zephyr1934

WOW! This model is incredible and inspirational. I love all the detailing, you made great use of all the resolution 16 wide brings. The cutaway view is a great idea, I remember seeing cutaway views like this in 1940's and 50's era literature for Pullman sleeping cars. One suggestion for the diaphragms, to eliminate the lip around the bottom of the 1x1 round bricks, you might want to use technic connectors, held in with though it currently has a legoland train look to it.

Wow, that is a fantastic build, with so many details. LT12V, I must remind you that something like this simply is not physically possible to do (grin). Great work breaking the laws of physics! While the details of making the square bricks follow all the curves are impressive, the stickers definitely make it pop. And nice touch pulling a couple of 12v era cars in the photos.

That works on so many levels, fantastic build... but nothing compared to some of your other builds that you posted to flickr just before this one. You have been very busy.

First looking at the MOC, it has a few odd curves to it... but then looking at the prototype, it looks like you did a great job capturing so many of its odd details. Great work.

There is lots of great detailing in your V2, e.g., I like how you got the subtle outward slant to the end of the cars. The couplers are also very complex and look good. To my eye, the roof on the prototype looks closest to 50950. Mixing these with cheese bricks and tiles can lead to great effects the cheese slope is a pretty close match to the first stud of the curved slope, while a tile is a pretty close match to the third stud. I have yet to take a picture of my best example, but you can see one case here on the roof of the cab (though this loco has another row of standard 45° slopes beyond the curved slopes). I suspect 11477 or 15068 could make an okay match for the 2nd and 3rd stud on the 50950, but I haven't tried it yet.

The intellitrain was from an era where Lego figured the under 3 set would be playing with quatro or primo. The rest of the toy industry is pushing "realism" down to an insanely young age these days. I played with Tonka trucks (the real ones, made of metal) until I was at least 10, but now the toy industry has the blue isle all figured out. First dinosaurs, then trains, the superheros, then .... With trucks falling by the wayside somewhere around 5 years of age. I think duplo has also been pushed to younger ages as a result of consumer demand. It is too bad, because the modern lego sets can't be anything more than a model for the 5-8 yr olds (as in, there is very little room to go off and build what you like with so many specialized pieces, you can build the main model and that is it). For the simplicity of the bricks my first grader still plays with duplo even though he has a room full of system bricks.

Ah, okay, cool... but also potentially a delicate balance between ensuring continuity and causing other problems. The lego 9v rails have a slight bump out that allows for long wheel base trucks to climb the rails at a rail joint. RailBricks 7 has more on the problem in "Just Like Clockwork". If you do find that problem, I suspect filing the vertical edge of the corner would probably prevent rail climbing on curves, and certainly the wider the radius, the less likely an errant wheel will try to climb. Still, if the two rails have to apply pressure on one another for continuity, it may force one or both to be loose on the underlying plates. Which is why I think a sprung based solution might be robust (e.g., the 9v rails have such a solution using the metal strip), it eliminates the need for a precise contact point that may also push one or the other rail out of alignment. These risks are definitely solvable, but I would suggest endurance testing looking at the rail joints on curves with prototype rails before you finalize the production version. I'm hoping you eventually get to R104 with the metal rails.

Good to hear, and if there are problems, one thought that comes to mind is a piece of thin metal to squeeze between the rail joint, folded into a "V" so that it is guaranteeing contact between the two rail segments on that side. I asked about the color because I am hoping they would be dark blay to match all of the lego track I already have. At least at day one you are selling to folks who already have track, so keeping it dark blay makes sense (I personally want the tracks to blend in rather than stand out). Once you have the molds it might make sense to dabble in other colors for the rails. I would think redish-brown rails with dark brown ties would look close to your typical US tracks with rust sided rails and creosote soaked ties. Though I doubt there would be enough demand to make the brown rails viable until you have switches too. With switches, a reasonable price, and good performance, then you might be able to convince folks to replace all of their tracks.

Your comparisons are fantastic and it is always neat to see the new tricks you come up with in your builds. Like MusicaRibelle asked, are you building to O gauge (or with variable gauge axles)? Though in general one has to be careful when comparing to O gauge. In your case you have found good O gauge models. However, there are plenty of fantasy O gauge models out there that look less realistic than the stock EN does. Then there are plenty of cases of selective compression in O gauge too. Even when it is a proportionate O gauge model, the locomotive or car might be based on the design of a completely different railroad than what it is lettered for. Personally I prefer to build mostly 6 wide in part because it is easier to get the right length or closer to the right length when running on the tight lego curves. I also like the fact that 6 wide are lighter. Still, I do envy the extra detail that can be fit in 7 and 8 wide trains. One or two more studs of width is a huge difference when you are only starting with 6. No matter what width you build at, it is that forever quest for the grand slam piece that gets this side just right while simultaneously making the other side of the corner work too. Oh and !@#$% they never made it in my color... (grin). That is part of the fun of this hobby.

