WesternOutlaw

Thanks for the early review Typo. I think it's a nice starter set for younger train fans. It's got some interesting components like the Flatbed Wagon with Repair Vehicle. I also like the boxcar which has a little more design than that of the last Green Cargo Train. I've added a poll to this review and indexed. On a side note, the yellow Train Tech logo is used to show that the Review/Topic has been Indexed. As it has now been indexed, it's okay that you added it to your review. I give it a solid "4". EDIT: oh, I see the inclusion of the Haz Mat Minifigure for containing that soon to occur nuclear waste spill for added play (interesting choice of cargo). Also, it's time to get some new minifigs for cargo trains. There's only so many minifigs with orange/blue torsos needed for one's train yard.

Very nice design Legodac. I'm a huge fan of Wild West trains and old-fashion water towers. You've pulled off a nice look despite the challenge of having to create the round design. I like the colors you selected reminding me of Playmobil's Western Water Tower: at least the top. I am curious why you made it short. Was it the height of your LEGO trains? In any case, you've got an awesome layout with some really nice components like this water tower. Oh, the use of the round 1x1 plates work well for the water level. Love it!

I was reading some of the posts above and want to chime in. Every few years, this topic seems to resurface like LEGO underwater-related themes, but without the release of any new sets. Part of me would very much like to see new sets built in the old 1996 Wild West fashion to expand Gold City. We've discussed the opportunities for new structures and Wild West elements on several occasions (so no need to mention them again). I can't express how much I enjoyed searching my home town for Wild West sets right before they could no longer be found in stores. The WW sets (and LEGO Trains) brought me out of my Dark Ages and I recall the excitement of opening Gold City Junction and Bandit's Hideout with green pieces, barrels, wagon wheels, and exploding dynamite traps. At the same time, I would welcome a brand new Wild West theme (not like Ninjago to Ninja), but something like a 50th Anniversary Town Plan to that of the old 50s set (although a Ghost Town or Mexican Village would certainly be awesome). While movies like True Grit, Jonah Hex, Tomb Stone, and others released in the past 10-15 years were good movies, the kids just aren't into WW anymore. Perhaps Cowboys vs. Aliens may stem new interest, but the era has died. It was fun seeing WW appear in Toy Story and Rango (an excellent cartoon BTW), but licensed themes may provide the only hope for resurrecting the theme; unless LEGO decides to offer some new sets for adult fans. They have certainly surprised us in the past and they seem to be listening like never before. Other toy companies like Playmobil are in fact offering new Western sets, as well as "legends from the past". LEGO could certainly follow suit. Until then, as a few have mentioned, use the pieces and parts that you have to build your own Grave Stones, Shiverdales, Mexican Villages, and Gold City Junctions.

I think you could have obtained the answers to your questions by doing a little homework on your own. There are sites such as Brickset, Peeron, and the link provided within this post to research your train. In addition, if you'd read the alert regarding image sizes at the top of this forum, there are also some links to tutorials to help you with image resizing. EDIT: I'll go ahead and leave this topic open if you want to continue to discuss the train. I have renamed the topic though.

While the red structure is really impressive, the interior details really add to the already nice design. When I first opened this topic, I was envisioning a Western/Wild West wooden water tower, but this is a Watertower House, and something that I'm not familiar with. Really interesting build/design. Nice job Mirandir and I really like the roof.

It's always neat to see LEGO incorporated with non-LEGO elements. I don't believe I've ever seen coffee tins used for train tunnels, but the finished product(s) look really good. Very clever use of the tins and I like how you recessed the red bricks/plates. Really clever idea!

Please see the site guidelines re. image sizes posted at the top of this forum. Images replaced with a link to your photo bucket.

It's a nice train. My only thought is that LEGO is really pumping out the trains and I'm enjoying the variety. It's nice to see LEGO Trains making a come back.

Topic merged.

No images from the links you provided. Please consider posting a deeplink of the image so that we don't have to go to FlickR to view. You do this by simply using {IMG}Link Within Image Brackets{/IMG}. You might also consider changing the main topic title to what your MOC is. The preferred naming is: MOC: Modified James Mathis German DB 111 or more appropriate: MOD: James Mathis German DB 111

Front-page news! Thanks Grogall.

Eurobricks member Grogall shares a high-resolution image of LEGO's new 2011 LEGO Train, the 3677 Red Freight Train (official name to be determined). You can read more about the new LEGO Train in the Train Tech forum!

Amazing find Brickaroo! The box and train look mint. I'm really envious of your entire collection (crossing and all). On a side note, please resize your image to no larger than our 800x600 max EB image size. Much appreciated. She is a beauty though!

Welcome DetroitBricks and thanks for sharing an image of the Ann Arbor/Wabash caboose. That will certainly make a nice inspiration train car to create in LEGO. I look forward to seeing your finished creation. On a side note, we do have an 800x600 maximum image size here on EB, if you could please resize your image. Much appreciated and welcome to EB and to the Train Tech forum. I hope you enjoy our LEGO Train community.

As always, an excellent review WH, and I think this one is your best yet. Your picture quality is much better than some of your previous reviews. I really like how you grouped the minifigs based on theme - esp. Circus, Evolution, and Ancient Egypt. The Godzilla Suit, English Guard, and Wood Chopper are among my personal favorites, but LEGO created a nice set once again. I'm looking forward to finding in my local TRU - another case to add to the collection. Again, great review! Thanks for sharing.

