zephyr1934

The SBrick only supports the BT app (and other BT that emulates the app), but the train with the SBrick had no problems. The other train, that first had problems with the SBrick, then had problems with the PFx brick, worked just fine with the IR controller support on the PFx brick. Then I swapped out the motors and the PFx brick worked fine for BT. Also, the PFx brick has the option to keep running if BT loses connection (similar to the IR train controller), so even though I lost connection, the PFx kept that train going. I don't know if SBrick supports an option to keep moving on BT loss, if it does I haven't found it. On a side note, the PFx brick has some amazing sounds, and it is really loud in my basement. But at the show you could hardly hear it. So if you are doing PFx primarily for shows, I would suggest that maybe you try sound on a single locomotive before heavily investing in the sound aspect. Also, if you are going for IR back up, consider the extension cables they sell for the IR receiver.

For a Yankee, the engine is easily recognizable. I would agree with the others that the fantastic bridge is deserving of it's own thread.

It is just getting better and better. One point of note, I THINK GN steam had a green that was slightly darker than lego's dark green, whereas your model is in sand green. I only know this because I built a GN steamer and silly me, based it on a preserved locomotive that is wearing the wrong shade- something close to sand green (the Havre MT Northern). In my case I like the sand green better so I built it as such

I've heard only one plate per 16 studs of track, but that would just double the number of track segments you need. While there is no particular limit on how high you can climb, e.g., this extreme layout, usually the limitation is the distance necessary to make that climb. Several folks have built spirals out of strictly curve pieces, so that is probably two plates per track segment... but it would have a larger footprint than the station itself. If your layout is full with little chance to expand in the near future, maybe start swapping things in and out.

It was clear that swapping out the motors made a big difference. The layout was 30 ft and the tablet was within 20 ft of the furthest point on the loop. BT dropping out once an hour does not strike me as bad for a show that potentially has a lot of BT interference. Aside from the BT interference there does not appear to be anything wrong with these motors. So they are just downgraded to strict IR duty now.

I do that too, but with the track in pairs. Works for curves and switches too.

So day two of the show and the new motors definitely helped. The PFx brick did still drop 2-3 times, but it would stay connected for at least 30 min. Though as the LiPo battery was nearing exhaustion it would not connect at all. The SBrick on the other train dropped once. Meanwhile, thanks all for the comments and suggestions... A much more precise description of what I was thinking. There might still be some life left in those motors for IR control though (there is no other apparent problems with them). These motors are probably my hardest run PF motors so if any of my motors are going to be problems, these should be it. The tests on day one were with full batteries. As noted above, on day 2 the PFx did not connect when the battery was near dead. In the past the SBrick would stay connected until the battery died. Good suggestion. Throughout both the SBrick and PFx brick were a reasonable distance away from the motors (about as far as you can get while being in the same locomotive) and the SBrick worked fine in its location for several years. Then in the diagnostics the PFx brick moved around a few times. The final location was the same before/after swapping the motors. So I don't think that was a (significant) factor in this case. Oh a simple pleasure, it is still one of my favorite trains. Knowing what I now know, I wish I had tried my North Coast Limited with the new heritage unit. Instead, it had it's madden run yesterday. Speaking of which... I need to post about that engine... Yeouch!

Let me start out by saying that ultimately there was nothing wrong with either the SBrick or the PFx brick... So I went to Brick World this summer with a full car, but I brought along an extra box with my Superliners in it by request to show it to someone. I finally get a moment free and bring it over to the CincyLUG layout to enjoy some of the largest radius curves to be founds. Long ago I had problems with the IR receiver dropping out due to too much current demand, so I got my first SBrick and it worked like a charm. It also gave me the power off Bluetooth control, with no need for line of sight. Well, that !@#$% train would not make a full loop without dropping the BT connection and coming to a stop each time. Earlier in the show several of the heavy duty train builders were complaining that BT had become useless at shows given all of the competition in the bandwidth. So here I am figuring that demand is pushing me out of BT control. Meanwhile, Michael G. of BT fame was talking to Andy M. of BrickTrainDepot et al. fame about the PFx brick and I was wowed. It supported both BT and IR connections, what's more, you can get an extension cable for the IR receiver so that you can discretely mount it away from the control block. I ordered one that night. Anticipating the show we had today, I swapped out the SBrick for the PFx brick about a week ago and started to explore the UI. After some futzing around I got it working with both BT and IR. Excellent, and here I now have sound too (with the additional speaker). Anyway, the show starts today (well, yesterday at this point) and I'm looking forward to getting the upgraded train running... and !@#$%, the BT drops out before it makes a full loop. It wasn't doing this behavior at home. Good thing with the PFx brick is that you can set it to keep going if you lose BT (I've heard that might also be possible with the SBrick, but I don't know how). So the train keeps going even though I've lost the control. I can reacquire the PFx brick, but it keeps dropping out. Fortunately I still had the IR back up control and it worked perfectly. After I finish up running this train, I pull out my other heavy train, also equipped with an SBrick. Ran for two hours without dropping. So much for the "too much demand for BT theory". So later in the day I try checking connections, swapping the cord from the battery to the PFx brick and even swapping the battery in the locomotive for the Superliners. Nothing works (but by this point I'm getting proficient in disassembling the locomotive). So that gets me thinking, could it be the one thing left that I did not try to swap out, the motors? I don't have any spares at the show, so it waits until I get home. First, I check to see if I can replicate the BT dropout problem with a little running on my track at home. Indeed, after a couple of laps it dropped out, so I could actually test it. I swapped the motors and "poof" the BT problem seems to have vanished (though I haven't given it the show test yet). So it would seem to have been one or both of the train motors causing the BT to drop. Is there any basis for a motor making the BT controller drop its connection from not one but two different providers BT based train controller?

