Black Knight

Politics aside: Are there two studs space between the tracks inside the station? And (seriously) how would I come from 8 stud space between my tracks to two?

I'd like to disagree here. There are many other things why you'd prefer "brick trains" over real model trains. I for one like that I can enjoy it together with my kids. I personally do therefore happily modify bricks and buy more advantageous offers from other companies, be it for better quality, better price or better options. We probably have all our own set of motivations and peculiar preferences. For my models I dislike stickers but use alternate bricks while others may prefer it the other way round. As long as we tolerate each others choices we should all brick and post happily ever after. Be it with or without 1x5 plates.

As a rule of thumb: MOCs are generally like twice the price of sets, TLG is like twice the price of alternate manufacturers, 8w is like... maybe... 50% more expensive than 6w. So you sure found the most expensive end of our hobby! =)

This is really awesome! And as a Franconian, I can relate very well to the Adler. I love it.

This is your lucky day, because such a device exists! It's part of the Mould King 12012 Christmas Train set: It's an ultrasound vapor generator that turns water into... (cold) vapor. I have no idea how good or reliable this device works though. It seems to be pretty big (4 wide) so this won't work very well for 6w steam engines.

If you want to stick with 12V, get some bb053 -- a brick that should be extremely long lasting -- then you can use PF motors with your tracks and do not have to rely on getting 12V replacement motors.

The data I've seen so far indicates that there is no significant performance difference between PU and PF. You can find a lot of third party PF components because it is legal now to manufacture and sell them since TLG's patent expired. My guess would be that PU primarily exists to make the TLG system incompatible with 3rd party products, but you could argue that the Mindstorms-style features that PU brings to the table are worth the incompatibility. For trains I think the PU system brings the Bluetooth connection as improvement, but makes the power plug worse (less bricky and incompatible). On the high-end side of things you can go for the Buwizz: A rechargeable lithium battery box with PF connectors that also has Bluetooth; advantage over PU is it's ecologically superior (no more batteries) and brings more performance (higher possible voltage). On the downside it is pretty expensive, though in the long run you will break even with TLG's battery costs. The other alternative are Bluebrixx, CADA and Mould King: They all have a similar (though not identical) system based on integrated rechargeable batteries (NiMH afaik) combined with a RF remote. They are rather cheap and use a PF connector, so you can use the cheap PF compatible motors. You cannot control them with your cell phone but you also don't need to perform pairing, just to switch channel. The Bluebrixx one is probably the best for trains as it will keep the selected speed, the others will drop to 0 if you let go of the controls. They are also one brick less in height than the PU or PF box from TLG. All three offer standard medium, large and xl motors with a PF connector, from Bluebrixx you can also get a train motor. If you are in for the most reasonable priced system, get a Bluebrixx battery box (15 EUR), remote (15 EUR) and train motor (10 EUR). You get a rechargeable, compact system for 40 EUR which imho is a fair price. Maybe the Mould King or CADA systems are a better catch outside the EU though. If even that is too pricey, you may aim for the KAZI system: They afaik have a train motor and a battery box without remote -- all controls are on the battery box-- which might be even cheaper.

@dtomsen I think we can agree on that!

Sorry to bring you this news: TLG was never your friend. They are -- as all companies must -- there to make money. And TLG's analysis of the train market obviously came to conclusion that the money they can make elsewhere is more. TLG is the world's mindboggingly largest toy company by revenue. Dude. Our interest is just not profitable enough for TLG. We can be very happy for smaller companies to be happy with a little lower profit margin, from the tiny BigBenBricks, Bricktracks, Trixbrix, FXTracks up to the larger Bluebrixx and the chinese companies, from Mould King to KAZI (and all those I forgot). At least I am very glad to have all those, because -- out of a mixture of sentimental childhood memories and the possibility to play with my own kids now -- I am very fond of my L-gauge trains. I am not bitter at TLG. I understand that I just don't bring enough money to the table for them to care about my needs. But I also don't hesitate to buy from any of the aforementioned companies. You should do the same. TLG is after all just a company. Better stop having feelings for any company after all. If you want to support our hobby, buy the stuff that you like and that is on the table now. If you ignore their competition, you just encourage TLG in their assumption that there is no market for L-gauge trains.

Oh well. Let the derailment commence! =) Your statement is not correct; Mould King does use "GoBricks" (Shantou City Golds Precision Technology) bricks, Xingbao does not. And Xingbao sometimes makes Xingbao-branded sets based on Bluebrixx sets (e.g. their Train Station, Neuschwanstein), so I assume that Xingbao already did the Bluebrixx version in the first place (or they use a common source of bricks, but that is definitely not GoBricks). Many train people wish Bluebrixx would use GoBricks as source, because GoBricks is the new gold standard in brick quality. BB's R56/R72 tracks are obviously also not made by GoBricks; you can tell by the mold identifier on the brick and the mold sprue. I find it problematic to speak of "clone brands": Some people think of clone brands as "anyone selling bricks but TLG", others would only use it for someone manufacturing 1:1 copies of LEGO sets. In China, neither is forbidden, while in "the West", only the second one is. Lepin/King do obviously manufacture 1:1 clone sets, BB, Xingbao, Mould King, COBI do not. TLG is not in legal battle with BB over clone sets but solely over the Minifigure-Warenformmarke TLG has only in the EU (afaik not in the US, not in Switzerland, not South Korea and definitely not in China). And the dispute is about how similar a different Brick-Figure is allowed to be to the TLG-Figure.

