zephyr1934

@michaelgale You are doing amazing work and contributing so much to the Lego train community. Just splitting hairs, but why five bogie plates per pack? I would think an even number would make more sense. On a more practical note, the test bench is impressive. I think at one point in the post you wrote that you have multiple power leads to each the track. Are you also testing it with a single lead? Or probably a better question, do you plan to provide guidance to users, e.g., "we recommend using a additional power connector after every N track segments." The power drop across track segments is a result of the original Lego design and your double straights already cut it in half. But for folks transitioning from plastic to metal rails I bet you would remove some unpleasant surprises if you make sure a customer knows the importance of having multiple leads before finalizing an order so that they get everything they need in a single shipment. Are simple dumb switches equivalent to the poll reverser somewhere in the "future wish list"? I could see it being beneficial to be able to isolate a siding or block. Definitely not the top priority but a useful element in the completely built out system. Oh, and are those remote uncouplers in one photo? This all looks amazing, you are bringing the 7777 to life. Are you testing the new hardware on the original Lego track too? In particular R40 curves and the tight switches. What about testing the new controller with original Lego motors? Are the new controllers true DC or are they PWM? As you get closer to the release of the new motors, I would love to see a pulling power comparison of your new motors against the original rubber-tired Lego version. Where the train, track etc. are held constant but the motors are swapped.

So true, but in all fairness, I think anyone who tried to build a practical train yard using Lego track quickly learned that real train yards have to be very long to accommodate all of the switches. Heck, just building a prototypical curve in Lego gets unwieldy large. The real world is just too darn big

Bumping my old thread because I forgot to do so last fall. I've uploaded a slightly modified version of Katy to IDEAS. For fans of Katy here's a chance to show Lego.

Nice! Thanks for sharing

It's been in and out, its up at the moment http://www.bigbenbricks.com The announcements sounded like there were several interested parties, so hopefully we are in a transition period rather than an after period.

In a post dated 8 Sept, BBB's front page mentions, "The store as it is, the injection molding tools, the brand, a small lathe used for making wheels with o-rings and existing inventory are for sale. I'd be particularly pleased if the store could find a new home with someone that wishes to continue the business. If you are interested, please email me...." Followed on 30 Sept, "Many people have reached out to me with interest in Big Ben Bricks. In the coming weeks I hope to have more information on what that transition may look like." And nothing since. Has anybody heard and word if BBB was sold?

@ODST-Kelly separately, you will be able to order a similar looking build from Bricklink Designer Program in about 7 months https://www.bricklink.com/v3/designer-program/series-8/2739/Brick-Railroad-Locomotive

That's nice and efficient

That's insane what you've just done. If you are not a mechanical engineer you should seriously consider becoming one.

¸Nice work on the locomotive!

The trailer contained the drivers for the steam locomotive. So it had side rods, connecting rods and the cylinder mechanism. The trailer was light enough that it would sometimes drag rather than turn. So it needed a little extra pressure to ensure the wheels always turned. If you were just building a modern locomotive truck (which is what you are doing) then you wouldn't need the down pressure, but I think it does help keep the middle wheels from jumping the track on uneven surfaces. Equally important (at least for me and my club's wobbly tables) was to include space above the trailer to ensure that if the middle truck goes over a bump that it would not derail the whole locomotive. But getting back to your question, as steam locomotives they run one direction almost all the time. So I did not have extensive experience running backwards. But they do back into sidings etc and I don't recall any problems there. There are lots of ways you could lock the trailer in place, including potentially doing so from both the front and rear.

As someone who is biased to North American trains, that might be the best looking city train locomotive yet. Gotta do something about those doors on the side of the cab and other minor tweaks, but it is a good start for a city set. It is real

I built a B-D-B wheel arrangement (aka 4-8-4) with a slightly different take. The middle wheel set is actually a trailer that is pulled by the front truck. It is designed to run on R40 curves AND accommodate unlevel track. My club's tables were horribly warped from people standing on them while assembling sky scrapers that with three points of contact on the rails that a normal steam engine could easily bottom out or lift the front truck off the track. So the "trailer" with the driver wheels has about a brick worth of play to bounce up and down. Actually, it worked so well that I eventually made four different variants of the build. The first picture shows one of the engines in a curve, the locomotive is 8 wide and the 6 wide train wheels have swung at least three studs away from center. This next photo shows the cosmetically updated trailer While here you can see how the front truck (aka 9v motor) connects to the boiler through the front of the trailer. The contact point in the rear is a spring to keep pressure on the wheels while allowing the wheel set to move up, down and sideways. I used one of these old springs plus curve slopes for the contact point at the rear of the trailer

Very nice indeed!

Those angles on the cab simply not feasible. Congratulations on breaking the laws of physics with this amazing build

That is an amazing build with a ton of work and a ton of bricks involved. Great job!

If you are not in a rush, you could pick up a few of the freestyle wheel sets to experiment on. The train wheels are part 4180c01, c04, c05, c06 while the normal wheels are 4180c02 and c03 I THINK they use the same method to attach the wheels but are a lot cheaper. Several lots for $0.00 on bricklink, but you'd still have to pay shipping

Amazing work, those look great.

That is an amazing build. I must say, getting the roughly 2° angle on the front is crazy. That's a great MOC. You packed a lot of NPU into a small space and made it look easy. Though the sequel S-251 looks like it might go up to 11.

Nice!

Wow, another great looking layout, lots of attention to detail. The trains are also great, so now you've worked your magic in narrow gauge too

Just a final reminder, if you would like to support this design on the Bricklink Designer Program, the window to do so closes in just over 48 hours. Click here to support this design or or paste the following address into your browser: https://www.bricklink.com/v3/designer-program/series-9/3224/ABS-Grain-Elevator-and-Hopper-Car Thank you all. There are some really amazing designs in this round.

Impressive work

@Phil B and @FGMatt thank you kindly!

Impressive! Are platforms on the todo list? Some terminal stations like this had low level platforms, so the simplest solution would only require a bunch of tiles.