JamesP

There's an even better Lego element than that for making bridges: Talk about perfect for bridges. It will cross 5 track length gaps at least, that's about all I have of them. James

By hand, using lego bricks, at least for the most part. I'll start with a design in mind, and work towards it. The last wagons I built were the Consett dock hoppers, and the matching Class 25. The class 25 is a bit unique, as I started out with a paper sketch (!) on graph paper of it, and it actually worked OK as a design. The inspiring elements there were a bag of 2x2 yellow windows in 1999. Since UK engines tend to be GYE (green with Yellow End), that was the inspiration as to building the first loco. The 2nd one was a requirement to be able to control the train on the spiral I had in Newfoundland, along with extensive work on brake vans. Other locos were designed from photos, trying to accheve a look within my existing pallet for the most part, as a lot of my designs are pre brick bay (brick link), so the ways to get pieces were much more limited. I haven't done a lot of train construction in the last 10 years, mostly just running stuff & building occasional new buildings for the town, as well as being busy with work, live steam engines & two sons. So, for me, CAD is not the way I work...hands on if possible. James Powell

This links to reply for a couple other topics, these are more images of my home layout. ZNAP canopy Brickstol Temple Meads front Brickstol Temple Meads trackplan Exit of BTM 4551 & mail wagons The Port Port other end Daniel and engines End of Yard Middle of Yard Other end of yard DSC_0030 by Peach James, on Flickr Note: on the last photo, there is a OO scale train crossing through the spiral. Yes, the home layout is that complex ! OK, about the spiral. The lines on it are power lines, it is fed on every level so that there is something like 15 pieces of track to power. The whole layout is run as a single section of Digital Command Control, by a DB 150, using Digitrax to supply power. (again, compared with Long Marton, it's simple...(Long Marton, S&C (hosted on RM Web)) I run 3 loops of track, the upper & middle on the upper level, and the lower loop. The spiral connects the two levels, and sees limited use. (heck, both railways see limited use. If only they added 3 hrs/day I would be OK for time). If anyone has questions on DCC use I would be happy to answer them. To be honest, I don't view it as the way ahead from here, I think LiPo and PF are the way forward from here, unfortunately. (Track is the limit, I have lots of 9V, but without huge quantities of legacy 9V, I would be going PF) The storage yard on the lower level currently has 95+ pieces of stock buried in it. There's also a Metroliner (with extra cars) on the grade between the middle and upper levels, along with my Emerald Night. On top of the wagons in the yard, there are about 20 pieces more stock spread throughout the layout "loose", including the winter train & half a dozen more 21T hoppers. There are 9 heavy ore cars which the pair of Class 25's are used to top & tail, and then the other passenger trains. The blue VIA is a FP, steam generator, 4 coaches & the double deck dome car, there is a single wheel steam loco, booster van & 5 6 wheel coaches as well, parked in Bricstol Temple Meads. (Bristol Temple Meads, made of brick...hence, Brickstol Temple Meads). I've got a few 4.5V/12V waggons built up on the layout, as well as a 116 which is currently boxed/on the bookshelf & the 7722 & 7720. Any further questions, feel free to ask. James Powell

Oh, I know how the real ones work: (3.5" gauge Caribou to Martin Evan's design, at Vancouver Island Model Engineers, Daniel & James Powell in the photo, taken by Mr Jones (one of our friendly welshmen). Engine built in Ontario, finished by David Powell, worn out by me) I wasn't sure if it was a legoism to make it work freely, I understand the level of trickery required at times to make it work in Lego Technic. James

On the front Mickey Mouse, is the cylinder supposed to rock when it goes down the line? Outstanding valve gear for Lego. James Powell

Yes. You can have too many trains. that's when they occupy every @#$@#@ space in the area they are supposed to, and then start migrating to places they are not supposed to live in. I have the passenger station FULL, and the storage yard fairly close to full, and a train on each loop, and a full container train in the port and wagons shunted into sidings, and...well, lets put it this way, even with all my track, I have lots of trains. James

Short answers, no 16 pieces of track are not enough to go up in. My spiral is 46 pieces long, with 15 pieces of straight each side. That's with ~6 motors to pull/push a 3 engine/6 car Santa Fe up (and down) the hill. (4 in the locos, 2 pushing). Brakes are not really optional, the best is to put about 2/3rds of the power at the head & then the rest on the tail. I have 2 locos which pull a brake van fitted with brakes, they add a lot to the control on a downhill train. The super magnet trick works well, I use ones from Lee Valley tools here in Canada, but they are not able to ship them by air. (yes, they are that strong!). I have never tried making a fully vertical arrangement, and I suspect it would be rather difficult as a pure lego solution. I have some lift bridges, and they are a bit fragile for lifting, and I suspect that they would not survive lifting a full train. James

