sed6

While not a monorail, I think followers of this thread will appreciate the excellent design of this motorized coaster. It done by Jason Allemann of JK Brickworks who is responsible for THREE different Lego Ideas projects including the Marble Maze, the Pop Up Book and the Pursuit of Flight Kinetic Sculpture. Personally I find all of his work interesting and inspirational. Hope you enjoy it too.

What? Where's this info come from? And what could a steam verse diesel electric possibly have to do with it?

Thanks all! This was a fun little build. The green battery box is wrapped in a large vinyl sticker from my local sign/printing shop. I took with me a rainbow of colors to see how many colors they could match well. They were able to match just four colors; green, red, blue and black. I modeled all four colors in LDD and then asked my wife to pick her favorite color engine. She picked green. I wrapped three sides of the box and trimmed it carefully with a sharp x-acto knife. The grills are held on with double sided clear, or Scotch, tape. While the engine looks okay without them, I really like their look. Once I decided to add the black and yellow stripes on the back it really demanded some yellow on the front. That black bar with the chains looks great in yellow in LDD but is only available in black or DBG. I'm going to edit my first post with a link to the LDD file and here's a pic of the various colors my wife had to choose from. Perhaps you'll have a different favorite! Thanks for looking.

I've always desired a small engine to run on my small door layout. Lots of looking here and elsewhere online provided plenty of inspiration. My three main goals were a) make it powered by PF b) make it similar to something that exists IRL and c) make it tiny! I've seen some small switchers but mine might be the shortest at just 14 studs long and 6 studs wide. I even managed to squeeze in a minifig (well, 1/2 a minifig). The gray plate on top serves as an on/off switch, though a curved side piece needs to be removed to see the light. Designing it was a bit of a challenge, and ultimately I took two potentially controversial shortcuts. This one took only about 5-6 hours to design in LDD. It contains about 175 pieces and cost about $80 US to build with pieces from BL including the PF parts. Below I've included lots of pics and a link to a quick video of it running. It looks right at home on my layout and does a good job moving cars around, especially considering it's very light weight EDIT: Here's a link to my LDD file so you can make, modify, copy or inspect my design. https://bricksafe.com/pages/sed6/switcher-shunter-engine Hope you like!

Very nice! I'm impressed that you can build that from your current parts inventory. I'm curious what process you used to verify them? Not doubting you, I just don't know an easy way to do that. Since you're newish, are you familiar with Bricklink? You can import you LDD file over to Bricklink and simply purchase all the parts instead of taking your current sets apart. A work of caution, the pivoting front truck might not be sufficient, depending on the pivot point. Those front wheels often need to both pivot and slide (a double pivot point) in order to stay on track and not jump off. PS, I really like your little orange narrow gauge train on Flickr!

Holger's fantastic train was also featured on this weeks episode of BrickVault's Top 10 MOCS. Three different trains made the episode, it's quite rare to see just one.

Why? I'd guess cost, weight and part count. More parts means more cost and more weight. TLG achieves a marketable train by making cars and engines LOOK like something you've seen recently or remember from your childhood. The don't need perfection in scale or detail to sell them to their target audience, children.

And I see at some point you also started relying on help from God, as evidenced by the cross that appeared on the wall :) Great layout and great video. Thanks for sharing!

Where or how?

I'm curious if you've built that model IRL? I ask because three fixed axles spaced that far apart won't negotiate the standard lego curve track...

Graphite lube. It's a dry powder lube.

This question has it's own thread already...

Thank you, glad you like. It's a fun build, enjoy yourself.

Agreed! On both. The free motor is nice but doesn't complete the look. And indeed it's not going to work out as I hoped. LEGO sent me this email today... >>Dear Scott, Thanks for getting in touch with us. I took a look at the email chain here and I think there was some miscommunication between us. When you said you were looking for a second train engine, we understood that to mean that you needed a new motor itself, since the motor is the "engine" of the train. I'm am glad that you received the motor quicker than we expected! Unfortunately, though, we're not able to send out any additional pieces. If you're looking for an additional train car itself, the only thing to do is to buy those parts or buy the train directly. I really apologize for this confusion. What I can do is add a few VIP Points to your LEGO VIP Account. I've gone ahead and added 100 points for you, your updated VIP Points Balance is 273.90 Points, which can be redeemed for $10 off a future purchase! Please let us know if there's anything else that we can do, We want to make sure we're doing a good job for you, so you’ll always find the link to a four-question survey in our emails. Please tell us how we did today: Survey Please let us know if you need anything else. Kind regards, Matthew LEGO® Service<<

Dude, I think you jinxed me! Today I received...just the motor! So, honestly, based upon the content of my emails with them I was expecting an engine and a motor. The rep used both words, engine and motor in different context so it's not like there was some ambiguity there. I sent them a follow up email for clarification. I'll keep everyone posted.

