Andy Glascott

If my memory serves me right from reading a lot of 12vposts on here, if the Lego power unit stops working it can be replaced with pretty much any of the regular model train controllers that give a 12v DC output, probably a lot cheaper than replacing the original, and certainly what I intend to do when one of my 3 remaining ones gives up the ghost.

I modded my croc to run on my 12v layout, there's a thread from a couple of months ago on here about the how. Uses a PF medium motor butchered to pick up from the 12v power rails. And here's the link -

7740 is definitely my favourite owned set, I would have loved to get the Super Chief but didn't have the funds at the time and am certainly not buying it now

I suspect it was just coming towards the end of it’s natural life when you got it.... I’ve had a 9v motor just stop running on me in the middle of a show and despite reading several threads on here about repairs etc I haven’t been successful, which is probably as much down to my electronics limitations as anything else. I haven’t tried it yet, but there is apparently a possibility of taking the motor out of the 9v unit and using it as a power pick up for a PF or PU train motor. One of my locos needs 2 motors so I have a working 9v motor connected to a PF train motor and it runs fine. I think I had to bodge the connections but it works.

I don’t know much about the motors, but for lights you could use the PF lights in the 1x6 bricks that hold the prisms. You’d need a 9v to PF converter cable as well but they do fit.

I'm lost for words, that is simply fabulous, captures everything that is so good about the 12v era - the lighting, playability with the points, signals etc. Always great to see it reaching its potential like this. You've also done a great job hiding the vast amount of wiring too. I take my hat off to you.

I posted a thread 6 years ago about how to use 12v signals on 9v track, here's the link: I'm working on the assumption you have both a 12v power pack and the red/green switch for those signals, if not, there are probably other ways to do it. There's no fear of the two power supplies coming into contact as the circuit on the green button is isolated from the one on the red button. If you have questions, feel free to ask, but ask here rather than bump the original thread.

You can use these on 9v track to stop/start trains. I’ll post the how later, I have 2 on the 9v part of my layout.

I don't, but I use speaker wire on my 12v layout and it works fine. I've used several different brands/types over the years with no problems.

I'd be interested alright. I have plenty of 9v track for my needs but motors are beginning to wear out and I'm trying to stick with just the 2 power/control systems on my layout (12v and 9v) rather than add another one in.

It is possible alright, but some of these wires run 18 or 20 baseplates long and also onto 2 levels.... One day I will build a fully transportable layout to bring to Brickfair or similar.

Fortunately, now that the wiring is in place, I'm almost at the point of having 3 working loops. We have an extra room coming online next week so a lot of the boxes that share my Lego space will move out and make it easier to connect everything and run the trains. Grebling makes a huge difference, whether on a car or a landscape, but yeah, can be a drag.... I did have a table I could hide wires under and drill holes through years ago, now that I have enough baseplates to cover it I don't want to drill through them! Eventually, almost all the wiring will be hidden by landscape and/or buildings. This is a fabulous looking layout! I'd love to have everything on a MILS setup, but the 12v wiring makes that a little tricky... I did have a layout of four boards each 3x5 baseplates I could move around to shows but only did it once.

I get that alright @Roadmonkeytj!

So, I'm curious... Does anyone else have a stage of a build, whether it be a building, rolling stock or, as in my case, complete layout that they have a love-hate relationship with? We move house too often for our liking, so recently I've been building new layouts every 2 to 3 years, and being a 12v based layout it involves a lot of wiring (see below for a bit of it). Much as I love the end result, the wiring drives me nuts and I really slow down in my progress when I get to the point of needing to do it all. Anyone else got "pet peeves" so to speak that are part of the fun? 20200927_115339 by andyglascott, on Flickr

Hi all, another appeal to the collective EB mind, maybe particularly to my fellow 12v enthusiasts. I'm installing all the wiring and controls on my new layout, and the lights on the level crossing don't flash. The flashing is controlled by this piece, and I suspect it's just getting old.... (I probably bought it 35 years ago.) Have any other 12v fans had this issue? Is it solvable? I've tried the usual checks of reversing the plugs, connected a light directly to the unit on a single short wire etc, but they will only come on and stay on rather than flash. While I'd rather not open it, if it's possibly repairable I'm willing to try, because I don't need it to just have the lights on. Alternatively, is there a simple piece of electronics I could wire in between the control unit and the lights to add flash back in? (I have little to no soldering skills.) Thanks, Andy Ok, update already.... When I looked at this listing for a replacement the seller mentioned turning the unit upside-down. And the light flashes..... Any thoughts? Update 2 - The control buttons are a distance away from the 12v power pack, so connected via a wire. Switch the plugs on that around and the lights flash.... Feeling slightly dumb, but rather than remove the post I'll leave it up to hopefully help others out.

Used to live in the UK, but was never young enough.... Great idea, I’ve seen some great stuff from teenage British builders. There’s also an active LUG in Ireland with probably a number of TFOLs but not enough for a viable standalone group, it might be worth reaching out to brick.ie to see if there is a way to partner.

It works! Here's a shaky, handheld phone video of it moving under it's own, ahem, steam.... The track is still quite dirty, a regular 12v motor was stuttering on it as well, but I'm delighted it works. I'm working on a new layout at the moment, this was a bit of a detour. Once the layout is up and running I'll work to get it a bit more reliable (clean the track for starters...). As it is, with only one set of pickups it won't go over the crossing track on this loop. Speaking of the pickups, here's a pic of what I used: CrocWires by andyglascott, on Flickr I drilled two small holes through a 1x2 plate and threaded two quite stiff wires through it. One end is twisted into a loop so I could connect the PF motor's wires to the set-up and the other is bent to connect with the 12v power rails. I can take more photos if folks would be interested in more.

Just stunning. Very well realized across the whole consist.

Thank you, will try that tomorrow.

An update, as promised. The good news - a medium PF motor seems to have plenty of torque for the job. I was able to connect it directly to the 12v power pack via a combination of 9v - PF extension cable and an old 9v wire I've hacked by replacing one of the 2x2 plates with a 12v plug. All good so far. I then cut off the pf plug from the motor ready to hack onto my improvised pickups (which still need a bit of work to be more reliable) and found Philo's work describing the workings of pf - https://www.philohome.com/pf/pf.htm. By my reading of it I needed to strip the outer two wires from the pf cable and connect them to the power source, but when I did that nothing moved.... Am I connecting the right two wires to my 12v power source?

I'll keep ye posted, going to try the less destructive gearing options first and will update in a few days.

Thank you both. @XG BC, I have that official pick up piece, unfortunately there’s no way I can see to incorporate it into the croc. @Toastie, I have a PF motor I can play around with, and I’m fairly sure I have seen enough tutorials on here for such adaptations to have a go.

Even without the pickups in place and powering directly it wasn’t moving.... I’m away from my layout right now but the pickup is a 1x2 plate with 2 small holes drilled through it to hold wires brushing against the power rail.

Hi all, My croc arrived a couple of weeks ago and got built last week. I put one of the 12v Technic motors (image below) in it and improvised a working, albeit imperfect, power pickup for the 12v centre rail. When I apply power I can hear the motor is wanting to work, and when I lift the centre unit (I haven't attached the end units in tests yet) off the tracks and supply power directly to the motor, it works fine and the wheels turn. Put it on the tracks, with power directly from the 12v power supply and it won't move, so my guess is that the rather old motor just doesn't have the power to get this wonderful loco moving.... Any insights or suggestions would be welcome. Thanks, Andy

According to Wikipedia there is one steamer preserved, on display in Roanoke, VA. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virginian_Railway