TJJohn12

If you're just getting into LEGO trains, I'd suggest getting a proper train set. The newest trains include the battery box, controller, and motor that will start you down the right path.

Just a quick post to show off some better shots of my custom stickers for the Holliday (and yes, that's a LEGO deer on the headlamp):

So, I've caught the train bug and have been working on building out my roster of Santa Fe & Disneyland Railroad stock based around 71044. The latest is the E.P. Ripley. The Ripley was engine number 2, based at the Main Street, U.S.A. Station and pulling the Passenger Train on opening day. The engine is a striking dark green color with red accents. It begged to be modeled. To go along with the MOC, I also designed custom stickers - based on the original livery of the locomotive.

All, I'm particularly proud of my entry in the latest LEGO Ideas contest - the challenge was to develop a product that used LEGO and voice activation in a meaningful way. My concept revolved around voice controlled town vehicles - inspired by HO scale modellers who have wire guided vehicles on train layouts. Custom bases follow lines and respond to voice commands. Though it's not an "Ideas-proper" entry - meaning winning the contest won't yield a new product - I'm hoping that a strong showing could point the product development team toward this path for someday in the future. So, if you've got a second, toss a vote in the bucket. The poll ends today. https://ideas.lego.com/challenges/9cf36b40-f989-47ef-974d-621417d73c03/application/524cec17-cf83-489a-b383-325860ea57b4

Hey all, Over in the Disney LEGO Flickr group there's a Build Challenge going on! With the holidays approaching - let's share models that represents a Disney moment of family and togetherness. What Disney moments make you smile and feel warm inside? You can check out more details over in the Disney LEGO Flickr Group's discussion section.

So, just a quick update on my Holliday - my custom stickers came in the mail today and I had the chance to apply them this evening. Just a quick preliminary photo:

Another alternative to the ideas Phil shared is 2460 - Tile, Modified 2 x 2 with Pin. That has been used in scads of sets and is extremely prevalent on BL. Using that in combination with some tiles can give you the same geometry as a 4092 (including holding double plate thickness), admittedly without as much sheer strength as a car is pulled.

As we're thinking about the next steps... Here's a sketch I've been working on - the Fred Gurley:

Man, this looks amazing! I love the way you’ve preserved the form factor of the original set. Looking forward to when Kevin moderates your folders and we can get a glimpse of the inner workings. :-) Ok, so I’m going to confess something g about my Grand Canyon observation coach: it’s wrong. ;-) At the scale I chose, it was next to impossible to get the windows right. But since you’re going to make things a bit larger you might have the space to play. The Grand Canyon car - which was later converted into the Lilly Belle - had 6 sets of paired windows as opposed to the evenly space windows in the rest of Retlaw 1. Between each pair was a bit of car body - at your scale a Dark red 1x1 between the red windows would likely suffice. Also, on the outward face of the car - facing out of the park and on the left of the car when running normally - one set of windows in the original Grand Canyon was blocked off for the sideboard in the car. The Lilly Belle is a weirdly asymmetrical beast. In short, 12 windows on the park facing side spaced apart in pairs; 10 windows on the esplanade facing side spaces the same, with a gap where pair three would go.

Thanks! I'm actually working on a full set of 1955-accurate LEGO-style custom stickers for the Holliday (and the Ripley as well). The Freight Train was the actual consist that the Holliday pulled in '55 - they're striking cars as well. I suspect dark red would make for some really nice versions. There's a great thread over at Burnsland on a freight train model build: https://www.burnsland.com/disneyrailroads/viewtopic.php?t=4556 (You'll need a Photobucket fixer plugin for your browser). Also, there were no seats in the Freight Train originally - Walt wanted people to stand like cows in the cattle car. No kidding!

Just posted a thread for my passenger cars as well. Stickers came in yesterday... I think they look amazing:

The original Santa Fe & Disneyland Railroad included a set of striking passenger coaches - yellow, red, and dark green. These five cars chugged around the park from opening day in 1955 until they were decommissioned in 1974. The car design - loading and unloading like a real 19th century train car from the ends - was just too inefficient for the growing theme park. See More Photos on Flickr These MOCs have been a dream of mine for a while - with various versions and solutions for its design living in my head for over a decade. When LEGO released the official Disney Train and Station set, I knew it was time to solidify the design and finally build Walt's original train cars. These models are designed to fit right alongside the C.K. Holliday from the official set. It is 8-wide model, very much like LEGO's design for the Lilly Belle Parlor Car. This car however is slightly longer, and uses jumper plates to depict the original Combine Car's beadboard design. These cars feature custom designed stickers to replicate the original 1955 opening day look. If you'd like to build your own Retlaw coaches (or use the design to make cars in another livery), I've created PDF instructions. Links are available in the descriptions of the photos on Flickr. -John See More Photos on Flickr

The Combine door is static - there’s just not enough length to do a full sliding door unfortunately. I’ve wanted to try a grille tile to grille tile rail door for a while, but the space here just doesn’t let it happen. The original cars had red doors as well: https://www.ocregister.com/2017/07/12/original-disneyland-railroad-car-from-1955-to-display-at-d23-expo/amp/ The Main Street Trolley and Monorail are both a bit older. I can’t remember if I ever posted them over here - if I did, the threads would be over in licensed. But maybe it’s time to roll them into the Train forum too. I’ll definitely start a new thread over here with my full 3-car Retlaw consist.

