idlemarvel

There's much excitement about the forthcoming Orient Express set (only a few days now!) so I thought I would jump on the bandwagon and design a 6-wide dining car. It's 30 studs long with a City theme vibe. This is the inspiration prototype: (from Wikipedia) I designed it in Lego Digital Designer. I was keen to capture the black structural girder supporting the sides, recessed doors and striping. I wanted to keep to readily available bricks so used yellow rather than gold striping. Because of the internal construction the lower part of the car is only 4 wide but I have tried to create some interior. Anyway pictures tell a thousand words... I had about half the necessary parts and have ordered the rest on Lego pick-a-brick and a few on Bricklink, so I hope to be able to build it in a few weeks.

Love the frosted trees!

One problem with 8 wide is that the loco or cars will be correspondingly long. That means wider curves which in turn means you need more room for your proposed "small-as-possible" layout. You should consider 7 wide as a "near enough" compromise if scale matters to you. Perhaps you would need to go for a simple short shunting style layout. My rough calculation of scale was based on centre of rail rather than inside of rails. That would make it 1000/22.5 = 1:45 approx which would make your 2.65m wide loco nearer 7 than 8 studs.

To provide some answers: 1 - Lego only provide a sharp curve in 4-wide track, not even a straight. You can build a straight using individual rails though. If you go non-Lego then Trixbrix do a range of 4 wide track, including wider curves, straights and points. 2 - For standard gauge you can see 6, 7 and 8 wide, even 10 wide. They all have their compromises. If you're looking to use 4 wide track to represent 1m gauge, then the scale is about 1:42 (1000mm/24mm) which is about minifig scale. Narrow gauge trains in real life are around 2.5m wide. At 1:42 scale that would be about or between 7 and 8 studs wide. 3 - For motorising you can maybe fit a Lego linear motor in the loco and use technic gears and axles to drive the wheels, but it's usually a challenge. The standard Lego train motor is not so useful, although I think I saw one mounted in the body on it's side. There's a chap on here @LEGOTrainBuilderSG who does excellent models of Malaysian railways narrow gauge, check this out for example: Hope this helps a bit.

I'm sure they were trying to be helpful but unfortunately on this forum posts aren't numbered or dated so you can't refer back to a specific earlier posting, like "see post #24" so you can only be rather vague.

Nice idea. Being 8 wide there might be room for a technic hub so you could have remote controlled car lights as well (and AA batteries).

You mean no umlaut in MÜNCHEN?

According to the Lego website, there are "For LEGO® locomotive fans" "New elements for coupling rods, whistle and funnel." I think it looks splendid.

Welcome on board. This forum doesn't host pictures, so you have to store them elsewhere like Flickr and then include links. There are instructions in the new members forum. Have you been able to build any of these yet or is your TTE world a virtual one?

I've now finished with the design, here is version 3. This is one now on Bricksafe (link above). I've had to make loads of revisions and compromises, in order to allow for the parts availability in the chosen colours, particularly the orange and yellow. No 2 x 2 Panels, no 1 x 1 Brick with clips, no 2 x 14 plates etc. Also some parts were available but rare, in some cases only appearing in a few sets, some more redesign there. I guess this is just an example of the kind of process the real Lego designers go through, to come up with a set of elements that are available and not invent new ones unless absolutely necessary. Anyway, I'm pretty confident this could now be built, although at a cost (€100?). Alternative colour schemes could use the version 2 design, for example DB Cargo which is basically all red, and would be much cheaper.

Slight problem with my colour scheme - a rather essential piece is not available in orange Slope, Curved 3 x 1 x 2 with Hollow Stud https://www.bricklink.com/v2/catalog/catalogitem.page?P=33243#T=S&O={"iconly":0} No problem in DB Cargo livery (red) but this piece was never made in orange. Quick rethink required. I have an alternative solution which might even be better as no studs on top (but more pieces) Using Slope, Curved 2 x 1 x 1 1/3 with Recessed Stud https://www.bricklink.com/v2/catalog/catalogitem.page?P=6091#T=S&O={"iconly":0} and Arch 1 x 3 x 2 Curved Top https://www.bricklink.com/v2/catalog/catalogitem.page?P=6005#T=S&O={"iconly":0}

Okay thanks @Trekkie99 I have created a Bricksafe page with downloads that include the exported ldr file. Feel free to use that to create instructions using stud.io. https://bricksafe.com/pages/idlemarvel/moc-smimmns-4-axle-tarp-wagon The other downloads include the LDD model and a zip file of the HTML instructions generated by LDD. Edit: NB I have now checked whether the all the parts are available in the colours chosen, in particular the orange and dark/earth blue ones, and there are a lot that are not available. Hold off downloading the instructions for now unless you are building in more common colours. Okay now I have checked all the colour/part combos and all are available and not rare.

I have managed to create some instructions and parts list from the LDD model. Not sure what the best way is to share them. Rebrickable? I have an account but only just joined so I don't know how long that process is. FYI the instructions are in HTML and the parts list is an XL spreadsheet. Thanks for any advice.

