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Hoping it's ok to necro this thread, it seemed like the right thing to do to me. I'd be curious if others have any Maersk mod locomotives they've been working on recently. I was able to find BNSF decals from BrickTrainDepot and also ordered Conrail and Union Pacific decals from @zephyr1934 (Trained Bricks). I was very happy they turned out so well and worked with the locomotives I built. The BNSF front decal is a bit too big but it wraps around the 4 wide nose just fine. I have a couple more coming in the future and have been scouring websites looking for decals that will fit this style. I also used a technique I found on an eBay listing of all places to use 2x4 tiles along the sides of the BNSF and UP. It widens the locomotives a bit but I'm ok with it. I want to have a bit of variance between them anyway. Really I'd like to switch it up more, maybe wide cabs here and there, but I still have a lot to learn with Lego MOCing. TLDR: Here's a video

I'm sure many of the folks here are quite familiar with using PyBricks but I made a tutorial for those that haven't used it before. Sharing this with folks new to PyBricks should prove a lot easier than sending messages back and forth

Yep there are no Technic axles in any of my trains. I just build bogies with the metal axle train wheels. When I started looking into your Conrail loco I saw you had the same problem I did and the same solution of just raising the bogie plate by one plate. I haven't looked into ball bearing wheel sets yet but still haven't really had the need. The lead Maersk loco has two Powered Up motors, the two "dummy" locomotives use the metal axle wheels and then 8 wagons behind that (with a few more on the way ). I'm probably pushing the limits before I'll need to look into stronger magnets and ball bearings though. I didn't know that about the 10241, that's interesting. Medium azure was a close second to my final choise dark azure. Less accurate but I just thought they looked great

Actually not the first suggestion for Canadian Northern . It is a beautiful livery. For now I'm working on @zephyr1934's Conrail and Union Pacific mod of the 10219 with some modifications of my own. I already ordered the decals from him, just waiting on more pieces from Bricklink. Watching the Maersk locos run next to my 60052 locomotives I may have to modify them as well to look a little less toy like or perhaps retire them. The 10219 is a great base to start from, I'm hoping to make some of my own MOCs in the future as well

Thanks! I do think the medium azure is the closest to Maersk blue and stickers are available. There are other shades like medium blue but I think they are harder to find. I've been asked several times to give an estimate on price and it just isn't feasible. I'm in the US and I don't see a single store with ALL of the parts needed, multiple orders will have to be placed with different stores. Once a store has sold out of those parts you would have to try other stores. A good estimate in a particular country today will be meaningless in a short time as inventories change. I've seen the exact same part for 5 cents and 5 dollars from different sellers. I mentioned my process in the second video and actually walked through it in an older video "How to build Lego My Own Train Locomotives in 2023". I use BL Studio to create a parts list by copy and pasting models (example loco, 3 wagons, X number of containers) , remove any parts I already have in my collection and then start shopping. Often I will just keep the wanted list for several weeks or months and chip away at it as I place orders, removing the parts as they come in. I also bulk order things like train wheels, buffers, bogies plates and train bases when I find good prices instead of trying to lump them in with all of the other parts. The Studio files also use newer molds when appropriate to save money. The most costly part in the Maersk locomotives are the 24L rigid tubing pieces. I ordered 32L for about 1/5 of the cost and cut them down. Again this is all covered in the video. I hope this helps, I really do wish I could offer a more simple solution but I really don't see one.

My favorite official Lego train has always been the 10219 Maersk train. The set designer, Pierre Normandin really knocked it out of the park with this one. I bought the set new years ago but eventually sold it on eBay to fund my Mindstorms addiction. Recently I embarked on a journey to build them in an alternate color (hey! I'm not made of money!). I eventually settled on dark azure, It's a darker but more rich color. I even reached out to BrickStickerShop and they released the sticker sets in dark azure. Below I will have both main videos in the series explaining the whole process I went through. It's just too much to type out here. In the descriptions of the videos there are several links to Studio IO files, instructions and links to all 4 sticker sets from BrickStickerShop (dark and medium azure, dark blue and of course Maersk blue). I put all of the dark azure parts in step two so you can easily select all of them and try different colors. The YouTube channel AFOL & KFOL Bricks built a set in green, really they were the ones that inspired the project. I also have haul videos unpacking all of the orders and sharing some tips on saving money on the Powered-Up components. This is an absolute dream come true. At this time I have 3 locomotives, 8 wagons and over 20 containers. To me this was much more fun than buying one or two sets second hand, and probably cheaper. The quantity is higher and I would argue the quality is just as high, I may even prefer the dark azure to Maersk blue even if it is less realistic. From left to right we have dark turquoise, green, dark azure, medium azure and dark blue. Many other colors are possible. Oddly enough the triangle tile pieces are not available in blue. This video goes into the details of building the locomotives and tips for saving money in the process. This video shows the wagons, containers and stickers. Also a quick montage at the end of the entire train in action! This has been my favorite project to date and I hope many will find the information useful, I put a ton of work into this. Play well!

