zephyr1934

Shortly after discovering Big Ben's Bricks, I found myself dissatisfied with any of the alternatives for driver rods (connecting and side rods) on brick built steam engines. Out of determination, I have produced driver rods that are compatible with BBB and Lego's steam engine wheels for my own use. After some tinkering, I'm now offering these rods for sale to the AFOL community as well. These parts are designed to be driver rods, they are a little thicker than a plate and a little thinner than a 1/2 Technic beam. This odd thickness is deliberate, the rods are designed so that they should not rub against the rim of the wheels. The rods float on the pin cuff- compatible with 3/4 pins or full Technic pins. So now you can paint the rims of your driver wheels if you are so inclined. Given the wide array of possible configurations and the limits of my pocketbook, I have opted to fabricate these custom driver rods using rapid prototyping technology. As a result, the possibilities are literally endless, e.g., half stud offsets for BBB small drivers should be feasible. My store only contains those driver rods for which I have completed designs and fabricated at least one copy. Other configurations are feasible, contact me via Bricklink messages and we can discuss (I can't guarantee that I can make everything, and in any event, expect a longer lead time on new parts since I will have to design it). The surface of the driver rods is a little rough because the fabrication technique, but it is hardly noticeable except when you are extremely close up. There are only a few fabrication colors to choose from- gray, black and red and I cannot adjust the colors. Fortunately, the gray is pretty close to light-blay. I have not yet tried the other colors for a match to lego colors, I suspect they will not be as close as the gray, but I will probably do a test run soon. As such, black and red are only available upon request (again, contact me via Bricklink messages). Visit my Bricklink store to order the rods or find more information about production. These are a labor of love. Many more examples and prototypes can be found in my brickshelf folder. There you will even find a tutorial for modifying an Emerald Night. www.bricklink.com/store.asp?p=zephyr

In case you didn't see it on the Eurobricks front page, Railbricks #12 has been published, and can be found at http://railbricks.com/

Okay, Lego needs better copywriters for their press releases: "Steer from the front engine car" The train looks great, probably a good choice for a subject too (one of the more recognizable trains of the modern era). Too bad the prototype doesn't have more rare colors in it. I like the way they gave the undercarrage a seamless, snotted inverted slope with hidden hinges. The trucks on the "engine" are similar to the Maersk locomotive- designed to look like a PF motor when one is installed (what a drag, in the literal sense). Oh, looking again at the photos- only the front truck has the technic axles and will presumably be where the motor is intended to go, the second one uses regular train wheels (less of a drag, again in the literal sense).

I faced a similar problem. Though I knew from the start that I did not like ceiling mounted tracks because you can hardly see the trains and they are hard to get to. So I was pondering how to do a shelf mounted layout in an odd shaped room. To make it waist high, either you have to do tight turns that still poke out into the room (but do offer spots to do small scenes) or you have to figure out some way to bridge the doorway. After about half a year I looked down and saw the floor. I realized that I rarely step within 1 ft of the wall, it is easy to step over the tracks at the doorway, and I could run it under tables and shelves for two sides of the room (I personally think it is a nice feature to have the trains disappear and reappear). I now have a double track line running the perimeter of the room without consuming much useful space and no extra infrastructure to set it up. I put a few structures here and there (e.g., a signal bridge and an 8 stud deep grain elevator facade, both of which I'll eventually post photos of).