Yep, the roofs are held on plates, so they are removable. The bits of mine are in my collection, first lego train I got. Only bad thing was that I also got 107 to motorize it, and that meant that I had difficulities with # of magnets for train cars :) James

I found it a very solid article, well presented. I'm also in favour of lego releasing more normal buildings. The price point has to be low, which means a low part count, and I love the older houses. I don't know how well the old sets worked for lego in terms of economy, but I would love to see a 16x16 or 16x32 house that was within reach of a child (something around the $50 mark now...), built to go with the Modular standard. I`d also like to see a park design. (and yes, I have my own...) as well. Say, a 32x32 park, with the sidewalk on one side, and a cypress tree as the centrepiece, along with 30-40 flower stems & a couple of the smaller trees... James

There was a spare pack, with 3M of cable & 8 plugs available. Try Bricklink for it. 5065. I have at least one opened one, used for 4.5v lighting. James

I did it entirely underneeth a bogie, using a small magnet from Lee Valley, mounted onto a technic axle, with a worm gear on the axle, then a micromotor driving a (8? 12?) T gear, which would push/pull the magnet in behind the buffer beam of a conventional coupling. Several mod's were required in order to operate this: 1. Magnet is glued to 10 or 12L technic axle 2. Mod's to at least 1 wheelset. (carved off a stud, I think...) 3. My layout is DCC, so that's how I operate the micromotor. Sorry, I can't take any photos right now as I am ~6 hrs flying from home :) James

Lets see: 116 2126 2585 3225 4525 4533 4536 4537 4541 4543 4544 4549 (plus an extra crane) 4551 4552 4558 4563 4564 4559 (x5?) 4565 (x3?) 4561 7710 7720 7722 10001 (x2) 10002 (x3) 10013 10014 10015 10016 10017 (x3) 10020-2 (x2) 10020-1 (x2) 10022 (x4) 10025 (x2) 4512 x3 10170 10173 10183 10194 7938 7939 3677 10219-1 KT203 James

This isn't a "it's bigger than mine" contest. I've been working in the same space since 2001, when we moved out here. There have been a range of different track layouts, I think this is really #4 or so. BlueBrick lists: Author: James Powell LUG/LTC: VicLUG Show: Home Layout Date: Sunday, January 29, 2012 Comment: +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+ | 1 | 10027 | N/A | Train Engine Shed - Long version | | 19 | 2859 | Dark Gray | Train Track 9V Point Right | | 3 | 2859HALFCURVE | Dark Gray | Train Track 9V Point Right Modified | | 14 | 2861 | Dark Gray | Train Track 9V Point Left | | 9 | 2861HALFCURVE | Dark Gray | Train Track 9V Point Left Modified | | 927 | 2865 | Dark Gray | Rail 9V Straight | | 209 | 2867 | Dark Gray | Rail 9V Curve | | 1 | 32087 | Dark Gray | Train Track 9V Crossing | | 54 | 3811 | Green | Baseplate 32 x 32 | | 3 | 3857 | Green | Baseplate 16 x 32 with Square Corners | | 1 | 4539 | N/A | Level Crossing | | 28 | 610P01 | Green | Baseplate, Road 32 x 32 8-Stud Straight with Road Pattern | | 1 | 612P01 | Green | Baseplate, Road 32 x 32 8-Stud T Intersection with Road Pattern | | 3 | 613P01 | Green | Baseplate, Road 32 x 32 8-Stud Curve with Road Pattern | | 1 | 7838 | N/A | Freight Loading Depot with Wagon | | 9 | 9VHALFCURVE | Dark Gray | Custom 9V Rail Half Curve | | 11 | 9VHALFSTRAIGHT | Dark Gray | Custom 9V Rail Half Straight | | 1 | 9VQUARTERSTRAIGHT | Dark Gray | Custom 9V Rail Quarter Straight | +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+ In terms of total area, I have about 24x24 for the lego. It extends into some other areas a little bit (the entire spiral), but is scenic'd only in the lego area. The middle level is the staging yard for my OO scale railway, which runs interlaced through the lego in a couple of places. It made the spiral an interesting construct, to say the least. Trackwork is a little more wonky than the plan shows, as I have a bunch of special cut pieces, ranging down to 2L straight track. (including some 5/7L pieces...). Once you are fitting lego to a space, the track has to make the geometry of the area available to you. James

I used two of the canopies, from the Naboo fighter. (at least, that's where mine came from !) They're not bad but are only 4 wide. James

A bit of everything. I have 3.5" live steam engines (x3), a large OO scale layout (30x3 scenic area), some N scale, a little bit of T gauge, O gauge (Faller Hit/Play train), a 4" scale steam traction engine (Fowler DCC Road Loco, to the Plastow castings/design). I've got some stuff on the OO on RM Web, and are slowly working towards building a railway around my house. There is ~350' of grade done, but I need to make track for it. Plan is 2.5"/3.5"/4.75"/7.5" gauge, the 7.5" for passengers & then 3.5" for my locos, and the other gauges are kind of accidental. James

