Locomotive Annie

(Deep breath) The black track is by Banbao and is semi-compatible with Lego track, I have a fair bit of it and I was using it as a display track for a while. The track has now been replaced with Lego RC track with 12volt contact rails clipped to the sleepers. The 'radar dish' is an Enlighten part from their train series and is one clone part I'm very happy to use because it just looks so good. This is the part I used to mount the hook.....http://www.bricklink.com/catalogItem.asp?P=3730 The red crankpin and counterweight assembly is this part..... http://www.bricklink.com/catalogItem.asp?P=x564 The door is an Enlighten part from their train series. The closest Lego equivalent would be .......... http://www.bricklink.com/catalogItem.asp?P=30074 The torso is found on 'Conductor Charlie' http://www.bricklink.com/catalogItem.asp?M=trn075 I have quite a few Conductor Charlies, but I do change their heads so they don't look like an invasion of the clones.

This little loco has taken quite a while to get built as I tried out different ways to end up with a loco that looked like a geared logging tramway lokey. It wasn't entirely uncommon for a local engineering works to be presented with a pile of second hand steam loco parts and requested to build a logging locomotive and this is what I was aiming for with Kotanga Tramway's new No:4. If anything she does look a bit more tidy than most of her breed, but then the Kotanga Tramway is supposed to be a working preservation line and I suppose No:4 must've been prettied up a bit during her rebuild and restoration. The mech on which No:4 is built is an early type I 12volt one fitted with clip-in type pickups and sliding bogie blocks. Yes I know it's a cheat to connect the piston rods to one of the driving wheels if this is supposed to be a geared loco, but that was the best I could come up with for the moment. The red wheels are going to be replaced with black ones as soon as my latest Bricklink order gets here btw. And I'm also waiting for my order of new traction tyres to get here too. This morning a Bricklink order arrived that had been somehow delayed in some far off European postal limbo. It had taken so long to get to me I could barely remember what I'd ordered, but one of the items in the order was a type II 12volt mech...... http://www.bricklink...tem.asp?P=x550b ......and I think I will be able to use it to give No:4 the appearance of having a proper countershaft drive afterall. I'm not very up on electronics so I was wondering if any forum member might know of a handy little circuit that would enable me to fit a red led in the firebox to give No:4 a nice firebox glow. More pictures of No:4 soon once I change over the mech.

Thanks for sharing the video. A great layout with some really nice details. I particularly liked the realistic way the town was set out and of course seeing the trains in action was good too.

My camera is charging at the moment so over the next few days I'll look out some of my treasures and take their pictures.

I think it is 12 volts for the old Lionel trains, but the motors are pretty robust so I think they would cope with whatever a Lego transformer might throw at them. I'll have a dig about and see if I can find a suitable subject for experimentation. Not sure what I would build as a bodyshell, but I guess the thing is to get it to work first and wonder about that later. I kept a couple of handbuilt locos as well as some old clockwork locos along with some prewar scratchbuilt British outline rolling stock. I might set up a station diorama to display them sometime when I feel like doing something different. Tea is gooood

Good work, that's a prototype I haven't seen before. The scenic base adds a nice touch too,

Well you could try saying you'll go out all night drinking with the boys instead as your new hobby, but that might cause more trouble than just buying Lego train sets.

Health and safety, - when I think of the toys I had as a kiddie, tinplate trains with sharp edges and all kinds of things with small bits that could be swallowed; - wow, it's a wonder I survived childhood at all.

Just tell her you're thinking about giving up on trains and want to take up rock climbing instead and see how quickly you'll get a train set box pressed back into your hands.

It's Ok, I think I wrote that before I'd had my morning cup of tea and i was feeling a bit snappy. Yes I still have the odd few bits and pieces left over from my 3 rail days. I've even got some old Lionel mechs, I wonder how they would go if I widened the gauge of the wheels to 'L' gauge and fitted them with 12volt pickups

For a 7760 loco you definitely would need to use a different battery instead of the official Lego one.

Modular buildings go so well with trains don't they. An amazing station area and so much going on in your town.

Peterab, that is a great model loco, but compared to my small boilered tank engines it is huge. Zephyr, thanks for your thoughtful comments and advice. I do agree that the central contact rails are not great when it comes to the appearance of the 12volt system, but after running 3 rail '0' Gauge for some years I think I can live with it. Here in New Zealand some steep logging tramways were constructed on the Fell system with a paired central rail to provide additional braking. I know it's a bit of a stretch, but provided I build a few models of Fell system brake vans and attach them to all trains I can claim that it's prototypical. As you say uncoupling during shunting movements is a problem, but then my 3 rail '0' Gauge trains all had hook and link couplers, and my 'G' scale trains had coupling hooks and chains so manual uncoupling is something I'm quite used to. Hrw-Amen, what you outlined with your own experience with PF is largely why I feel it is not for me. It's interesting that you found your 4.5volt locos would run better on PF; - perhaps I should experiment with that since I own quite a few 4.5 mechs. jmchisel, thanks for reminding me about that thread on converting later mechs to run on the 12volt system. That's something I will be investigating as I have one or two locos on my build program which need a solution like that. And yes if anybody has demonstrated what can be done with 12volt trains Carl Greatrix is definitely the man of the hour. bricks n bolts, yes exactly, that was something that I picked up on with PF almost right away. Spitfire2865, my 'Improved F' class tank engine is presently being rebuilt for 12volts with a full Technics chassis so there isn't always a 'snap in' solution to be had with either 9v or 12volts. Duq, I agree with the points you have made, but unfortunately PF doesn't work for very small locos when towing around a battery in a coach or goods van isn't an option. I may build one tender loco, most probably an 'Ab' class Pacific like my grandad use to drive when he worked for the railways, so then I might be able to delight in plenty of room to try out PF as an option, but an 'Ab' isn't really an ideal locomotive for the type of railway I'm building so it would just be a nostalgia piece rather than a proper part of the roster. Whoa! - that is something I didn't know, - sunlight interfering with the PF signal. Definitely out then Thanks Carl for posting about your experience with running a 12volt system. Apart from the traction tyre dust it sounds very much the same as running a DC 3 rail '0' Gauge layout.

