zephyr1934

looking good

I think the gray is too busy, because you still have the brown outline around the sand green (the brown window frames and flower box seems fine if the rest of the brown was turned to gray). But if you keep the brown around the sand green, I would go with brown for the pillars as well. BTW, what you have built of the station looks great.

Good to hear that your PF trains are welcome on the loop (that saves me 1 paragraph of typing) It also seems reasonable that the main loops are 9v friendly, so it sounds like a small misunderstanding there. That said, I don't think it is worth the investment to lay 16 ft of 9v track unless that is a direction you would already want to go. If you want to be an over the top good citizen, I'd suggest looking into the conductive tape on top of plastic track solution for the main line. It should probably be sufficient for weekend shows, but you might want to also put power jumpers across your section if you have a large layout. Alternatively, you could do multiple loops. Our club will frequently do a layout with two small loops end to end (like this: "OO") inside one large loop (so it looks like an 8 inside a O). It is double track everywhere except where the two small loops turn. If you do that, and you have enough pf trains, you could make one of the small loops pf, and take the 9v track saved from other parts of that small loop to bridge the outer loop across your section. Or you could move the pf track out of the mainline entirely, either in one track from the main, connected by switches, or put your stuff outside of the mainline (it is always interesting to have the mainline back from the edge for part of the layout). You could even dress it up to look like your stub track was a continuation of the mainline (even though most of the running trains turn before taking said section of mainline that happens to run off the edge of the table)

Now that is inspirational!

Be a stud and be proud! In all seriousness, the studless technique is great for strength, but not so good for detailing. You can have the best of both worlds going studless inside and studded for the shell. I've done that on several locomotives (but on a much smaller scale than what you are working with). The quickest way out of studless land is with a bunch of half pins, though there are a ton of more clever tricks too. Then again, I bet one could come up with a slick studless loco, it would just be more of a challenge.

With all of the challenges of making lego work given all of the constraints turns it in to quite an engineering problem. But it does take a screwy engineer like me to enjoy that sort of thing. I would agree that it probably turns away too many potential users given the high learning barrier at the entry point. Though from the progressively simpler and simpler instructions over the years (of sets in general), I suspect lego knows more about their consumers than I do. Okay, I feared it was something really crazy with the server motors, like they would burst in to flames if you looked at them funny. I have been waiting for one to update my on-board decoupler. It would be great to be able to hit it and forget about cutting power quickly. The L motors are now available in the US, but strangely they are 40% more expensive than the XL motors. The servo motors are listed as coming soon, but they now have a price listed, $25. You could get 3 M motors for that price and have a little change. So for now I'll stick with the M's for my switches (they work fine without a clutch too). Indeed, lego has gone through two phases where they went all in with trains, first in the early 80's with the gray era of 12v, then again in the early 2000's. Too bad both of those heydays faded after a few years, but if the past is any predictor of the future, we should be due for another one in about six years (grin). Though in all seriousness, perhaps there will be enough AFOLs ready to consume the offerings if there ever is another heyday.

And apologies for feeding the off topic fire (though a little conversation isn't a bad thing). Yes, that's the one, although out of all of the train set problems I listed in my last post, in fairness, this one probably wasn't lego's fault. As I have heard the story, the studio said the tender HAD to have three axles, and the studio didn't care if it could not go around curves. The sliding center axle is a good solution (or even simpler, one of my favorite tricks, just put the wheel holder in without an axle), but this all gets back to Mark's point, if the set does not work out of the box following the instructions, you have just lost 70% of the people and pissed them off.

All very good points indeed. And yes, I would have to agree with you that having to go off the instruction sheet to get the train to actually work is definitely a failure (especially after having to pay $500 for all the parts to start from scratch no less). That will just turn people away from our hobby. Though I'm not sure that is anything new, the Maersk has a ton of drag in the trucks, one train motor can barely pull the two cars it comes with. Then all of the minor problems in the EN. Then there was that HP train with the three axle tender that would not go around curves, then there was the pilot on the BNSF that has a fraction of a mm clearance, then there was the underpowered (well, missing weight bricks) for the Super Chief. So I am not starting with high expectations. I am just glad to see train sets at all. In the ambassador forums I kept arguing that lego had to lower the entry barriers... little or no impact, but I also said that the train folks needed certain parts to be in production and a lot of them did wind up in production... though I have no idea if that is purely coincidental. Detected, "the servo problems"??? Could you expand on that (probably in a new thread) or point to a link that tells more? Yes, HE is a S@H exclusive... except you can also buy it direct from Amazon and a few other online retailers and Lego nixed these retailers from offering sales. So it is an exclusive that isn't so exclusive. To do the "creator" build-a-train-for-your-continent right given the current design cycles, lego would probably have to do the hobby train again. Too bad that tanked for secondary reasons (all the special parts could be bought individually at PAB, no rare colors, had to use LDD to see the other instructions, then the discontinued magnets). I like the slave motor driver... though I doubt lego will be making that any time soon. I just wish they had a simple controller that you could say "go to run 4" so that if one IR receiver missed the signal at first, you could still get two or more synchronized. It can be done... just takes a lot of hacking.

You captured the essence of the prototype spot on

great build!

Looking good, and probably would look just fine with black windows.

Now why did you have to go and tell me that the new playmobil trains are still g-gauge (!@#$%). That is one thing that playmobil got right... though then again, I'm not sure how popular g-gauge was back in the 60's when lego settled on 6 wide. Looks like a good start and with that width you should be able to get some nice detail. There was a fellow at brickworld this year who took a different approach, used stock g-gauge wheels and motors, with everything above that point in lego.

