Legotom

Has anyone noticed that the toy shop has a Wall-E toy on display. That's a cool wee feature.

I am planning a 9v train MOD to incorporate PF. The only possible way to do this will be to cut some bricks and plates to make room for the battery and the PF sensor. But this fills me with a slight feeling of terror and will be the only brick chopping I do. All the rest of my MODs and MOCs are pure Lego parts, it's just in this instance there really is no other way.

I haven't sorted me lego collection since I was about six so it's nearly all either built or in three large crates just loose and jumbled up. So I spend most of my building time hunting for parts I need. I tend to work with a tray full of parts I've bought off Bricklink specially for my MOC, plus any I've found in my crates that look useful.

I'm in too.

I'd like to join very much. How much time do I need to spare and can it be in fits and starts. I have a toddler so I don't get all the time I'd like for Lego.

I have bought a couple of sets with birthday vouchers and on sale that are starting to form a backlog. I would usually build sets as soon as I get them home, or Amazon delivers them. But I am now the parent/owner/zookeeper of a toddler and so my time for building Lego is severely limited. Duplo just isn't the same somehow.

Currently it's any bricks in old light grey, but especially 1x1 bricks and plates. Impossible to find in a giant mixed crate of Lego, but essential for what I'm doing. Going to have to raid Bricklink.

I've bought a couple of train related things off of eBay recently and, on receiving them, I've been rather disappointed they've come assembled. All complete and in great condition, no complaints there, but I wanted to build them and feel a bit cheated. What do other people thing, do you like your eBay purchases as a bag of bricks, or as a nice ready to play with (or just admire) model?

Yeah that's the sort of thing. Huge range of modules they can carry. The army use something similar.

Nice, like it a lot. Have you considered making the all round truck have a roller container on the back, kind of like this http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roller_container. Then it can carry whatever is needed to suit the job. In the UK the fire service use roller containers for special equipment, like foam canons and chemical disaster equipment.

I would love to see the Divers theme bought back. As a kid my two favourite themes were Divers and Arctic. Arctic is back with some excellent new sets, so I have all fingers and toes crossed for a similar reboot of the Divers theme. And whilst not strictly a reboot I do wish Lego would bring out separate train carriages and wagons like they used to, to complement and expand the big sets.

That looks good so far. I have a couple of suggestions. Use 4 or 6 wide plates for the top parts instead of the 1 wide tiles. It will make it more rigid and stop the cars rolling about. Also try using the more modern lego hinges that clic and lock in position, again it will add rigidity.

Metroliner! Nooooooooooooooo! Although having said that it seems to have stayed in one piece and most of the train stayed upright. Very important in a crash. PS. I'm very jealous of the number of Metroliner coaches you have.

Suggestion for those who don't have room for an airstrip. If you model the airport apron at the front of your layout, and have taxi-ways continue over the edge it suggests the presence of a huge runway, without the need to build one. I love airport themes and will be buying all the planes on offer. I usually use the floor of the spare room though, lots of room for a runway that way ;).

This is a great truck. Gives me some inspiration for a similar one in 6 wide to go with the more modern fire stuff. And that crane is a work of art. Could you post some more detailed pictures, or better yet a step by step guide?

That could get quite interesting, given the huge number of cross overs.

1. castor-troy - 2 9. alois - 1 21. domino39 - 1 37 jirikone - 1

It's the current Power Functions train motor. Needs a battery box and IR receiver to function. And wheels, but they come with it ;)Probably the most powerful train motor that Lego have made, mostly due to the fact that it can have traction tyres.

We have one loco with that wheel arrangement (technically called bo-bo-bo) in the UK. They are the engines that haul lorry and car trains through the channel tunnel. They can only run in the channel tunnel terminal though, so are only just in the UK. And a bit in France too.

Hi all, I've recently got back into Lego trains and love the new PF system. I know some don't, and i will agree it's very bulky, but it is bringing Lego forward into the modern age, and make Layout building a lot easier. Anyway this has meant i am needing to add PF to my old favourite trains. Unfortunately my Metroliner engine is in bits (which i can't find all of) so i have started with the lovely 4551 Crocodile Locomotive. So this is the guts of the mod. The PF motor is on the right and the wire goes to the left. I replaced the 6x4 plate in the center of the loco with two 2x4, leaving a gap in the middle that the wire goes up through. I have used one of the 6x4 double slopes with a cutout to make the underframe. All the extra length of the wire is shoved under the IR receiver. So all in all it's quite e neat job i think. Top view of the mods. There is still plenty of room for the drivers chair. This is the top view. I've had to re jig the roof slightly to get a hole for the IR receiver. Unfortunately it does mean quite a deep hole, due to the fact that the roof parts are 2 plates deep. I am thinking of using some 1x2 grills to cover it over, but then I'd have to have a good test to see if it would still work properly. With the receiver like this though the engine runs perfectly, no signal problems. I do have to life the roof to get at the on/off switch, but this is no big hassle to me. Pulling my Metroliner coaches and Club Car. Easily managed this load. I had it going round the track so fast that it started sliding across the floor, as it's a wooden floor. Hope you like. Comments and suggestions for improvement gratefully received.

Great review. I love this set. It was the all time great set I never got as a kit, so a couple of years ago, being a responsible adult now (heh heh) I bought one off eBay. Not too expensive either. Such a great set. Easily beats most of the current sets hands down. I have expanded it with more track, a home built station,a second airport shuttle train and my own design of maintainenace train. It's great fun to try and run all trains at once, all stopping at all stations and trying not to let them smash into each other. I love how many mini figs you got in those days. Nine in this one. Now you'd maybe get five, if you're lucky, in a set this size, more likely four. Does anyone know what happened to the Lego monorail moulds? I heard a rumour they were concreted into the foundations of their new factory. I really hope that's not true and one day it will come back. I think kids now days would love it, and it's got lots of playability like Lego look for. And the motor functions very like the PF system (it uses batteries), but with simple controls.

Proportional means that you can control the power coming out. So it gives you speed steps like the current Lego PF controller. Non-proportional is just on or off, so good for lights.

I love it. Really good little MOC. Reminds me of some of the little parks you get in London too. Would love to see it tucked between two of the big modular buildings, very like the small London parks.

Love this wee train, it's fantastic. I'm amazed at how you've got the PF parts into such a small space. Rather fancy making one myself now. But in green NB. For my overseas cousins, wee is Scottish for small, it's not a rude word in this context.

Love these tankers, they're amazing. Tempted to get some parts and make some of my own now, to go with my fleet of road tankers. And a depot they can meet at too. To answer your question about the number of axles, it's less to do with the length and more to do with the weight. Railways have a weight limit of how many tons per axle a train can be. Larger wagons are more desirable as you get a better cargo to wagon weight ratio. So you need more axles to stay within the weight limit. For example in the UK we have 2 axle tankers like you've made that carry about 40 tons, and four axle ones more like DaveBey designed that carry 100tons. Very long but light trains would need two or three axle bogies at each end that swivel independently to be able to get around corners, but i can't think of any trains like that as they generally are interested in carrying the max cargo.