Carrera124

After 18 chapters, the article series is finished for now: https://www.promobricks.de/category/lego-eisenbahn Maybe there will be part #19, but the topic planned for this chapter is really huge and complex, so it will take some time to decide if to continue or not. Thanks to all readers!

It is just a guess, but I think that kids also appreciate doors, because they increase playability. And straight track sections are always useful.

I wrote an E-Mail to to the german ambassador. But got no response.

Very good work! I am impressed because of the great number of macaroni bricks. During the 1980s and early 1999s, I had (still have) many sets, but these bricks were always really rare.

I really would like to see an improved PF RC system, using 2.4GHz. And using proportional controlling also for non-train elements... today, all PF RC technic models are a kind of joke. 0% or 100# and nothing between, for both steering and driving. I know that SBrick exists, but this cannot be the solution.

Well, but not all boxes were reduced in size. Some of them boxes got bigger for the last 2 years. The loss of old production equipment may be a valid reason. But if the decision for the new system has been made before, why didn't they just produce a greater amount of the old style and put them on stock?

2 more - very tiny - chapters are online. Still don't know what to write about 9V I only own a few of the 1991 news, but not all of them. And some bonus scans that weren't used in the article series: http://www.doktor-brick.de/index.php/Thread/8643-Die-Geschichte-der-LEGO-Eisenbahn/?postID=178145#post178145

Part #12 - The year 1986: https://www.promobricks.de/lego-eisenbahn-11-das-jahr-1986-die-letzten-neuheiten/51131

You need a battery car, e.g. the one which was used in 7722.

Yes, the next chapters will cover this. There will also be a chapter that covers the box redesigns from 1989 and 1990 (in one single case). That would be a task for one of the ambassadors. Anyone knows how to adress this issue to them? But I think that this will be a hard challenge. The start of the system must have been in 1979 or earlier. That's 40 years ago. If the affected people were in their 20s, then now their age is 60+. If they were older, they surely will have retired ore even died. Always providing that it is possilbe to find out names.

More catalog scans, that were not chosen for the article series: http://www.doktor-brick.de/index.php/Thread/8643-Die-Geschichte-der-LEGO-Eisenbahn/?postID=173897#post173897

Nice find

I think that should be someone other's task.

Not sure if this is still of interest, but there are two new chapters: #10 https://www.promobricks.de/lego-eisenbahn-10-das-jahr-1984-andere-schwerpunkte/47944 #11 https://www.promobricks.de/lego-eisenbahn-11-das-jahr-1985-die-zweite-welle/48152 Especially the catalog pictures with the sets 1966, 1968 and 6383 should be unknown to most Lego fans.

I doubt that there are boxes which show another year than 1980. Regardless of the real production date, the year is always the initial release. Some train boxes (eg. 7850 to 7855 and 7824) show with two different years, but in those cases, the boxes were changed in a visible way (other dimensions).

Some improvements for my 7760 and 7720, printed parts instead of stickers (7760 only black parts, other parts still stickered):

Back in 1990, I got the technic jeep 8050 and built it. During playing, it fell off the table, and I wanted to grab it with my hands. But the sharp lower corner of the front technic brick slashed my hand at the thenar. The resulting scar (2cm long) is still visible today.

Two more years: https://www.promobricks.de/die-geschichte-der-lego-eisenbahn-8-das-jahr-1982-keine-neuheiten/44588 https://www.promobricks.de/die-geschichte-der-lego-eisenbahn-9-das-jahr-1983-eine-erste-zaesur/44598

Part #7 is online, a rather short one because it reflects the year 1981: https://www.promobricks.de/die-geschichte-der-lego-eisenbahn-7-1981-kleine-aber-feine-ergaenzungen/43748

Well, usually this happens at the end of a month or end of quarter, but today is 2nd of october?

Who knows what happened to Brickfactory.info? All it says: " This account has been suspended. Either the domain has been overused, or the reseller ran out of resources."

That would be the 3rd step. 2nd step should be to create correct inventories incl. alternates for all sets. Right now, at least 3 different variants for e.g. 7740 would result.

Thank you for your feedback. Unfortunately, I cannot figure out how to switch the EB editor back to BBcode, so I cannot quote single sections from your answer. First of all - yes, right now, part #6 ends with the end of year 1980. Together with the introduction, this covers ~ 35% of the complete text, so many more parts will follow. The decoupler 7862 will be handled in the 1981 section. Buildings and conducting rails: Yes, I cannot see any logic in that. I do not consider the big stations 7822 as "simple" buildings . And in contrast, the crossing 7834 has middle rails, but I can't see anything advanced in this set. Remote controlled elements: The remote devices exist in (at least) 2 variants: First, the rear lower edge had no groove, and the contacts were visible as metal rings. Later on, the rear lower edge was modified with 2 studs groove, which makes it easier to remove the 2x8 plates underneath. Moreover, the second version has flat plastic covered holes and doesn't show the metal rings any more. The 12v switch baseplates from 7856, -58 and -59 also exist in 2 variants: first, they had 4 technic-style pins. As we all know, these pins often break when the switch motor is removed. Later version of the baseplate came without these technic-styled pins, just with normal studs. And the boxes got a major overhaul in 1989: styrofoam was omitted. Some boxes became smaller, while others grew bigger. The final version of 7864 even has a "1990" copyright on it... Moreover, when I checked my sets with BL inventories, I found out that BL was inconsistent, and that some parts were unknown to BL. Therefore, I made an approach to create a so-called "train parts master list", tha describes a) which part in which variants exist b) which years can be assigned to each part variant I discussed with many other collectors, but it was really hard - sometimes impossible - to get a consensus. It is really complex. Whoever wants to look at it and contribute, I uploaded a PDF version: http://www.124er.de/temp/lego_train_parts_master_table.pdf Important: there are many blanks, many question marks, and lots of "best guesses". 3 different boxes for 7864: 1980 version ((c) 1980 on the instructions), black lever with open top, "big" instructions 1982 version ((c) 1982 on the instructions), black lever with closed top, "small" instructions 1990 version, bigger box

Regarding the rear window of the cabin - what about using a 1x4 trans-clear brick without inner tubes? Imho, this wouldn't look too old-styled. Just the same one as it was used in set 7838: https://www.bricklink.com/v2/catalog/catalogitem.page?P=3066&idColor=12#T=C&C=12

If this is true, then there is no hope. Playmobil dropped their train series at the end of 2015 - they (and the retailers) just sell the remains of the stock. "Brio" and "Märklin My world" seem to be the only competitors that have survived.