Hrw-Amen

It is not nice to find grime on your LEGO, but is mouse poo any worse than cat, dog, child poo or any other type of infectious stuff that probably comes into contact with it which we maynot be aware of? I mean when you buy a load of second hand bricks who knows what they have been through? It is a pain to have to wash them, but probably safer in the long run. I know when I was a child I used to bite some of my bricks to get them apart, (Still do sometimes!) so any of my old stuff is always washed before I use it again as I suspect I probably had some awful germs back then. Sounds like a lot to wash though, but it will be worth it I am sure. Best of luck.

Really nice colours, especially on the passenger coaches, I am quite impressed by these.

Yes that looks really good. I like the panels on the side of the signal house. Looks like it would fit in with a nice little village station.

Very nice, the lights make it look much more realistic.

That is interesting. I hope the tank gets to come back and have another go. For me I prefer Brown, so I guess that really confuses the issue!

Simple but good. I can see them in all sorts of colours. I bet it was hard to get it to balance upright though without wedging it?

It seems to me that both SNOT and studless are becoming more normal and therefore cannot by virtue of that be snobbish. Anyway, I don't think it matters as it is down to what individuals like and want. For me I like as much studless as possible as I like a clean finish with just enough studs to hold the odd Mini-Fig or two. I don't do a great deal of SNOT but have used it on occasion. That does not mean that my models are better or worse though, they are just what I like. Others may and do disagree, also I've seen plenty of stud'ier models than I would have built that look great.

I always feel at least one or if possible two dead end sidings are good for storing trucks and trains on. Maybe because where I live we are at the end of the line and there is nowhere else to go?

I thought it looked a bit too long but seeing the original it is spot on. Am I right in assuming the dome structure is for the driver to sit in or does it have some other purpose? Nice model, just like the real thing. Any more in the pipeline?

It is good to see some ordinary style of buildings and not too fancy. Those large red blocks of flats look quite realistic. Can I ask if they have detailed interiors? There also seems to be a lot of train activity going on.

Nice to see something a bit different from the normal trains. Be good to see what you can do with it. Perhaps two horses?

I like things to be as studless as possible, so that it looks more real. I have put a grab rail on the inside which the minifig is holding onto so he does not fall over. I know it is down to choice and some people like studs, but generally I do not. Having said that in my building MOCS where I have put the pavements I have left rows of studs every so often whilst being mostly tiled for that exact reason, so that I can put some mini-figs on and they won't fall over. Also inside were most of the floor is tiled behind shop counters etc I have left just one stud so the cashier mini-fig can stand there without falling over and so on. With the trains the minifigs will sit on seats in the passenger coaches that are studded so there is not much need.

Very nice and good colours on the trees. There some outside my window right now just like that.

That is a nice model.

I am not very good with photography. I don't know why? I follow as much as I can the instructions but for some reason I just do not seem to be able to get good photographs of my models, whether LEGO or otherwise. I actually thought these were better as I set them all up with a white background and everything. Sorry about that, maybe next time they will work out, but I somehow doubt it. I think I just have to accept that whatever I do I am going to be rubbish at it.

Brickshelf GalleryI decided to make my own as I have seen quite a few recently and did not have one. I went for the normal standard one I remember from when I was a child that they used around where I live. (They actually use a brown one as well but I did not have enough brown bricks.) Anyway, here are a some pictures and a link to the Brickshelf gallery.

Yes quite, I have to admit that the scale time seemed a bit over the thop to me, but then these guys were reasonably obsessive about things. One of the reasons I did not stay in the club that long really. It was all a bit much for something that was supposed to be fun. I'll have to time my trains though to see how fast they run, that at least is quite interesting.

I only use LEGO parts with the exception of stuff like string and some stickers I've printed out, but no other make of bricks. I like my MOCS to be sturdy, although this is not always 100% possible, but I do like to be able to play with them, especially the trains. Most of my MOCS are train or buildings to go around them so are quite solid. I have tried LDD but have found it a little awkward and sometimes the bricks seem to have trouble fitting into place. Generally whilst I can see some people would like it and it could be useful for getting a list of parts needed, I don't really like it and prefer real blocks. As for inspiration I useually go for something I can find in a book or know from experience. I recently built a steam train which I had a black and white photo of in an old book. I just copied it as nest i could and took about a month fiddling with ideas to get everything to the detail I wanted.

Nice bus and the little scene with the old tramp poking about in the dustbin is really characterful!

So do many of us make our trains crash on purpose, especially given that with LEGO it can easily (Normally.) be rebuilt without too much hassle?

Interesting, do you also use scale time to work this out? When I was a teenager, many years back I was in a modelling/wargaming club that ran campaigns and they had this really odd concept of scale time in which everything had to be done. I did not stay in it long mind you. (sorry had to edit, rubbish spelling, too much speed!)

Very nice buses. How many passengers do they seat?

Just a thought. Having been someone who likes trains and in particular steam trains, (I like other ones as well.) and having a couple of Lego steam trains as well as an N gauge layout in the past. I was wondering, in the olden days when the driver sat in the cab somewhere at the back of the train how did they see where they were going? I remember when I was a kid you used to be able to pull down the windows in carriages and stick your head out but that was always jumped on by the conductors for I guess obvious reasons as trains pass quite close to each other. Now I know that trains obviously do not need to steer but surely the driver still had to be able to see what was on the track up ahead of him? did they have some mirror arrangement or did he have to stick his head out and hope for the best? Are there any examples of drivers becoming victims of serious head injury if this is the case and subsequent accidents or have they all just been very lucky? Just strikes me as a bit risky that is all. (Unless as i said they have some mirror or other get up to be abel to so it?)

Yes, my cat finds them amusing as well!!

I was just thinking of this having had my own Emerald Night and others running this weekend. I only have a small loop at the moment although I plan to get more track, but looking at various videos on Youtube it does seem to me that people run the trains way to fast. They also seem to just start and stop without putting much thought into how quickly they build up speed and slow down again. I tired to bring my trains slowly into the station and then set off again building up speed just like real ones. So what do most people do, do you have them whizzing around it only takes a few seconds to complete a loop or do you run them much more slowly and try to get it to look a little more realistic? I do realise this is Lego and that it is not real and also that it is personal preference so am not suggesting one or the other is more right or wrong, just curious.