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Where I live in New York, both types of trucks are fairly common. The semi's deliver to gas stations, but the single-chassis tankers are out and about delivering heating oil to homes. The review was great, I wanted one of these to go with my 3180 before, but now I really want one. Thanks!

Beautiful. Great representation of the real thing.

Potentially, you could put a cabinet for some signalling equipment. At the station from which I commute to work, the space between the rails is currently occupied by discarded ties and has been for a couple of months. Some station's on Metro-North's Harlem line had (maybe still) some art installations of sheet metal workers.

Very nice! It is a great little light pickup design, and your stickers add a lot.

I got a card in store and another online, because I could not actually register. I called the Lego customer service number and they merged one of the cards points into the other for me.

This is great. I enjoyed following it from just a conveyor belt to an entire scene and story. Looking at the two lines merge into one for assembling the top/bottom is awesome.

Thanks to all for the constructive comments. I would like to have reduced the height just a bit, the extra layer of tiles added some that I didn't really want. The big problem with the height reduction is the combination of the battery and the receiver. They are so close right now that I can't lower the receiver and leave room for the cables to come up from the motor. kyphur, I very much like the proportions of your LDD version of the shell. I'll need to get myself an M-motor to play with. Thanks for looking!

Starting almost as soon as I put together my first train set and saw some MOCs of 9V switchers, I wanted to build my own. I started designing it in LDD and playing with bricks around a few pieces earlier this year. I ordered my first train on January 16th, and the first Bricklink order for this was placed on March 4th. I’ve finally decided that I’m happy enough with the result to post it. I wanted to MOC up a Metro-North yard switcher that is used in the Croton Harmon yard near where I live (it is one station south of mine): Oversized Image The pair of these engines was originally ordered for use in Grand Central Terminal, but because they wheelbase was so small; they would not correctly trigger the signals so are used in Croton and Brewster instead. This is my version: Pulling a blue gondola (a bit of Metro-North rolling stock I will typically pass on my daily commute): The back of the engine: (compare to: http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=2197673) I’ve gone through 2-3 iterations of the design to balance playability and brick availability with looking like the original; and I have something that I think is recognizable when you put it next to the original, but is more inspired by the original than an actual copy. My kids (4 and 6) enjoy playing with it just like the other trains; so on playability I’m declaring success. It is powered by a 9V battery, which I’ve connected by cutting a PF extension cable in half and soldering to a 9V battery connector: I made two connectors, one out of each half of the extension cable. One of the cables has a fairly long Lego PF section. The other cable, which is inside the locomotive, has just a small section of Lego PF cable-the rest is the two wires of the battery connector. This turned out to work quite a bit better in the cramped interior of the locomotive, as it was a bit difficult fitting the cables from the IR receiver, motor, and also battery all together. My first test runs were with regular alkaline 9V batteries, which is doubly problematic. First, they are about 1 USD a piece, and last for an hour. Secondly, it is a real pain to take the train apart and fit it back together to change the battery. My solution here was to use a rechargeable 9V battery from Amazon. I was concerned that the performance wouldn’t be as good, but the train goes just as fast on a fresh charge (enough that it can easily derail itself). It turns out that the rechargeable batteries last longer when run on speed five for 30 minutes, then flat out until they die (75 vs. 53 minutes). It also means that I can connect the train to the charger easily: One of the changes in the second iteration was to use tiles so that the top piece would come off easily. My Brickshelf gallery, including the LDD file is, is here: http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?f=507047 And a video of it in action: More pictures of the original available here: http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/Locopicture.aspx?id=26915

I only have the modern ones, but I like that for Maersk ones they included a separate mold for the hi-vis vest. I had not seen that before. It would be cool if TLG were to make some torso's with hi-vis yellow/green vests in addition to orange.

My kids like the crane from 7939, but they're too young to know what really works as far as a siding, etc. If the crane were in a circle with no siding they wouldn't care. 7939 was my first set, and I one of the reasons that I wanted it over the red cargo train was that it included switches. I've since caught the bug and bought myself the train station, passenger train, red cargo train, 3 more switch packs, and a two packs of straight/flex tracks. I think that for people starting out having something complete is very important; without a complete set it is hard to know if it is something that will really be of interest to you.

It looks great. I like the top of the hopper very much.

1. Deer (This should work well with Forest Police Subtheme) 2. Eagle (Just cool.) And some farm animals would be nice: 3. Pig 4. Cow 5. Chicken

I love how you did the plow on front!

I think the color change to yellow instead of white makes it fit in better with the TLG maintenance vehicles; which seem to often be this same yellow.

This is a really beautiful looking train; and I think that it would be great for kids. I very much like that you chose the red color scheme to go with.

Which Cargo Train and where? I didn't see them discounted on shop.lego.com.

