Pendra37

I will eventually take some of my broken, crappy H0 locos and bolt a 4 wide plates onto them. Then use that as the basis for my H0 scale Lego MOCs. In the meantime, my son pushes the H0 MOCs on his Brio railway. Until I install some monorail propulsion system into it. It is not like I'm a Roco purist and I frown upon Marklin. More like Marklin still used AC system when everyone else moved over to DC. So Marklins locos were not running with the usual power source. Then they use 3 rails instead of 2 rails. Meaning there is a somewhat hidden middle rail. Their rails have one polarity in the rails and the middle rail has the other polarity. For this reason Marklin can have full metal wheels because the regular rails have one type of polarity. Meanwhile on Roco, there is no middle rail, one rail has one polarity, the other rail has the other. If you put a full metal wheel on that, it will short the power source. Not good. You can use a Roco wagon on a Marklin rail, but you may have issues with a Marklin wagon on a Roco rail. You can't use Roco locos on Markling rails without modifications and you can't run a Marklin loco on a Roco rail without modifications. Plus there can even be really minor issues with the gauge, like a fraction of a mm. However that can be enough that a wagons from one brand derails or gets somewhat stuck on a rail of another brand. Annoying. It is not really purism, it is more like bigger or smaller compatibility issues between brands. The Lego purism has one such basis. Knockoff bricks connection may be overly tight to the point of not fitting or overly weak, falling apart all the time. Then there is the quality issue where they may break more easily or be a bit taller or smaller than standard Lego bricks, defying the system and throwing the build way off. And finally, as someone touched on it, Lego is like a puzzle. You have a limited set of elements and you need to be able to build the best looking thing within the constraints. If you use non standard chinese bricks or, say 3D print special bricks to your needs, it is like cheating the system.

What do you mean by Mega Block H0 stuff? I'm not aware of that. As for "H0 Märklin religion", I don't know about that. Marklin is an oddity that lacks compatibility on many levels. If you start with Marklin, you kinda stick to it. Down the line it is way more expensive to switch to something more usual.

Let's say this set was "Inspired by". To be honest, if some chinese knockoff company "stole" my design, I would actually be proud. Lego Ideas is a badly implemented bad idea.

Don't get me wrong, your BR94 looks very impressive for a Lego, but this looks better. It is a model, it is supposed to look better. Also it seems to be fully digitized with great many functions and features that can be pretty expensive for a H0. I don't know about bigger scales, I'm not into those a lot. Something like that in H0 (not exact type. but an old, big steam loco) with simple analog control goes for around 100 USD which is probably less than the part cost of your BR94. Digital with sound and smoke can go for 200-300.

Lego is in the middle between O and G. I think G is a better equivalent if you try to scale it for the minifigs.

Interesting thought on the "museumification" of train sets (H0 and general). I can certainly relate to this. Good quality H0 locos, train sets and rails are crazy expensive. So expensive in fact, that I'm afraid of handling them and I have a feeling that I should just lock them away to safety. A single good quality switch costs like 20-30 Euros, a coach like 30 Euros, a basic loco 120 Euros. WTF, is that thing made of Unobtanium with Unicorn blood sprinkled over it or what? Even chinese knockoffs are expensive. The problem is, this defeats the purpose. You have something to use it. If it is a toy, to play with it. If I'm afraid to do that, and I don't even dare to give it to my kid, the whole thing serves no purpose, therefore worthless. Someone said a few years ago that Minecraft is the train modelling for the current young generation and it kinda holds true. It is cheaper, easier and more accessible to the current generation. My issue with the Lego trains is that they are even more expensive than H0 sets. Meanwhile, they are bigger, bulkier and less well rendered. And if you want something that is pretty accurate, it costs an absolute fortune. Also, the scale is a bit off. You can't sit four minifigs in a coach in a row. Even two is pushing it. They are also enormous if you want to create anything other than a simple oval with some details. Really bad if you have limited space available. The positive part is that I can rebuild it if broken by kids. Even the rebuilding can be daunting because of the size of the set. Unfortunately, for me that is not enough pro and a lot of con to get into Lego trains.

Really nice looking engine with great details. I also like the kinematics hook. Way more elegant than Lego's magnetic things. I'm just wondering, can this take a turn? It seems all the wheels are fixed.

