Frank STENGEL

Actually, one can order them from China via ebay. I always had at least one shop which would ship for free. Simply ask/search for "Enlighten Train" and you will have quite a few choices in the buy me now section...

Amazing. I'd love to see the moc...

Indeed. The thing is that until the late seveties/early eighties and the beginning of the technic range, there were far less specialized parts compared to now and sets had a very toyish/blockish look. I remember that things (i.e. many new parts appeared) changed when the first technic sets came out (1977) and the (classic?) space adventure started (1978)

In terms of heresy, I have quite a soft spot for Enlighten: apart from the blatant copies (train, pirates and space), they do quite good original sets. Although I'm not interested, their army line is quite good. I started buying Enlighten because I wanted to exend a freight train for my son and thus got the rip-offs. Then I dicovered their originals... If the brick quality were a bit better, then these sets would be fantastic.

Sweet.

Look there...

The Heilmann locomotive is nice. The challenge is the wedge shaped cab front and the round sides. But then challenges is what gives spice to the whole building process

Speaking of which, I'm still working on my version of a Du Bousquet locomotive.

A place to find weird locomotives is there : the loco wing of the museum of retro technology. The second locomotive can be found there (scroll down) as well...

It has actually been built in lego by a French AFOL. I have one rather bad photo (with the same reference) of it : I'm actually quite annoyed: the closeup I made is so blurry I can't even recognize it is a locomotive... One thing is that the white bit is actually part of a chain of ice cones to simulate steam/smoke coming from the smokestack...

It is 6 studs axle to axle. Basically one can simulate it with 1x8 technic bricks with holes and put an axle at each extremal hole (7 holes but only 6 studs distance). In the hope this helps...

As per usual: SavaTheAggie = amazing build! Just nitpicking: isn't the 4449 supposed to be on the smokestack's side? I can't see how one could do it, but still...

Good point. However, one could make a bit of rail that simply goes from the mushroom shape to a simple straight. The difference in shape should not affect the rolling properties as long as the top remains continuous.

Same here. What would make me go ahead even if the price is a bit higher would be a piece that would connect the current 9V-PF system with the BBB one...

Same here, The only thing is that sometimes this leads to very long coaches. Ditto. British trains are slimmer than their continental european counterparts: the loading gauge is about 8 inches narrower that what is usual on the continent (2896mm vs 3100mm). For most european locomotives, 1:48 is roughly 7.5-8 wide (the loading gauge being 8-wide).

Indeed, one could resort to surgery: taking apart/cutting a straight piece (or even for that matter a flex piece) and glueing it to a BBB sleeper...

Well, a lot of L-gauge builders tend to go for 7-8 wide trains because it goes well with minifigs and because it remains affordable... However if one looks at the wheel base, then 10 wide is better proportioned, but the minifigs are vertically challenged. It all depends wether you want to have a layout with people or without. Inhabited would mean 8 wide with a wheel base that is too wide. Keeping the proportions right while retaining the ability to use minifigs is a fun challenge.

Indeed. The thing is that, a bit like for the Walschaerts valve gear, the final 's' got lost somewhere... For instance, in French rail circles, the rail is mentionned as Vignole rail (without the 's')

I can't wait to see them. the question will be pricing of course...

I agree and I disagree on these points. The rechargeable battery is indeed expensive. However the price for a correct (that is *safe* and holding many cycles) Lipo and protective circuitry is not that small and integration not that easy. Furthermore if one wants to go another route one can do a bit of soldering and use smaller (less powerful) standard lipos or 9V cells that very often fit where a battery pack would not. The other thingie that could be construed as being large is the IR receiver. In my experience it isn't that enormous and very often blends with exterior detail (the same way it does on the 7939 locomotive for instance). There is another thing that I remember from the 9V era and that is the time spent on cleaning the track, making sure that every single connection is good and that the voltage drop is minimal. PF eliminates this at the price of an integration that is more difficult. Both systems have their pros and their cons. Neither is really that superior to the other. One last thing us AFOLS tend to forget : Lego trains are designed to be *toys* and are supposed to be easy to use by a 10 year old kid without adult supervision. with PF no problem, with 9V, well...

Beautiful mini moc . Now for a challenge: the same but in L-gauge its size would (only) be 256 by 384 studs. I can't imagine how many parts...

I'd rather say it is a switching tower. The part above the rails being where the control centre is. As far as I can tell, it seems to be that one...

15. ACPin - 2 10. Darkblane - 2 34. Sebeus I - 1

Look at this link for another take on multimodal wagons. Brickshelf, Filkr using the insert image button.

Just awesome. Is there any rolling stock? Just went over to Flikr, an saw some of your rolling stock. Superb detail .