Hrw-Amen

My two are running fine with two train motors and all the rest in the front car. No slippage or anything and pulls really well.

Looks good, I really need those wider curves for the same reasons everyone else is saying, long rolling stock. Most of my passenger coaches are in the 40+ stud range so any way to make wider curves. I will have to keep an eye open.

My wife likes the friends ones to have something small each day. I have got a couple of CITY ones but they seem quite repetative and the bits are all quite common, afterall even the mini figures are, how many firemen or policemen can one CITY have?

Another one here from the BBC today : http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-26563414 something about LEGO Robots solving Rubics cubes, giant ones! Rubics cubes that is, not LEGO Robots. Still quite entertaining to watch and I would have no idea how to make one work.

Looks good just like the real one.Can I ask though, does this have another option for locomotion than the pantograph as I see in the photo of the real one that it does not have them raised, whilst clearly it is out on its own and not attached to anything pushing/pulling it? It would make for a good option to be able to pick up current from some other source than overhead or to have a diesel engine as well?

Looks good and nice to see it on a live layout with so many other railway stock. Windows are really tricky I find. It is either settling for a compromise and using one of the windows produced by TLG themselves or tyring to build them using the transparent bricks which can look good or not depending. A dilema I am currently battling with on my latest MOC. Not sure which way to go, but yours looks pretty good so maybe building them is the way forward for me also. Thanks for the help even if not inteneded and for showing us a really nice engine.

OK, not familiar with the book, but it is an interesting topic. I'll have to stop by every now and then to see how it is progressing as it sounds like a really good project.

Very neat idea for mermaid transport. How do they get in though? Does the train have to reverse down a slipway into the sea, that would be something worth seeing?

I like engines like this with the cab in the middle, no need to keep turning them around. Good build and nice tram as well!

It is a fun thing to do on a Sunday. Sometimes I get the chance especially if my mate brings his boy around to play. It can be great fun watching the trains chase each other and all that. The worst bit is putting it all away at the end. If only I had room for a permenant layout!!

Nice engine. It is odd to see a british engine in this type of configuration, I think the Class 20 was about the only one or at least the only one that springs to mind? It is an interesting colour scheme for it as well, but very well executed. I especially liked the wheels.

Most of what I have nowadays is bought through Bricklink. It seems to me the easiest way to go about collecting parts. I have quite a bity from when I was a child, but there is more, (Most of it.) I cannot access as it is at my parents in storage. I had to pretty much start from scratch. Buying sets to get parts is really an expensive way to go about getting them, at least if you are in the UK. I have bought sets for specific parts in the past but usually only small ones. For example I bought some of the Galaxy Squad sets to get bug specific parts that I wanted to make some new bugs. But normally for bigger models I would,not do this.

I saw this on the BBC. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-berkshire-26453576 Seems a shame really but I guess they have to play on the safe side of things. Pitty to shut the whole park though for the weekend which is afterall when most people would plan to go there I would have thought. But I guess that is what the people posting these comments on facebook and making the threats want. Either way they have won it seems. Shame on them I say!

This looks very nice, it is just the sort of thing that we could use for those of us who do not have that much room but still want a train set to play with. I like it a lot.

Looks interesting, I was surprised at how little can actually be seen out of the train windows? I guess this applies to real trains as well as I guess you don't have to steer them as such just be able to see out the front for signals etc.

The platform looks nice and as though it would fit in with a modern thememed city layout. However I wonder if it needs to be a little longer to take a couple of coaches even if only from a DMU or similar electric variant?

You can easily replace your old 4.5V battery boxes via Bricklink, they are most of the time very cheap. You may also want to wire a Power Functions IR unit in between the motor and battery box then you can control the old 4.5V engines speed the same as you can the modern Power Functions ones with the normal train remote control. I have a couple of engines built around the old 4.5V system that I have done this to. It is just easier to control nthe speed that way. The IR Unit works perfectly well with 4.5V the same as it does with 9V. You should be able to find the wiring instructions in these pages or also on Brickshelf and the procedure is easy enough once you have a diagram. The only thing I would say is to get a small Ower Functions extension cable and cut the that in half to conect to the 4.5V motor and the other end to the battery box. The small extension cables are a lot cheaper than the IR Units so cutting one of them is not such a big deal.

Looks good, I see you have put some slopes onto it to make it more flush. I know that a mass of LEGO is rather 'massive' and I am wonderin what effect this extra mass will have on the structural integrity of your staircase, is this something you have considered, you would not want the whole structure collapsing?

I did start to keep all the bioxes, but I just did not have enough space for them even in the attic. I only have a small one bedroom place so very little storage space. In the end I had to recycle them as we were just getting overwhelmed. Having said that I do still have the Lotr & Hobbit ones mainly as most of these have not been built up yet, but also the ones that have been I have taken apart and put back into the boxes and then put them in the attic, but that is probably all i will keep.

I found building the Horizon Express quite simple. Fitting the Power Functions bit as has been said is quite easy to do and should cause no more issues than any of ther other sets you mentioned you have done, although I would agree that the up coming white passenger train will almost certainly be easier with less parts I would have thought. The only thing I found a little difficult was that I wanted to fit two power funtion motors in the front engine, the hard part was getting enough space for the polarity switch, but if you are just going with one motor it will not be an issue. I understand what you say about having a disability. Whilst my hands are OK, i do have mobility issues and getting up and down is hard. I find it very frustrating when I drop a small part and cannot bend down to get it. I use a helping hand but more often than not clutching it with this just sends it spinning off across the room! Mostly it is destressing, but at times it can be very stressful! Espeically when those parts end up under an arm chair or the sideboard!

I have been building a set of blue and white passenger coaches over the last few weeks. I wanted to style them after the old BR blue color scheme, but they are not copied from any BR pattern I hasten to add, just the general theme. I think the part I did look at closely was the boogie. I went to the station where I live to look at them. They seem to have these huge bubbles for suspension. (I presume?) and although I did not touch any to find out, (Getting onto the track between train and platform would be a bad idea.) they did look like large rubber rings, but presumably made of a lot tougher stuff than a balloon? Having said that they may be for something else entirely, but none the less they inspired me to use that general look in the construction of the boogies. Also I had been thinking for a while now to try using the aircraft window for a passengar coach, my reasoning being that essentially a plane and train are similar in that they are basically a long metal tube with people inside. I think that they look OK, but it would be better if they made them with the windows stretched width wise rather than two windows side by side. Still I haver made them now. So far I have two normal wagons, a baagage wagon with half second class seating and a first calss one. I want to make a dining car but as it is I am almost out of those windows and the curved white bits for the roof. Maybe next month when I do a Bricklink order, we shall have to see? http://www.flickr.co...157641079295213

At the end of the day, as long as you and your club are happy, does it matter if we build 6,7,8,9 or even 10? We just need to have fun doing it!

I like this, nice and simple looking. Those common old workhorse engines often get overlooked in favour of something more flashy. Good to see it built and on the track, should be better still when you get the PF installed.

These do look very good, just as I recall the real ones looking from outside. I am not so sure on the interior layout though I guess like everyone there is a limit to what you can actually put inside one.

The grey roof is definately better. I think I have similar coaches on my old N Gauge layout and the grey roof is much more in keeping with the design of the coaches from what I can see.