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sed6

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Everything posted by sed6

  1. sed6
    Glad to hear! You're very welcome.
  2. sed6
    Your track is probably dirty and needs to be cleaned. The metal rails oxidize and that prevents a good flow of electricity. You'll also need to check the connections between the track sections, make sure they are cleaned also and make good, tight contact. They make dedicated rail cleaners but a green scotch pad or a stiff rubber eraser will do the job. Also check your wires. A sharp kink on the outside could indicate a broken wire inside which can lead to an intermittent connection. It's possible there's something wrong with the motors themselves, but start with the track and wires first and then report back.
  3. sed6
    Please share where you can find them that cheap! Straights are gonna run about $2.25 and up on Bricklink and ebay. So while Legos are considered a toy and this just a hobby, it can be an expensive one. You gotta pay to play.
  4. sed6
    I second that and suggest you put them only on one side. This will allow the side without bands to slide easier going around curves. If you band both sides you'll notice a reduction in speed going around corners accompanied by a squeal as one side tries to slide, this is due to the difference in distance the inside wheel must travel vs the outside wheel.
  5. sed6
    Chuck them in a drill or Drexel tool and sand them down? Or use a technic bushing to trim them with a knife?
  6. sed6
    ACE hardware carries a good stock of nylon washers. The ID and thickness will work for you but the OD is definately bigger than the OD of a technic bushing. Perhaps you can cut them down. A well stocked hobby store will also have plastic washers. They are used for RC cars bodies, on servos and RC airplanes.
  7. sed6
    Wait for the new PF to be released by TLG. It could help with someone your design concerns. Or maybe use a non Lego Lipo? They are much small.
  8. sed6
    My layout continues to grow; larger table, more track and more cars! First I lengthened my door by 6 inches and widened it by 2.25 inches bringing it to 86 x 38.25 inches. This allowed me to lengthen the loops by 16 studs, one piece of track, and eliminate the several stud overhang on the ends I had before. Adding a bit of width allowed me to obtain the standard 8 stud spacing (versus the 4 I had) on the back of the loops, eliminating overhang and I also installed a crossover back there. My layout now has 14 switches, 6 sidings, 3 crossovers, 2 seperate loops and 1 reversing loop. This allows for a crazy amount of running and switching fun! I also built some old time passenger cars and a caboose for my 4-4-0 American steam engine to pull. They were fun to design and relatively cheap to build, about $100 for all three IIRC. I'll admit the sidings are a little crowded with all the trains parked, but I'm happy I CAN park them all! Once I pull a train onto the outer loop to run, the inner loop is free for all the switching and reversing my heart desires. The three crossovers make switching from loop to loop a breeze. The crossovers also cut each loop effectively in half, allowing me to use either end of the inside or outside loops as a passing track or a large siding. My childhood N-scale and Lionel trains were just loops with a siding or two. While this might be old news to some of you, I'm just discovering all the fun I can have running trains on a layout with so many options! I hope you like!
  9. sed6
    You video results don't surprise me. You're not fighting rolling resistance going around the corner as much as you are fighting the rub between the wheel flange and the rail. Heavier just makes for more resistance. I bet if you move your axles closer, space them 10 studs, the problem will be eliminated. As for your last pic, that's part of your problem I suspect also. Your green car is trying to swing to the outside, thereby allowing the wheels to follow the curve and roll more freely while your flat car is trying to keep the green car straight in line. This is likely causing additional rub between the wheels on the green car and the rail. This just compounds your problem. If you don't want to move the wheels closer together your only other solution would be to join the couplers to the wheels (and the stairs) and pivot the whole unit. You can use a simple 2x2 turntable. Here's a pic of what I do. I use it this on all my cars and it works like a charm.
  10. sed6
    Fantastic! Thanks for sharing! Your design looks great and just might be the solution to my problems.
  11. sed6
    Agree your cars look great! Shorter would do them a disservice. They look great on a large layout like in you pic. The OP should think about where he plans to run them also. On a small layout like mine the long cars could present problems and it probably would not be as enjoyable as running them on a large layout. I definately keep the small size of my layout in mind as I design and build cars.
  12. sed6
    My tank cars are 20, my hoppers 24, my unfinished caboose is 24, my unfinished passenger cars are 28 and my BNSF is 50. Each are a little short compared to what they 'should' be but I like the shorter length and as Stefaneris said going too long presents challenges with overhang and switches. Personally I think those 60 plus long ones are too long but to each their own. You need to keep your target audience in mind; if you're building a scale car for yourself make it long, if you're building for play no one will care if you have one 60 stud car or two 30 stud cars.
