ronenson

Wow, very nicely done. I'm usually not in favour of bigger scales, but in this case I couldn't stop admiring it.

I'd be scared to death if my kids would be standing in the seats of such a ride ;-) It is a really nice set.

Why would you like to go for 9V if you've already got plenty of PF and RC. You need 9V track for that. If you like the models of 9V instead, I would definitely recommend the BNSF. I've modded by BNSF to work with PF, so I can still enjoy the model and operate it on PF track. It's not a starters kit though, doesn't come with track or motor.

I only recently started with modulars, so I'm currently O3M instead of OAM.

Very nice. That's some serious shopping surface you got there.

My wife thinks I do

Which second battery box? I run 2 motors on one battery box (AAA) and one IR receiver.

What I don't understand is that in these discussions on custom curves almost no-one seems to mention that you can mix flextrack with straights alternating each other. You get a nice long curve without any modding required. They even put the 2 together in one set.

I've added some curtain lead for weights in one of my trains, which works out nicely. My HE has double motors, but I believe it's the weight that has to be fixed mostly.

The real thing looks much better than the ldd drawings. I especially like how the dark transblue comes across.

You could try to build a cog railway (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rack_railway). It might not be easy, but it has been done before: http://www.brothers-brick.com/2009/04/30/the-steepest-inclines/

My vote is on better switches. With 4 of those, you can get the same functionality as the double cross-over, but better.

Funny, I was expecting others to show up with extra torsos. I had exactly the same situation: 3torsos. I did get 5 shields though. No problem by the way, I have 3 kids, so they now all have 1 turtle, without fighting over the 4th.

Looks good!

I like 6 wide, mostly for consistency with the original sets. I also like the challenge to be creative within the 6 wide limits.

I actually like it better without the doors

Looks pretty good to me. I'm curious how the brick-build version will finally look.

Couldn't resist the challenge to find such a piece: http://www.bricklink.com/catalogItem.asp?P=32059 Might be even better than the horizon express nose in this case.

Sure: for inspiration, look at how they did the nose of the horizon express.

To get the nose smooth, use this piece underneath the window piece: http://www.bricklink.com/catalogItemIn.asp?P=32084&colorID=1&in=A Then, copy some of the front elements of 6990 to go in the front.

You could use this piece and have it fold open to make it more spacey: http://www.bricklink.com/catalogItem.asp?P=551

I got mine today. Thanks very much for the great raffle and the great prize.

Again a really cool automation project, I love it. I do get the impression that with the long train,the bars move up much faster after the last car than with the shorter trains.

The new picture of the passenger train does make it more appealing than the first one i saw. It feels quite complete with the level crossing included.It also looks like it will be easily modded to form a larger train set with 4 carriages and 2 engines. This would result in those nose pieces flooding bricklink. The train station on the other hand is not very appealing to me, and I like the old 7937 much better. I like these updated pictures that come pooring in through this topic, and I can hardly wait to see official pictures that show the full set more clearly.

They do sell packs of 8 straights. You just get some free bonus flextrack with it. At least, that's the way I look at it.