I'm working on my first train MOC, and the way I'm going about it is to build it in LDD; and get something I am kind of happy with and compare it to some reference pictures. I bought the parts on BrickLink for some of the parts I knew I would need (I want to fit in a 9V battery); and got some extras that I thought might be useful from the same seller. I validated part of it that way, and then moved onto the other part with another Bricklink order. As I put it together, I'm finding things that I could have done better and adjusting in LDD. One of the things that is clear is that the clutch power in real life isn't quite what it is in LDD; and when not every element is accounted for (e.g., the wires); you may need to make some real life adjustment. Also I have a lot of black for the bottom of the engine I'm working on; and things don't quite look the same on the screen as in bricks (much less contrast). I am almost happy with it, I think I just need one more round of parts [in part because I cannibalized the motor and receiver from my Yellow Cargo train -- having both of them put together at once would be quite nice].

Thanks for the kind words. I don't have immediate plans for more vehicles in the orange fleet. I'm trying to do a MOC of a Metro-North switcher (BL06 Pictures). I've got it mocked up in LDD, made the cable to connect the 9V battery to the IR receiver; and have the top half of it built mostly built. It actually runs and I think captures the spirit of the real thing; but I need some more bricklink/PAB to get the pieces I want to finish up the bottom part of it. After building the top part for real, there are some changes I want to make on the prototype; which I want to design in LDD before doing another PAB order.

I've noticed that a European's resume is are more likely to list hobbies and interests than US resumes. They'll often include a personal section which has things that a US employer wouldn't ask about. In general, I think the whole section just gets ignored here. I work as a software developer, and my resume is 2 pages. When I was applying for jobs after receiving my Ph.D.; I had one that was significantly longer, because I listed my publications (5-6 pages). I feel no need to make my resume short; but I only am going to list what is relevant. If I am applying for a generic software development job I'll probably keep it to 2-3 pages, if I were to apply for another job as a research scientist I would list my publications and patents. In either case, I probably would not list interests on there, since they are not relevant to whether I can do the job; and I probably having something better to write using the 2" that it would take to have the personal section.

V-LC-9A This is my take on what 4434 would really look like in the Winter (mild as hit has been). Any self-respectable highway department ends up fitting out their trucks with a plow and salt spreader. I built the plow in LDD using yellow; because that is the color of the New York DOT trucks. After seeing the dump truck, I decided that matching the bright orange would lok nicer so decided to use that instead. The salt (1x1 round tiles) was conveniently available from the PAB wall in the Rockefeller center store; so I could get it without breaking the bank. One nifty feature I like is that the bottom of the spreader is a 2x2 turn table so it can be spun for some extra playability. A view from the front. It would have been nice if I could have gotten a 1x2x2/3 brick in orange (a double "cheese wedge" as it were) and a 1x8 tile, as are available in yellow; so it doesn't get broken up so much and would be straighter. I also thought about making it articulate side to side instead of just up and down, but didn't want to overcomplicate it. As it is now it stays together fairly well and I think introducing another connection point between the truck and plow could reduce that. A view from the side. You can also see that the antenna are just a bit short to act as the sticks that show the edge of the plow. Thanks for looking.

That is a very nice layout. I'm jealous of those six (if I counted correctly) double cross-overs. The round table is interesting, does it turn?

I played with Technic when I was a teenager, but haven't bought any new sets after coming out of my dark ages a few months ago. I've thought about a little Technic et just for fun and parts; but have been focused on City; which are easier for my kids (4 & 6). Technic doesn't have the same memories though as Castle, Town, or Space, which I had huge layouts of. I haven't been excited by the Star Wars or Alien conquest in the same way as classic space; and the possibility of LOTR replacing the current Kingdoms line means that City is what I've mostly settled on. I'm very lucky in that my Dad was interested in the Castle and managed to keep the sets together, so I have about a dozen sets from circa 1984-1988 to play with. My son likes Ninjago, because it is really popular at school, and I'm actually surprised how many Technic elements there are in the Ninjago sets.

Lego will sometimes discount, but even without discounts Lego often has prices that are better than or equal to other retailers. If they have the same price as another retailer; I would rather buy directly from Lego. I can get more variety from Lego than other retailers, and would rather support Lego than others. That being said, when I'm buying for my kids and let them pick, I usually go to Wal-Mart because it is close (the Lego store is an hour away) and sells for MSRP (TRU is also close to us, and has more selection than Wal-Mart, but doesn't sell near MSRP).

Sjuip, Thanks for the part numbers and guidance. I read your Train Tech intro; and I think your MOCs from the Hobby train box in LDD are a very cool idea. Charles

I've got the flexi-track from the Yellow Cargo Train; and also from a straight & flexible track pack. I was surprised how well it worked on my carpet, because I expected it not to stay as rigid as the straight or curved tracks. I like that I can use it to make the layout more flexible and moveable since it is on my living room floor and when it gets knocked a bit having some forgiveness is nice. It is also nice to be able to use it as either straight or curved. I have a big oval (with a switch) and nothing fancy, that my kids play with, so I expect that I am TLG's target audience for this piece, but I can see how it is frustrating not to be able to easily get regular curves outside of the starter sets or switch track set.