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zephyr1934

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Everything posted by zephyr1934

  1. zephyr1934
    Finally passengers are allowed to board a city train! They've invented doors.
  2. zephyr1934
    Oh no, I think your warning was perfect and appropriate. There are a lot of newbe folks in this forum who bump a 5 yr old post and at best, gum up the recent activity, and at worst, reignite some squabble that was settled years ago. It would be impossible for the admins to read between the lines to differentiate the small difference between constructive vs vacant posts. So this is the one out of ten that does add to the conversation. For which I think the wording was perfect with "please be careful". @Jim did not say "don't" he said "be careful" And in this case I would totally agree with you that @SDLgo9 sparked a great discussion. SDL exercised care and Jim's comments are still relevant for all of the other ancient threads (a small number of which should judiciously be revived at some point in the future). Jim's comments in this thread transcend this thread.
  3. zephyr1934
    I think Lego should do two things (1) make a 3 in 1 set of train cars, (2) make one of the city sets with an 0-6-0 steam locomotive I've actually figured out how to integrate quartering into instructions. When building up the frame integrate holes in the right spots for the pins, so on one side there would be holes right in front of the axle holes on the other side holes right above or below. Next, the instructions insert temporary axles in these holes. Next, put the wheels on INCLUDING over the temporary axles. Next, remove the axles and add the rods. I wouldn't say idiot proof, but far more resistant.
  4. zephyr1934
    very clever
  5. zephyr1934
    Well played
  6. zephyr1934
    It won't be as sturdy... in fact it might not be sturdy at all, but you could use that to your advantage and have that weakness be where the top separates from the bottom... but I'm getting ahead of myself. Right now from bottom to top you have brackets holding a 3xn assembly of snotted 2xn curved slopes and 1xn tiles. Above which, you have an assembly of windows etc. Get rid of the 1xn snotted tiles and make it a 2xn assembly of just snotted 2xn curved slopes. Convert all or some of the up brackets to being 1x2 x 1x2 (instead of 1x2 x 2x2) Flip the window assembly upside down and on the downward pointing studs of the windows, do two rows of 1xn plates and then 1xnx1 panels. The panels will slip nicely in behind the 2xn assembly of snotted curve slopes where the top of the 1x2 x 2x2 brackets currently are. The height will be the same. Only troubles are (1) not really sturdy but maybe internal details like seats could lock it into place and the two rows of 1x plates gives you the ability to add a lot of longitudinal strength, and (2) makes it difficult to do a good roof.
  7. zephyr1934
    You are getting such great detail into these locomotives. I really like the "the real engines behind Sodor" that you are building here.
  8. zephyr1934
    That allows confirmation of: all plastic wheels (no surprise): 38339 1/2 raised train base plate: 64954 The cab sides are black: 65734 dark blay 6x28 train baseplate: 92339
  9. zephyr1934
    That's why it comes with the solar charging station. This train only runs on sunny days.
  10. zephyr1934
    Very nice layout. For such a high quality display it is very surprising that you had such a low turnout. Looks like a top notch presentation. I also liked the little 12v train with a public transformer.
  11. zephyr1934
    Looks like the locomotive is on a dark blay 6x28 train baseplate. The auto carrier has yellow bogie plates (will they ever be black again? sigh). They are definitely striving to keep the part count as low as possible on the cars, with that said, I think the auto carrier and gondola are very good minimalistic part builds. The way the cars are locked down is clever. I don't like the flatcar but the locking mechanism does give play value. One of the members of my LUG has already pointed out the interesting new plat part in the container.
  12. zephyr1934
    Obviously I was not advocating for Lego to enforce the system like this, it was really a comment on the occasional stupidity of Lego rigidly enforcing the system. In their mindlessness, I could totally seem them pouncing on the track if they had noticed it.
  13. zephyr1934
    When I was in college I volunteered on a number of operating steam engines (never an expert, at best a mediocre fireman). It was stunning how many person hours were spent in the shop for each mile the locomotive ran, and this was with relatively new steam locomotives (ca. 1905-1930). Which got me thinking, what kind of idiot in the 1820's thought that putting a boiler on wheels was a good idea. Obviously rail travel had proven its value after the deployment of steam locomotives, but what were they thinking when they made that first step. But that was before I understood the canal era. Hand cut stone to make locks, reversing the flow of rivers, maintaining a level water depth 9+ months of the year. Compared to all of that, making a boiler on wheels work was trivial. And I also did not understand the the wagonways that predated steam locomotives, which enabled the development of steam locomotives in the first place.
  14. zephyr1934
    Very nice! Did the show go well? You don't have a loop of track, were you running open ended or just static with the trains?
