zephyr1934

I don't know, doesn't lego get the correct proportion of helicopters right? (grin) Yes, 9 and 11 long half lift arms should have been introduced years ago. There is this elusive 16 long lift arm in BL, if it is a real lego part, maybe they tried longer than 7 and decided it was not strong enough. There are plenty of the modern buffer beams available, if you just want train parts getting a city train set has been the way to go for at least 20 years. The trouble is that for the last 15 years the magnets have been integrated into an unswallowable part for safety reasons. My cheap fix is to cut off the buffer beams. Of course the new train wheels kind of sinks the value of a city train set as a parts pack The windows were lost to cost savings and standardization- the specialized glass was expensive (but man did it look good) and who needs a bit of curve in the corner (at least by corporate logic). The magnets are gone due to safety reasons and I suspect that is what happened to the LiPo battery boxes too (they literally disappeared overnight). So while I do not like any of these disappearing, I at least think I understand why. I don't know, every time I spend $60 on a car or $300 on a locomotive I'm surprised to see my cost in line with HO. But I get the feeling that prices on the reseller market for parts have gone up by at least 20% since covid so my price basis is probably out of date.

I don't know, until you start paying attention I would agree with @SteamSewnEmpire that all of the early locomotives blur together. That could work in your favor, since an Ideas model needs to look good on the desk of a non-train person and more so because the regional distinction is close to zero compared to a TGV, the Flying Scottsman or a SD40. Of course once you start paying attention to early locomotives, over a span of a few decades the designs changed significantly every few years. I suspect there is limited interest in early locomotives, so at most, Lego would only make one set, but there might be enough interest for a single set and the fact that your design is PU compatible helps in that regard. But getting back to my first comment, I would not expect any train submitted to Ideas to turn into a set, but it is like playing the lottery, as long as you don't mind the fact that you have a minuscule chance of winning, if you do win it is a big win. A couple of other random thoughts, 1) I don't know how much interest there might be in early locomotives in the general lego community, or even among train-head AFOLs. I suspect that a typical rail fan's favorite trains were the ones that were still running but in the process of disappearing when they were kids. So that brings both regional and temporal constraints on the market 2) If you look around, there are some pretty good MOCs of the Rocket at minifig scale 3) One subject that might get an edge in Ideas is revisiting the theme of set 396, Thatcher Perkins. Strangely the set was based on a US locomotive but was never for sale in the US

That is an amazing build! The greebling is more than convincing and there are a ton of clever tricks all over the locomotive, e.g., I like how you did the extra slope in the cab roof. Of course the interior of the cab is over the top to get so much detail in such a small space. Then to top it all off you fit all of the electronics in the locomotive. Now you just need several dozen cars to shunt around (grin)

A great build The submission of trains to Lego Ideas is strictly for entertainment purposes only. So far no train has made it, and only 2-3 hit the 10k mark. It is still good to wave the flag though.

The modern Lego company views every set they release as an opportunity cost for a different set they could have released. So if a single AFOL train set would sell well, but an extra Ninjago set would sell better, they go with the Ninjago set. However, Lego has long recognized the spending power of the train heads (one train backed by thousands of dollars in town on a display, and the marketing power of a lego train layout they did not have to pay for... who could ask for more) so they toss us bones like the occasional new part (cowcatcher). I have long believed they are moving slowly towards being able to produce small run sets and the slow increase in the annual number of Ideas and Creator Expert sets (not to mention the small bonus sets at S@H) suggest they are moving in that direction... it should only be another 10-20 yrs for them to get there (meanwhile the clone brands seem to be there already) There were two times where Lego trains bloomed- the 1980's, and they started to do so again around 2001 with the MOT and Super Chief lines. They were even poised to have a booth at NMRA NTS in 2005. But that was the end of "only the best is good enough" as they were slipping into bankruptcy. Since then they've gotten lean and mean, and have come to dominate the toy world. Indeed, the color availability is quite the challenge, but I like working around the limited pallet of various colors (e.g., before there were dark green 1x1's I'd use 1x6's across the inside when needed). But that is unavoidable- take the number of parts multiplied by the number of colors and you get some huge number. Not so, it is a bimodal distribution, with one peak at 68 and a second peak at 4. Major marketing has put trains somewhere between dinosaurs and superheros in the development of boys. (Maybe there's a third peak at 30 of the parents sitting there on their smart phones). That's why NMRA and other train shows love Lego trains, we bring in the 5-14 yr olds.

That thing's a monster! Great job capturing it. As for colors, gray is always tough to capture in photos. But you can CAD it up both ways to see which you like best. Whenever I have troubles with color or geometry decisions I MOC up a small sample with the colors together, anything from a stack of 2x4's to actually building the key feature in isolation.

Ha ha, excellent point (I assume you mean pieces rather than prices), probably beyond a chicken or an egg and straight to ironic. Maybe TLG could be talked into parting with few copies of a crocodile for this category. But of all the impure thoughts, I would think using non-lego track is among the smallest sin.

I called it! Congratulations!

I do not envy the job of the BTA judges, there were some really amazing builds and I cannot imagine having to pick just one winner per region in each category. Congratulations to all who submitted and a big thank you for everyone who worked so hard behind the scenes! Two suggestions for future years: (1) it would be great if BTA added a "pure Lego" category with no paint, no glue, no modified parts, no clone bricks, and no 3rd party parts. Potentially allow stickers though, since Lego does stickers. And if the pure Lego category proves crowded, in following years expand it accordingly. (2) many of the categories focus on a single piece of rolling stock (car or locomotive). It would be nice to have a "train" category that requires at least one locomotive and at least one car (either of which could be replaced with self-propelled cars). For the first iteration let it be a single category that accepts both passenger and freight trains.