I've been wanting to start this topic for some time now, but only this morning as I sat down in my LEGO Lair did I decide to take a few minutes to share some thoughts through this topic, Decluttering Your LEGO Lair. Let me first start by providing some history. Space is a challenge for many of us. Some LEGO fans create elaborate storage shelf systems in their LEGO lairs neatly organizing pieces by color, by shape, and by plate. Others, I will refer to as "traditionalists", are more of a box stacking variety. This is especially the practice when one does not do a lot of building and owns a collection of unopened sets. I fall into this category for I recently went on a "LEGO Buying Binge" (over several months with LEGO's great 2011 line-up) in which I purchased all of the POTC sets, a collection of City sets, as well as a few sets from other themes. I hate to admit the fact that most of these have been set aside for a future building date. This topic isn't exactly about storage; however, but more on the need or the desire to declutter a LEGO lair. I was getting to a point that I could not vacuum my LEGO Lair for a large LEGO Train Town, stacks of sets, boxes of minifigs, bags of polybags, and other things were slowly consuming the floor space like some LEGO blob with a taste for space. The result was a dusty overcrowded room of which I was embarrassed to have visitors. LEGO fanaticism, AFOL madness, or even Pack Rat seem appropriate names. Is this YOU? If so, it's time to STOP! It is time to declutter your LEGO Lair, as it was time for me. I had a nice LEGO Train Town atop two large boards resting on a smaller table. It looked something like this a few months ago: Train Town Unfortunately, after adding a number of new vehicles, a few additional City sets, a UFO abduction, and finally (the icing on the cake), the Pet Shop Modular that I planned to locate dead center, "urban sprawl" was creeping in. Upon getting ready to place the Pet Shop, I noticed the HUGE amount of dust that told me, I was neglecting my Town. Something had to be done and as I lokked around the room, I realized the time would be NOW. Over the next week, I slowly took apart everything in Train Town (with the exception of the City Modulars placed high atop some bookshelves) and removed most of the stacked boxes in the room, including numerous empty boxes. I left my train shelved to display my favorite LEGO Train engines, and just a small handful of MOCs. Train Shelves I have my old writing table back: And can even get to my DVD collection that was burried behind numerous small and mid-sized LEGO boxes: While I no longer have a circle of track for my LEGO Trains, I have gained an apprecition for the sets and MOCs that I do have, and actually enjoy coming into the new decluttered room to type on the computer. I have not ran away from LEGO, but merely organized what I do have and feel relieved that I don't have a huge pile of dust in the room anymore. One of the biggest advantages is that I was able to display some lighthouses and nautical items that had been burried under boxes in the garage for a few years. I found old pictures and things I had long forgotten. One picture I even went out and framed. Now I have an orderly and organized nautical-themed office of which I can enjoy: What are your thoughts on decluttering your LEGO Lair? Have you had similar experiences? Has LEGO consumed all other objects in your man cave? Do you have tips for organizing a LEGO Lair? Or are you able to balance LEGO with other hobbies in the same space? Share your thoughts here. EDIT: oh, and BTW, I can't wait to display the Black Pearl in my new Nautical Office.

Thanks for taking the time to share this nice review R8. I'm sure many LEGO Train fans are interested in taking a closer look at these custom track pieces. They certainly look much better than I initially thought and provide a good solution for the price of second hand 9V straight track.

Welcome vgsprites and happy 100th! I see you have 4563 Load & Haul within your collection. She's a real beauty! Hope you continue to enjoy the forum. EDIT: and now that I've added your user name, I see what you mean by the first "V" member.

Merging your post with this topic.

Welcome Lisa. It's always nice to see more ladies join in the LEGO Train hobby. The Maersk is certainly a nice train to start your collection. Your interest in a narrow gauge rail sounds interesting as I've always been a fan of mining and forest trains. You could use some of the rail pieces from Indiana Jones' Temple of Doom (7199), although motorizing elevated track would certainly be a challenge. I hope you enjoy the forum and good luck with expanding your LEGO Train interest. Sounds like you have a good sized room to continue to expand your layout.

Way to go LT12V!

Interesting topic and this can apply to other themes as well. I think we all need some diversity from time-to-time. Change is good. I recently took down my entire Train Town, track and all to return to a nautical theme I had going in my office/computer room years ago. In doing so, I couldn't believe how many LEGO boxes I had collected and stacked in the room. In fact, I'm still trying to make room in closets and the garage for the collection. I did leave my City Modulars high atop a bookshelf. I can now appreciate a collection of lighthouses that had been burried in the garage. I also left my train shelves so that I can continue to appreciate my favorite LEGO Locomotives/Engines, but the track has been put away. Every few years, I seem to drift away to explore other collections including Playmobil, of which I love the Western theme. Personally, I don't think there's anything wrong with getting away from LEGO or other hobby sometime; and later, I think it makes you appreciate it more. I had planned to start another topic relating to "Decluttering Your LEGO Room" in the General Forum. In regard to HO scale trains, while I only have a few, I really love looking at the realism of layouts, and they certainly take a lot less space. I'm also a big fan of G Scale trains, but my back yard wouldn't be the right climate for a Garden Railroad. What is nice is that they are the same scale as Playmobil. I look forward to reading some of the other comments. Have fun with your trains and/or other collections. It's all about doing the things you enjoy!

I think many people are finding the little train graphics from Herby´s New LEGO® Train Depot.

I've been meaning to comment on this topic for the past few weeks. I'm up to 13 trains now (counting engines but not counting the Toy Story Train and an older HP Express). Suppose I have 15 with the two theme/licensed trains. What I particularly enjoy seeing in this topic are the images of the 12V and older 9V trains - many that I don't even remember. Looks like some of you have some great collections. I've been slowly taking down my Train Town over the past several weeks - it just gets so dusty and cluttered. Now I've just got my favorite engines on some shelves: