set there was a level crossing that had no electrical stuff at all and just worked on the weight of the train on the track pushing down some pulleys and wire frame, this when weighted (A little way before the crossing.) pushed (or pulled.) the various bits lowering the gates, then when gone the weight was off the track and they would open again. I cannot find any diagram though of how it worked. I am sure that sort of thing could be rigged into a LEGO crossing if I knew how it worked?

Interesting, so LEGO trains actually sound authentic!!

I have just built most of my Blue cargo train and wagons. The cattle wagon (Poor excuse for one.) was pretty wide anyway but the other two I have converted to be 7 studs wide to fit with the rest of my rolling stock. Here is the link to my flickr account:-

I have managed to get the blue freight train. I have not built all the wagons yet, just the lorry and the engine. Although it is an American style engine it looks OK as I do mind having ones from around the world, it also looks similar to the engines that I have seen when over in Indonesia where my wife is from, which is good so that we have a frame of reference. I plan to adapt the two flat cars to 7 studs wide just to fit with everything else. Not sure If I will make up the cattle wagon, seems a bit poor really, especially as I have some of my own that are much more convincing. I may end up just using it for parts.

Yes, I hear that all the time in my local store, parents say things like "Those Kreo LEGOs we bought the other day were rubbish." or "That cheap LEGO is OK but you need to be able to glue it together otherwise the bricks don't stay in place."

Nice, I like the doors especially the handle on the drivers door.

So I have been to several toy shops in the south of the UK over the last week. They all seem to have the new passenger train and the new station, but none of them have the new freight train? I asked in my local store and they said they ordered them at the same time but that the freight trains were not delivered and they have no date for when they will be. It is a pity as I am intending to by a set when I am paid and I wanted to get the freight one first, but now it looks like it will be the other way around. Has anyone in the UK seen any of the new freight trains on the shelves yet and if not any idea why they are taking longer than the other passenger one to arrive?

One of our local stores used to have some older LEGO sets in every now and then that they sold cheaply, usually the medium sized sets. Now they have stopped and have their own brand of clone stuff. The actual bricks seem to have quite a bit of clutch power and don't look that bad although I do n ot intend to buy any. They have even set up a PAB wall for their own clone bricks, it is so annoying, they could have done that with real LEGO.

I have a lot of those newer types as my wife is a collector of Friends sets and you often get spares. I figured they were more of a ground hugging flower and have used some as that inbetween 'normal' flowers. To be honest I never noticed the hole, I feel compelled to go and see if they do indeed fit onto the 'normal' stems now and if so to use some in that way. As I am currently ballasting up a lot of railway track to have enough segments to run a double loop around the living room I am useing quite a lot of flowers just to break up the green and grey and add a bit of colour. Now I am going to have to try this and also turn some of the old flowers upside down, (or the right way up?) depending on how you look at it. Even though I have always been a studs down person for the old flowers I am now going to go and change some around for variety. Just out of curiosity when putting them together do people prefer to have all three stems with the same colour flower, or do you like me try and put a different colour on each stem?

May have to try this. I have tried it with a pull back motor I have but it was a bit of a failure, as said lots of wheel spin at first then nothing, no grip whatsoever on the track with train wheels. I would like to get a clockwork one to try. I bought the pull back one simply to try it out as it was only a few pennies.

I have never noticed that either, I always put them on the other way around, no idea why, they looked right that way (To me.) I guess? May have try them out this way round to see what they look like.

In the UK, this weeks episode of NCIS had some LEGO in it. One of the women characters got a brick stuck in the tread on her boots and then more little bits stuck in a keyboard preventing it from working properly until it was upturned and they fell out.

I have had no problems like that. I use the ordinary battery box and ENergiser rechargable batteries. They seem to stay charged for ages and the only time I have had slippage on the wheels is going up too steep an incline, but that was my fault not the motors. Sometimes If I run them alot in a day the motors do get a little warm, but nothing worryingly so, no more than you would expect.

Looks good so far, keep us up to date with photographs.

Looks OK to me. Whilst i agree in general about keeping camera and background still, sometimes it adds a little to that 'shot on the hoof' look if there are one or two wobbles, a bit like a live war correspondence, but I guess it depends on the image you are going for.

I don't like not having doors. I can live with holes in the floor and all that stuff, even with 'model' doors that do not really open, but it should have some sort of door. I know the red one did not either and for me that is a big issue as the mini-figures need to know where to get on and off even if it is just pretend. I may have to try and come up with something for it to have some.

Yes, having more than one of any locomotive makes a layout seem more real I think. I quite often see several trains in at my local station, maybe some in different colour schemes, but usually of the same type. It is much more believeable that way.

Got four spider gliders yesterday, but although I would have liked some more of toady's offerring but felt at £1.50 it was a bit expensive! I have to say that this time apart from the two over the weekend with the mini-figures the ones on offer the rest oif the week look a little half hearted, not sure if I will pick them up or not?

Really nice looking train. Even the passenger cars, I remember having some of those old three axle ones on my N gauge layout as a kid, they were forever coming off the track on curves and especially at points. Looks like you have solved that problem though.

I don't know much about old technic motors but I have several old 4.5V motors that work well with the PF IR Unit, so I imagine there is a way? As for the drivers, I have tried both using the train motor with big wheels and also using other PF motors. What the others say is right, using a normal train motor is OK if all you are going to have is the engine tender and a couple of small wagons, anything else I find it will struggle although it will be very quick if just left to itself. I really would suggest using the ordinary train motor in the tender to power it using the small wheels. It will easily push an engine around and pull a half decent load. With the exception of one MOC which uses an extra large PF motor I have converted all of my 'newer' steam engines to run with powered tenders. At the end of the day it is just easier on things like changing the batteries, changing the settings on the IR Unit etc. Anyway, best of luck and make sure you post the pictures of whatever you build.

Well, I have collected the actual LEGO train sets including the HE, but when it comes to running them I always choose my MOCs. Mainly though because I have a whole load of matching coaches or wagons to go with each from large express diesels to tiny little shunters. I like to get the official sets simply because they are official and when I have enough space to set up a loop I do like to run the HE, but I agree it is very long. If I were you and you have the HE, I would leave it built and look at getting PF stuff direct from TLG and consider building a smaller shunter which will use a lot less brick and look a lot better on a small track. I would get the bricks to build it though and keep it simple to start with. The main cost with this is going to be getting the PF stuff. The actual bricks you need can be quite cheap. There is plenty of threads here or pictures in the gallery of all sorts of engines from main line down to small yard and of every type steam to electric, so use that as a starting point for your MOC and you will not go far wrong.

It is always nice to see new people getting involved in trains. Can I ask why you are hiding it from the kids until it is built? Part of the fun with LEGO, at least from a kids point of view is in the building. Or do you want to keep all the fun for yourself, which is certainly something I can relate to. Anyway, I hope you have lots of fun with your new train and any future train related projects.