Check the FAQ on kickstarter, it explains that if you want package A and package B, pledge the combined cost under one or the other. Then at the end of the drive, they will ask what you want and you should get both A and B (but triple check for yourself)

Make it an aircraft a spacecraft carrier and add a car with three of the smaller tie fighters.

Looks good and I've hopped on board. Though I am going with the "build your own" collection. My preference is for one complete loop of R104 and one loop R88 (that should have been one of the pledge levels if you ask me). I'd personally prefer them in metal, but R56 is not sufficiently different to get my interest. So I'll start with plastic and hope the future turns metal. At any rate Eric, a couple of questions for you. First off, as I recall from the original batch of metal rails, the instructions eventually said, "not intended for track powered models", presumably because of poor conductivity at the rail joints. Is that being fixed in the new design? Second off, what is the color of the ABS rails? Dark blay? I bet these tracks will be a lot easier to ballast than the one piece lego track. Instead of using 2x8 ties right below the rails, you could use 1x2 plates to move your support down one or more plates, giving clear space for ballast (or use the 1x2's in the ballast color rather than the track color). Also, I suspect the special track connectors are only really necessary for connecting to lego track sections. As long as you are using the ME rails, I bet you could just use normal plates to hold everything together.

Great (virtual) build.

Oh I know where you are coming from, I have a few MOCs that took over half a year of consistent work to get right. If that winds up being a problem, a quick and dirty solution is to simply toss in a spare train magnet (or any other magnet) when it is running to add a little extra spacing.

The engine looks great in real brick... though you know you are asking for off topic questions when you park the MOC over a three way switch like that. Please post pictures of the switch too (in a new topic of course).

That is insane! (and very well done)

Looks great, and there is a lot of technique going on there that I would never had guessed that it was your first MOC (e.g., the detailing on the underside, the ends and the roof). A great build. The one thing I would suggest is if you are likely to build it in real brick is to keep an eye on the BL prices. There are some part/color combinations that simply are not available or are insanely expensive when they are, e.g., the 1x2 red door rail is about $0.60 per right now, but the 1x8 red door rail is averaging $0.40 right now. So minor changes in the design could save you some money in physical bricks.

Very nice, though don't be hard on yourself about tearing it apart, lego is meant to be transient after all. And now you've gone an rebuilt it anyway (at least electronically). It looks a bit like the diesel from 7777.

Oh, I wouldn't care if the top colors are matte, the biggest thing I need is white anyway. BTW, I must say that that is a slick machine, so it cuts the stickers out too?

Jumping back to the original question, are you cutting the stickers or printing them? In either case, keep us posted on the progress. I've been looking for a good option to print on transparent stickers so that I can get white/red/yellow on darker colors.

I THINK there were two versions of V1, the original and updated. I think the original did not support some of the commands found in the documentation (which was released about the same time as the updated V1). The only externally observable difference between the two is that the led on the receiver blinks one or something like that. Assuming my memory isn't garbled, that might explain why your receiver isn't receiving as specified.

Great build with lots of detail and nice job with the small form factor over all of the PF components.

Lego baseplates can get expensive to cover an entire table. I'd suggest that you choose your lego color (e.g., light gray or green) and buy paint to match that color (bring a brick to the paint store and have them match it). Then only use baseplates under the buildings or structures where you need them. You could build dynamic roads, sidewalks, etc. using regular plates and update as needed. It sounds like you would just have straight track without a loop. As you know, Lego designs the trains to run in loops, so there are no sensors to find the edges, etc.. So presumably you'll be doing push trains? There is no right way to do it and there are ways to make trains run without a loop, but they are a little involved. Most importantly you want to avoid any unpleasant surprises. In that regard, straight track is typically $2-$3 per segment and each segment is 16 studs long. The track segments are 8 studs wide, but the rails are 6 studs apart. Most lego trains are 6 studs wide + handles or whatnot that extends beyond. Lego switches space the tracks with 8 studs between parallel tracks. Again, you do not have to follow these spacings, but that is what is most common. Good skill

Those tiny live steamers are great

Those are some great details in the cab of the reworked EN. The steam valves are very simple yet very effective.