  13. sed6
    Good pics. Nice MOC's! Hmm, perhaps the length, specifically the overhang at the end is causing a problem. First test each car individually, give them the flick test I mention above. Does each roll freely? If not check for binding in each wheel axle. Also check to see if the bumpers are touching, if so that can cause binding between the wheels and rails. See my pic below; with just one stud between the wheels and coupler there's lots of room between the bumpers, with two studs the distance is reduced, with three studs the bumpers are now touching. With three studs, at least in my test platform, the cars still roll smoothly. Four studs though cause enough binding to prevent smooth rolling. When I coupled them together with four stud spacing I immediately felt the cars shift, they tried to 'straighten' themselves out causing binding between the wheels and rails. As best I can tell from your pics you look to have just three studs between your wheels and couplers, so I'd think you'd be okay. You're gonna have to play with them some more to figure it out.
  14. sed6
    So the length of the cars doesn't matter, nor the number of cars. You should be able to flick your car with a finger and it should roll all the way around a curve with no binding. If not you have a problem and it sounds like axle or truck placement. Again if you have two axles on each end it won't work unless the trucks (the two axles joined together) pivot as a unit. Both trucks must pivot, you can't pivot just one. As for pictures, this site doesn't allow you to post pictures of any real size. You should upload them to a file hosting service like Flickr (most here us that) and then embed a link to the picture.
  15. sed6
    The wheel centers on the cattle car are only 12 studs, not 14. 12 is the max you can run with SINGLE axles. With double axles on each end you MUST pivot the truck to prevent binding around a curve. See my post here for more info. Good luck!
  16. sed6
    I'm not sure but they better hurry up! I keep spending my money on track and MOC's and soon I'll be outta room and desire for anything new from them!
  17. sed6
    Check out my Door Layout. It has two inter connected loops, a reverse loop and 5 sidings. I can run a train continuously on the outside and spend time switching cars around on the inside loop. I also find it fun to use the crossover to switch two (or more) trains from one loop to another. I won't adjust their speed, rather I'll focus on timing it just right so one doesn't hit the other. It's a challenge also to see if I can throw the correct switches fast enough! My young nephew in the other hand loves using the gantry crane to simulate off loading cargo. He also plays with the truck and hand dolly and trash can. I never touch that stuff and don't find much play value in it but he sure does. So that said, fun is relative. For me it's switching trains, for my nephew it's playing with cargo and minifigs. Others will of course have their own ideas. I believe though that any fun will start with adding more track and switches and trains!
  18. sed6
    So $5.00 makes the difference? Most of us waste that each day on fast food, coffee, etc... Just bought mine tonight! Love it! Several pieces included that I don't yet have. While it's smaller than I thought it's still worth the price. I paid just $16 because I had VIP points, a great PPP value!
  19. sed6
    Fantastic work! I'm trying to get the front bogie on my 4-4-0 more reliable, could you post a pic or two of the underside so I can see how you handled attaching them?
  20. sed6
    I've given my question additional consideration and I probably will buy one or both of the sets. Although my MOC's are far cooler than what TLG will release, part of me wants to get them just so I can say I have them. And perhaps one day they will be boxed back up and passed on to my grandkids and maybe they will find value or enjoyment in receiving multiple different sets from 'back in the day. Also I'm a very nervous about letting the kids in my life play with my MOC's for fear they will crash and break them. My 1000-1200 brick engines would be a pain to reassemble, compared to the 300 odds pieces that make up a boxed set engine (which comes with printed instructions they can folllow themselves).
  21. sed6
    I slightly rearranged my track tonight. Took the compound curves out of the front stretch and made a standard crossover using my modified switch which maintains the standard 8 studs spacing on the front. This change also allowed for a longer more useful siding nearest the front. I have 4 stud spacing on the back two tracks and I think I'll add a small firing strip long the back to widen the table another 1.5 inches which will allow for 8 stud spacing and allow another crossover on the back side. I'll make that crossover with right hand switches so my trains won't have to back onto the outer loop. Actually now that I look more closely, I have enough room on the front side to add another crossover, without widening the table!
  22. sed6
    Thanks Murdoch. Those are both good ideas. I'm just now discovering some of Tony's fantastic creations! Currently I'm using a dual pivot design pictured below. I 'think' the binding is caused by the friction of everything sliding back and forth. Maybe some plates need to be squeezed tighter, or lubed with graphite powder. All that said, it still runs pretty great (see vid). Designing in LDD is great and all but a complicated design like this needs real world revisions to be reliable. I'll probably work to fine tune the design and experiment with some other options for the front wheels. I have updated the above linked LDD file to reflect the changes I made during the build process, so if someone builds it as shown, it'll run! Overall I'm super pleased with how my first steam loco has turned out.
  23. sed6
    Thanks! I did change it, I need to update the LDD soon.
  24. sed6
    $55 for the remote, receiver, motor and battery from the Lego store. Cost Lego much less to include them in a set though.
  25. sed6
    Thanks! Indeed I need decals, any suggestions on where to get them? No I didn't consider a brick built cow catcher, but I will now!
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