legoman666

Lookin' sharp! Nice job cramming it all in there, those PF wires can be a bear.

You sent me a PM and I replied but never heard back: Custom power pick-ups, dc-dc converters, home made Bluetooth controllers, track power/battery hybrids. Super capacitor backups. Stuff like that.

I have had a hard time convincing my Lug that blue tooth is the way to go for large layouts. I can't imagine trying to get them to use this. You people are nuts!

This might be helpful: https://m.flickr.com/#/photos/77871011@N08/24480730820/ Cale, thanks for the kind words! If you're coming to brick world, you can see it in person.

I think fitting 2 XL's will be impossible. They are 5 studs wide. The rear of your locomotive is 6w giving you 1/2 stud on each side to work with. If the sides were plain, you could do some trickiness with tile and fit the motors, but with the vents there it will be impossible. I fit a 4 wide AA battery box in the middle of 5 wide sections on my locos, but I do it using tile. Vertical tile on the side is where the battery box is: & Horizontal tile on side is where battery box is: You're trying to do essentially the same thing, fit a X wide object into a space that is X+1 studs wide. L motors have fantastic torque and speed and are only 3 wide one dimension and 4 wide the other. Each one of my powered locomotives can haul a serious amount of weight; the only thing holding them back from hauling more is lack of traction. I put 2 locos in a push/pull config and I can smoothly move a ~35' train.

No kidding. I usually leave the yellow levers off my switches for that very reason.

Cheers. No motors in this one. Impossible with these colors.

Thanks! I saw your question last night and it took until now to remember why I did it that way. Facing the front of the cab, the end 1x2 clear plates are actually tile: the first half of the window is 3x clear 1x2 plates, then a 1x2 bley plate, and then the second half is 2x clear 1x2 plates with a 1x2 clear tile. I wanted to keep it uniform looking, so I didn't swap out the 3 plates. Same with the front window, I'd have to use 1 1x1 clear brick then 1 1x1 clear plate. I'd rather just use 4 1x1 plates.

I used those same instructions to make mine, but I had to modify it so much that I can halfway call it a moc. I spent a lot of time getting it to run smoothly. Runs pretty good now, can go for about 2 hours without issue.

Photos from a real camera. Colors are actually accurate (yay!). Basically done. There are a few pieces in the wrong color or missing. What I really need is either 1x1 or 1x3 teal tile but they don't exist...

Yeah they're all cell phone photos so far. I'll take some photos will a real camera as soon as it's done.

It's Testors glosscote. I recommend thinning it a little.

I fell in love with the colors on this locomotive after picking up a copy of Train magazine while I was at the place they print it (Hartford, WI). There was a small feature on the Vale, which is some Brazilian narrow gauge coal hauling rail line. The story was about a different model loco (AC44 or something newer like that). I poked around and found a couple photos of their SD40, which I decided would be easier given the limited piece selection. I've been collecting the pieces for it for several months now. Here is the prototype: As you can see, the colors are difficult for reproduction in Lego. I ended up choosing Dark Turquiose (AKA teal), Yellowish Green, & Lime. My collection of teal consisted of a meager handful of parts. Most of what I used I ended up borrowing from my LUGs stash. Even with my club's selection of teal, it was still a challenge because none of the modern parts were ever made in it; cheese, curved slopes, etc. Lime is pretty common these days and I didn't need much of it anyway, but Yellowish Green only had 4 usable parts, cheese, 1x1 plate, 1x3 plate, and 1x2 brick. Those are literally the only pieces in that color I used. Anyway, to the photos! As you can see, I am almost done. Just need to finish up the rear, the grilles on the top, both plows (?), and the railings. If only cheese existed in teal..... I'm just glad the cockpit is light grey instead of something more exotic.

Lookin good so far. I like your top grill, very clean looking. Have you seen mine? If I rebuilt it, I'd do the nose like I did on this one: Should be easily (?) adaptable to 8w. It is by far the cleanest way to do those beveled edges I ever came up with.

Can you make the inner wheel guide angled like the newer official ones are?

I use a small brush and only put it where it needs to be.

I put clear coat below and over top my water slide decals. Once the paint dries, I cut the decals on brick joints and clear coat the edge. That way if the model breaks, the decal will not.

I might be convinced to do one about electronics if people are interested.

I'd definitely pay a couple bucks per issue. If you set it up in such a way that I had to pay every time, I probably would not bother because of the hassle. However if you did a yearly subscription, I would be more likely to buy in (less hassle). I work in the printing industry and I know there are places out there that can do super short runs on digital presses. There are also websites that you can order prints 1 at a time (they probably use digital presses too). No idea on costs though.

Even if you keep 9v train motors running by replacing the motor inside by using PF train motors or something ordered online, the contacts that scrape the back of the wheels will eventually wear out. I've taken apart several motors that were rode hard during our club displays and found that the motor itself still worked, but the contacts were worn off on one side because the train went the same direction around a circle its entire life. I've had some luck using phosphor bronze wire to replace contacts, but its not easy to do. Swapping the motor out is relatively simple though. Just be aware that the motors inside a PF train motor and the motors inside 9v train motors spin at different speeds, so you can't use both on the same locomotive. For our club displays that last longer than a single weekend, we use lamp timers to cycle the trains on and off at 15 minute intervals. For something that is intended to run indefinitely, I'd agree with what the idea you put out there of using buttons to only fire up the train when someone is there to press it. Billy who does Studsville uses some sort of off the shelf product to do just that. For track cleaning, we found that cleaning the track once a week was vital to keeping the trains running smoothly. At home I designed a car that brushes the track with Scotchbrite to keep dirt from accumulating. Cleaning the track once a week every week is not an option, having the museum staff add the cleaning car to the end of the train and running it for 15-20 minutes every other week might work though. I've talked a bit with model railroaders and they say that using all metal wheels (on the rolling stock too) will greatly decrease the amount of cleaning required. The only off the shelf product that's even close to standard lego wheels are the NWSL wheels a few of us have been modifying. But if you only had to modify enough wheels for 1 or 2 short trains, then it'd be worth it. Using brass tubes to hold the axles is also much less friction than the standard Lego mounts. Lego train wheel mounts eventually wear and start increasing in friction after being run continuously. A steel rod through a brass tube will barely wear. You'll also have to do away with Lego's stock magnet couplers. Technic liftarms will work, but you'll have to glue the pins to the liftarm because they'll eventually walk out. Just some thoughts.

I use a mix of Eneloop and Tenergy AAAs. My charger says they're the same capacity. The Tenergy are LSD too.

I use the brass tubes as well. I lubricate with regular 'ol 3-1 oil. They squeak like crazy if I forget the oil.

If you long press the power button to turn on the pack, the power LED will blink at you to indicate that you have bypassed the 2 hour limit.

The lipo pack has a 750mA resettable fuse. Bypassing it will not damage the sbrick, but its possible you could damage the lipo pack. If you're worried, replace the 750mA fuse with something like 1.5A or 2A. That way you're still protected but have some more headroom for the sbrick. http://www.philohome.com/batteries/84599-6.jpg red arrow points to fuse.

It is not overheating, it could be the overcurrent protection kicking in. It is a resetable fuse. I bypass it in my AA battery packs since it limits the current to a mere 800mA (IIRC).