I dunno, what's the point of a non powered engine? Make room for a battery, receiver and motor and then I'd be interested.

There is a YouTube video showing how this is done. I don't have a link to it though. Have you watched it? If all else fails could you call TLG and ask them for help. Or if you were to email them, perhaps they will send some directions to you that you could publish for others here to read also.

They don't care. They didn't ask me, I didn't tell them (re-read my email to them). Just between us, I haven't even bought the set yet. Like others I was on the fence, but my mind has been made up after this fantastic experience! I wondered this too. I even hesitated before sharing this news with the world. TLG must have been prepared for this given their quick and friendly response. Good tip on the unpowered truck!

Zero dollars. I pasted their entire email above. That's why I said unbelievable. No confusion on what's coming either, "We can definitely get you set up with a second engine...to complete the trains look." Edit to add: Ironically I posted several pages back, or perhaps in a similar thread, about the battery drain caused by dragging around an unpowered motor. Seems this may now be a concern since TLG is also including a motor. Can I ask some of you to design an unpowered truck and post up a pic or two so I can order some pieces? I bet there will be many of us that will want to pull that motor and install something unpowered in its place.

You guys aren't going to believe this! Earlier today I emailed Lego and asked... >>>Hello-Is it possible to order a second (perhaps unpowered) engine for the new 60197 Passenger Train to complete the look? A response from a LEGO rep to a recent review of the set suggests to contact you to inquire. Thanks very much. -Scott<<< This was the reply I just got... >>>Dear Scott, What a gorgeous train, huh? We can definitely get you set up with a second engine for the new Passenger Train 60197. Unfortunately we don't have unpowered motors, so we will have to send you another powered motor to complete the train's look. I've already got an order set up to be sent out to you: xxxxxxxx (edited) The motor is currently on backorder until 8/31 but when it's back in stock it'll ship right out to you! You'll then see it in 7-10 business days. If there's anything else we can help you with, Scott, please don't hesitate to email us back or give us a call at the number provided above. I hope you have a fantastic weekend! We want to make sure we're doing a good job for you, so you’ll always find the link to a four-question survey in our emails. Please tell us how we did today. Please let us know if you need anything else. Kind regards, Siobhan LEGO® Service<<< How awesome is TLG? I've never even heard of that level of customer service! I hope each of you can get one too!

After the poor review above I looked at S@H for other reviews. I found a very interesting comment from Lego... "RESPONSE FROM LEGO:Emily, Customer ServiceJuly 16, 2018 Thanks for your review. We're sorry to hear that you were disappointed with your new LEGO® train. I'll pass your feedback along to our designers. If you'd like to add another engine to your train, you can get in touch with us at LEGO.com/Service for advice..." This response sounds like we can contact Lego and perhaps order a second separate engine to complete the look of the passenger train. Thoughts? Edit to add: I've just emailed Lego to inquire and will let everyone know what their response is.

Fantastic job! So much detail everywhere. I especially like how you did the distressed brick look on the train shed.

IIRC the instruction book that showed several variations of the design had one or more yellow lions with short fins.

What a fantastic set! I picked up this set on the 23rd and completed it last night. I built one lion each night to extend the enjoyment! I decided to omit the stickers. Actually I decided to REMOVE the stickers after I already applied a few. Reason being is I watched a few episodes on YouTube this week and didn't see the numbers on the lions. I can't recall the details from 35 years ago, but I don't remember the lions being numbered. The episodes I watched didn't show numbered lions. Some of the press releases say the US version of the cartoon had numbered lions, but again it doesn't ring a bell. I'm curious as to what others are going to do, so feel free to share the following: What country are you from? Do you recall the lions being numbered? Will you number the lions or leave the stickers off?

@Roadmonkeytj Glad you like! Indeed my signature line has a link to my bricksafe page. But since sigs don't show up on a mobile device, here you go. https://bricksafe.com/pages/sed6