  15. zephyr1934
    You're probably right, without a return curve on the diverge it breaks the system. But apparently the Lego Police don't speak train and haven't for at least 12 yrs, see the loop in the bottom right the 60198 cover from 2018 and a sample layout from 7939 from 2010 Putting a switch right after a curve is also something I try to avoid but it is probably Lego legal.
  16. zephyr1934
    You know, this is one spot where I might have a unique market insight. With the introduction of the BrickTracks wide radius curves (and subsequently similar curves by many other suppliers) longer rods have steadily become more popular, presumably because people can now build functioning steam engines with XL and XXL drivers.
  17. zephyr1934
    The T1 Trust model is also designed by Tony. As per the first post in this thread, this is about v4 of his MOC, whereas the T1 Trust model looks to be v3.
  18. zephyr1934
    That is an amazingly space efficient design the way you nest the battery connectors around the motor. I also like how you incorporated the door rails to keep the tiles even with the base. For the wheels, can you slip a half bushing on the main axles too? So it is: wheel, bevel gear, half bushing, full bushing, wheel
  19. zephyr1934
    Actually most of my observations date back to long conversations with various AFOL's that served as input to the train revolution in the early 2000's, serving as an ambassador, and just picking up on trends. When I was an ambassador I brought up trains every now and then and the big concern from Lego wasn't whether they would be profitable, it was the fact that they wanted a limited number of SKU's. So trains were just not profitable enough to have much presence in the lineup. A self-contained train set sells, a cross track will only sell occasionally, so the minimize # of SKU's does not help a system of trains even if the cross track is only available online direct from Lego. That's bean counters strictly chasing profit. But in all of that the point did come up that Lego does recognize that trains help sell bricks to build large AFOL layouts (though no doubt that Lego administration has probably been completely replaced by now). Meanwhile, I've probably picked up more insight by participating in the EB forums than I have as a third party seller. I suspect there is an exponential curve of AFOL train fans 1000 AFOL's who bought and built 1-2 train sets (unknown number of them reading but few contributing to EB) 100 AFOL's who modded said train set (like above in terms of participating on EB) 10 AFOL's who MOC and/or buy MOC's but are purists (many of whom participate on EB) 1 AFOL who is over the top (many of whom are more active on other forums) Then there is probably a reverse trend, the further you are down this list, the more likely you are to use third party parts (tracks, batteries, couplers, stickers, rods, etc.). With rods, I am only serving the niche that builds steam engines, so there is a large segment that I never see.
  20. zephyr1934
    Couldn't you just make your own transition using brackets an cheese bricks? Simplest would be a 1x2 x 2x2 up bracket on the platform side with cheese bricks to transition to a tilted ramp. More aesthetic might be to use bricks or 1x6x5 panels to make the ramp and top it with cheese bricks, or you could build studs sideways for the ramp and use wedge plates or wedge bricks to make the smooth transitions on the ends of the ramp
  21. zephyr1934
    Looks like a generous portion of straight track in the new freight set, that's good to see.
  22. zephyr1934
    Ah, okay, you could probably make that work IRL using just modified (cut) whip antennas.
  23. zephyr1934
    I think Lego is on auto-pilot with the city trains- they make enough money that they can continue, but not enough to get much design attention. From back in the days of ILTCO (roughly 2004-2010) there was also talk about how Lego does not get much from the trains themselves, but they are viewed as the glue that enables massive AFOL city displays. So all they have to do is provide the simple sets and they will see a massive return on investment by AFOL's building not only buildings but also landscape, ballasted track, etc.
  24. zephyr1934
    That is a stunning build. The detailing throughout is over the top, my favorite might be the cab detailing and how you've done the front of the cab/roof interface. The pivoting pilot is also brilliant. So what is the gray part along the top side of the boiler, is that a string or ???
  25. zephyr1934
    I just can't help myself... but can you blame me? You know, that kind of explains why so much freight traffic has moved from trains to trucks in the US (but I'm wandering completely off topic) The main reason Lego eliminated 9v was cost (safety might have been a secondary benefit, but cost was the #1 reason). Lego had to make the track, ship it to a third party to make and add the metal, then ship it back, then package it. Components like switches and cross-tracks required complex assembly. They were making $0 on the track. Back before Lego went corporate it was okay to not make a profit, but they did go too far into quality that they almost went bankrupt doing it. So someone eventually realized how much they were losing on the metal track, they did like their fans enough that they ran the molds until they needed to be redone and then ceased production. After which they switched to plastic, costing only a few pennies per segment but selling for over 50% of what the metal track sold for and definitely a profit making part.
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