The one on top is probably authentic, the shape of the guard rails are similar to the 9v and at least early RC track, as well as the photo in the US S@H. BTW, look closely and you will see that the lego photo has 9v points on RC track, something I THINK they did until the 9v parts were exhausted. I would guess that lego redesigned the part and the lower one is newer. Check the part number and see if it changed, and if it is the same number, did they change the style of or location where it was imprinted?

Wow, what a fantastic update. So much custom work and specialized parts, yet it is so true to the original you don't even notice at first glance. Top notch! Oh, and a very fine layout too!

I guess it just goes to show that the HE is superior to lego's first attempt at the TGV (7745) (grin). I love it, and as simple as it looks, it is painfully clear that it was non-trivial to pull off. Very cool. Though through a dozen or so nasty wrecks at shows, I have managed to break one or two parts (the pins on bogie plates seem to hate 3 ft drops).

Hey Mark, I would agree with the other responder that you need to get the two train motors under the same loco or car to make the HE work. Then you should be able to pull a pretty long train. Although you should also put your post in context, you tend to build epically massive (and really great) train models. That said, I too prefer 9v but that is because I already had a good collection before it was discontinued. If I started again today with nothing, I'd probably just go 100% PF. Now as for PF failures, I have yet to find something that cannot be worked around. The stock EN has horrible mechanics, e.g., binding pistons, the fact that the drivers can be lifted off the rails on uneven surfaces, etc. All can be fixed, but this just reflects the modern day shortened lego design cycle. I think the HE has its own design problems, e.g., split in two sets, should have come with 8 segments of straight track... but that just increases sales... and maybe that's okay, to be happy with a lego train you have to be willing to shell out the $$$ to buy the accessories. Higher profit margin keeps the lower selling sets in the lineup. Enough people will buy modular buildings to make 3x/yr profitable, likewise, enough folks buy AFOL trains to make 1x/2yr profitable. I suspect the HE is successful since lego has nixed almost all discounts on it, even on amazon. Meanwhile, the newer lone ranger train is 20% (sure, themed set tied to a flop... maybe not a great comparison... but it shows how lego approaches the train sets for kids differently). As for subject matter, I think they really struck gold with the HE. The hard part will be finding the topic for the next train set. With the move to creator expert theme, if they were true to the "creator" half of it, it would be great to come up with a set that could be built to be either a generic N. American or European style freight (i.e., one set, two models). In defense of PF, I am able to pull much heavier trains with two PF train motors than I am with two 9v motors, e.g., this... Front loco has two PF train motors, then 8 unpowered cars, most 52 studs long. The problems this train has is overheating the IR receiver (still needs to be replaced by v2) and moving too slow in curves because of the long wheelbase cars (that would happen with 9v too, and this train would probably need 4x 9v motors). The XL motors are a dream, I've pulled over 50 cars with just a pair of XL motors on one receiver using this engine.

Great build

Welcome aboard Thiot! Sounds like you are working on a great collection. You don't have to build mocs to contribute here, you just have to be interested in lego trains. Though if you are interested in wandering into your own train MOC's, you could start by making minor tweak improvements to your sets, or repainting your favorite set in to a livery more to your liking (living in LA, you know that the maersk would look better in UP or BNSF, grin... though UP would be a lot cheaper), or building from fan made instructions (LGauge, railbricks, etc.)

Which "you"? Punting that it might be me, which "idea"? Never mind, you'll get both... Sure, , but you'll have to do something other than a bogie plate. The easiest way is to find a brick with a vertical axle hole through it. There are many, but this might be the most common one, then hold it in to the truck with a pair of technic plates, then cover it all with tiles. Or you could do a more technic construction, e.g., all of the powered trucks (imagine the XL motors pulled off), As for the homebrew switches, I don't have a photo handy of the switch end, but here's a shot of the completely reversible (but not as robust) RCX connection. Just imagine touching the other end of one of the pairs of wires together, voila, closed circuit just like a touch sensor. Here are a couple of links to good pages on RCX sensors and much more: Michael Gasperi and Philo's

Indeed, a fantastic build and the cab windows are stellar!

That is a very clever and efficient build, especially given that most (all?) of it came from a single set. I like how you packed all the pf in there.

Nice tip.

I bet that it wouldn't be that hard to do and you could keep roughly the same clearance... though the far horse in the picture might have to lose its right rear leg.

I assume you have the RCX on the train rather than controlling the power to the track. If you do have the latter, a break beam light sensor is one of the most robust train detectors I've seen. If you just want the system to calibrate to a specific location (that happens to be on a curve) you could do what the GBC folks like to do and have a post near the track that trips a touch sensor on the train. I don't think the RCX rotation sensor is very sensitive. In any event, a much simpler solution would be to rigidly fix the axle in the truck, run it up through the train baseplate (or equivalent) and then stick a technic connector or beam or ??? on that axle. When the truck turns on a curve, the axle will rotate relative to the train baseplate. You can then have that trip a touch sensor. Another possibility is that you make your own touch sensor. All the touch sensor does is close a circuit. You could make a purpose built home brew switch that closes the circuit when something moves to the correct spot.

Although it sounds like this problem is solved, the lego train controllers are pretty robust. Whenever you hook up a controller for the first time, keep an eye on it. If there is a short, the green light should dim as soon as you put power on and no motors will move. Cut power quickly and there is little chance you'll do any harm.