Pendra37

This loco reminds me to the Nohab. Actually, would you mind if I made a MOC that drew heavy inspiration from your MOC? This is what I have in mind

Towballs work OK on Brio regular turns as long as there are no 1x1 round tiles as bumpers and the distance between the wheels are limited to about 10. If you use longer wheelbase and/or have bumpers on, you will need use rotating bogies. Just add turn tables and problem solved. I saw you used proper H0 kinematics. That is a pretty cool integration. Actually, if you have some H0 loco chassis you can use as donors, you can try to remove the fuselage and build the Class 37 or the TRAXX structure around the motor. With a bit of fiddling, I'm pretty sure you could fit. Alternatively, enclose the loco internals into a 4 axles, closed freight or passenger wagon. With that, you can push any kind of Lego loco around without problem. Getting exact measures for some build is pretty simple. Let's take this one: https://bdzcargo.bdz.bg/en/wagon-fleet/wagon-flat-4-axled-res-type.html Length:18660mm > 18660mm / 87 (H0 scale) / 8 mm/stud = 26.8 studs Width: 2740mm > 2740mm / 87 (H0 scale) / 8 mm/stud = 3.93 studs Height: ~1450mm > 1450mm / 87 (H0 scale) / 3.2 mm/plate = 5.2 plates high For long things like this, I usually round down and maybe remove an extra stud because overly long stuff has issues with turns. Also try to keep it even studs. I will make this one 24 long. Width is 4 studs, no question about that. Height will depend on the wheel and the undercarriage. If rotating bogies and a solid base can fit into 5 plates then it will be 5, otherwise 6 high. Then I would take a side shot picture and scale it so that it is 2400 pixels wide and probably 600 pixels high (it will not be proportional) So every 100 pixels is one brick or one plate. Then create the general outline from simple elements using this scaled side shot. Then work out the details making sure that the general outline stays as is. Finally optimize the thing, remove all the 1x1 plates, try to select the cheapest parts and colors and decrease the unique elements as much as possible. H0 scaling is funny when it comes to Lego. The base Lego scale is about 1:27.5 for width and length compared to real stuff and they also like to keep the scales to 1x, 2x, 4x, 8x etc. Speed Champions and the like are in this scale. This scales with the minifig kinda OK but the guys are a bit on the fat side. Height, on the other hand is about 1:55 (2x 27.5). The thing is, if you scale your tall things, like buildings 1:27.5 then the minifigs inside will feel like dwarfs. Hence City, Train or Modular are using about this scale because that is correct for the height. You will only be able to fit 1 perso in the place where 2 persones would normally fit but hey, the build looks OK and the guys are just extremely fat. The Saturn 5 rocket uses the the scale of 1:110 (4x 27.5) and comes with those small micro figs. H0 is 1:87, which is about 1:82.5 (3x 27.5) hence doesn't really fit into any theme except Creator. However, there is a microfig which doesn't belong into any theme either. The 1 brick armless Marvel hero figures. The funny thing is, they are 1/3 width and 1/2 height of the minifig which makes those almost correct size for H0. Height is 19.2mm*87=167cm and 8mm*87=70 cm. A very fat and can't sit but otherwise not bad.

An UCS Hogwarts Express would be ridiculously huge and expensive. I highly doubt that. The Disney "train" is more of a caricature on rails. I would not consider that a train set even if separated from the building. If it is not 4 wide, then how about 2 Wide? A big, pixel art Hogwarts Express picture would fit the general HP lineup. Or something created in the manner of the Starry night. A "painting of a train" you can put next to your actual trains.

I doubt that. I don't think the 40518 was even a mild success. I still don't understand why release a kids only set out just after Christmas. Adults will avoid it hard and kids will not have any occasion coming up to get it. But if I'm wrong the next one would be 4 wide, too, you can start making nice dioramas for them. (These are not mine but I really like them even thou they clearly have illegal connections)

Thanks guys, here is another blue loco. This time a British Rail Class 37 with some cargo. All the locos together For mining trains, you could hide stuff in those big, blocky miner transport carts. Alternatively, hide the stuff in a gondola which looks filled with coal.

Way to kill the party @Lok24 :D So let's get back to express our feelings regarding the 40518 and also why you hate it. I dare to say something positive about it: It is stil way better than the 21103 set.

