zephyr1934

I don't think there is a good conversion of this design to pf without a major reworking. You are probably better off starting from scratch... well... build something that conceals the pf, then add back in as much of the existing features as possible from this model. I'd suggest trying to make most of the hood 6 wide so that you could comfortably hide the pf there. Then the running boards become 1/2 stud wide but still doable. You could then keep most of your hood detailing too.

One thing with the FBBF on curves, if you were running on 9v track I bet you have better luck going clockwise than when you go counter clockwise. The rail connectors are not flush and provide an opportunity to climb the rails when the outside rail is on the right hand side, but no problem when the outside rail is on the left hand side. That is just a brilliant little drive train, from the compact gear box to the axle connectors to deal with the otherwise non-integer axle spacings

Great fun!

great build with some good detailing

Great rendering of the prototype with some interesting details

There is one non-intuitive bit in the EN that at least the early versions of the instructions were not clear about- you need to quarter the wheels. That is to say, the rods on opposite sides of the engine should be 1/4 turn out of phase with each other (12 o'clock on one side, 3 o'clock on the other). If the driver wheels lock immediately, just pull one side off, rotate 90 deg, and put them back on.

looking good

A great job capturing the look of the prototype

You've managed to pack a lot of detail in these, it is amazing that you were then able to find enough room to put the PF components too. Keep up the great work!

There are so many shows that I did not know exactly which one. Yes, it was clearly apparent that there were TLG official displays at this show, but the new trains were on layouts that looked more like good AFOL rather than corporate lego. Further, the fact that the new trains were mixed in with MOCs, long discontinued sets, and repaints of other train sets suggests to me that this layout was not purely corporate. Looking again though, the prominence of so many current and forthcoming sets does kind of hint at very close ties to TLG.

I too was frustrated by the tantalizing promises of wide radius curves that never came through. I even contemplated 3D printed curves, but the price was insane. Never mind the cost of the printer, I think it was a few hundred dollars just to print a complete circle. I would imagine in a few years the prices will come down, but not quite there today. I am working on an approach to assemble wide radius curves using lego tiles, third party ABS rail stock, and glue. Still labor intensive, but the material costs winds up being cheaper than lego straight track. I've built a 1/4 turn so far and will post pictures in another thread as soon as I have time to take them. Meanwhile, do not be upset with BBB or ME. They were trying to develop products to serve our needs. Both attempts encountered unforeseen difficulties. I am still very grateful that they made the investment to try to bring these to market.

Wow, how did they get so many copies of the new train sets? One of the close up shots of the boats shows it features a white version of the front window from the blue locomotive. Any idea who built that macroscale version of the RC freight train in the last picture???

Small and sweet. To my eye the first version looks like a fireless locomotive.

Looking good and I see what you mean about the stack being a little too far back. You should be able to fix that with either of these bricks though,

I had heard that the 9v track molds had worn out and the cost of applying the metal to the rails was too expensive (the parts had to be shipped to a 3rd party to apply the metal, then shipped back). But whichever, 9v is gone now.

The car looks great (as well as the numerous different paint schemes)

The long passenger cars look great in your renderings, but they might wind up looking a little awkward in lego curves. For my own personal tastes I've settled on 6 wide cars around 42 studs, and windows about 1 brick high to strike the balance between length and lego curves. Even at that size, it is difficult to get a train of eight cars moving. No matter what size you go with, you might also want to put some bricks to on those test flat cars to approximate the weight of your designs to make sure that the weight does not cause other problems. Finally, I believe RPO mail cars tended to be shorter than other passenger cars, so there is precedence for different lengths even within the same scale cars.

At first glance I did not even notice that the roads were print outs too. The ballast and roads are a good call. Maybe you could do that for the mountain too (I say only partially kidding).

Looking good

The lego movie had more monorails than trains in it... though I think the rails were the contemporary AFOL solution two stud wide with tiles on top rather than the old school monorail.

Maybe you could put some sort of power unit on the roof of the middle car and incorporate the track there? Or snot it upside down on the underside of one of the cars?

Yes, looking good. Could you work in a bit of short monorail track as a feature on the train to complete the homage? E.g., 2670

Great detailing on the hills/tunnels. One thought, perhaps put an industry or loading dock somewhere in this yard as an extra destination for your trains (without limiting the ability to simply use it for storage too).

That's what I thought from the first images, but you could really drive that point home by putting the second rails in JUST the pavement (as is often common in the US or 10+ after the rest of the track had been ripped up) and ballast mounds for the rest of the extent where the other track used to be.

I personally prefer 6 wide for most of my rolling stock and 8 wide for steam locomotives. The tight radius of the lego curves means you will likely have to foreshorten most cars no matter what width. When I built my superliners I took 6 wide and scaled everything else as close as possible to that same scale, yielding 52 stud long cars. At this scale the windows should be about one brick tall (I cheated and made them 4 plates tall), so they are probably closer to the microfig scale (hum... maybe I should get a bunch of microfigs...). The length and weight of these cars makes it a tricky train to get moving (though I am still working on a few solutions) and it looks horrible in standard curves (but beautiful in wider radius curves). Even at 8 wide the trains are a much smaller scale than minifig (e.g., most real passenger trains seat 4 across plus an isle, a few pack in 5 across). Still 8 wide is so much better if you want to build detailed interiors. Eight wide equipment is also much heavier. If you want to have much of a train and still be pure lego, XL motors are likely the easiest solution. WOW!!! Wow wow wow! That is an incredible passenger car. Please post more in a separate thread. I assume you will be powering it with something other than lego motors??? Meanwhile, with this size, you could build dutch doors that open in rather than the lego train door (though I also like the homage to lego trains that you make with this door).