zephyr1934

Look again, the pull down menu is a little wonky. It looks like to order just the plans costs 4 euros. A slightly simpler version can be found in 7730, the instructions are here. I'd suggest updating it a bit, e.g., using modern train wheels and couplers, and the much cheaper shutters that are now available. You could use 1x2 bricks with groves to add some side texture. You might want to browse the thumbnails of the train sets in bricklink then search for the instructions on peeron.

You do not have to have an article in hand, all you need is a good idea to start with. It could be just one or two sentences when you contact Elroy. You can start talking with us early on in the idea process, before you have invested much time (but if you already have 8 pages written that's fine too). Some potential topics include, Here's a great trick to ... Here's a profile of our club (or show, or ...) I have this neat MOC and would love to give the behind the scenes tour We are also open for suggestions of topics (if you do not think you would have time to write it yourself) and if you are unsure of your English proficiency, do not let that get in the way of suggesting a great idea. PS, thanks T.B.

Although it is not cheap these days, the 12v system had isolated blocks and even signals. The 9v transformer had a different wallwart depending on where you were plugging in. See the alternatives at the bottom of this link. So if you are in the US you probably do not want the European version. Looking at bricklink, it looks like you could get all of the parts for under $20 used

Heh heh heh, so simple and so brilliant. Meanwhile, I'd be interested in hearing more about your couplers and your experience with them (though probably in a new thread).

Neat stuff. Sure, I can make an "L" shaped rod with an extra hole above the rod for an attachment point. I had contemplated that as a possible solution for the valve gear. I could probably even do a half stud up if that is better for your design. When you're ready, I'd suggest that you figure out your rod dimensions using technic beams and then I can take it from there. The only hard part is making sure we are speaking the same language when talking about the spacing. One easy way to clearly communicate the spacing you want is to illustrate it on a baseplate. Pick a row and pretend it is the rod you want fabricated. Put 1x1 bricks where you want the holes (or use jumper plates if you want half stud offsets) and get me a photograph. Uneven spacing is not a problem either. The one thing is that new designs like this may take a little extra time. If everything works out with my valve gear designs, I shoud have a much lighter option (I'm aiming for a 2mm wide rod, where technic beams are 8mm wide). So keep watching these skies, I will also post images and photos of the work in progress as soon as I can. Meanwhile, thanks again for your support. Benn

Hi Pat, I would encourage you to explore different train systems. I like the small size of the 9v motors, but I've been very impressed with the pulling power of PF trains, the ease of not having to worry about power loss on a large loop, and the fact that PF can comfortably crawl along at a slow speed. It can be a pain to stash all of the pf components though. I'm still 80-90% 9v, but I find it is nice to have a mix. Although I've never wandered into the promised land of 12v, everything I've seen of it is golden, it was by far the most developed functionally and everyone raves about the durability of the motors. Hi Annie Lego is a great medium for building trains and a fun challenge to figure out how to get the detail you want without making too many compromises. Bricktrix work is fantastic. You might want to also check out the work of a similar builder, Brian Williams (he was featured in RailBricks #4).

I argued almost the same point when the rechargeable box came out (though I had not thought about narrowing the box by one plate width). I would still like to see studs on the side. Even if they can't make the box any smaller, it would be fantastic if lego produced a second mold for the AAA box that had studs on the side. Alternatively, they could inset a full plate at the bottom and add two rows of studs there. Then one could cover these two rows with tiles or plates depending on whether you wanted studs or not. You would still be a little constrained to snotting tiles vertically, but it would be a lot more versatile than the current box (just look at the huge tiles on the Maersk engine). Though I think we could replicate that effect now by pitching the box itself and just using the AAA top.