Mike, all of the background on the hobby train is fantastic (I think they also molded the gray sliding doors specifically for that set). There were several things wrong with the implementation beyond using common colors, a lesson I think they've learned since almost all subsequent DTC sets feature rare colors. This set was one of the early lego factory sets, you had to use LDD to view most of the instructions so you also had to be computer literate (not everyone has a laptop on their building table), LDD was a graphics intensive implementation so if your computer was more than 2 yrs old you might not even have been able to run LDD, etc.. Needless to say, the entry bar for the hobby train was much higher than almost any other lego set. Then what rare parts there were in the set were simultaneously available in the newly opened online PAB (it was a lego factory set after all). So that undercut the possibility of parting out the set. Finally, to add another nail to the coffin, in the middle of the run it became clear that the traditional magnets were a potential safety hazard. So they blew the remaining inventory out at half off. Unfortunately, I don't think Lego fully appreciates all of these hurdles the set had that kept it from being a success. The AFOL train fan is a niche market for lego, so I suspect that is going to keep AFOL trains in the DTC for the near future (i.e., sets over $100, and probably only one new one every two years since the number of DTC sets is limited). After complaining at length on the ambassador forum that the Emerald Night only had one car I got a lengthy explanation that this was clearly a DTC set (because it had a five digit number), there are only a small number of DTC sets per year, DTC is completely separate from the normal sets, etc. (of course from the consumer side the DTC sets are mixed in with the non-DTC sets on S@H, with the only distinction being "exclusive"). Recognizing that the AFOL trains are a niche market, I suggested using the PAB facility to produce on-demand sets (at PAB prices) plus a few special items not available in the PAB, e.g., a sticker sheet or ??? Keep production costs down for a smaller production run, serve the niche market, and turn a profit. If they the train sets had a set number, some collectors would buy them as well (so it would go further than the user designed lego factory options of the day). I suspect the poor implementation of space skulls probably made this option a non-starter for the wrong reasons (If you are going to pick a set by hand, pick it by hand. If you are going to make a boxed production set, then it should not have been a "factory set"). It would be great if lego got clever and employed some of the design styles of the 1970's and 1980's in the AFOL train sets- i.e., including both a primary model and a secondary model. With the locomotive being the primary model and a few train cars being the secondary model but with the vision that the two would work well together. Build one option with the set and if you want a full train, buy another copy to build the other option. So not quite as far as the hobby train, probably more like the Santa Fe passenger cars in terms of flexibility and a more rigid common theme. Of course such a design would require a greater effort on the preproduction side, so here's another hurdle. There are some hints in this direction in the Maersk train (albeit very small). The cars can take two containers end to end (European style) or double stack (US style). I suspect lego is approaching Cuusso as "lego factory 2.0" and in the long run they intend to actually use it to serve niche markets like the AFOL train fans. They are starting out with a few sets per year, but once they get it moving, I bet the number of sets per year will grow. Remember before lego got the on-line PAB running that the original implementation of lego factory actually had a few different bags that you could be shipped and you got "bonus pieces" with most designs. I hope a nice Cuusso train car is in the future, but it probably won't be cheap. It has been a while since I've fired up LDD. It would be great if you could limit the available parts to one or more specific sets (that functionality might be in LDD already, I don't know). So that when you browse models, you'd know if you had set 10194 and "these parts" you could build this design. In this way any train set could become like the hobby train. Only the fans would design the alternative models after release. Then an AFOL group could have a competition for the best design and compile a good library for the community. Benn

Ah, the nostalgia this thread brings back. I think my fascination with long trains started in 2006 with this 18 car train. I don't recall if any of it was mine, but it was neat to see such a long train. Early the following year, I had a 37 car train and one of my favorites, the 33 car infinite train (much harder to fit the last car on the track than you would think it should be). I pushed it to 51 cars at NMRA that year (as well as several 40+ car trains elsewhere in the same folder). A few years later I had a 38 car steam double header and a 28 car steam triple header using heavier cars. I will still occasionally assemble a good long train at a show, but with the introduction of the XL motors it has taken a lot of the challenge out of it and with the high cost of 9v motors, I'm not sure I will be pushing the track powered envelope again. I have a few more long trains that I haven't had a chance to post yet.

