zephyr1934

Indeed, I bet that locomotive is over half way to a blue EN, it even has the gold stripes. That is probably the easiest path to an ok locomotive As I said earlier in this thread, I really don't think lego will ever do anything longer than 3 L drivers with 9 stud spacing between the axles. This length already starts to have problems in R40 curves. Folks here know how to tweak it to work, but the average customer will not. And that was well deserved... could you imagine going in that direction? But anyway, back on topic... I'm 65% certain it is dark blue (and I'll be horribly disappointed if it isn't). If it is dark blue a lot of folks will also use this as a parts pack.

Nice start. It looks like you are aiming for someone who has done enough customizing to know how (or be willing to take the leap) to buying BBB or similar XXL drivers. However, I THINK the new set is dark blue, whereas your build is normal blue. If so, there are much fewer parts available in dark blue (e.g., the hinge bricks and windows). If sticking with normal blue you would also have to recolor the tender and the locomotive will be a different color the train, which would be fine, in fact blue and dark blue can make a good combination, but then other colors become an option too. I would think a variant for "completely new to MOCing" that uses the L wheels that come with the locomotive would also be of interest- where a builder new to customizing only has to figure out how to get Lego parts (which is a lot easier now with the online PAB). In this case reusing as much of the parts as possible that come for the standard locomotive would also be good.

Oh, cool, a dark blue parts pack with train elements!!! Seriously though, at least in the low resolution photos the coaches look like they are better than anything I would have expected from Lego. They clearly started with the two cars (and a need for two cars) and went all out on them. I suspect they then realized oh !@#$%, we're way over budget here. Quick, do something up front. I wonder if they brought back bogie plates in black or if they just used a turntable for the bogies. I hope they used the RC train wheels (as opposed to the technic axles) simply because a pair of those cars with technic axles will be a strain on a one motor locomotive. Obviously they should be replaced with roller bearings, but the average customer will not know that. Also curious what they did for couplings. The locomotive on its own would be a huge disappointment, but it works okay with the cars. Definitely a hybrid of EN and the HP Expresses. That is too bad that they did not put much thought into the loco, but collectively it is still a fantastic gateway set for AFOL trainheads. For that I am quite pleased with the combined set. Now in defense of the locomotive, I am pretty sure the Lego police will never allow anything larger than a set of 3 axle drivers with L wheels and a max spacing of 9 studs between front and rear axle. Anything larger will potentially have problems navigating R40 track (yes, they could add another blind driver, but I don't think they want to). Also in true modern lego "only just enough is sufficient" sure, we'll finally give you side rods for your train, but only one type of rod, no two hole connecting rods for you! The whole lego price point model is holding this set back. Yes, they could add so much more to this set and make a profit, but if they instead used the SKU for another Star Wars set they could make even more profit. The accountants know what they are doing. The choice of the prototype could not be beat for world wide recognition, and the dark blue is going to help it sell. All in all that should help AFOL trains for the next few years. If it sells well it might also be the launching point for a modular train station (a person can dream) PS, I'm pretty sure that's the Belville bucket for the stack. I had occasionally contemplated that parts usage, but it always seemed a little to large to me.

Excellent and that was the biggest thing I was looking for. I'd really hate to be the only one on the planet to get a particular warning message (grin). Okay, maybe that's even better to hear. I guess I was unclear, the train ran for 30 min and I shut it off, it appeared to still have plenty of juice in it. Yes, I'm using the lego 10v charger. I don't really care if the battery never tops off, but it is good to hear that it probably has plenty of life left in it since the batteries have been discontinued for so long. I'll know for sure about the run time on Sat when I plan to run it until it is exhausted.

The battery is built into a MOC so to spot any minor swelling would require disassembly. Major swelling would probably pop the MOC apart and there's no sign of that. I just tried a volt meter and got just above 8v (consistent with no load here). So that tells me that neither cell is completely dead. I don't mind if the train only runs for 30 min and then stops, at this point that's easier than taking the MOC apart. I will have 6 other locomotives with me so I'd just box it up.