Yes, they do not have production facilities of their own but use some Chinese manufacturer, presumably Xingbao. Afaik LEPIN and it's successor company KING did and do produce clone sets. I do not know how Xingbao actually relates to LEPIN/KING, but I have never seen a clone set from Xingbao. And I have also never seen Bluebrixx sell a LEGO clone set from any manufacturer. They do sell not only their own BB sets but also sets from practically every brick manufacturer but TLG and LEPIN/KING: You can find everything from COBI over Mold King to Wange in their shop. And of course I understand that for someone that only knows TLG the BB shop must look like Ali-Express... I am sorry if I come over a tad bit condescending in this matter, but these days TLG seems to run wild in Germany trying to smash several small companies by lawyering them out of business. And that makes you very sensitive to false claims about TLGs competitors. But I do not want to derail this discussion any further -- than I already did. Go and buy BT or TB if you want the most shiny quality and want to support a small business. BB has R72 too and is the cheapest. I am currently trying to upload some photos but struggling with the file size. When I do succeed, I'll leave a link!

@legotownlinzAwesome. Is this a permanent layout?

Bluebrixx (BB) is a German company, so if TLG would find some "copycat LEGO", they could -- and would and have -- immediately enforce a preliminary injunction on BB. As TLG and BB are currently in legal battle over TLGs EU-ropean minifigure protection already, TLG very well knows about the sets BB is offering; this even made it into public television. So you can be pretty sure that all is according to German and EU-ropean law. I don't care where you buy your bricks or what your moral stance is, but please don't make false accusations hastily. Germany is not China.

TLG is a giant enterprise and man those are slow most of the time. And TLG wants to be sure to make a decent profit off idea sets, thats why the 10k limit exists. If some small Chinese company is happy with less profit, I am fine with that. If LEGO would be less greedy profit-oriented, they could have already put it to market themselves. The one I really feel sorry for is the designer; at least if he did put his idea up primarily because of the money he could make -- and not because of the fun and fame. For the designers who did it for the fame, hell, they probably just got more than what they could hope for from TLG.

I have all three available R56 injection molded versions: Bricktracks, Trixbrix and Bluebrixx. To be honest: They all work. The Bluebrixx ones are by far the cheapest and they also have molded R72 curves. Maybe I make some photos, weight them and post a R56 review, but they are very close quality wise. Bricktracks and Trixbrix might be a little heavier, Bluebrixx tend to have scratches from transport. If you want them as shiny as possible, Bricktracks and Trixbrix it is. If you want them for the kids, also want the R72 or are just tight on money, Bluebrixx would be my favorite. If you want the really cool stuff like R104, R120 or R104 switches, Bricktracks is the only choice.

Oooooh! You can now pre-order up to 3x S32 packages at JB Spielwaren. Which I just did.

You could even get over short distances of non-metal-tracks if you place multiple pickup-wheels far from each other in your train (and connect them all). This way you could even smoothly cross things like Trixbrix-Monster-switches w/o having to use hybrid solutions with rechargeable battery packs. I would even buy those pickup wheels for illuminating my waggons.

I had the same challenge with my PF-trains using two train motors. They have to be put under my tender so that the power cables run right to the middle of the wagon, so I required something to change polarity for one motor. The solution was a PF switch 8869: I connected one motor directly to my power source, the other gets connected via the PF switch. But of course you need some extra space to store the switch.

@michaelgale Will JB Spielwaren also offer other Fx Bricks products like the PFx brick or your speakers?

I, for one, welcome our 9V Overlords. It is pretty pricey indeed, but I'd rather have Michael getting rich by fulfilling our dreams than having to fill bankruptcy before bringing out switches and wider curves. And also he knows that in case of success, there will be other parties bringing 9V Tracks. It took a while for plastic tracks, but we meanwhile have 3 (BrickTracks, Trixbrix, BlueBrixx) companies producing >R40 molded curves; FxBricks will have a limited window of maybe a few years to refinance it's development costs. Go FxBricks! Now lets hope my wife will give me a pocket money raise.

Hello, my name is Markus, once upon a time I started in the 12V area (and I still have most bricks from e.g. 7730, 7815, 7819). In between some dark ages I bought the Emerald Night and Horizon Express. During the last years I was in LEGO-Limbo occasionally buying the annual modular building but nothing more. I recently was brought back to bricking by my offspring and the impressive choice of LEGO brick train products (OMG. R104 curves! ).