So the real C.K. boiler jacket is Russian Iron Blue, not Dark Green. Hold onto those Dark Green parts though for when you pull together a E.P. Ripley. That color change is the chief MOD I made to my home-built Holliday. Haven't bought the actual set yet, but was able to build the loco from a combination of parts in stock and a couple BL orders: Since taking these pictures, I've swapped the 2x2 dark tan round jumper tiles on the pistons for pearl gold round tiles. I too was bugged by the Lilly Belle's scale, so my Combine Car (and the matching Santa Fe & Disneyland passenger cars I need to photograph) is based around a 28 stud long train base instead. It's still "too short", but I think the scale splits the difference between LEGO's scale and the real proportions. I have some custom stickers on the way for the coaches. If the quality is good, I'll be ordering up some custom 1955-era stickers for the Holliday as well. Gotta be SF&D or it doesn't feel like it's doing justice. ;-) BTW, the red driver wheel 3-packs are insanely cheap over on Bricks and Pieces - if you're looking to fill out the rest of the loco roster it might be worth it to stock up from LEGO because BL prices are a little insane in comparison to less than $1.50 for two drivers and a blind wheel direct from LEGO. -John

Put an order in this week - had to call in because the system wouldn't take either payment info. Now that my order for eight of them has gone through and shipped, I can confirm that this 3 pack of parts seems to (shockingly) be priced correctly in the system. These wheel sets average around $6 on Bricklink:

OK, I get you now. Typically, when I'm ordering parts to build a set (or part of a set), then I've run through my collection already and pulled about 1/2 to 3/4 of the needed parts from my existing stock. I was able to get the Disney Train engine and tender down to $20 in new parts orders by doing that. But if you're ordering an ENTIRE set via B&P, then it makes sense it should work out to right around MSRP. There is a markup on B&P parts over production cost - they're priced at roughly the "I'm the designer and I want to include it in a set" cost. When you compare part-for-part with, for instance, a bulk AFOL LUG order's price list, you can easily calculate the markup percentage over production costs yourself.

I love Bluerender, but every time I render something the process stalls exactly midway through. Once the left half of the image has rendered, everything seems to pause for a good 20-30 minutes before continuing onward. Then it's another steady clip to the finish. It's not unworkable, but the hang midway through is just making the render process that much longer. What's weird is that if I hibernate the computer (Windows 10), then the process starts right up when the system resumes.

It *really* depends on what the parts you're missing are and how they compare on Bricklink. A good "for instance" is that if you were trying to build a Cinderella Castle, the Light Grey Round Walls (3X6X6) are excruciatingly expensive on BL. But on B&P they're a steal - 1/5th the price. Likewise for the Disney Train set - everything useful and not IP locked is now up - save a cow catcher and a few other odds and ends.

Placed an online order two weeks ago for a bevy of parts for a MOC, as well as some impulse parts here and there. Of everything, only two parts got cancelled out: 2x4 tiles printed with “Magic Carpet” from a Disney friends set and a pearl gold spears. No biggie - they were both impulse buys. Still playing the waiting game now for the parts to finally show up.

Monorail Mark VI - Walt Disney World on Flickr I was really excited to debut my CRS version of the Mark VI Monorail at Brickfair in Virginia this weekend, and I'm equally excited to bring it all to you too. The model is centered around a 3-wide core, with SNOT facing every direction to get the gentle curves of the Disney monorails. Because of the internal space limitation, right now it's a push-train, though it balances well along the beam and works quite nicely.

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OK, so is the smallest motorized chassis width that folks have accomplished 6-wide (riding on the typical 2-wide rails)? I'm working on a CRS monorail train right now (not ready for prime time until August at Brickfair VA ). The build envelope inside the shell I've designed and built is 3-wide centered over the rails. I know - that's a crazy dream. Right now, it's a push-train I guess. But I'm just probing the waters to see if anyone has successfully miniaturized some running gear for CRS, or if I'm going to be the crazy one to do it... -John

OK, so they were combo orders - part B&P and part other small items to bump to free shipping. Come to find out, it's the extras that have come through (when I cracked open boxes this morning at work). I *just* got my February 27th order. So looks like delay right now is a full month for B&P orders.

I have a B&P order from February listed as "Shipped," but that has no sort of tracking number and hasn't arrived yet. Then I have one order that is listed as "In Warehouse," but with a FedEx number that's listed as delivered (it's headed to work - I'll see if it's really there tomorrow). And my newest B&P order (placed yesterday) already has a FedEx tracking number and is reading as shipped... It's all so frustrating and weird.

There's *my* real hope! The new series has already gone into production of season 2, along with tweaks on the back half of the first season. And there's some signs the series might be making move from Disney XD over to vanilla Disney Channel. If that happens, I could see the likelihood jumping a bit. But still, I think with LEGO's long product schedules, we should hope for a season 3 before TLG produces sets. I would give the world for a Darkwing and Ratcatcher set, mayhaps with a Megavolt! But we've still got to see how they work him into the new Ducktales to see how plausible that is. So just for you guys, here's one of the latest things I've been working on that sorta fits this bill. The parts are on order - just waiting for the mailman to cooperate: https://drive.google.com/file/d/14sxW5mhfZSLxXQjaC0Gy2AxsiJ1_iVQc/view?usp=sharing