Hobbes

That may have been true for the old server but I don't buy it for the new one. Pictures generate a lot more traffic. As far as I remember contact info was made anonymous when you viewed a profile and weren't logged in. Did that change? Then I can see the reason. Because I don't know and because I wasn't around anymore when those measures were decided. The board's really become annoying to use as a lurker and I just wanted to know why.

Then you have to make the user profile accessible for visitors not logged in. Same goes for the search function. I don't like forums that force you to log in to search or see pictures or user profiles. Those are functions that also help decide possible new members whether they actually want to become a member. The search function helped me back in 2005 to decide to register. I have my reasons why I don't log in every time I visit here. But it's really annoying that I have to log in to use the search function or can't see user profiles (like my own with my posts from the past). E-mail addresses and IM account infos are made anonymous anyway so why can't I see the profile or use the search function? And don't say traffic...

1. No. 2. Individual 3. - 4. A revamp of + + with modern and nifty building techniques, new colors and room for PF-tuning as a standalone set like Emerald Night or the Santa Fe train. 5. Continue Modular Buildings, expand CITY and Trains, mix Creator and Technic (Model Team 2.0) and do something decent with Technic or kill it entirely and spend the money on other themes. It's no fun the way it is (1000 pins holding together 300 beams is *not* complex, it's just APITA to build!).

Farm

I used them when I was a kid because I didn't have much train stuff. So, from a kid's point of view and standard: yes, they definitely work on straights, and I think on curves, too, if you don't go too fast. You will most likely derail on points, though, because of the outer rim of the wheel. Then again, if you don't go too fast you might even pass a point, but not without the wagon "jumping" when the outer rim of the one wheel has to go over the track.

Nice replica, although the green looks kinda weird. But maybe it's the lighting. What I like most, though, is the minifig. It reminds me of the 1980s and the catalogs from back then. They used to be everywhere, always busy, and always building some new track segment:

It's probably the model they based the design of 7755 on: Maybe...

and Oh, not in the poll... what a shame... But to answer your question: 4512, because you can make a 7760 out of the locomotive...

Agreed, with both statements. To me it's the ultimate train theme LEGO ever made. My favorite trains are 7740, 7760, 7725 and 7750. I loved to browse through the catalogs as a kid and this is my favorite page: I like it because of the presentation of the sets, the angle they were photographed. Also the background of 12V photography was plain and simple - just brown ground (almost like a carpet) and some lights and overhead power lines in the back. Reminded me of a big train station/train yard. And since I lived across from my home town's train station and my dad worked at one I loved those pictures. I wish LEGO would re-release 7740 for the PF system. With SNOT and colors more like the original. there are lots of ideas on brickshelf. I'm not so fond of the PF system and Emerald Night (I like the German DB series better) but I would buy a revamped 7740 - and add a 12V motor first thing...

178 Euro including shipping. Seems a lot, and probably is. But back then it seemed right and was worth it to me. I bought a second one a few weeks later, without box or instructions. Not in as pristine a condition as the first one but still pretty good. Spent 89+shipping. I use that one mainly on my layout and have the other one on the shelf to show off.

Well, I can't let this topic about my favorite LEGO train go without adding something, can I? There have been quite a few red 7760s around. Some 12V, some 9V. I'm not really fond of the 9V versions because I think the rod of the 12V motor makes it the charming little loco it is. But yours somehow manages to look good. Good MOC. I built a gray-green one once from parts of 4512. That was before I got my 7760. I wasn't quite satisfied with it. It was OK but it wasn't really a substitute for the real thing: The "backward" doors, I think, were supposed to hide the 1 stud from the weight brick that extends into the cabin in the original 12V version (I mentioned it in my review a while back). Again, good MOC

Nice stand alone set because, as has been noted, it doesn't fit the European style of CC and GG. As many here I'm missing the "Wow!" factor, too. But, more than that I'm worried about brick quality, evident especially in this pic: The light colors are very "megabloks-milky", and the alignment of the bricks is crap. I hope the builder was just in a hurry and he had only bricks of early last year's assortment or older at his disposal. Because if that is the brick quality the set comes with I'd be pretty... annoyed... And this model proves it again: bley just doesn't look like "brick"...