The moral of the story? TLG is waaaaay toooooo slooooooow reacting and very picky on what to release. On the other hand, I would take Ideas "support" with a big pinch of salt. There are these I support you because you support me things going which can greatly inflate numbers. Finally, even if I support something, that doesn't mean I would buy it. I click support because it looks neat, well built. On the other hand, chinese bricks are not all that cheap. Back when the Lego Saturn V and the chinese knock-off were released almost simultaneously, the chinese was perhaps 20% cheaper. And the final results had a chance to look and hold together 20% weaker. So the decision was not that hard. I've seen the same tendency in trains. A somewhat lower price for a somewhat lower quality end result.

You can find a lot of different high capacity 14500 LiPo batteries. 14500 is AA form factor. Some even come with USB charging option.1 such battery can output 3.7V, which is equivalent to 3 rechargeable AA batteries. My only problem with LiPos is that they are not the most stable things around. They can catch fire if overcharged or overdrained. You need to be careful with them. The other option is 14500 LiFePo 3.3V. They are extremely stable and rugged but they only have ~500 mAh capacity. 1000 if you set them up parallel.

That was not strictly for Lego. I used it for a H0 train, there, the DC power is pumped to the rails. I also did it for Brio toy trains, hence my need for AA battery size. I built the controller to fit into the one AA battery slot and the AA sized 3.2V LiFe (14500) battery into the other slot. Actually, now that I think of this. if you have the 9V battery box that uses AA batteries, you can apply this to Lego without problem. Get 4x AA sized 14500 LiPo batteries and set it up in a 2S2P layout. That will give a nice constant 7.2-8V and 2000+ mAh capacity. 1 AA sized 14500 LiFe hooked up to power the ESP and 1 ESP + H-Bridge. If you hook up the H-Bridge output to the battery box's output you actually have a WiFi controlled 8V power source with PWM. Front, back, speed control.

Wherever it is convenient. From the same battery parallel, from another battery or from the analog powered rails.

I use AA sized LiFe batteries. Those output 3.2-3.3V and not prone to swelling or blowing up. The driving power is not going directly through the ESP, it is switching a L9110D H-bridge. With that FET in the middle, the power for the ESP and the power for the motor can come from different sources. It can control the usual DC motors just fine with the usual issues. Such as on low frequency/speed, the motor has an audible whine. I added a calibration before the game session. It goes from 0-100%, 100%-0, 0-+100% and 100% to 0. Note down at what level the train starts to move, what level the train stops and at what level it starts to whine. With that, the start happens on the set start level and then decreases the frequency to just over the whine level. If you change the speed so the train would enter the whine region, the train immediately stops.

I know it is not Lego but you can always move to stuff like the ESP8266 to control electronics remotely, cheaply and easily. The base unit is like 3 USD, and is the size of an AA battery. You need another an AA sized LiFe battery to power for a good while. Add some wiring to the actual motor and you are good to go. The base unit has only 4 I/O channels with PWM which is enough or front, back and speed controls. Lights and sounds, not so much but oh well. Some time ago I made a simple system where I controlled my H0 train with my mobile phone or PC using that thing.

The wheel base doesn't lend it well for motorization. The axles are fixed and the wheels are moving left and right to take up the direction of the curve. One way to motorize would be to add a hidden, powered, rubber wheel at the middle. I think the small motor and a battery pack would fit inside the TRAXX but I don't have such parts handy so I can't really try it. I'm actually preparing to sacrifice one of my somewhat broken H0 loco, take off the superstructure and bolt a Lego plate onto it. Then add a pair of LiFePo AA batteries and off it goes. But that is not proper Lego, more like that Marklin set we discussed earlier.

Looks really nice, especially the coaches. I like the P42 as well but two things make it a bit odd. The roof is flatter than it supposed to be. I think the roof you used on the coaches would look better. The other thing is that the sides are totally flat, but the real one is tapered in the window level. Maybe making that section 5 wide instead of 6 would give this effect. I think the nose/front section is spot on.

Thanks, I'm glad you like the build. I designed for the passenger wagons, I decided to attempt a DB V220. My son kinda likes this loco from my H0 set. And an M424 because why not :)

I made a set of basic freight wagons for the locomotives. Passenger wagons will follow. Then the 4 axles heavy haulers. This wheel setup do work with regular turns and switches. Even the 4 axles V90 can turn fine. Side railings, like bridges, are also OK. Thomas trains usually fail there. I'm not sure about the sharp turn thou. They may get stuck there, but even some Brio trains got stuck or derailed on the small radius turns. I checked the Marklin set further and yes, it uses the three rail system. Marklin keeps being weird. I'm thinking to take one of my crappier loco, remove the superstructure and bolt a Lego plate onto it. May be interesting.