Yes that photo makes it pretty plain that there is a difference between the guys and the girls with the Friends minidolls.

One word, - WOW!

I guess this is going to be a controversial subject, but I'd like to state my case as to why I decided not to use PF to run my railway. Firstly I like smaller sized tank engines from the late 19th Century - early 20th Century period and most of them have limited room to carry a battery pack. Secondly I've run all my railways in other scales using realistic train movements, I like shunting the yard to make up trains as well as have my locos go through the motions of being readied for service before leaving the shed to carry out their days work. I have no plans to suddenly change the habits of a lifetime now that I'm working in 'L' gauge so having permanently coupled vans or coaches to carry battery packs just plain isn't going to fly. Thirdly while I do have some electric outline locos on the RC system and I made use of RC with my 'G' scale locos I don't see it working out for any of my Lego tank engines. The RC circuit boards are easy enough to hide, but again it's the batteries that's the problem. Having to stop and half dismantle a loco to change the batteries isn't my idea of fun and then there is the whole business of having a pile of rechargeable batteries to hand and keeping them charged. PF is worse than RC to my mind as the sensor isn't exactly compact and needs to stick out like a wart somewhere if it's to work properly. Fourthly I just don't see PF as giving the fine control that I want when it comes to shunting movements or slow running in general. So IMHO that leaves either 9volt or 12volt as the only viable system for the serious railway operator. Personally I don't like the running rails acting as the power source or the loco driving wheels acting as power pickups. That was one of the reasons why I stuck with '0' Gauge 3 rail for a good many years until the expense became too much for me and I sold it all except for a few handmade items which I didn't want to part with. For me at least that leaves the 12volt system as the only workable option, which is a worry because as beautifully made as the 12volt Lego mechs are they aren't getting any younger or any cheaper. Plainly I'm going to have to learn how to convert later series Lego mechs to 12volts and contact rail electrical pickup, but I don't see that as being too much of a problem. I will say that I wish I had found out about Lego trains years ago though. When I think of all the hours I spent cutting and shaping metal and burning my fingers with soldering irons building my own locos when there was already the means out there to easily and cleanly build any loco I wanted without all the metal shavings, small cuts and burns......... Well I just don't know (sigh). Please don't ask for photos of my old models because it's only recently I became a camera owner so I never took any photos of them. When I became ill I had to sell all my tinplate trains and handmade models to pay the bills so in a way I suppose it was just as well that I did go in for all that finger burning afterall (another sigh).

Yes it was only after I had a look at the whole 12volt page http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?f=286975 that I realised it was the same guy. Those points he built are pretty amazing alright and have given me food for thought as I may need the occasional special point to get my railway to come together in the way that I want. His 12volt layout is stunning though and has that whole integrated town, landscape and railway look that I want to achieve with my own line.

Hey great links bricks n bolts. The first one is particularly interesting because it tells me that I'm not nuts afterall because someone else has done it successfully before. The guy who had the track building article in Railbricks also has a few extra interesting pictures on his Brickshelf page http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?f=319884 His long bridge to span a doorway is pretty amazing and caught my interest because I'm going to need at least two bridges on my own line.

Thank you for that suggestion alainneke, I shall definitely check that out.

Unintended pun there, - 'no point in switching' ...... Having only just discovered the delights of the 12volt system I find myself wondering what I was doing back in the 1980s. Most probably doing something dopey like swooning around after boys. Yesterday a 12volt catalog from 1980 arrived in the post and finally I was able to see exactly what I'd missed out on. I shouldn't really complain as I've got two now adult children who are wonderful people, so I guess I was doing something important afterall during the 1980s. Track is something I want to experiment with as I'm planning on building a layout that will occupy half of my large bedroom and I want to use larger radius curves than Lego's standard ones. That will mean devising some kind of clever custom build conductor rail for these sections. Having worked with 3 rail tinplate trains during my collector phase conductor rails don't scare me too much, but having two of them to deal with should make for some interesting experiments.

Great to see the updated photos. It certainly is a busy little railway and town. I love the old billboards by the way, the English railway posters in the photo with the Emerald Night make for a great picture.

Wow what a great layout! As for size I've just come from working in 'G' so Lego trains are just a lovely size for me With railway layouts it seems that the problem always is if you want to model the landscape or townscape in any detail then you don't have any room for trains and if you put in all the railway you want to have there's no room for the landscape/townscape. The problem diminishes if you've got a huge basement or disused aircraft hanger at your disposal, but for most of us the size of our house and the other necessary daily activities of our household usually limit any attempts at a take over bid.

I agree completely, the official versions are a crime against steam traction.

Amazing video and great to see the spiral in operation. You would have a need for a track cleaning car of some sort wouldn't you, - or is that how you keep small lads quiet while you're trying to get something else done?

You can get it here. http://www.shapeways.com/model/454182/lego-rail3.html There are two versions, this longer one and a short adapter.