Wow, very nice! The engine was great to begin with. I like the painted rods, that could be mistaken for a nice O or S gauge locomotive. I've been contemplating doing similar on one or more of my engines (only in black) as was done on the prototype. Meanwhile, I've been busy in the back room. I did a small test fab in red. The color is close, but the holes did not come out to my satisfaction. So more tweaking. If I can work through the kinks I hope to soon have a call for beta testers interested in purchasing red rods. Nothing is definite yet and no time line, more info as it evolves. Inspired by LT12V's unbelievable work, I've continued working on the valve gear mechanism posted earlier in this thread. I've made two new prototypes that I'm quite happy with and will be posting as soon as I have time to photograph them. Now that I have the dimensions, I will be fabricating the first round of prototype valve gear parts soon (looks to be 8 new parts in two different styles for a total of 16 different parts). In my tinkering, I came up with an all Lego solution to get the eccentric in the design. I will soon be tossing down a reverse engineering challenge to you to figure out how the eccentric crank is done. Definitely for the sheer glory and hopefully with a store discount as a prize if it is it within the EB TOS (anybody know if offering a store discount to an impromptu reverse engineering challenge is within the EB TOS?)

Yes, very nice and I think the wheel covers are definitely the standout feature on this MOC.

Aw shucks, thank you AussieJimbo. Well I've got to tell you, that little train of yours is a tour de force in using every square mm (and I bet it could pull a pretty good sized train too). We haven't had any S-curve problems, but we usually make a simple loop. Though we frequently have derailments because one of my boys likes long trains (I have no idea where that came from). He'll put all of the cars in one long train and off it goes as soon as he pulls it into a curve (stinkin physics!). Seems to be stable with 5 cars though.

Here are the various track and wheel geometries that I've found some amount of success with: Poke around the gallery to see details of the designs. The trucks are the same for the top two variants, while each of the bottom two are slightly different. Most notably, I used the two stud wide wheel holder for the wooden track and flipped the train wheels backwards to get the necessary vertical and lateral clearance, respectively (the trucks used in the top two designs are too low and catch on the wooden track joints). Since we have PF track in the kids hands, I've settled on the top design for now. This dual gauge track uses the normal lego pf/9v track and adds a third rail using the 12v track. The inside curve rail is moved one stud in. Very important: note that the added rail overlaps the adjacent segment by one stud. The curved rail segments do not have studs for most of the distance, allowing the overlap at all of the ties. The two drawbacks of this design are that you can only turn one direction (I think you could turn both ways if you strictly used 12v rails) and you can't have any switches. I like the bottom design (aside from the colors) but the transition from straight to curved kept breaking when played with. Oh and poking around more, I found this forum's moderated list of MOCs from this year (now that's a moderator working overtime- thanks T.Brickster) where I found a slick 4 wide motorized train (please don't bump that old thread unless you have good reason to do so).

If you have no track at all or do not care if you mix brown and gray, the Enlighten track might be a lot cheaper starting point without much sacrifice. I haven't tried it myself since I still have plenty of 9v track, but if you google enlighten track you'll turn up a few reviews.

The closer pictures really show off the detail, very nice build, I like the brick effect (must weigh a ton with all those plates) and the window frames built out of door rails.

@tomdobs55 if you are shopping for a child who is just getting into lego, I'd suggest starting with one of the city train sets. They are self contained with everything you need (PF & track) and have a little more play factor going for them than the AFOL trains (no PF, no track). Then plan on getting 2x HE for your own birthday (grin). In any event, the stated HE release date is Jan 13, so don't count on it being available sooner (it could happen if they run out of stock on other items, but...). If you just gotta have one of the AFOL trains, the Maserk train is still available at the moment and it should have some play factor. You'll need track (curves are cheapest on bricklink, straights are expensive everywhere, or you might want to consider enlighten track as a cheaper alternative). The PF components will be another $50-$100, so between the track and PF, you've come close to paying for the cheapest city train. If you are testing the waters, I'd suggest you get the AAA box and hold off getting the rechargible battery until you know it is worth the $75 investment to you. In either case, the PF is pretty easy to work with and all three of the current city trains seem to be pretty good.

How about that, Lego made a stock car (of sorts) and even a complete western train back in 1976.