Part 1 -part name: all existing tiles, jumper plates, and anything else with a fingernail grove -part description: modify the molds to remove the fingernail grove on ONE side (the long edge where applicable). Ideally the new tiles should have one completely flat side- appearing like the side of a plate, including the bottom corners; but even if the corner divots remained from the side fingernail groves it would be a big improvement. -part usage: to help AFOLs and other builders hide the transitions to/from SNOT while still retaining the functionality of being able to remove the pieces (three sides would still have the fingernail grove). Without this change it is difficult to make completely seamless transitions to/from SNOT. Part 2 -95343 (bucket 1x1x1) -part description: make in black, light and dark gray -part usage: steam engine smoke stacks, other exhaust pipes, thrusters, etc (places where the old palm tree, 2536, once could be found) part 3 -3794 (jumper plate) -part description: make in dark green -part usage: anywhere dark green can be found and half stud offsets are needed

Heh heh, great minds think alike (I hadn't seen this thread until now). Might have been mine that you saw at BW, here. No pinstripes on the boiler. I just couldn't bring myself to using all of that dark green on this design (grin) but I'm glad lego included all that dark green in the set (grin some more).

Here's my 2c, I've not played with the PF train motor, but using a pair of XL motors and one battery, I've been able to pull some stunningly long (and heavy) trains. Here I pulled a 22 car train using 4 9v motors and three controllers. The cars are fairly heavy, which is why so few per motor. Here I pulled a 33 car train made up of similar cars using just 2 XL motors and one rechargeable battery (and this locomotive had to do more work because of the drag from the steam engine and the fact that the train was always in at least one more curve than the 9v train). I've since pulled longer/heavier trains with the same locomotive. Though the XL powered train is slow because I did not do any gearing. 9v minuses- -power drops on long track -power drops due to oxidation on the rails 9v pluses -I much prefer track power for train control (individual preference) -the motors are a lot easier to hide and swap out (you only swap a truck, whereas PF will need a battery box, and most likely an RC receiver). PF minuses- -the IR range is poor at shows- no problem in my basement, but when heading to brickworld with a switching layout I was worried about other folks crowding the limited channels. Ha, at BW if the locomotive got much more than 8 ft away I had to walk with it to actually get it to receive my controls. -The parts are bulky- hard to to do a 6 wide locomotive with a narrower hood (i.e., 4 wide hood). Either need to go wider or stash propulsion in a car. -In the above locomotive the battery is built into the tender so when it needs recharging the locomotive needs to be swapped out (though there are probably eloquent ways to make the battery easy to swap). -When PF dies, it does so abruptly and with no warning (so if you have hard to reach places on your layout, recharge before you run out of power). If a train goes off the track it keeps going. -If a train derails, it is more likely to keep going (which can be a problem if you are on a table) -expensive, but per unit of power, quite possibly comparable to 9v at MSRP PF pluses- -power power power -very smooth (it is A LOT easier to start a long train with PF than with 9v- at least when using just one IR receiver- and the 9v motors fluctuate a lot more to the point where I need to insert stronger magnets at shorter train lengths). -want to run a slow freight, no problem with PF, but it is problematic for 9v At this point I am going to stick with 9v for most of my trains, but I will continue to dabble in PF. I see no reason why one cannot have both running on the same layout. If I were starting today, knowing what I know, I'd probably go PF simply because of availability and then figure out how to make it work. Benn

Okay, that's cool and I've just put a note up on the Railbricks blog about it. I have heard that the UV rays will breakdown the ABS. If true, I would think using some other track would solve this problem (the trains do not have to live outside after all). You gotta love the garden railroaders, they make our hobby look too easy [and inexpensive] (though the garden railroaders say the same thing about live steamers, so what goes around comes around). The really serious garden railroaders have bonsai trees, tiny tweezers for weeding, etc.. It is a neat hobby, but it can be very time consuming.

Looks like the tram comes with flanged wheels! See the pictures in this thread.

