zephyr1934

Heh heh, a descendant of the railbricks switch motor. You can see an example of this trick in "fixing the double crossover" in RB9. Yes, they work very well. The one thing to be careful of is that you only briefly apply power since the motor will stall once the switch is thrown. The "switch-yard" films in this folder show them in action on an autonomous switching yard. I later incorporated them in a manual switching yard, here.

I refuse to believe that given the fantastic build (grin), seriously though, it looks like a fantastic build

Excellent work (I really like what you did with the gentle slope of the roof).

Lego customer service is very good about this type of stuff. You can even tell them roughly what you said in your post. Also, while the track is expensive for us, they will probably spend more on postage to get the replacement to you than they do on the part itself.

That is looking really nice, great work! Had you not mentioned it I would not have noticed the cab roof, but now that you have, did you try 1x3x1 curved slopes instead of the 2x4x2/3 curved slopes + one red plate? Also, the stack does seem very tricky, I have no idea how to do it better beyond keeping an eye out for clever tricks.

I respect your tenacity! What about a pair of L motors on the main drivers? Even a single L might work.

Brilliant!

The Hudson is looking great! One though though, why not put two motors in the tender and be done with it? I bet a pair of L motors would be a good balance of speed and power.

Very nice! How do you think it would look with homemaker figures?

You really did not pick an easy prototype, great work on such a challenge

A thing of beauty, and great shots of it in the video from the lead train looking back.

I like it, very clever

Great work and those cab windows are very clever. Nice detailing on the trucks too.

Well, she didn't say anything about REAL snow (grin). But it does sound like you have your next project already... a vacuum train. (grin some more) Though in all seriousness, perhaps making a train of idler cars to guide the vacuum to where you need it in the hard to reach corners might be helpful. I've seen vacuum attachments with many tiny straws so that you don't suck up larger bits, like a 1x1 tile.

And when they are not busy cleaning the track of gunk, we put them behind the rotary snow plow to clear the snow from the track (grin). That is some serious horsepower you've assembled. Neat stuff, thanks for sharing.

Yes, lego customer service is usually top notch and they will replace parts without hassle or cost. And if the parts break again, call them back again.

As others have said, typically MOCs for shows are built in multiples of 8 or 16 studs, but that is just for the ease of fitting things together on a temporary layout for a show. Many top of the line modules are 3 bp or larger and have buildings at all sorts of odd angles that look more "natural," but it is the large format that integrates them together. As long as you do not need to integrate with other builders (especially in the time crunch of setting up a show) then whatever is convenient for you (I only have 4 MOC buildings... only one of which adheres to the the 8x stud rule of thumb) As for custom stickers, it certainly doesn't hurt to seek advice, but ultimately don't worry about what others think, do what you are interested in. Some folks are "purists" and some are liberal with impure techniques, each path has its own unique challenges. Even when someone strictly follows one of these paths in their own building, they will appreciate the challenges overcome by another builder along the other path.

WOW!!! Excellent stuff you are working on, can't wait to see more

Looking GREAT

I was thinking the opposite, do the light tan in the masonry bricks... but given the fact that it is all 1x2 bricks, that might have been the intent already. Things that come to my mind- station sign displaying the town name (hopefully you are not modeling a station for a small town in Wales), maybe lights, e.g., above the door. For this 16 wide MOC there probably isn't space for trash cans and vending machines (or ticket machines if a contemporary station) but those would make sense elsewhere on the platforms. I agree, look at the details that catch your eye and capture their essence

They probably will send new stickers, and might solve the problem for the passenger train. The Disney train though, you'll probably just get more of the same. You might want to check out @legoman666 custom stickers mentioned in this other thread... though I'm not sure he included the boiler stripes.

Excellent work!

It all depends on your interests and how extensive you MOC. I personally think the Horizon Express could be a great starting point, I suspect it has gotten expensive but it shouldn't be too bad to rebuild it in a different color. If you are a railfan, then the obvious train to build would be whatever is your favorite train (well, start small, so your favorite small train). If you are not much of a railfan, see if the city train sets are enough for your interests, or the Harry Potter, or the Disney trains. I think the current city passenger train works well on many levels in this regard. I think there are several places in the EU that sell train instructions or complete sets. Keep in mind that those routes probably will not be cheap, but you will get something nicer than a normal lego set. In terms of building it yourself, I like the train baseplates simply because they are strong and simple to work with. Even if you start out with MOCs getting one of the city train sets is a great parts pack since it will give you a few baseplates and all the electronics you need. Straight track is generally expensive while curves are cheap. Stay away from flex track except possibly in limited situations.

The pair of axles going into holes is probably a killer. I try to avoid using technic axle into technic hole. For the valve gear I like to terminate it at a black technic beam, e.g., in the following example... though the pin is not actually in the beam in the render and I prefer using a 2 long beam rather than a 3 long) Then for the main cylinder I prefer to use a pair of bars with a technic half pin, a LOT less friction than a technic axle Both work very well in my experience.

Interesting results, thank you for undertaking the tests. Integrating your results with Lego's, I suspect the new wheels do better on curves and the old wheels do better on straight track. For typical (intended) applications the difference is probably in the noise. For heavy trains, you always needed to do something beyond the typical configuration (more powerful motors and magnets, or roller bearings, etc.) Regardless, if the new wheels make trains more profitable (or simply cheaper to produce) hopefully we will see more trains as a result.