There's another stock car on Cuusoo too. Meanwhile, if we're taking stock, here's mine (I borrowed the base idea from one of Dan Siskind's models)

The ones shown above are not, but I also made a PF 2-4-0 that works with some wheel slip (with the new availability of the technic pulley wheels in black, it would probably work better) Railbricks 12 has a really great motorized 4-wide train by Alban Nanty with smaller spacing between the rails. It even includes instructions for the train, but you'd likely have to modify it to put rubber wheels for wooden track. And while in the 4-wide land, RB12 even has instructions for building one of the Chuggington characters.

Wow!!

Thank you for the kind words Fugazi, TheBrickster, and Toastie. The trains are durable but obviously not as durable as a real wooden train. I will post more about the various track options I've attempted when I have time next weekend. In my "keep it simple" approach I used turntables to attach the trucks, so they will not do grades (and my kids LOVE the wooden arch tracks). I would imagine a more complicated truck could handle grades. I would say they are okay running on wooden track. The obvious solution of using the wide wheel holder doesn't work on wood track because the underside does not have enough clearance to make it across the track joints. Flipping it over seems to work, but then it is a major pain to attach (I have not yet tried building the entire train upside down though). They work great on the old GeoTrax track as long as you don't have any facing point switches. The newer GeoTrax track has a gear rack in the middle that causes similar problems as the wooden track. The regular wheel holders are too narrow for wooden track unless you flip the train wheels backwards. This approach seemed to work, but I didn't like the aesthetics, (if you can't visualize it, I'll post an example soon) Meanwhile, doing a quick google search, it would appear I'm not the only one at the intersection of lego and wooden railways. Although I haven't tried, according to one review of Mega Bloks Thomas & Friends Vehicle - Thomas (10501) on TRU, "the BEST PART is that it fits perfectly on the Wooden Thomas the Tank Engine Track." Then on Amazon, another reviewer said, " THESE FIT ON THE WOODEN TRAIN TRACKS!!!!! I actually feel these stay on them somewhat better than the wood trains." And a warning, elsewhere on amazon I found another review that claimed the Duplo car base is compatible with wooden track... I tried it, it isn't.

I agree, though when you wish upon a lego, keep in mind the fiscal constraints the company is looking for. In this context, lego has been pretty good to train fans. Sure, we'd love to see more AFOL train sets and we know that the rate probably will not change soon, but TLG has been pretty good about getting the parts we need to build MOCs into various sets. They are also providing one AFOL gateway train set on the market at any given time. As I see it, there are three important things that Lego should do differently within their fiscal constraints to facilitate lego trains, as discussed in this earlier post Make separate straight and curved track packs Make track bundles and PF bundles (possibly without discount) at S@H for one click buying Remove track and PF from the low end City train to bring the cost down, and make sure it contains enough parts to make three complete bogied chassies (similar to 3x 3737) so that it could double as an AFOL parts pack Yes, I know and okay, maybe that is a 4th thing lego needs to fix. This kind of double speak just shows how disorganized lego can be. "Creator Expert" suggests it is an advanced version of "Creator", but it is just hijacking the creator name and slapping it on DTC sets. If lego dilutes creator, then what's left for creative building? None of the other themes lend themselves to free building. It isn't new, their community team would argue that DTC sets were obviously different than the normal themes, yet the DTC sets are mixed in with the regular themes on the public side of the marketing machine.