I have a PF Rechargeable Battery 84599/8878 that was charged at least 5 hrs but the charging indicator light still flashes red, instead of going to solid red indicating fully charged. I used two different chargers (both are Lego PF chargers). In the meantime I charged several other batteries in the same setup, all of which went to solid red after about 2 hrs. So it is almost certainly the specific battery. I'm starting to prepare for a small public train display next week, so that means pulling out all of my locomotives with built in 8878 batteries for the trains I plan to run and topping off the batteries. After at least 4 hrs of charging I took the engine off the charger and attached it to a train to see if it had any charge and to eliminate the possibility that it was simply stuck in an "almost full" or "just barely over full" state. It pulled fine for at least 30 min. Then I put it back on the charger for maybe 2 hrs and the red charging light continued to flash, never going to solid red. I probably last charged and then ran this engine at brickworld 2022, with the charge indicator light going to "full," I did not fully discharge the battery at that time, and I don't think I've used or charged it since. Several of the other batteries have had a similar or longer idle time. But this locomotive is probably the most heavily used of my collection, so it makes sense that it would be the first to wear out. My current thoughts are: 1) if the battery is not behaving as expected it probably meas that it is at or near the end of its useful life (at least without a major overhaul to replace the cells) 2) it is a Lego battery that has not been abused so it will probably fail safe, i.e., the train might stop running but it probably will not burst in to flames (in a literal sense) while in storage, charging or running 3) so my strategy is to run the train until the battery turns itself off (either depletion or timing out after 2 hrs) while keeping track of how long it lasts (typically this train would time out at 2hr but be mostly depleted at that point) and I'll recharge from there to see what happens. Anyone with more knowledge about these things have any reason to question these thoughts? Meanwhile, there are some nice threads about these batteries never going to full charge (blinking red without going to full charge) but it seems those batteries did not hold any power. And in one case doing a major overhaul to replace the cells (I'm not prepared to go there right now)

Yes, definitely something to contact Lego customer service about. The tram should be able to make the curves okay, and given the popularity of the set I'm sure there would have been a wide outcry if the cars are fundamentally flawed. If the issue is that it works fine if it were going in a loop, but the time variability is too much to rely on for your automation, that might be beyond lego specifications and not something they would be able to help with. Two thoughts in that regard, perhaps removing the traction bands from one side of the motor might make it take curves better (on a curve the wheels on one side will want to move faster than those on the other side). The other thought is that a color sensor is not a bad idea to add if you can find the room. They are very cheap for what they do, and you could even add a color block to "increase power" as you go into the curve. I think I caught covid a week after typing that (but there were no tests and officially no covid in the US at that point) and then I got distracted by a few things (grin). I'm pretty sure that was referring to making bearing holders for technic axles. I have since made a working prototype, but have not gone further yet. If there's a lot of interest by someone who wants to beta test they can PM me.

Ah, I wasn't thinking about color match, but light gray for the bar might also work. It isn't prototypical with the original but it also would not attract undue attention. If you want something like a bar in Medium Azure, there are often minifig utensils or weapons that might work. In this case it looks like there's a ski pole, a staff (only for non-purists since it would need cutting down), or sword

<blush> thank you. And yes, that is a good connection with Railroadn, probably the modern equivalent to MNS. They were a strange line, if the engine crews caught you trespassing along the right of way they were likely to invite you up for a cab ride. That's probably why they have so many fans.

Excellent, it sounds like you are among the top 10 experts of lego track! (sadly, probably no one at lego is in that league). And you have the resources + skills to address just about any issue that comes up. I'm looking forward to seeing how your layout evolves. Meanwhile, another thought for you, perhaps BTD would be interested in marketing printed versions of your new track designs.

Looking good! Perhaps build a few clips into the existing bogie that hold a bar out beyond the wheels and then use 1x1 plates with clips to get the right level of grebling?

@Space78I think the 9v motors and the PF train motors are about the same power-wise (one might be a little better than the other, but in the noise). My MNS sw1200's are very light, so more weight probably would have worked but it would have been a completely new build anyway at that point. I agree, I hate messing with AAA batteries, but I still have a couple of the PF rechargeable batteries. I'll probably cry a little when I use the last one. At any rate, no, I cannot easily switch the SD39 to 9v because the wires to the PF motors are built into the locomotive. It would require a lot of disassembly. It would be easier to build another copy (#41) and swap it between 9v and unpowered. @DuqThank you thank you. Truth be told, I can't wait to get it on a large layout. Right now it has only run on my shop layout (about 12'x12') but that's big enough to appreciate the train. My club has a show scheduled in two weeks but that layout is even smaller, 6'x10' (!@#$%). One of these days I'll do a big layout though.