To clarify, 1) my earlier post (and expansion herein) is "my vision" and has not been endorsed by Lego. 2) I have no idea of how exactly DBM/PAB works, I just know that there is a big building somewhere in Europe and the parts are picked by hand. I believe both DBM and PAB share the same facility and pallet, but I might be wrong. 3) DBM includes custom boxes and printed instructions for sets designed with LDD printed on demand. But these are typically one-off's generated by computer and might include the occasional weird view/step/etc.. Since the niche sets would sell in the 100's or 1000's, a human should actually look over the instructions and packaging. Potentially manually correcting any major quirks that the automated system generates. 4) Also to clarify, my vision is that the production facility would be the same for the niche sets as is for DBM, but the packaging decoration would be completely different and would not indicate that it came from the DBM facility. The sets would either be designed 100% by lego designers or with input from the AFOL community, whatever works best for TLG. But these would NOT in general be from the generic pool of LDD/DBM/factory designs uploaded by fans. The sets would include a few exclusive parts not in DBM/PAB 5) I would imagine the sets would have the same shelf life as other train sets (unless some of the parts rotate off of PAB), i.e., potentially a few years. This approach doesn't need marketing (the AFOLs will spread the word and the sets will show up at S@H), doesn't need additional inventory, etc. etc.. There are costs (e.g., set design, maintaining the web page, etc), but the higher DBM price should cover these. I'd rather have 6-8 nice train sets of individual pieces of rolling stock at DBM prices than one inflexible train set that forces the non-MOC building AFOL (and they are likely the majority of AFOLs) to buy as many locomotives as cars. Or better, both, one nice AFOL train set at normal prices that is carried in stores and a few niche sets at the higher DBM prices only available at S@H.

Don't forget that there is the Public Transportation Center and a HP train also due out later this year. As for the future of trains, as an ambassador I have been lobbying for lego to start to produce niche sets on demand using the DesignByMe pick lines, but with a few special parts not available in the PAB to round out the model (including a sticker sheet), different packaging, and the two most important features: an actual human build test, and an actual set number. That way they could have a whole line of train rolling stock aimed at the AFOLs available at S@H without the need to produce any more sets than the market will bare (and the market will do so at the premium DBM price). I would imagine the rush of orders for a hand picked set any time such a new set is released would be a strain on the relatively constant DBM demand. But that could be modulated by limiting only a few pick lines to the sets and serving orders first come first serve. When the set demand is down, those lines could be fulfilling DBM/PAB orders and when set demand is high, they can crank out multiples of the niche set(s). Anything that does super well could even be migrated to normal production runs. If peaking is an issue, the sets could be timed to come out when DBM/PAB demand is expected to be low and released without fanfare so that orders trickle in more slowly. So far the idea hasn't gotten much traction. So if you like this idea, make sure you politely relay it to TLG whenever you have an opportunity (e.g., to the community team at lego conventions or in the quarterly AFOL survey). If we don't have attractive gateway train sets, the future will have much fewer AFOL train heads. Benn

Okay, I've added a couple of pictures of the tender innards while under construction to the gallery. But remember, she's not just a pretty face, she's one strong loco. I've added a video of the engine pulling a 51 car train. As you can see, I was space constrained and could not get any more cars on the tracks. I ran that train for at least half an hour. Benn