Well in the distant past, VLC and VICLUG got together, I ferried over with about 600 pieces of track, and we occupied a church basement for a weekend of DCC powered, switching fun. It was like a mini show, but without the public. A great time was had by Dean, Kevin, myself & a couple of other VLC members. The ultimate conclusion is that to switch effectively, you need to use Kadee or similar automatic uncoupling couplers. I have a single, much modified loco that does auto switching. Great for an inglenook type siding arrangement, where a lot of the uncoupling action happens at the loco. (it uses a micromotor in the bogie, to push/pull a technic stick with a small supermagnet on the end of it in & out) Anyway, you really need a lot of space, tables & track to do an effective switching layout. My home layout could support some fun operation, but generally, I don't switch too much @ home. James

BTW, that looks like T gauge, and not the worlds smallest train. Dr Sherwood in Australia holds that record, I think. (at least he used to...) with 1:1000th models. He also built a Z scale (1:220) live steam engine, along with a fleet of N gauge live steam engines. Off to work on the OO scale in the basement while the older lad plays with lego, James

Hole. Middle. #4 screw. Don't tighten too much... James

1 plate per section results in huge required track counts. 45 pieces of track up/down to clear. (15 bricks clearance). 2 Plates is much easier to acchieve- 30 pieces to clear. Anything much above 2 plates/ piece is going to be...operationally challenging. Experience speaking here...Operationally Challenging means trains are going to go flying across the room & self dis mantle. Perhaps not fixably self dismantle. Recommendation: 1 plate/section, 2 if you need to get it done in less space. 45 piece spiral takes around 9x3 ft to make. James

The _number_ on the A units should be the same, as should the number on the B units. They were done that way to get around union rules of what constituted a separate locomotive... Proper numbers would be 301L, 301A, 301B, in a ABB set up. I have mine as ABA though... Santa Fe Historic Society F7 Page Hope that helps, James

There have been guides up, but basically, cut the tabs off the bottom using a sharp knife (cut towards your chum, not your thumb...), then the bottom pops off, the wheels need to come out. Be careful of the white plastic gears & axles, they have a disturbing habit of getting lost (or mine do...). Then, the thermsistor is located on push on tabs on the motor. All the parts are push/snap together. When you have pried out the thermsistor, you can put the motor back into place, then the wheels & push the case back together. The friction from the tabs will hold it together OK. If small/extremely inquisitive children are going to use the motor, then I would suggest gluing the case back together. I have a 6 year old autistic boy, and none of mine are glued back together...mostly, they come apart due to my faults not his !. (train crashes off bridge tend to dismantle lots of stuff!)

It sounds like the thermisistor on the motor has died. This is to protect the motor from overload situations. The only way to get at it is to open up the motor. If you remove it, you are on your own rather than lego grounds. I have a large # of motors without them... James P

Hi all, My name is James Powell. LUGNET #202, if that means much... I've been around the lego train world since near the beginning of real things happening- I think 1998 was the first show that I attended. Not a lot else to tell- I have two sons (one 6, one 2), and are an active member of VICLUG (Victoria, BC). I've got a lot of 9V trains, my history with lego trains goes back to 7710, which I got as a child, and 7722. (4.5V gray era). No 12V, or Monorail (monorail is a "D" word around here...as in Divorce!). I also have a fairly extensive OO scale layout, and 3 3.5" gauge live steam railway engines. Here from recommendations (I think, from TBB) James

I fail to understand how you figure Lego isn't heavy enough for DCC- it works fine in N gauge (1:160th scale), so why wouldn't it work for 1:48ish? The protocol is a very durable way of transmitting the signal, that's not what is getting lost. I'm just loosing power/contact completely with the motor, which would affect any track supply equally. The IR systems avoid that, at the price of a battery pack & IR reciever (window @ the top). 6 of one, half a dozen of another as to which is worse. I understand TLC's stance, because battery toys can be sold to younger children than mains powered ones. But, for the purposes I do, 9V is usually easier to deal with. 6 car (&3 engine) Santa Fe would positively eat batteries if run on PF. Same with a lot of the longer trains I run. Protocol wise, I run a quite large OO scale (1:76th) layout under/interlaced with the Lego. Lego has the advantage of being "2" wire in comparison to the OO scale layout, which has in excess of 100 detection blocks, and around 50 turnouts which are DCC/computer controlled. I find the DCC to be OK to deal with, but my day job is as a controls technician, so hey ho, what do I know? James

Some all of my track is fairly dirty, and I prefer to run with multi pick ups rather than just a single set. Hence, my prefrence is to run with 2 motors to aid in power pick up. I considered taking a PF motor and using it to free up a motor, but I am short on motors which I am willing to refit to the way that I have wired that particular train. James