While my Lego club was displaying at a train show, during some down time I wandered the vendors and stumbled upon a store selling the Whittle Shortline cars. These are wooden trains designed to look like real trains, e.g., My young son took an interest in wooden trains and my Lego trains. Unfortunately most of my lego trains were too delicate to let him have free run. So one night I decided to find the convergence of the two. I wanted to build my own realistic looking trains that ran on wooden tracks, but I'd do it out of lego. Like the Whittle designs, I wanted to keep mine simplified. I first built a GP and caboose (click on the photo for more details). I had settled in to the 4 wide set, which proved to be a fun challenge. I wanted to keep a few clearly lego features, e.g., using the fence for the railings on the end or the hitches for couplers. I built a few more locomotives and cars over the next year. Until now, the only photo of them that I had was at brickworld 2010. I've just uploaded shots of all of my freight equipment, click on the photo to see them all. My favorite is probably the SW1200 and it is a more complicated build than many 6 wide trains. The collection includes a working crane, tank car, auto rack, and more. The gondola borrows an idea from... (urg, I don't remember where I first saw that) using minifig seats for thin walls. If you poke around the photos, you'll see that I kept jumping around between different track options. I've ultimately settled on dual gauge track, putting an extra rail in the "biscuit" track as being the easiest for my needs. I have three other working solutions (including one with actual wooden track) that you can see in the various photos and that I will post more about in the future. I also have a passenger train that I will post when time allows. Click here for the new galery and here for the overview

Lego has figured out the demand curve. There is enough demand that 2-3 modulars per year will sell very well. And one nice train every other year. Still though, perhaps we are due for a nice modular train station, now wouldn't that be fun? You know, reading this post one thing clicked. The Horizon Express is a "creator set" but it looks like it only has one model. So that is deviating from the creator theme. It would be nice if it included a few small variants, e.g., enough parts to convert the middle coupler of two HE's into a single shared bogie (not that that would be a big deal for most people reading this forum, but...) I think Lego is aware of how much money a small number of train fans invest in their hobby, and the fact that even many non-train AFOLs who are building a town like to have a train. As I've said before, I think Lego is working to figure out how to produce small volume sets and still turn sufficient profit (e.g., via Cuusoo and with Factory before that). When they do, then I bet we'll see them serve the train niche with a better selection.

Looking good

Lego had that in the 9v era (as I mentioned earlier in this thread) and at least when PAB started, the price was comparable ($15 either way). I think lego is moving away from parts packs like that, but it would be FANTASTIC if the next low end City Train doubled as an AFOL parts pack (again, as per this and this earlier posts) If you can't find them in town, search on line for "model railroad decals", e.g., microscale. I'd echo that

Thank you for the detailed update and indeed, your note confirmed what I suspected was going on. From the get go, the ME Rails looked like an ambitious project and the first round showed keen attention to detail. I certainly appreciate what you are doing for the AFOL community, that doing this is a labor of love (as Steve B once put it, custom train kits was the best $2/hr he ever made) and I recognize that nothing like this is simple. So I understand the delays. I still think you should have led with the curves since wider radi is what is going to get the AFOLs attention, even if that had meant postponing the initial release. I see that the only rails you currently have available specify, "Please note, these are NOT designed for use with 9V systems". Will that be addressed with the new manufacturer? The half track packs I purchased included a recommendation to use metallic tape to improve conductivity at the rail joints. Since I inserted them between 9v track, I didn't have any conductivity problems (the 9v track has springy tabs to make a connection). One problem I have with 9v track is that on large loops there is significant power drops when pulling heavy trains (at each rail joint the drop is p=R*i^2). It would be great if an AFOL targeted track system could reduce the average resistance per unit distance in the track (perhaps via multiple power drops, which is also feasible with 9v). I echo this sentiment 100%. There was a lot of flurry in the lead up to the release of the ME Rails, then two years of silence. Even if things are going slower than expected, it would be nice to have quarterly updates and a clear link to them from the ME Rails page to let the AFOL community know that you are still working on it. I hope there is enough demand to keep both ME and BBB selling track (and that only a friendly competition develops). Certainly providing the geometries that the AFOLs crave will help business. Both ME and BBB might want to do a kickstarter like pledge system that includes estimated retail prices (or look at what is on cuusoo). That way you do not invest heavily in a piece that winds up being too expensive for the consumers. Oh, and looking far ahead, when it comes time to developing switches, please keep both manual and remote controlled operation in mind (you don't have to build the remotes, just make sure the switches are friendly to PF additions). I would encourage you to solicit input from the community here and elsewhere, there are a lot of us who have banged away at the problem with conventional lego switches.