(Something similar's) been done already: Straights Curves

Today's AFOL are the children of Classic Town. They grew up with the Classic themes like Town, Space, Castle and 12V, the best ever train system. These themes are what made them stick with LEGO as their prime hobby. They are what today's adults remember from their childhood when they think of LEGO and maybe come out of their darkages. Someone said "It's too simple to inspire me to build anything like it" or something along those lines. Maybe. But without those simple sets from yore they wouldn't be an AFOL and we wouldn't have the sets we have today. So, IMHO the "class" in Classic Town is that it stayed and evolved for 30 years and is the foundation for what LEGO is today.

I have to step into Alex' footsteps and continue his black-sheep-ish comment (which wasn't all that black-sheep-ish): I don't like the banner. At all. You used a background similar to what LEGO used in their 1980s catalogs. That is nice, it gives the banner a "Town" feeling. But what you put in front of it doesn't fit at all. The figs are from both the 1980s and 1990s which is ok because they mix well. The train is from the 1990s, though, and was never pictured in setups with that background. The 1990s LEGO world was near the ocean, with rocky bays, beaches and race tracks. The town background needs 12V trains as Panda suggested. The buildings look like smaller Creator buildings. They fit neither the 1980s nor the 1990s. The tan just sticks out as a relatively new color too much. It gives me the feeling that there is something "wrong" with the whole picture. Brickminer used the steel blue background of the skin because he had a city in mind when he made it (we know his affection for cities rather than towns). You kept that blue, which is nice (the color and that you kept it), and the color mix of the skin looks good. But together with the banner everything looks like thrown together in five minutes, which it wasn't, I assume. The portal site isn't consistent with the forum, either. Phes' banner is more "generic" and thus it doesn't matter that his portal site and the forum aren't the same width. Your banner, though, is brutally cut off on classic-town.net. You notice at once when you go there or come from there. That's irritating. You should have just used Brickminer's skin for the portal page and not created a completely new one. I know I'm hardly here anymore and don't really care, but that is too much of a change to not comment.

1. A plane is not a car, meaning its wheels aren't driven by the engines. They just "hang" on an axle on the landing gear (simplified). Thus, the wheels of a plane turn because the plane is moving due to air flow created by the engines and the wheels having grip at that point. 2. If the pilot starts the engines they create air flow. Due to the plane's design it starts to move. If it "hung" in the air (i.e. if it flew with the landing gear out) the wheels wouldn't move. Thus, starting the engines doesn't turn the wheels but creates air flow and makes the plane move. If the wheels have grip at that point, they move. If not, they don't. If the surface were perfectly slick they would skid along it due to lack of grip and not being connected to anything (except the axle that holds them on the landing gear). 3. If you start the treadmill first the wheels would move because of it. But since they're not connected to anything the plane wouldn't move. 4. As soon as the pilot starts the engines there is air flow, the plane moves and there is no way anymore for the treadmill to keep the plane from moving. The treadmill only has an effect on the wheels, not the airflow created by the engines. There is no way to start the engines first, make the wheels and treadmill turn/move and keep the plane still. If there is airflow and thus thrust that moves the plane - it moves. And eventually takes off. It's actually a stupid question...

You have an SMTP server, a POP3/IMAP server, Spam Assasin and BIND running although you don't use them. All you need is Apache and MySQL. An https daemon is running, too. Try turning off those before you cut down on IPB functions. With a tiny database like EB's (no offense) deactivating the search function won't help anything. Also, you could try limiting the ability to view images to logged in users only, maybe that helps. No guarantees, though...

... she wants the real stuff. So she started building 8274... ... and I'm trying to keep all the pieces together...

Click

It would be interesting, yes, but it wouldn't tell us as much as a percentage. Probably. I guess their service section on S@H where you have to choose your age tells a lot, too. Most likely like AmperZand said - via surveys... and hidden cameras at TRU and their brand stores ;-)

There is no train... |-/ X-D