Doctor Whom

No one said anything about candy and sticky fingers!

My sorting methods have evolved over time. Phase 1 - Stuff with drawers. Didn't like it. Stuff kept getting caught/jammed, stuff fell out of one drawer and into another, blech! Phase 2 - Tackle/utility boxes. For a long time, I was trying to use these primarily. Except whenever I had too much of something to fit into a section of the tackle box, I'd put the overflow somewhere else. Eventually I was using ziploc bags for that purpose. Phase Now - Eventually I discovered that when I was building, I was going to the bags of stuff(stuff I had a lot of) more often than the bins. So I'm converting to ziploc bags entirely. I sort by color first, then type. Each bag only has one type of piece in it(I've gone truly nuts as far as that goes. I have many bags with only one piece inside). Each bag also has a 1/4 piece of index card with the part number, color, and description. Every time I make a new index card, I document it in a speadsheet so that I never have two bags for the same part. I use 6 different sizes of bag: Gallon, Quart, sandwich, and snack size, which are available in grocery stores, and two sizes of small bags found in the craft section of Wal-Mart, or Michaels, or Hobby Lobby. Minifigs are stored in the smallest bag, and labelled with the set that they came with or where I got them(this helps me keep track of which sets I have). The bags get stored in Sterilite/Rubbermaid Containers of various sizes. The rhyme/reason for what goes where is still evolving. I have some large 41 qt containers, but I'm starting to like smaller containers better. When sorting: first I sort by color, then use the fishing tackle boxes to separate them by type, then send them to the bags. When building, I find the bags for the pieces I need and move them to the table, where I have some stackable bins to hold the bags of pieces that I am working with. From time to time I clear out those bins to make room for more bags. Right now the biggest issue that I have is that this system is a pain to get started, but hopefully won't be that bad to maintain.

The original inspiration for this is probably this page: http://www.mocpages.com/moc.php/92430. It doesn't use long technic beams. I will point out that the tank tread had a small redesign after this was posted, so the technique works a little better with the older ones. P.S. It bugs me a little bit that you're attaching 1/2 pins to the tank tread instead of 3/4 pins. But I guess most people don't have many 3/4 pins.

The Lego Shop-at-Home site now has a few sets tagged as "Retiring soon". Motorized Excavator, Medieval Market Village, Red Cargo Train, and a few others.

My local comic book store carries four different sizes of bags and boards for preserving comic books and magazines. The magazine size is perfect for the large Lego instruction booklets(most of the time).

How about using this trick to switch the track: http://www.brothers-brick.com/2012/05/30/automated-points-switch/ And installing the servo on the train so that the train goes left or right depending on how the servo is positioned?