The build looks fantastic, you've made some tricky angles look easy Well, at least you were not asking much... (grin) seriously though, those are some demanding targets to hit all of them at once. Pretty impressive.

That is crazy cool!

Again, you are all so kind, thank you. @JopieK Oh, I like that idea, the "some-good-name elevator". @Eki1210 and @bogieman it seems like every rail fan who is old enough to remember the late 70's that I talk to about this never really thought about how colorful the freight trains where back then and they typically let out a sigh (sadly I missed the heyday of the even more colorful passenger trains... sigh). @vijv got any blue milk? @Space78 La Crosse is a great place, as for the stickers, see below. @LEGO Train 12 Volts from one of the kings of amazing builds that means a lot. @cbqmp27 would your handle be mile post 10 on the Burlington? See below about the stickers. As for the MNS operations, I like the way they would just mix and match different engines, it was common to see one of the SD39's coupled to a pair of SW1200's on the point of a train. My pair of 9v SW1200's are on deck to get their wheels updated and a matching unpowered truck so that they can ride along with the SD too (but back to the 9v motors when on "electrified territory", grin). MNS also did flat yard switching as if it were a hump yard, go fast, cut off a few cars and let them roll down the respective track, it was crazy. So for the stickers, I lay them out on my computer and then go to a commercial sign shop to have them printed. It is expensive per sheet, so I pack a lot on a sheet to make it cost effective. For a while I had a shop where I could get kiss cut stickers (that was great) but my contact moved on. So now I print cut lines just outside of the artwork area. Then lots and lots of cutting, e.g., MILWAUKEE was 9 different pieces, but I made them extra long so that they go to the the bottom of the door rail plates which I then used for alignment.

I believe that's what they do at BTD. In terms of your new track, a couple of things you might want to be cautious of. Before Bricktracks and then FX Tracks, Big Ben Bricks prototyped a wide radius track system that did not go into production. It had rails separate from the ties/sleepers and I believe they encountered problems with the rails separating over time. If you stick with the rails separate from the ties (or some other lateral connection) you might want to stress test it to make sure you have enough clutch. Maybe you could do every 2nd 1x tie 3D printed for the lateral reinforcement? Meanwhile, before BBB there were the ME Model wide radius curves. They had many problems, but the most relevant here is that their 9v rails did not make good electrical contact at the joints. So that is also something you will want to test to make sure it works with your design. And no matter what, the fewer joints generally the less power loss (that remains true even with FX Track)

Thank you all for such kind words. @SD100 Yes, for almost any train build it is truly amazing how much difference a few decals do in making the build pop. @Murdoch17 funny you should mention that, the elevator is an old build and all of the silos fell apart last time I transported it (inside its all duplo and quatro) so I had to rebuild it just to take the photos. Gray 4x8 curved plates are now available in quantity from S@H so it is on deck for a structural redesign soon. @idlemarvel 6 wide all the way! @Feuer Zug indeed, I needed something to cover the open wheels of the roller bearing wheel sets, the cars would have looked naked without them.

Amazing work! Definitely get a shot of the old and new liveries double heading. I can totally see that in the last photo in your post showing the prototype. The new livery looks good with the cars.

That looks really good! Lots of nice detailing going on. No, don't go to shapeways, Shupp gets no money that way. Go to BTD, it's cheaper and Shupp gets a cut of the profit (or at least that was the case a few years ago, if in doubt, contact BTD first) Unless you are gearing them up, it will be more like a tugboat: a ton of power and not much speed. I have a PF engine with one battery pack, one IR receiver and 2 XL motors that has pulled over 70 cars and will stringline curves before stalling. Even then, a pair of L motors with a single battery is probably sufficient to pull most trans. Maybe leave space for a second battery and two more L motors if more power is needed later. Oh, and put some weight in the tender to keep the wheels from spinning.

