edsmith0075

Greetings, I too have been toying with this idea for a while. I recently had set lego brand and generic knock off brand PF (non 9V) track outside. The direct sunlight was on it for about 50% of the day. This was sustained for months in the cold and also heat. The track remained formed as it was new with no noticable deteroration. I am confident that the plastic utilized for the Lego brand track can handle the elements. The only issue over time I believe will be color fade. I plan too build a rather large outdoor railroad using Legos myself. The color and U/V damage will be controlled by spraying the track with U/V protectant clear coat paint. The track will be left outside year round with a staging area inside the house basement, trains will be able to access the outside layout via a tunnel to the outside. I know the track will hold up being outdoors all the time but I do not have the same confidence in leaving the rolling stock outside and subject to the weather. The only thing I have not tested is the Lego brand switches. Due to the moving compnents of these I have a feeling they may need replacing every few years give or take. Ed

Thank you all for the kind words, But to be fair my build was based mostly on someone elses design who was kind enough to share the building instructions with everyone. I took his design and tweaked it to my liking. The gearing and housing I came up with on my own for this design because I needed to widen the platform to accomidate the EN and wider trains. The second part I wanted to add was.... BRASSO! This stuff works perfect for lego paint removal! I picked up a small bottle from Home Depot for like 1.99 and tested it real quick this morning before leaving for work. It worked like a charm with no visible damage to the plastic itself!

The roundhouse will be next. Right now though, I have way too many legos unorganized that need to be sorted before I get into another project.

Love it!

Great reminder.... I already tried goop off with no avail. So I will be swinging by a hardware store to pick up some paint stripper and will keep everyone posted :-)

Updated pics!!!! IMG_0603[1] by Edsmith0075, on Flickr IMG_0602[1] by Edsmith0075, on Flickr IMG_0601[1] by Edsmith0075, on Flickr IMG_0600[1] by Edsmith0075, on Flickr IMG_0599[1] by Edsmith0075, on Flickr IMG_0597[1] by Edsmith0075, on Flickr IMG_0595[1] by Edsmith0075, on Flickr IMG_0594[1] by Edsmith0075, on Flickr IMG_0593[1] by Edsmith0075, on Flickr IMG_0592[1] by Edsmith0075, on Flickr IMG_0590[1] by Edsmith0075, on Flickr IMG_0588[1] by Edsmith0075, on Flickr IMG_0586[1] by Edsmith0075, on Flickr Enjoy, Still a WIP but mostly complete.

So here are updated pics I took this morning. Feedback is always welcome. Keep in mind this is just the basics of the project. I have to add the details and hide the PF gearing setup still. I also want to remove the painted lines on the base plate. I tried goop off to remove them but it did not work. IMG_0551[1] by Edsmith0075, on Flickr IMG_0550[1] by Edsmith0075, on Flickr IMG_0549[1] by Edsmith0075, on Flickr IMG_0548[1] by Edsmith0075, on Flickr IMG_0547[1] by Edsmith0075, on Flickr IMG_0546[1] by Edsmith0075, on Flickr IMG_0545[1] by Edsmith0075, on Flickr IMG_0544[1] by Edsmith0075, on Flickr IMG_0543[1] by Edsmith0075, on Flickr IMG_0542[1] by Edsmith0075, on Flickr IMG_0541[1] by Edsmith0075, on Flickr IMG_0540[1] by Edsmith0075, on Flickr IMG_0539[1] by Edsmith0075, on Flickr IMG_0538[1] by Edsmith0075, on Flickr IMG_0537[1] by Edsmith0075, on Flickr

http://www.flickr.com/photos/edsmith0075/9009465627/ A pic of the table and gearing. I will post more later :-)

Hey everyone, Over the weekend I built and tweaked out a turn table using the directions from the Cuuso Page. I by no means take credit for this amazing projects original design. I did however expand on the directions and built this table to accomidate up to 8 wide trains which means the table supports the Emerald night with no problems. I also wanted to utilize an extra PF motor and PF battery box I had laying around. While the orignal designers gear setup was excellent, it did not support the wider trains clearance because they would end up hitting the walls of the building that hid the gears. I also ran into an issue with the gap between rails and table. I was able to resolve this with two half pieces of flex track and an additional pice of flex track placed on either side of the tables ends. This eliminates the gap and allows for smooth transfers. Even my Emerald night was able to trasition over this section with no problem, previosy it would derail. I will post pics as soon as I can, I didn't get a chance to take any before work this morning. I am grateful to the original designer of this project for posting the LDD files and give credit to this person for the amazing design! http://lego.cuusoo.com/ideas/view/33485

I have gone through and replaced most of the straight piences that were in the staging yard (under my bed) with the flex track this weekend. I am going to use a bunch of 1x2 pieces to hold some the pices together so they are straight but other than that thank you for the advice.

