cgarison

The 9 volt battery is something thatI have considered using on a few MOCs that I built but have never thought that it would deliver the power that I need. The details on the shunter are very nice. Great job.

He looks happy. That set is fun to build and even provides for hours of fun after the build is complete.

Nice work! I bet that train really hauls around the track.

Very good alternate build of the Town Hall. The details are quite nice.

Thanks for the compliments. I tried to make it look spooky and friendly all at the same time. As I think about the next iteration, I think a little less "cute" and a little more sinister is going to be happening. Actually, it is six weeks to Halloween, but PhilCon (a science fiction, fantasy and horror artists/writers convention) is taking place in Cherry Hill, NJ on Nov. 21st through the 23rd. So the goal for the rebuild is to be ready by the 14th so that I have time to work out the kinks and bugs. I am not sure what our LUG has in store for Fantasy, but we will certainly have part of the Moonbase core with Nate Brill's suspended monorail (less Peter Morris' Space Train which is headed to North Carolina). As far as the traction drivers go, I have the regular, large driver wheels run through the power functions motor on the locomotive and have the white, small rubber bands only on the the back two driver wheels. When I started the weekend, I began with only the two rear rubber bands and I thought I could improve performance by going to 4 rubber bands, but the added friction was more of a hindrance rather than a help. So, they rubber band came off the front driver wheels and I used only the ones on the back. But, now you are going to say that you cannot see the white band on the rear driver wheel in the photo and that is very true because the white bands turned as black as the wheels after having run for about 8 hours over the course of 3 days on 9 volt metal track from 2002. Also, turning the larger diameter wheels with the train motor makes this little beast quite hard to control. Three clicks of the remote does not provide enough torque to make it through the turns while that fourth click is just right and that fifth click is downright scary. The good news is that I only got the train to the scary fast setting once and proceed to sling a jail car and the caboose off the tracks. I caught the caboose as it sailed from our display, but missed the jail car which crashed to the concrete floor below. The good news is that all the pieces were found and the car was rebuilt in about 3 minutes. On the next version of this MOC, power is going to be coming from 2 M-motors using a design that was described to me by the great folks at GFLUG while we shared a space with them at BrickFair, VA. It will not run nearly as fast as the train motor, but it will have a longer lasting and more steady delivery of power. And with the tips from the GFLUG members, I am hoping to avoid some issues that we have had with fleet of trains in the past. But as with all things in Lego, some new stress point will be revealed with the new design and I will be off finding a modification to fix that issue.

Well, it has taken several months of planning and building to get to the point where I could run my Ghost Train MOC around PennLUG's "Snailtopia" layout at Philly Brickfest. I have to send out a special thanks to KC a.k.a. Kreative Snail in the Lego Community for letting me participate in this weekends events. First off, these pictures are of what I call the "functional beta" or version 0.75 of the Ghost Train as I know my design has a huge number of flaws and this weekend brought out many of those including the lack of power from using only 1 Power Functions train motor. So here are the pictures of my MOC as it set on the layout earlier today. And of course, trains photos are meaningless unless I they have some videos of the train in motion so here is the Ghost Train in action. So now I have about 8 weeks to improve the train and put it back into action for what should be the official version at PhilCon.

Nice work. I like the way the train looks like a fire truck with the compartments and the tanker is really sweet.

That is a nice little build. I really like the brick built style of the boiler. Great Work! BTW.... I see that you are using four medium size drivers and I have recent had the experience with the larger Lego driver where the wheel tries to pop off the track (over ride) in a turn. I hope this is not an issue for me as it has occasionally caused my 4-4-0 to derail.

Same here. Once you learn what it takes to conceal all the pieces, it becomes pretty easy to build a locomotive (or a powered car to push a locomotive) to match the needs of the train that you are building. My only issue is that we have effectively lost 6 wide trains from detailed AFOL builders because you have to move out to at least 7 wide and pushing 8 wide to get the detail that you want on the train for it to "pop" on the track. I will have to say though, I am anxious to try an S-Brick in the future because the IR system used by Lego is simply rubbish when you run a large train layout. But this last sentence is simply my opinion.

That is a really nice station and the scale is very nice when the 7 wide locomotive is pulled up to it.

These are very nice. The rescue truck looks like it could be in Europe or in a major American metropolitan area (sans Los Angeles County which runs SuperDuty Ford and RAM 3500 rescue squads.) The fire engines have a good modern style and would look right at home on any layout. The mobile command center is nice, but I don't quite understand the opening on the back. Great work!

Excellent Work! The layout looks AWESOME! as usual.

Very nice video. Having built this set, I think it does an excellent job conveying what goes into the build.

WOW! What a nice design! I really like the shared bogies on the cars and the fact the equipment has a track on the back of the cars to move. The locomotives at each end are nice and clean in style as well. Excellent MOC and great work!

These are much nicer than the models that Lego produces for their sets. That Squad is a really nice build. The ladder truck is well designed.

Very nice building and the interior is very well detailed. I like the light blue and yellow colors on the model. Great Job.

I like the idea, but anything that has something "Classic Space" in color gets my vote. Nice work.

That is a really nice layout. I am glad it made its journey well. Welcome to the U.S.A.

That is a really nice design.

Really nice design on the cars.

Really nice details. Great work. And I agree that Scania is very nice.

Nice work. You have created a regular Chinatown.

Nice build. the jib crain in the building is a nice detail. I sure hope that pump is "Goulds" blue. Great work.

The Pub is a winner. That is definitely something that we need in our city. Brilliant.

But the Allegheny Ridge Windfarm in PA does not have a nearby town in real life.... (It also does not have a solar electric plant either because PA is full of shale to frack and gas turbine peakers back up windfarms but that does not look eco-friendly in a layout.)