Great write up! The MOCs I've seen there seem a bit out of my price range to build but I am very glad the site exists. I may end up building some of the simpler models over time. "The current generation is growing up with TikTok, YouTube and Instagram. The focus seems like it has moved more to performance-based clicks and likes—and with that, there seems to be less respect for copyright. (When was the last time you saw a YouTuber cite their sources?)" - quote from the article I don't know if I qualify for the YouTuber label just yet but it is something I've always taken to heart. Even something that was just for inspiration I'll show the build and link to where folks can find the original source. My video descriptions can be quite long I do wish I was more active in the olden days before the widespread monetization of the internet. It does seem to be a bit different than things are now and I do see your point where many are in private groups and clubs and it's less of a global community. I do feel that sites like this help a lot, there are some incredible builds there!

Interesting insight, I now see why 3d printing is so prevalent over injection molding 😅 and why Lego abandoned 9v track. There will always be people belly aching over price, they probably aren't the target audience anyway (I realize the post being replied to said they weren't debating the price but just asking for clarification). I don't consider myself in the target audience for most of the track options as I don't have a permanent Lego city, I'm not in a LUG, don't attend conventions etc. I just build temporary layouts in my living room to see what Lego trains can do (on a somewhat tight budget) and share my findings. 9v layouts are part of that but not the primary focus. I am very interested in future products such as replacement motors, power pickup bogies, speed regulator etc. But I realize that is a ways off with everything else in the works. The transparency is much appreciated, always interesting to see what all is involved with such a project. If there is any company on this earth I want to succeed it's FX Bricks... and Lego... I guess I need them around to 😁

This was definitely a set I missed back in the day. I really only started learning about it in the past year or so. Such an interesting story of how it came to be! Ha! I have so many outtakes for anything I record. If I remember to I'll throw them at the end of the video as a goof 😅 Thanks! I am continually amazed with the number of models built so quickly from such a small selection of parts. I've also been told there are plenty of unofficial alternate models I should look in to as well. The rabbit hole runs deep 😅. I can look into uploading them to open-l-gauge, from what I'm seeing it looks like a lot of highly detailed custom MOCs. But if they are open to modified official sets I'm glad to share my instructions anywhere

This is my Powered Up MOD of the 10183 Hobby Trains Crocodile Locomotive (Designed by @HoMa). I tried to stay as true to the original look and feel as possible while taking a few artistic liberties as well as a few structural changes. I already have "plenty" of 9v trains and not enough track to justify them so I decided to convert this locomotive to PU. I'm using @Lok24's PyBricks train control program to enable using dual motors as well as smooth acceleration. This was such a fun project and definitely sharpened my skills not just with Lego but with Bricklink Studio and creating instructions. I will link the instructions below as well as the companion video which goes into much more detail about the inspiration to build it and design choices. There were definitely some challenges along the way . Play well! Instructions and Studio file: https://rebrickable.com/mocs/MOC-161975/BatteryPoweredBricks/powered-up-mod-10183-hobby-trains-crocodile/

I included that particular "um actually" in the comments

Just found this video today, I'm sure most of the information is known to folks in this thread but I'm glad it exists! If nothing else it's something to share with people who haven't seen it before without having to explain everything from the ground up

Even when at the same load the upgraded regulator will heat up quicker than stock without upgrading the cooling. If you have the need for sourcing more than the 1.5 amps provided by the stock regulator I would probably recommend an active cooling solution. I use the one without modified cooling for things like PF servo motors which use a fair bit of current but only for a short duration. For any prolonged load I like to run active cooling like the one with the blue connector (I also upgraded one and used a black connector and changed the resistors to increase the output voltage to 12v). I've seen lots of discussion about things like "how many modules can I run from a single regulator?" but there are just way too many variables for napkin math IMO. Types of motors, the load etc. I use temperature sensors to keep an eye on my regulators but I wouldn't expect everyone to do that. But I really couldn't give any recommendations for others given how each situation is different. I may do more testing soon, I have plenty of 9v train motors to do some experimenting there since I've had some questions about it. I'll post my GBC control Center video below if you haven't seen it, it has some info on the regulators and how I used them with GBC.