I think BTA is trying to highlight the best looking Lego trains (or more specifically, trains built predominantly of Lego). The complexity of builds has come a long way and custom parts range from adding the "pop" to enabling the build. Most steam engines with more than 3 axles only exist because of the 3rd party wide radius curves that are available (and almost all of those that can handle R40 curves look ungainly when in an R40 curve). On the flip side, there are all sorts of new lego parts that make complex building easier. I still think cheese bricks should be illegal (grin). And don't get me started about the 1x1 x 1x1 brackets, builds that were impossible a few years ago have become trivial). I spent weeks working out the nose of my Pioneer Zephyr, but with the modern brackets it would have taken me an hour or two. But I wouldn't give up all of these great new parts. There are amazing builders at all levels of "purity". I have the highest respect for people who are able to pull off great builds with no part modification or 3rd party parts, and even more amazement to those who do so after limiting their pallet to parts that existed prior to some particular year, e.g., the 12v era. In that spirit, it would be great if BTA added a "pure Lego" category with no paint, no glue, no modified parts, no clone bricks, and no 3rd party parts. And if that proves crowded, in following years expand it accordingly.

Thank you, I think every year an Amfleet MOC has taken home a Brick Train Award (or to put it another way, this is the second year in a row). I do not envy the job of the BTA judges, there were some really amazing builds and I cannot imagine having to pick just one per region from them all.

Neat to see the cars complete and the comments at the end of the original post are spot on.

Holly roller skates and socket wrenches Batman! (Well played.)

Exactly, that is why in the closing of the review I noted that if you have a ton of plastic track perhaps 9v might never be for you. On the other hands, t's a no brainer for someone with 9v and something to consider if you have not yet made a large investment. BTW, great layout, but should probably move any further discussion to another thread. (I'm not complaining about what's there so far, a little tangenting is a good thing, I just don't want to get derailed)

Another great build!

That looks like an engineer (design side, not engine driver) just showing off, "look at how many pistons I can cram in such a small space." But it seems like there was a bit of logic there, start fast with the small wheel and then when up to speed use the large driver. Probably built with the goal of making a record breaking speed. When you stop and think about it, the water troughs for taking water on the fly are equally crazy (but proved to be more practical). Anything to shave a few minutes off of the schedule in the name of beating your competition.

The propulsion system is very interesting, it uses this 3rd party motor and control set.

The review is complete and you can repost this article with translations, just include a link to the original source (this thread)

Part VI and closing thoughts added to first post in this thread. The formal review is now complete

A great MOC, and with the progress from 4, to 6, to 8 to +station, it sounds like you've caught the bug. Seek out your local LUG immediately for emergency services.

March 1, 2021 is a great day for Lego trains! Amazing to see the switches finally hitting the market, congratulations on completing the long haul!

There are a few people who have modified lego 9v train motors to be DCC. I think that is one of the ultimate directions that Michael is aiming for with the metal track, but that would be a ways off.

Thank you As I said, the P42 looks like someone cut off its nose. I would love to see a return to the rounded curves of the E's and F's, but I would imagine those were stupid expensive to build, e.g., the roofs on GP and SD went from curved to bent in the 1960's and that was only 1 degree of freedom. However, the E's and F's were solid, that is something like 1/2 in steel on the nose. The modern locomotives are safer, but that is for the same reason why modern cars are safer- advances in safety technology. That same technology could be built into an E or F derivative. Interestingly, when going from the shovel nosed diesels of the early Zephyrs to the FT, the cab was moved back from the nose to protect the crew in the event of a head-on collision (I believe in response to a shovel nose colliding with a fuel truck that killed the crew). The chargers and P42 undo that margin of safety. I suppose they deliberately moved away from something that looked like an F40 since the modern safety cab on freight locomotives are derived from the F40 and similar, and they wanted these locomotives to say "passenger". I second that. I think Andy from OKBrickworks has a 1x2 brick mount to hold a bearing that fits a technic axle. I can't find the link now, but he posted here about it several years ago and I think it is/was on shapeways. Thanks for the kind words. Yes, the P42 isn't perfect, as noted above I got 4 of the 7 planes in there. If I went to 7 wide for the body I probably could get the taper in at the top of the side, e.g., borrowing ideas from dtomsen. You are very kind In the 1880's you could tell the new brakemen by the fact they still had 10 fingers.

That MOC has some neat curves to it and you did a great job capturing the prototype.

With the round end dome observation cars the Canadian is the finest regularly scheduled train running in the world today. This would make an excellent "update" to the Super Chief as an official set. I would hope for the blue engine with Canadian cars since the coordinated colors is more cohesive as a set (an important feature for non-train heads). The specific winning design is kind a moot though, if the submission is chosen, Lego could take great latitude with the design (even turning it into an Amtrak or no-name train). If it were ever to become a set, I would expect it to be a single set of a loco and some number of cars. Hopefully the number of cars would be 3, but that would be massive for Ideas. I fear just 1 car would be their target, which would be horrible. A compromise of 2 cars would be okay, you could have a nice train with three sets. As for new train wheels, I doubt you would see new parts made just for an Ideas set.