Excellent Test it before jumping head first to make sure it works for your needs. It will give you larger radii, but if you are at the limits of your pulling power and using cars with bogies it might create more drag than the normal R40 curves. Each time a bogie transitions between straight and curved it has to rotate and that rotation creates resistance for the engine to overcome. I'm not saying it won't work, I'm just saying you might want to make sure there are no nasty surprises after you make a big investment.

If you are going pure digital can't you just build it and change the color at the last minute to see which is better? Or if you are planning to build it in real life and need to worry about part availability, build a sufficient cross section either digitally or physically so that you can see the color options in full context.

You can still test it before you travel to Germany. Unplug everything except the wall wart and the black controller with the yellow dial. Is the green light steady green? If so, you know the problem is on the output side. If the light is flashing in this case, perhaps the wall wart or it's wire is bad. If so, you should be able to replace that with a nonlego wall wart... of course that is assuming the controller itself is not bad. Next up, if you have a standard 9v cable with black connectors on either end, you can plug the train motor directly to the controller, just be sure to have the motor flipped upside down so it doesn't try to run away. If the motor runs and the light doesn't flash you know for sure you have a bad track connector. If the motor doesn't run, you might also have a bad 9v cable and/or a bad motor. Obviously don't attempt to modify anything you are not prepared to risk destroying. Any of the following could permanently damage your Lego, so proceed at your own risk. You do not have to stick with lego connectors. Probably the cheapest way to get power out of the train controller is to use either a 9v cable or one of the PF jumper cables (they have a 9v female connector on one end). You can then cut that cable up and connect your own wire to the cable, then solder the other end to the track, or if you are not handy with soldering, you can sneak it into one of the metal crimps that hold the metal top to the plastic track. Either way, I suggest that you do so on a curve section since the straights are more expensive. Here's an example using very cheap connectors, but I was only powering LED's and reed switches.

