Andy Glascott

Just curious here, I grew up in Ireland, lived in England for 18 years and now live in the US, so which country is “native” for me? ? I won’t be entering as we have a little builder due to enter the world in October.... I currently have Irish and British locos with an eye on an American build in the next year or two when I finish my new layout....

Welcome to Eurobricks addiie. Sloping the rails is a challenge, the gradient needs to be quite shallow, I work on a 2 plate height increase for every section of track. There’s lots of good advice in the Train Tech Master Index, scroll down to the section, go to the Tutorials and Discussion section and click on The Train Techopedia. Once there scroll down to the Track and Layout Design section and find the subgroup inclines and multi level layouts - it has links to lots of articles about how to slope rails.

The challenge with 12v layouts, as I’m sure you know, is the wiring. The only time I did a show I had a layout I built in 4 sections with all the wiring and remote switches for each section built in, I only needed to connect the 4 sections and transformers and was ready to go. That layout had 2 levels with two 12v loops and one 9v loop on each level. The two 12v loops were connected via switches/points but on the day I never swapped trains from one track to the other, people werehappy enough seeing trains passing each their on 3 distinct circuits. If you are only using three transformers and three signals the wiring shouldn’t be too much of an issue.

Fair point ?

But if it also appears on buses could it be Lego Regional Transit System?

Very impressive, the raised crossover is indeed very good, not seen that done before.

Methylated spirits or rubbing alcohol will both do a good job, just put some on cotton wool and clean away.

This is excellent. There are so many British Rail diesels of that general shape (Deltic, Class 37s, Class 44/45 Peaks etc) that have the curves in multiple places and are very difficult to replicate, especially in 6 wide, you've done a great job. Well done. The dark blue is a perfect choice too.

Yes, the black stub on it has the same dimensions as a regular Techic axle so anything you can put on an axle you can put on there.

Very impressive. A friend of mine back in the UK just worked the footplate on Tornado, this is a great rendition of that loco.

I don’t have an answer but when I moved from Europe to the US I was mighty glad to be able to get a voltage converter so I could still run my now very vintage collection of 12v trains and MOCs. A few of years ago when building my first layout here I needed I think 24 extra 12v straight conducting rails. At the time Bricklink listed 2 sellers, one with 1 available and one with 29 available. I bought the 29 very quickly!

That is fantastic, and like @icemorons I’d love to know more about the door mechanism.

I’ve been away from the forum for a while, busy building my biggest layout yet, but have been reading over the last few weeks and finally got round to digging out a few pics not quite from my childhood but my early twenties, before disposable income and a permanent space at home were things... This layout was in a borrowed room in the church I worked for at the time, probably 1997 if I remember/guess rightly. Image quality isn’t great but will give you an idea of what I had at the time and enjoyed, even though it was a temporary set up. I has the 7777 book too, and was very nostalgic to see @HoMa posted pics of his version of the main layout in it, very nice!

Very impressive sir!

There are a couple of things you can try using the signal switch with the red/green buttons. The red button supplies power to the signal light, the green one completes the electrical circuit to the track when it's used as a signal. To turn regular lights on/off use only the red button and the 5 holes in front of it. I can't remember which combination of these will work, but I'm pretty sure one does: (Assuming you are using one of the single-piece plugs like these) - plug in to the left and center holes - plug in to the right and center holes - flip the plug over and try the same two options If none of the above work, use single plugs (like these) and plug one into the far left and one into the far right hole. Again, switch the plugs around if necessary. For all of these options, the green button should switch the light on and the red on off. If none of these work reply and I'll try something else. Andy

It's not an inspection car as such, but this thread http://www.eurobricks.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=108745#entry2209802 about box cars might help, the shape is basically the same.

The train now leaving platforms 1, 2 and 6 will call at....

That is fantastic. There is so much detail inside as well. Really impressive.

I volunteer!

:-)

I may regret reading this before going to sleep... :-) On a serious note, good build that recreates the boxiness, bounce and noise well.

Most people won't see inside the tunnel, so don't worry about using expensive parts for supports inside - I use all sorts of old and battered parts there to keep the newer, cleaner one for parts of the layout that can be seen.

If the tunnel entrance/exit is on straight track then the tunnel should ideally be at leadt 2 studs wider than the width of the train going through it- a 6 wide train needs an 8 wide tunnel, an 8 wide train a 10 wide tunnel and so on. As for height, a brick or two more than the train on track. If the track is curving going in to the tunnel you need to allow more clearance beside the track. If you're building for real rather than LDD just keep a coach handy as you build and test clearance as you go.

Having left the UK earlier this year I thought I had finally escaped the horror of Pacers/nodding donkeys. I haven't slept since they appeared on this thread ;-)

Cleaning 12v rails is indeed the same. I used methylated spirits in the UK, and now use isopropyl alcohol here in the US, both work absolutely fine. It's a recurring job though, needs to be done every so often (depending on how much you run the trains). The stop/start is not unusual with 12 stuff if you haven't used it for a while, I aim to run mine for a few minutes every 3 to 4 days at least just to keep them loose so to speak.