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zephyr1934

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Everything posted by zephyr1934

  1. zephyr1934
    Yeah, Harry Potter people are like that (just kidding, couldn't resist)
  2. zephyr1934
    Well, 6 wide is unrealistic at minifig scale, but it is not in itself unrealistic. That said, if you are careful and deliberate you can step from 8 wide to 7 to 6 in one train. I frequently do 8 wide steamer, 7 wide tender, 6 wide cars. Tank cars and flat cars are probably the easiest cars to hide the transition because there is so little of them at the full width. Height is one thing to think about, if you make your 8 wide a hair short and 7 wide a hair tall, then a freight train of mixed 7 & 8 wide should blend in nicely. Obviously, a passenger train is the biggest challenge, with the full width, flat sided cars designed to look alike its going to be impossible to hide. Exactly that, if you like it then it works
  3. zephyr1934
    Sounds like glass half full or half empty. In this case you could claim that it is a perfect reproduction and there's nothing out there to prove you wrong (grin)
  4. zephyr1934
    Smoooooooooth!
  5. zephyr1934
    Toastie's solution is a nice failsafe, but you could also do a hidden failsafe using a bit of tape in the rail connection to isolate the last bit of track (either direction) and a diode to make the track beyond "one way" power. That's one of the nice features of 9v
  6. zephyr1934
    Looking good. One thought, I would try to get a technic half beam on either side of that gear stack to ensure the gears do not force themselves apart. Right now it looks like it is technic axle clutch on the left and stud clutch on the right. In fact you could probably just use full technic beams in place of the axle connectors and bricks.
  7. zephyr1934
    Excellent work!
  8. zephyr1934
    Nice! You've essentially made your own reed switch
  9. zephyr1934
    Another great build. From the length of the display stand will there be a train coming to match the loco?
  10. zephyr1934
    I think in option 2 you DO want both motors turning the same way. In option 2 you can control for different motor directions in how you place the bevel gears on the axles. That said, option 1 is superior because it relies on double bevel gears which are a lot stronger than the single bevel gears. Also, it does not concentrate all of the power on just one gear. Personally, I would build an axle connector between the two flanged drive axles, but I'm extra cautious. It does have the benefit that you can power the central axle wherever it is convenient rather than coming straight down on the drive axles themselves. You probably have room to do a third option, But you would also need to hide the bottom of the motors in this case That doesn't surprise me one bit, just look at your avatars, you're practically twins. (grin)
  11. zephyr1934
    Fascinating. Summing it up: If one only considers the options available directly from Lego (red and yellow): the metal axles (just discontinued, molded plastic needle bearings) do better on the straights, things swap and the new split plastic axles do a lot better on R40, might be better on R88 but very close and worse on R104 but very close. With graphite, the the metal axles perform better than the plastic on R40 Throughout ball bearings beat them all Adding personal experience, on the straights the ball bearings do not look much better than the metal axles in your tests, but in my personal experience they make a huge difference even on straight track (cars roll away on their own to find the low point in the track)
  12. zephyr1934
    Indeed, even the prototypes were monsters that were difficult to deal with in their day. You might want to do some tests under load. It looks like your bevel gears will only be held together by the weight of the boiler. I would imagine that could allow the gears to skip when pulling a heavy train around curves, and especially when running over uneven track. Slipping gears could cause stalling and wearing out of the gears more quickly.
  13. zephyr1934
    Wow, you see the weirdest prototypes in this forum, that's a neat inspiration and great interpretation with your MOC
  14. zephyr1934
    Yes, it is possible to do lego trains on o-gauge track, but it takes a lot of determination. Here's my story. You have to lose 5 mm to fit the o-gauge track, that is almost an entire stud, which makes many things difficult: propulsion, wheels, etc.. Roller bearings help A LOT, but require custom length axles. There are a couple of different types of o-gauge track, the "I" rail is great, the rounded rail adds further hassles for curves (o-gauge wheels have wide treads, lego train wheels have narrow treads). Probably easier to take normal o-gauge trucks and motors, then build lego on top of that. On a side note, Marklin (HO) and LGB (G) sell cars with lego studs on them
  15. zephyr1934
    Nothing says happy winter holidays like an open side trolley/tram.
  16. zephyr1934
    You have been working the black magic of mechanical engineering you have, and I must say, you have become quite the dark wizard. Completely inconceivable design.
  17. zephyr1934
    As is your normal, that is an amazing build!
  18. zephyr1934
    Oh wow, that is amazing! How on earth did you get so much detail in such a little space?
  19. zephyr1934
    Can't wait to see what tricks you produce That makes my head hurt. But aside from the brain-strain it is looking great Your topic has got my interest, I assume you've seen the following links, Middle of this notes a lot of references to what appears to be a trade journal, "The Engineer, 1 April 1938." (but I bet they reproduced all of the relevant photos on the webpage). This Wikipedia page discusses the interior of the line car
  20. zephyr1934
    Wow! You might have successfully overshadowed 7777 with this work. I'd be a little cautious about all the railfans though, nothing but trouble
  21. zephyr1934
    More of the impossible curves realized in Lego, always amazing (I hate to imagine if the cat were to scale though)
  22. zephyr1934
    Technic bricks pinned together can still have a lot of sag. If you want stiffness, a sandwich of three plates tall will be stiffer. That is simply a "just in case" suggestion if the technic gives you problems. How did you articulate the cars? It would be interesting to see your solution because getting sufficient clearance on curves can be tricky.
  23. zephyr1934
    I think it was the clutch of the printed pieces. Might have been alignment too.
  24. zephyr1934
    Ah, I thought you were only building digitally, at which point available colors does not matter. Regardless, right after posting I had to say "Doh!" because I realized that of course, the curved end is longer than it is wide. Looks great regardless.
  25. zephyr1934
    That is an impossible prototype for which you are bending the laws of physics to prove it to be very possible. Would the curved slope corner help in this build? Impressive work so far, you must be heavily congested with all that snot (grin)
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