I whipped up a US locomotive for kicks.Rotating bogies and compatible with the 40518 set. And added a new paint scheme to my TRAXX design

Not everyone likes to hassle with trying to find the weak/bad connection in a rail system (a bane of my life) Not everyone likes to hassle with the maintenance of the contact surfaces which keep rubbing against each other constantly. You can forget the flexible rails. Without DCC, one oval is one train. If you want more, you will need to do your isolations well. Safety factor, as mentioned above. DCC, ESP, whatever is not Lego. Therefore some hacking of the base system is necessary The Technic IR receiver can allow that to an extent but it has only 4 channels. 8 controllable units max. However, if hacking is allowed than anything goes. Just use proper US O scale rails, bogies and drives and then bolt some plates onto them. That scale is pretty similar to Lego trains. Actually Marklin did this exact thing for H0 scale some years ago. Best of both worlds I guess. IMHO, if you are a purist, you can't make a decent 9V system. If I had the will to do something like this, I would use a AA battery holder. Place an ESP into 1 slot, then a LiFePo to power that. Then 4 AA LiFePos to run the thing. You can just drop the loco to the rail or even to the carpet, flip the switch and let it run. No need to do any debugging other than making sure the batteries are charged. It is dead simple. And if my son kicks the rails apart again, as usual (he likes to sit in the middle, jump in and out of the oval etc), he can quickly reattach the rails without issue. I tend to use Lego as intended, a play thing for my kid. Therefore nothing is off limits and nothing is forbidden during play. This is absolutely not true for my H0 stuff.

I try to stay away from single use AA or AAA batteries as much as possible. They are super harmful to the environment at every step. LiFePo batteries are not that expensive. A 3.2v battery costs something like 5 USD and is all around better performer than 2 regular AA/AAA batteries. Better discharge characteristics. NiMH AAA batteries go to 1.2V after a few mins and then the train will go slow, like it is running on drained batteries, LiFePo keeps a steady 3.2v until the very last minute. They charge in about 40 mins instead of 6-10 hours like NiMH. They have no memory effect, no issue if you top up half charged packs, you can keep them charged or discharged for a long time. And they don't explode like unbalanced or damaged LiPo batteries which is a big hazard in toys. There should be like 3 different sized standard power brick with standard connection points and that is all. Then have a pack of 4 power bricks (3.2v each) with a proper charger for not more than 60 USD for the customer. 3 for the train and 1 for the controller. I can get such a set for smaller drones for less. Then Lego could say they are super environmentally friendly because they got rid of the single use, polluting throw away batteries. Also, if you plan to play more than 20-30 hours total with your Lego trains, 60 USD will actually be cheaper than all AAA the batteries you go through. Also, if I calculate the worst possible cycle rate for LiFePos (100 cycles) 4 batteries would still perform like about 1000 regular AAA batteries. 2 USD per 10 pcs, 1000 batteries would still cost you 200 USDs which is way more than 60 USD. Even if Lego sold such set for 200 USD, you would still be better off because, while the cost is the same, LiFePos work much better. In my opinion Lithium tech is matured. Clinging to the old Nickel battery tech is getting crazy anachronistic at this point. Those batteries should should join the fax machines or the ferrit core memories and be relegated to the pages of the history books.

Every regular DC motor can PWM. You just need to pay attention to the starting power level. Otherwise you end up with an annoying whine. You just need a chip that can control it. DCC is cool and all but the price tag is rather steep and the form factor can be limiting. The ESP8266 can do WiFi, PWM for something like 5 USD. It cost me about 10 USD per unit with the bridge, parts and the battery to make a unit for a loco. I wrote the drive software also the controller software so the controller part cost nothing. No DCC box or anything. I made my IC unit the size of an AA battery so if I have space for 2 AA batteries, 1 is a LiFePo 3.2v battery and the other is the ESP module. Too bad the Lego battery box uses AAA and not AA. I didn't go too complicated with the UI but I could make to use a dashboard image of the real loco and make the actual gauges and switches operate. So you would need to "create steam in the boiler", then "adjust the gauges properly" to make the train run. And then it stops if you let the pressure drop. Like a game in itself.

Lego should be making dedicated, standardized, easily swappable LiFePo battery boxes based on 26650 or 18650 batteries. LiFePo is light, does not explode and is environmentally OK. It can also hold huge charge and charge very quickly. I quite like battery based train systems because it is a pain to debug areas of poor connectivity. The power connectors between the rail and the motor should also be checked, cleaned on replaced on fairy regular basis because they constantly rub against the rails and can wear out. It is also somewhat hard to make Lego flexible rails with metal top. Also if Lego would be anything like H0, then it would really not fare well in a kid's room floor. You step on it, disconnect a connector and it stops to work completely. Then you need to debug to see where the connection broke, You just need to use modern batteries and controller tech and battery trains can work much better than DCC. A few years ago I built a few H0 trains that used LiFePo batteries and ESP WiFi controllers. I could PWM it easily and use my Laptop or phone as controller for all individual trains.

