zephyr1934

If you like the purple go with the purple. If you are trying to be as historically accurate as possible then stick with one of the standard colors. I don't think you could go wrong either way, just be true to yourself or it stops being fun.

Yeah, after posting I went back and saw my invoice, turns out I had ordered enough non BAP stuff and I think the threshold was a lot lower for that promotion. Doh! Sorry if I erroneously got any hopes up

I think if you orders parts from bricks and pieces PLUS something from the normal S@H store the parts count (at least they did for me last month in the US on the heart jewelry box) Also, I think Lego over-produces the sets for the give aways unless there is extremely high demand. Like you, I see this as a dust collector, however, unlike you, I am scratching my head to come up with $200+ worth of stuff to buy so that I can have a pair of dust collectors (grin).

Teehee... though not necessarily... Wandering back on topic, nice signal work

Ah ha! Thank you again for fielding my dumb questions. Please share if/when you get them working

Yes, I spoke too soon, it looks like you can also code up the blocks to take input from the user interface on the phone/tablet in your program, as per here (note the custom controller blocks and the composite blocks at the very end) and even use the tilt sensors in the phone or tablet as inputs.

Very nice! Great trick with the small train wheel for the stack too. This build highlights one of the joys of the 9v system- small space needed for the power. So you took full advantage to do the pin-striping around the water tanks. Lots of great detailing in such a small package- working some serious compression magic.

Oh yeah, the text. At least on my computer it always reverts to some default font and size every time I add a text comment. It would be nice if it remembered the last font and size I used.

There is a fixed development cost for each set. Back in the 1980's it was common for a set to be available for 3 yrs, and the number of new sets per year was fairly small. Now with the Target's and (until recently) ToysRUs, and similar modern retail, many sets are only available for half a year and there are hundreds of new sets per year. There is a fixed cost to design a new set and presumably a target number of sales they want to make per set to recoup these costs. So the city trains wind up in a special category- you can sometimes find them on the shelves at normal retailers (used to be just Nov & Dec around here, but now my local Target always has one copy of the passenger train on the shelves) but they are primarily lego store and S@H items. So they can be available for years (similar to the VW Bus- it will sell slowly, and it is priced high enough that it is okay to be a slow seller). For a typical kid, the train sets are a birthday or xmas gift- once a year sort of thing. And for most kids, they will only need at most two trains. So the 3-4 yr cycle works for this product and the target audience- about the time the second kid in the family is getting into the age there will be a new round of trains.

Hey, running through the buffers is half the fun! But yes, adding automation can be even more fun. My only suggestion is to have realistic expectations. To automate the train using the PUP interface means you are doing all controls via the smart phone or tablet while you are automated (not the stand alone remote, you can restart the train and switch back to the remote, you just can't do both at the same time). Also, I don't think if it is possible to have the sensor on looking for a stop point AND be able to use the phone controls to manually tell the train to do something. I think you have to be either fully automated or fully manual at any given moment, you can switch back and forth, but you can't do both at the same time. Now with the sensor there is a lot of fun stuff you can do, like make the train stop at a station, or run back and forth on an open ended track, a great programming experience to overcome the challenges- which colors does the sensor respond to, how do you get it to move but not respond to the current color it is over (time delay of 2 sec of movement before it starts to look for the color again), etc. Depending on your programming abilities and your son's interest/age this could be a great learning opportunity. With two trains or two set ups, you could do a mix of one manual train and one setup that automatically responds to the train, e.g., having a wayside switch that changes depending on what the train did, or a grade crossing that closes before train goes by, or even a "follow the leader" train like Dr_Spock posted within the past month. Just keep in mind that you essentially have to pay the cost of a second train to do it. As others have said, a fully automated layout would be REALLY expensive to do it pure lego, but having one automated thing is still fun.

The second design looked really nice, I like the pair of nested loops with the station and the maintenance shop. There was a lot of operation potential there. The layout in planning looks like it will have even more going on.

Ah yes, and still in print . Several of the early stories have basis in real events, e.g., repairing a rod with shoelaces, fish in the water tank.

Ah, excellent, thank you And another variant to get a similar functionality as the idea of a "favorites" tab, being able to add a star to my favorite parts and have those always be at the top of the given folder (sort by star, then sort by the current priority)

A menu for favorite track (or whatever parts) would be handy, I typically use 5-10 different track pieces but have a menu of 20+ (BlueBrick is indispensable BTW)

Your avatar gave you away (grin). You could also consider creative ways to use trains, e.g., have low flying star-fighters chasing each other around the track. The train in your link looks more like it would be on the roller coaster track, but that is just because the image shows it suspended in the air. There have been several star wars and classic space themed trains on this forum before. A google search would likely turn up many inspiration pieces. If you wanted to be true to the franchise you would just have to pick a prototype to model, or capture the essence of your favorite period/planet and build a train they might use. As for the Maersk train, it is a great set. But if you like the style without being particularly concerned with the livery, it is a lot cheaper to build a repaint. A quick google search will turn up many such builds.

I am not familiar enough with UK rolling stock to say. The interior detailing is impressive though, espicially for 6 wide.

There was also the streetcar/LRV in 8404, but still sparse

Very nice, and the mix of old and new gray on the slate roof is a great touch

That's brilliant!

That is coming along very nicely.

Surely there is a small museum somewhere that would happily display it for you when you aren't showing it elsewhere. At the very least see if there might be a buyer before disassembling it.

Oh yes, BT is the top of the line and it is hard to tell BT from lego... except for the fact that BT has radii that you actually want to run on (grin). And yes, ME pales in comparison to today's options, but having made the investment in 4 loops of ME I'm not going to throw it away just yet. I glued it long ago and it remains functional. On a side note, ME does click fine with my older TB switches. Anyway, enough drooling, trigger pulled.

@dr_spock you fiend! After seeing all your stuff I had to buy myself a distance sensor (in the mail) and will start playing around with this soon. Much as I must resist PowereUP (I like the set and go of PF and the fact that you can stack motors on a single output), I built a PCC streetcar before PUP, the clearance was too tight that I could not do PF (no room for the connector on the top), but then the PUP box fit perfectly. Now looking at the sensor, it appears to fit the one bit of the bottom that has no conflict in the build above. So I must accept it as destiny. Neat stuff

Wow, you are digging up some crazy prototypes. And then doing a great job reproducing them. I'm liking all of the detail in this view.

Very nice! (and kind of scary to see all of those kids right up against the layout without any stanchions)