zephyr1934

Exactly, that's why I suggested putting the seats on their side so they wouldn't be mistaken for a waiting area.

That's a tough one, even when using ballast, most of the contact points are actually tiles. Each tie is essentially a new XY coordinate system. The least parts intensive solution is to have the curves on the floor or table without any baseplate beneath. Next best is to have the baseplates locked together (e.g., with plates) and let the curved track float around the curve.

Neat idea, and it should lead to some fun physics experiments (don't use your prized $900 MOC, but don't hesitate to use a City train set). I really do mean "fun" though, you and your child can do the engineering to figure out how heavy the locomotive might need to be to get the train up the hill while also exploring the consequences of weight on the down hill side. If they get that, add in a curve right before the upgrade (more drag) or right after the down grade (fun crashes). Back in the 9v era I THINK lego recommended no more than 1 plate rise per 16 stud track segment, but that's where engineering experiments come in, that could be part of the fun with your child- what slope is too much? One suggestion, if the 2 stud step works, it might work even better with a transition of a single segment with a 1 stud climb (so: flat, to one section with 1 stud climb, to many segments with 2 stud climb, then a single section with 1 stud climb then flat again). If you are a fiendish parent, you could even do the steam engine problem that Gioppa warned against being aware of the problem that will occur.

I wasn't talking about a differential. What I meant is that if you have a standard train motor block, each axle comes out and has a wheel on either side. On a curve the outside wheel has to travel further than the inside wheel. But they are on the same axle so they can't rotate at different speeds. So one or both of the wheels have to slip. I'm just hypothesizing that a wheel with a traction band repeatedly slipping on the rail all the way around a curve might cause the motor (and thus the entire locomotive) to bounce and wobble. As such, the wobble would be an unavoidable outcome of the motor design and one should expect to see it on PUp, PF, RC and 9v motors (but not 12v/4.5v when running on their native curves because they have a traction rail and a smooth rail). I've noticed that many of my engines wobbled when running but did not think much about it until reading this thread.

Do they shake more on curves? I think the mis-matched radii of the inside and outside rails might be enough that one or both wheels on a given axle will wind up bouncing a bit as it slips. Real trains self-level with the conical wheel surface naturally shifting slightly to match the radii, but the nearly flat and traction band equipped lego train motor wheels can't do that.

Nice. Though one thought, while it looks like the seats on the plate on the dock are supposed to be on a pallet, since Lego made similar platforms for passenger stations in that era, it could also look like the seats are some oddly arranged waiting area. What if you put the seats in a "stack" on their side on the pallet? You could even pull out the two seats from the leftovers that way.

Buy her a pony?

When you figure that you you've become a master builder... and it looks like you are there. I think it is fun to see different people attempt the same locomotive (or train car, or ...) and what each person emphasizes differently. And then to see how their perspective impacts their selection (e.g., 6 wide vs 8 wide results in some of the largest trade offs).

That photo speaks for itself. Great trains, great location, looking forward to seeing more of your work!

That looks amazing, and a ton of detailing, great work!

The webpage is also in English Click on "what is included" and you get this list It says available in Aug. Looks like the motor fits in a 6x6x3 bounding box.

Amazing work

It's all a matter of personal taste and mine lean the other direction. At shows the bluetooth of PU can fail miserably. I like the fact that a dedicated controller is available- sometimes you don't want to have to use your phone to run the train and sometimes it is incredibly handy to do so. But I suspect Lego is done with dedicated controllers.

I like the slow and steady, you get to actually see the rods move. Much faster and the rods just start to blur

Okay, that's brilliant and pretty amazing that it works too

Yep, most exist via 3rd party solutions, but I'm just saying they should exist from 1st party. I know they won't, but I've got to complain somewhere...

Very nice! The MOC also reminds me of a personal experience last spring. I drove by East Broad Top in Pennsylvania (abandoned narrow gauge coal hauling railroad that was never scrapped and portions of it have been operated as a rail museum for decades). At the end of the line where it meets the standard gauge (several miles away from where they operate today) there's a dual gauge yard that was full of narrow gauge hopper cars. I was last there 30 years ago and wandered through the yard/forest where the trees had grown up through the cars over the years, very surreal. When I was back last year it is heavily marked with no trespassing signs and I heard rumors the cars had been scrapped. It was really hard to find any sort of view into the yard. But we finally found an embankment where you could still see in without trespassing. Many of the cars are still there. Reportedly, there was even a standard gauge steam engine stored in a shed there but that might have finally been moved to a museum.

Well, there's still room to improve the implementation, e.g., add back in the native option to, "keep going if receiver loses contact with controller," improve bluetooth performance in crowds, add a rechargeable battery, lower the cost on the plain battery box, and bring back the option to control more than one train motor per output on the hub.

Excellent build, and perfect train for the middle of winter.

That's a great tribute

Most kids wouldn't have a large collection of lego trains either then or now (and none of THOSE kids are on this forum... oh... actually I guess I was one of them back then with one train set, one car, and some track sets). Any kid who did build a large collection they would also be developing their skills for working with all the wiring. There's clear evidence that Lego agreed with the view of "all these cables." The 12v system has features that were for more permanent layouts, e.g., the screw holes in the ties. But the best thing about the gray 12v era was all of the selection and functionality available out of the box from sets, independent of the power scheme. Each power system has it's own strengths (except maybe RC, I can't think of anything RC did better than the others). One standout with 4.5v is how the semaphores stopped trains.

I thought the original build looked good, but the new one tightens it up.

Very nice! Interesting that they would take low maintenance stainless and convert it to painted (which is extra hard to maintain) but I guess that's a discussion for the marketing department. I can totally understand why the original operator's compartment would be called a rabbit cage. But enough questioning reality. You've chosen a mundane prototype and hides the subtle detailing put in to pull it all off (similar to the way that a well done landscape never gets appreciated because it looks so "normal" even if it took 5 million hours to build). The directional transitions of the build add a lot of hard to miss complexity. Are you thinking of building these in real life? If so, which livery?

Nothing to fret about. Nothing is obvious until you know where to look for it.

Looks like you've already grabbed an image from the BL listing. Under "additional notes" it says, "This part is known to have 2 variants with different switch color and cutout size as shown in the additional image." Generally BL is true about lego (though for some rare items it is incomplete) and the fact that the studs have "LEGO" on them is also a telling sign, usually the cloners stay away from the TM. I don't believe Lego changed the communications protocol so as long as the electronics still work it should be compatible.