Thanks! No Hammerhead. That thing felt like a bad joke after all the many hours of driving around and doing crazy stunts in the M35. The absence of the M35 in ME2 really left a bad taste in my mouth.

After replaying some Mass Effect 1, I realized that I need a Mako MOC. One that is correct minifig scale, can seat 3 minifigs. have some windshield, can open the side doors and allows access to the inside. This is the first iteration what I came up with. No stickers yet but I will create them as well.

This kinda reminds me to the Kestrel class shuttle from Babylon 5. Pretty neat! http://www.starshipmodeler.co/gallery15/kj_120312_dhl_h2.jpg

Incoming ice cream! Judging from the color, I think it is lemon flavor. Very cool.

I built a variant of this for my kid a year ago. It was a I think 4 studs wider. I found that too wide and too tall as well. I made it shorter. Then I tried to make it less tall so the buns actually touch the hotdog like a real hotdog. It was an issue because the minifig would not fit inside. So I made the roof kinda hollow. Then it was a bit hard to access the guy. Then I made the roof partially removeable. Then I realized that with an easily removeable roof, I can make an enclosed stand. With all these, it really looks like a proper hotdog if you hold it in your hand. So yes, we drew inspiration from the same Lego Friends.

Exactly. The Mass Effect Mako takes longer than I anticipated but the Pizza slice stand is coming right after.

Some time ago, I made a small F15 in about 1:144 scale. The size is about right for the Apollo set microfigs. After a while, I realized that the F15 needs opfor so the small SU27 was created. Finally I made a MIG25/MIG31. When I was organizing the parts for them, I realized they have a lot of common parts. This gave the idea to make it a 3 in 1 set. At the end I managed to decrease the number of parts to 190 (about 25 USD). From those parts, any of the figthers can be built.

I didn't want to leave the poor minifigs without junk food so I designed some small stands to fix that.

I was sorting through my old MOCs and decided to update my old Delorean design. I managed to decrease the number of parts by 10% and removed all hard to find elements. Now the parts could be sourced easily on BL for 25 USD. The door still opens and car can still seat 2 minifigs. The roof can be easily removed to move the figures in and out.

Wheels on tracks, Mon Dieu. I prefer to use 15535 - 3673 - 2817 - 3673 - 15535 layout for wheels. Those have enough wobble in them to allow turns without rotating bogies. The only issue is that they tend to make the build a bit tall. For rotating bogies and more modern trains, the 50254 fits better.

You probably want to flip those 50254s around so that the rim faces the other way. Otherwise the wheels will not fit into the grooves on the Brio tracks.

One stud is 8mm. That is the most important figure when you try to estimate the space required for your design. As for nails through the plates or double sided tape, well they certainly do the trick. The problem is they are messy (tape) or leave permanent damage (nails). I would rather use something like 3176s or 3738s. They have holes by default. Place some around the side of the plates with holes going off the plate. Add a washer below for spacing, a washer above for protection and drive bolts through them into the table. Or you can even try to drill into the table and then use use long Lego axles or pins. One positive aspect of this solution is that you can kinda slide the board on one axis even after finish. Just loosen the bolts, take off the the 3176/3738s from the base board, slide the board and retighten everything. Alternatively, you can create some framing around the Lego plates using something like HDF plates. HDF is easy to cut yet pretty durable. Cut strips of HDF, create the Lego base the way you want it, then bolt down strips all around the base. This way your plates are not damaged but still fixed firmly into place. There are many different ways to fix the plates to a table without damaging your Lego.

Lots of nice ideas for 4 wides. I especially like the kinematics and the placement of the wheels in the technic bricks. Motorizing those small wheels with Lego parts may be hard thou. Even if you manage to do that, the traction will be poor. I was thinking to cheat and put a fixed, rubber wheel in the centerline and drive that. It should propel the train forward. Not super authentic but it does the trick. I got into the new 40518 Lego set. It is 4 wide and not too expensive. Added rotating bogies https://rebrickable.com/mocs/MOC-95898/Pendra37/rotating-undercarriage-for-40518/#details And a 100% Lego oval track: https://rebrickable.com/mocs/MOC-96194/Pendra37/tracks-for-set-40518/#details

Some of my 4 wides. Brio compatible. TRAXX, V90/100, Class 80, V200, 424, plus various wagons. I was investigating motorization but only a monorail kind of layout would work on the wooden rails. Against actual H0s