Yeah window options are pretty bad. Sometimes I feel the urge create a window from tiles and bricks and place a sheet on transparent plastic, cut to the right size, into the opening. But that would not be Lego so ehh. Lego figures are extra fat with big arms no way around that unfortunately.

For some reason I can't send PMs so I send it here. Do you feel like putting up your 4W design to Rebrickable maybe? If not, can I recreate your design in Stud.io and put it up there with you in the reference? I was thinking that we could create a like a family of these wooden rail/H0 sets. Locos, wagons, buildings and infrastructure. The whole show from Lego. I checked further and I realized Marklin has a full play set with those studded wagons (4x18 plate) which comes with a studded motorized undercarriage (4x16 plate with a 2x6 block in the absolute center). With that in mind, it would be possible to adopt these builds to be compatible with that, too. The end would be a three in one Lego family: Each can be a regular Lego toy, a Brio toy or Marklin H0 superstructure.

They look really nice. To me, they feel more like Epoch 2 than Epoch 1.

Wow, very nice Arabic scene. If I was in modulars, I would totally build it!

@zephyr1934 The wheels are 15535 - 3673 - 2817 - 3673 - 15535. The result is a pretty woobly wheel base. However, I like that better than the 50254 - 4600 - 50254. The Tile round 2 x 2 with a hole is nice and thick, meanwhile the Train wheel small is razor thin. More likely to break or get damaged when someone steps on it. The Tile round is nice and loose, it can move left and right on the pin to follow the curve of the rail. The Train wheel small has a snug fit, it need needs rotating bogies to make a turn. This can complicate the build. The downside of the Tile round is that it has a larger radius. You need to use an extra plate which makes the build higher. It also limits the max length of the build. 14 stud between the axels is about the longest it can handle. Modern trains are double of this length. Wagons can be 3x.There, the rotating bogey is the only option. I made a rotating bogey with the Tile round, but it was unnaturally high. You kinda have the same problem with the original 4 axle Brio trains. They are too high and look ugly as a result. The stud covered flatcar is funny. I didn't know about that. It may be interesting down the line, however at this point, I keep my son and the H0 set separated. The few sessions we had so far all ended in destruction of property. The wooden rails and buildings can resist him much better. The Lego trains, he can rebuild after a step or a drop which cannot be said for the poor old H0 :(. @Feuer Zug. I had wooden and H0 rails. My kid would love an actual Lego train set but my apartment cannot hold an appropriately designed and built table in Lego scale which is similar to O scale. Even the H0 is pushing it. This is the compromise so he can have Lego trains and I don't need to buy a bigger house.

Thanks! I received the parts for the Traxx so I built it quickly. Pretty massive next to the other locomotives. I even made it 2 studs shorter that it should be. Much more pix here: https://bricksafe.com/pages/Pendra37/4-wide-trains

I finished my Terminator themed build. It is a massive piece. 35 cm long and about 20 cm wide. It is hard to get exact dimensions on this vehicle, I used the best measure I could find. The tank is somewhat flattened to scale properly with the T800 minifigs, which are also somewhat flattened compared to the "real" thing. The torso, the head and the eyes rotate. The turrets rotate and swivel. The four tracks have independent suspensions, they rotate on hard terrain. The tracks also move if you push the tank around. The build is fully posable. It took 1450 pieces to make it. More pix here: https://bricksafe.com/pages/Pendra37/t2-hk-tank

Recently I made some trains from Lego for wooden rails. They looked pretty familiar so I compared them to my old H0 trains and ho and behold they are extremely close in size so I quickly made a bunch of different wagons and trains. They are pretty cheap. The V90 set with all the wagons cost only 30 Euros. So far I made a DRG Class 80 steam loco with a matching coach wagon and a DB V90/100 with a flat wagon, a cooler wagon, a generic freight wagon and a tanker wagon. I'm in the process to make DB TRAXX and maybe a V43. I used solid bogies with those big wheels. The pin allows the wheels take regular turns. The Traxx will have rotating bogies because that is freakin long, 27-28 studs. More pix here: https://bricksafe.com/pages/Pendra37/4-wide-trains