I'm happy to present my most recent build, a midwestern grain train from the late 1970's in the US. I've been working on it for most of this year, though the inspiration and some parts purchases date back to 2006. Towards the end of last winter I had been train watching and after about a half dozen trains, each led by a couple of black locomotives pulling a mile long monochromatic string of cars, it got me thinking about an underappreciated heyday. Between 1960 and 1990 American freight cars were a burst of color, and even had a few hints of the old school railroad pride shining through, e.g., Milwaukee Road spending the extra dollar to weld a plate on the side of their covered hoppers declaring themselves "America's Resourceful Railroad." The freight cars were 100% utilitarian in design, but in the bright colors they went a little further and said, "look at me," with each car taking a different hue. Since then, freight cars have drifted back to browns and grays only flashing a random graffiti tag for flare after a night of hanging around with the wrong crowds. I wanted to capture that era in the days just after KarTrak Automatic Car Identification's failure showed how dirty railroading in America can be. But how and what? I've always had a soft spot for covered hopper cars, in particular those based on the Pullman Standard 3 bay design. I had a go at these cars in 2006 Shortly thereafter, I started collecting 1x2 door rail plates and double convex inverted slopes in yellow to build a Milwaukee Road version. Those parts sat in a box and I hadn't returned to that prototype until now. On the flip side, I had most of the parts in hand that I needed to start testing this build. Happy with the prototype, I expanded to 5 different liveries. These covered hoppers are 6 wide, featuring custom decals. With their weight they need roller bearing trucks, to ensure the trucks match the width of the car they use custom truck sides from TrainedBricks.com. At this scale it is impossible to get all of the details, so in this design I focused on capturing the essence, e.g., a continuous slope for the bins from the end of the car to the bottom of the chute, using thin vertical and horizontal members on the ends of the cars. Several of the cars have prototypical placards 1/2 plate out from the ribbing. A couple of the cars consumed almost all of the double convex inverted slopes available on bricklink in the given color. As with most of my designs, these cars are designed to negotiate R40 curves, and in turn, replicating the form of the prototype gave me a true appreciation of the design of the actual cars. Of course, once you start down the rabbit hole of looking at covered hopper cars, you wind up seeing lots of other cool cars... and the potential to build in colors that do not have door rails (dark green). Well, next thing I knew, I also had a design for the ACF center flow covered hopper cars. Once more the covered hoppers are 6 wide. These cars were designed as a complement to the Pullman Standard cars to fill out the fleet and bring in a few more colors/liveries. Why stop at 8 cars? Good question, of course you need a Canadian cylindrical covered hopper, who doesn't need a cylindrical hopper car? So I built one too. Now I know you've all been there, you build a MOC and then discover you need a second MOC to support the first MOC (or in this case, a 10th MOC to support the first 9). When I started out I did not worry too much about what would pull these cars. I have a few period appropriate 9v locomotives, most recent of which are from 2014, a pair of SW1200's. While there was one major solution (FX Track) two problems remained, (1) my old 9v locomotives were not powerful enough to pull the full train, and (2) it has been over a decade since I've run 9v trains in public. I originally thought that I would eventually address #2 at some later point in time, but #1 escalated the need. So off I went to build a period appropriate PF locomotive. I returned to MNS, the same road as the SW1200's. Minneapolis Northfield and Southern was a spunky shortline with a long history and a large fan club for a railroad with just over 80 miles of track. They had a history of unusual locomotives starting with their predecessor, the never electrified Dan Patch Electric Lines and the first successful gas-electric locomotive that was the predecessor to diesel electric locomotives, to a fleet of massive Baldwin center cab locomotives built in the late 40's (nicknamed the "blue dragons"), and their last purchased locomotives the SD39's in 1968. These were essentially SD40's with smaller prime movers (and thus, lower horsepower). They were painted in a distinct dark blue with a single white stripe running the length of the locomotive. The SD39's served until the MNS was purchased by Soo Line in 1982 and one has returned to the shortline (Progressive Rail) that now operates a portion of the old MNS route. My 6 wide SD39 has a lot packed inside, including 2 PF train motors, 1 rechargeable PF battery pack, an IR receiver, a pole reverser, and four weight bricks. Fitting it all in required some compromises, like filling the cab with the IR receiver, and my desire to make the white stripe brick built as much as possible made fitting the battery a lot more complicated. One obvious tradeoff is that the long hood is 5 studs wide to hide the battery, I would have preferred to keep it 4 studs wide. But also a little ingenuity to plow through some of the challenges. If you look closely at the side views, just above the fuel tank you can seek a small patch of dark gray from the battery. I used an old school 4.5v motor plate with 4x8 cutout to drop the battery down below the white stripe and snotted studs to hold the tiles on that cover the side of the battery. The build uses custom stickers, 3-axle motor covers and fan housings from trainedbricks.com, and custom railings to keep them closer to proportional than the brick built alternatives. But I did have to use the classic train wagon ends as a nod to the fact that this is a Lego train after all. Okay... just one more problem, I didn't have a respectable MNS caboose. So now I needed an 11th MOC to support the 10th. The MNS purchased 3 new bay window cabooses in 1972 and like the SD39's, these served until the MNS was purchased by Soo Line in 1982 and one has returned to the shortline (Progressive Rail) that now operates a portion of the old MNS route. The caboose is 6 wide (8 at the bays), featuring custom decals, roller bearing trucks to match the hopper cars. The net result is my all new MNS grain train, with 5 Pullman Standard 3 bay covered hopper cars, 3 ACF 3 bay covered hopper cars, 1 Canadian cylindrical covered hopper car, an MNS SD39 and MNS bay window caboose. All in liveries that would have been seen in the late 1970's or early 1980's. The total length is about 11 ft. All of the cars are 6 wide. Click here for a mediocre video of the train in action I hope you enjoy the train. Questions, comments and constructive suggestions are always welcome The full album is here

That locomotive is simply striking in blue

FX Bricks needs a slogan like "only the best is good enough" (especially since that other company has settled for "only good enough is good enough"). While frustrating, I think ME is taking a good course and in the long run a slight delay to get the superior product is worth the wait. I'm pretty sure the FX track are a labor of love rather than a path to making tons of money (pick two: fast, cheap, high quality). Between ME models folding up after taking all of the pre-orders for metal track (they probably lost their shirts in the process) and seeing all of the engineering FX is putting into these components, it is becoming clear just how amazingly thought out the original 9v system was