Thank you all for your kind words. Though I'm not quite sure how to take, "the neatest thing about this model is the background..." (grin). No seriously, I was quite tickled with that idea myself, glad everyone noticed. After a few folks complained about my backgrounds for earlier MOC pictures I decided to reach back and get the 48x48 baseplates for this one. Well, I had to knock over the crater plates that were in my way and that was when inspiration struck. What you can't see in the photos is the sheer power this engine has. I've posted an otherwise mediocre video of it pulling 33 passenger cars (comparable to the Super Chief cars) rather slowly HERE. These cars are fairly heavy, so the impressive part is that it shows just how much a pair of XL PF motors can pull. The longest comparable trains that I've pulled were 22 of the passenger cars with FOUR 9v motors (two transformers) and 28 of the passenger cars with SIX 9v motors and more HERE (three transformers). So in this configuration it would appear that the XL motor is at least as powerful as three 9v train motors. I ran the 33 car train for about half an hour using the rechargeable battery. After about 20 min it's speed had dropped by 25% (based on time to complete a loop). The one very annoying feature of the PF trains is the fact that when the battery dies, the train simply stops dead. So you don't want to run PF trains for long periods if you have spots where you won't be able to reach a dead locomotive. As I've learned from earlier steam builds, I built, tested and debugged the mechanicals before designing the rest of the locomotive (hence the suspension to handle bumpy track). At which point I worked from pretty much every photo I could find of the locomotives and it is as faithful as I could get (except for the aforementioned choice with the drive rods). Fortunately it is a lot easier to find pictures of preserved steam engines than it is for locomotives that are completely extinct. When putting the original post together I neglected to link to photos of the prototypes. Here are a few for the curious folks 1 2 3 4. The kicker of it was that only after I finished building the model did I find the detailed schematics someone had posted. jayhurst: who's to say you can't belong to two lego clubs? COLTC already has MattH and Gcarstensen. Pull you in and we could reopen the Lima locomotive works (grin). Seriously though, it would be great to have you in for the occasional show. Zblj: Yep, bent antennas. This model is 100% uncut lego (bent, not broken). As for how I powered the engine, see this RailBricks post for the basic idea. As soon as I can, I'll add a couple of photos to my gallery from preliminary testing of the the tender innards (it is packed very tight to get everything in there, hardly a stud to spare). Benn PS, I'll have a few more PF trains debuting at BW too, but you'll have to wait until June 17th to see those.

full gallery I think I’ve built my masterpiece, I doubt I’ll ever be able to top this one. Just over a year ago, after the Emerald Night came out I decided to build a better Pacific. My chosen subject was the Southern Pacific Railroad, 4-6-2 ‘Pacific’ type steam locomotive. Several of these locomotives survived into commuter service and were preserved at the twilight of steam in the US. Two were operational in the past decade (2467 and 2472) and a third is under restoration (2479). I had planned to use the banded drivers from the Emerald Night and finally power a steam engine via the drive wheels. But then I saw Cale’s PF Y at Brickworld and pffft, now I had better propulsion to pursue. I stuck with the SP pacifics though. I finished the model a few months back and have been waiting for something special for the public debut. Since I will not make NMRA this year, what better reason than Brickworld? On the surface this model captures many distinctive details from the prototype- opening cab windows, boiler arch between the domes, cab roof vents, the roof tapering at the rear, curved hand rails around the nose, Vanderbilt tender with running boards, three axle tender trucks, and much more. Under the surface the two XL-PF motors deliver a lot of pull and the suspension under the engine can handle very bumpy track. A quick (and incomplete) list of the highlights, first the brilliant tricks blatantly borrowed from others, pilot/cow catcher- Tony main rod- EN (yeah, it is bulky, but is it any worse than pinning together half beams? I wanted to do something more decorative, but decided to go with functional for this model) cylinders- Cale (with tweaks) propulsion- Cale/Swoofty/Tony/et al front cab windows- Garret marker boards- Jayhurst (hey, why aren’t you in COLTC) cab steps- Garret and the tricks/features I came up with on my own (some wheels have likely been reinvented) curved grab irons on nose smoke box door- it is safely secured five chime whistle (repurposed crystal- bonus points for use of useless part) 3 wide steam domes (okay, I stole that one from myself on an update of my NP tenwheeler) arch in the boiler between domes (I was having troubles capturing it with my camera, but it is there) hatches in cab roof cut on rear cab roof opening windows on cab running boards on Vanderbilt tender almost all of the major piping on the locomotive reverser gear tender truck frames suspension (she’s well hung) hiding two XL motors and all the PF gear in the tender (she’ll pull a Buick alright) and more... During a shake down run last fall, she pulled 33 passenger cars, most of the time with the train in four separate curves. I’ll post photos from under the PF “hood” and videos as soon as I can. full gallery

You mean like this? (grin) Okay, back to the main topic. Benn

Now that the games are out in the UK and at least a few other parts of Europe, has anyone actually played one yet? Any reports would be of interest. Benn