Thanks. Happy to share the instructions if I can create them, as LDD is a bit fickle about producing them. I'm not at home ATM so it will be a few days before I can try. Failing that I can share the LDD model.

Version 2. I've made it 4 studs longer (increased from 24 to 28 studs long) and added yellow grab rails. Looks better IMHO.

To add some more wagons to my German theme layout I have started designing a Shimmns wagon in Wascosa colours: This is based on this prototype but shrunk considerably. I may extend the length a little if only to get some space between the letters! I'm also working on adding a footstep and yellow grabrail at one end. I've also had a go at a partially open one: Not got around to building it yet, another one for the list.

Thanks for the comments and suggestion. When I rebuild it with dark red windows instead of transparent bricks I will also lengthen it by 4 or 6 studs. Thanks! I've started on a Shimmns 4 axle metal coil carrier. https://gueterwagenkatalog.dbcargo.com/catalogue/by-wagon-category/s-bogie-flat-wagons-for-transporting-coils/Shimmns-708-9120950 I'll start another thread for that.

Awesome indeed. I'm defo going to build one, but I'll see if I can find a German prototype lookalike. Thanks for sharing the instructions.

Some European cities including some in Germany have Low Emission Zones. I recently drove through France, Belgium and Netherlands to Germany. You can apply for permits in advance online. I know Ghent, Brussels, Eindoven and Berlin have such zones. Most are free if you have a low emission petrol car, electric or hybrid but Berlin charged a small admin fee for a windscreen sticker. I'm not sure as my German is limited but I think the Berlin one is good for all Germany. Maybe someone local can verify.

If you can collect the all the parts for the sets, ideally with box and instructions, you could sell those on ebay. With their global shipping program the world is your secondary market. The rest you may have to sell by weight. I recently did this with 6 crates of vintage lego pieces. Although I am in the UK some of my buyers were in Europe and North America. It was quite a satisfying activity, avoided unnecessary landfill and made me a few dollars.

Thanks for the tip on using SKU / ID number @Berthil LDD is dead as far as TLG is concerned but it continues to work well (under Windows 10) and as long as new parts are being added I am very happy with it. I guess at some point I may have to migrate to Stud.io but I'm putting off that date as long as possible! :-)

When I was into G scale trains, LGB in particular, I always wanted to own this train on the front of their 2015 catalog: It was always beyond my pocket. Now I've moved on to L-gauge I can build my own version. This is my first attempt at designing a loco (in Lego Digital Designer) and building it with parts from BrickLink. It was shamelessly based on a BlueBrixx model but changed substantially to fit on my small layout. It is 6 studs wide. I had to redesign the front as they had used a piece (black triangular road sign) that doesn't exist in Lego. I also added a few other details. When it came to building it I couldn't source any dark red windows (at least not from UK suppliers) so I switched to transparent bricks instead. Here is the result. Sometime in the future I might shell out for the dark red windows from a European seller. It is powered by a standard train motor block with PoweredUp hub inside. I'm now working on some wagons to complete the train: Big thanks to BlueBrixx for the inspiration and to Stephan den Ridder for helping to keep LDD alive!

That's pretty amazing for your first print! An hour to print seems about right, maybe a bit longer than I would have expected. Is that with PLA? Your printer can handle ABS but I've never tried it. The default nozzle size of the default print head (0.4mm) has been good enough for all my printing so far. You can get a 0.3mm / 240 C print head if you think you need one. The slicer settings are probably more important to get the print resolution you need, but the defaults of the FlashPrint slicer seem to do a good job - I just turn off the the raft and leave the rest. Sometimes I turn Ironing on (Advanced Settings) to get a better flat finish on the top layer. If you plan to do a lot of printing you will need a replacement print head at some point.

This must be documented somewhere but I can't find it after 30 minutes of searching, so apologies if the answer already exists. Is there a mapping of colour numbers / names used by LDD to those used by BrickLink? For example LDD calls something 194 Medium Stone Grey but BrickLink calls it Light Bluish Grey. LDD 154 New Dark Red is just Dark Red in Bricklink. LDD 371 Warm Tan maps to what in Bricklink? Tan or Dark Tan? You get my point I hope. Having designed some models in LDD I would like to order the parts on BrickLink. I am aware there is an "Upload" facility to read an LDD .lxf file which does the mapping but I have some problems with that which I am about to put in another topic. Thanks for your understanding. EDIT: I just found a colour chart on BrickLink which, assuming LDD uses the official Lego colour numbers, seems to provide the mapping. https://www.ryanhowerter.net/colors.php

I can thoroughly recommend Flashforge Adventurer as an introductory printer. I got a Adventurer 3 Lite as my first printer. Enclosed print space, heated bed, excellent support, very good slicing software, works out of the box. Currently under £200 on Amazon. For 3D design I use Tinkercad which is free to use web based software.