That's great! I used Tom Cook's method many years ago, but the last time I tried it didn't work for some reason. I'll blame software rather than my soldering skills , the laptop I was using died (along with my 486 laptop ). Also the link is a 404 with that extra period at the end

I can't remember if I posted it on this forum or not but I did control a train layout with a refurbished POS terminal and the DACTA Control Lab . Also my GBC Control center project used the Control Lab, I thought it was pretty cool. Neither one of those videos did super well so I may as well post them here for DACTA CL fans . Also I've pretty much switched to XP as I had too many crashes on Windows 98. Not sure if that was a hardware problem though. Pretty sure you've seen both of these Evan but without this forum thread they never would have happened! Keep the DACTA dream alive!

And we'd both be right!

Haha, thanks . It will be hard to top this project, I generally make a scripted video like that ever month or two due to the time investment, but I think this one paid off for sure. 9 volt for life

As for the video the goal was to cover "the most recent and most widely used systems". Which to me is 9v, PF and PU. I'll leave it to Bricktsar to make videos on the 4.5v series . I think I have some parts and a couple 4.5v motors but not enough to build a train

I still need to devote some time to Circuit Cubes. I have a set and whatever little Arduino thing I need to pair them with Lego controllers . I'll get to it eventually. I did use the "what is the best system" title as a bit of clickbait. When I posted on FaceBook 90% of the responses were just "9v" or "12v", which I found pretty funny. I'm not going to twist their arm to watch the video. While there is no issue with someone having a best system for them personally, I've always found it annoying when people try to objectively say there is a best system for EVERYONE. So far the comments on the video have been very positive. I have a friend who has a layout large enough for PU trains to disconnect from the controller. I'm glad he brought that to my attention so I could cover the PyBricks solution to that (thanks to @Lok24 for his excellent program). My layouts are quite small in comparison to many Lego fans

Yep! Each system has its own advantages and even more when combined in interesting ways. I posted this in a Lego train Facebook group as well, they all just read the first sentence of the post and commented their favorite system . I'm fine with fans having a favorite system for themselves, it's when they try to push it onto others where I take issue. I made sure to give a shoutout to @Reker1000000 and his amazing showcase of the 12 train system in the video . I just can't speak on their behalf not having any myself. It was certainly the most robust system Lego ever produced!

Thanks! I don't have a whole lot of experience with Technic drive trains just yet, I actually just built my first one last week . Same goes for automation and the PuP app. Really I dislike the app since programs can't be shared with others or between devices, that just kills any motivation to use it at all. Definitely looking forward to learning more about the Brick Automation Project as well as @Novakasa's Brickrail project!

DCC is definitely something I want to look into at some point. But the list of "things I want to look into at some point" is getting quite long!

Already something I missed covering in the video

I've seen this questions asked in many places online, often an entire forum thread with varying opinions, with at least a few saying "X system is garbage" without really giving it a fair shake. I wanted to make a video that shows the pros and cons of the 9v, Power Functions and Powered Up systems. Personally I use a combination of all three in conjunction with third party software and track. I tried to make the video entertaining to fans that have been in the hobby for many years. I've highlighted some really awesome projects that I saw as pushing Lego trains to their limits, one example being @Haddock51's 9v extreme setup. Maybe this is something you can share with newcomers to the hobby as they are trying to way the pros and cons of each system. I am absolutely open to constructive feedback if you feel I missed anything or got something wrong.

I really need to upgrade my camera, that's the main reason I haven't remade the tutorials. All my spare money goes to Bricklink though There is now a link for the UK in the description. I had updated later tutorials with the link but not these for some reason. You may have time to cancel and get faster shipment or a better price with the UK link. I don't really have a way to check on my end but want to have as many links as I can for those in other countries https://www.amazon.co.uk/BNTECHGO-Silicone-Ribbon-Flexible-Parallel/dp/B07PPSKVNN/?th=1