I have built this beauty and will post pics later. I need further advice. There is a 1 block gap between the table track and the side tracks, what can i do to minimize this? I want the transition between the two to be as smooth as possible.

Great suggestions! Thank you all

I was thinking about a bridge application as well. I never thought of a slope but I would be apprehansive about it because I like the solid structure of the regular track. Plus you can place the supports further apart with the regular track.

Thanks for the replies. The roller coaster is a cool idea but thats not where I wanna head with my setup. I have multiple areas that are hidden that I could use the flex track for now that I think of it. I have all my trains staged and stored under my bed. It looks like a train yard actually if you remove the mattress. Im thinking I could remove the regular track and replace it with the flex track since you can't see under there anyway. Any other uses? Cosmetics are the primary reason that I don't use the flex track out in the open.

Greetings gang, I have a box of the Lego Flex track that is not being used. I am looking for ideas on what I can use it for besides the obvious. I saw the rail crossing posting but am looking for other uses for this stuff on a train layout.

To follow up on this topic. I was able to leave the XL motor in the engine. Instead of using the baggage car as an additional driving force I was able to fit a PF Bogie under the tender. I ended up using the old style bogie, the one that does not come with a cable already attached and with a red marking on it. This bogie was removed from another engine because it lacked the power needed for the newer train models. This motor did however pair up perfect with the XL motor and gearing on the engine. I have resolved the problem with the EN getting stuck on uneven track! Use the XL motor on the engine and use the old PF bogie on the tender. This combo will ensure a smoother ride with less noise and amazing pulling power. Oh and you can use the directions for retro fitting the old 9V motor to the EN tender to apply the PF bogie just the same. Hmmmmm.... Now I have these extra PF M motors left over, What to build what to build ;-)

oh BTW I order road plates but would like to know if there is anyway to remove the road lines from the plate and just make the plate plain and simple?

I just ordered the rest of the pieces needed to build this gem! Thank you sooooooo much to the designer for publishing the LDD files. I was working on this project at first site but had trouble figuring out the gearing. I have the official lego engine shed but am thinking of ditching it in place of the roundhouse.

Update, Last night I rebuilt the tender to accomidate the PF Train bogie and removed the gearing from the locomotive. The bogie struggled through turns. It is strong enough, perhaps too strong. It slid and failed to get good traction. Any suggestions? I really liked how smooth the train ran with this setup on the straight sections and how the train did not get hung up on uneven spots. The XL motor is a powerful motor but noisy and slow. I love the PF bogie but it slips and fails to get enough traction to push the loco through turns and pull the cars.

WOW!!!! Thank you for that response! I have been wondering how to post the pics correctly, now I can so thank you! Thank you for the math, I have a basic understanding of gearing bu t you clearly know you stuff and I have a lot to learn. Based on that info Im getting a bit discouraged with this setup as Im realizing that the loco and car will not match in power and speed. Any suggestions on getting them close atleast. Ive been considering now that you have pointed all this out to just remove the XL motor and resort to the pf train bogies perhaps one on the tender only or two on the baggage car to drive this train.

Below are the pics of the EN powered Baggage Car I built for this project. Any suggestion on better gearing or design? I have considered removing the drive gears in the locomotive but would really like to keep them and the XL motor. Thanks in advance to everyone for their help...

Great feedback... So the M motors are running off the same reciever as the XL. There is enough power for all 3, although I never thought about that when I designed this. The primary motivation for this "spare" powered train car is because of the EN ridgid frame and that it often gets stuck on slight ups and downs with the track. Right now the trains run throughout my whole house when we set them up and due to differences in flooring textures the EN gets stuck on switches and other spots that none of the other trains seem to have issues with. After testing this Baggage car design I found that having an extra car that pushes the engine just a little bit allows for the engine to smoothly ride over areas that it previously got stuck on. I hope this all makes sense. Oh and I was reffering to the baggage car gearing alone being 1:1. I never even thought of trying to match the car to the engine gear wise. Thanks again for the help.

Thank you for the info Duq. I plan to regear my EN car to accomidate speed because the XL motor in the Engine is more then powerful enough. Right now it is geared with the same size gears all around. Its the size we use for the bogies. How would having the same all the way around affect speed and torque. I read that it is impossible to get a 1:1 ratio, would this be close to that?

Hey everyone, I have built a baggage car fo my EN and placed 2 small/medium PF motors inside. My question is, how would different sized gears affect the movement of this car? I am currently using all small gears the same ones that are used in the custom built bogie. How would using larger gears in the baggage car affect the train or would it at all?

I have built a baggage coach with that exact thought in mind. I posted pics a while back here on the board. I have a PF extension line and am thinking about putting two small PF motors in the luggage car. Any feedback there? With the small PF motor in the tender it does not seem to be getting enough traction and I ran out of space to put any weights to resolve this.