Nice work!

Or watch someone on youtube playing games.... sigh

Isn't that what Virgin Trains East Coast did and many of the other UK trains? (grin) Recoup some of the cots by reselling the minifigs to those of the absolute opposite position- "why would I want a train set but boy do I want those figures!" Hey, there are some people still calling for 9v to live on... and some folks who I'm pretty sure have succeeded in keeping 12v alive. (grin) Back on topic, for a small train like this the wheels should not be an issue. But for a train of cars that are each 8 wide and over 70 studs long, the friction can make all the difference.

It is the Disney tie in that made this set possible, I bet for every train fan who buys it, there will be 9 Disney fans who buy it. But hopefully some of those nine will turn in to a train fan as a result. As far as the locomotive goes, in my eye it does not look any better than the Lone Ranger locomotive, but that is in part because the Lone Ranger (after adding rods) is a pretty good little locomotive.

Not sure how much of the following is already in the PU app, but be able to control both outputs from one command with the ability to have them either go the same direction or opposite directions. Be able to override the default motor behavior (e.g., so an M motor could run with the "set and hold" of the train controller). Have the ability it so that if the receiver looses connection it will continue doing what it had been doing rather than stopping (but also keep the default of stopping on disconnect).

Great to hear, I'm just starting to convert some of my trains to ball bearings and have been really impressed. Excellent... will you be able to test this functionality before you go into full production?

One of the worst bits of PU is that they do not have a dumb battery box. I want a windmill (or what not), but I NEED the separate control (remote or phone) and I NEED to be connected to keep the blades turning. Would much prefer to flick a switch to turn the battery box on.

That is an interesting connection for the pilot truck... and a REALLY tricky design to add a full set of rods to... It is narrow gauge, that is where the eight wide comes from (grin) It is a neat set and I'm always glad to see Lego produce a train set.

If there are any active Ambassadors reading this, please bring this to the attention of Lego, maybe there is still hope.

Good point. This is where the BL color guide comes in handy for finding alternates. Click on the number in the "parts" column for the color you are interested in. At least for the Santa Fe it looks like the fuel tanks should be closer to light blay assuming you are already using that for the silver sides. In which case the light blay version of 6191 is only averaging $1 new, but it opens up this (new to me) part for a little less, In dark blay, you could go with this for a lot cheaper or the 1x2 version, or the full curve, Well, Tony was a castle guy first, so of course you should expect that he will have a lot of lances. For these, you could use 3 mm rigid hose. Looks like 20 or 21 long might be the cheapest option at the moment.

I think there might be a few low floor LRV's that have wheels without through axles, but very uncommon and almost certainly with compensation. The real problem is that they are abandoning the simple physics of train wheels, for which the axle is central. It is not about friction, it is about self centering of the coupled beveled wheels... and from the following photo, it looks like they may have done away with the bevel. I'm sure it was done as a cost savings measure. Plastic parts are REALLY cheap for Lego, the axles were probably from a third party supplier and thus, in relative terms, really expensive (e.g., recall their price on S@H, and I'm sure they get them for much cheaper than BrickTrainDepot), and then they had to be boxed to make them compatible with the machinable packing. In any event, Lego at least used to have about 3 years from concept to market, so these have probably been in the works for some time.

Great work!

Although I don't like the results, great work, thanks for doing and sharing. The video is quite compelling.

Quartering means that the wheels on one side are 1/4 out of phase with the wheels on the other side of the locomotive. So if one side the pin holes for the wheels were at 12 o'clock (straight up), the pin holes for the wheels on the other side should be at either 3 o'clock or 9 o'clock (straight forward or straight backward). If you don't quarter the wheels then the side rods can bind, with one wheel going forward, the other turning backward and then the pair binds up and will not move (or in lesser cases, just cause a lot o drag). When the axles are quartered they cannot bind like this, all of the wheels have to move in unison. Lego side stepped this problem on the HP train by having the rods only go to one wheel.

Nicely done!

Have you built up a prototype of your mechanicals that gets all the moving parts in the right place? Don't worry about having the final correct parts, e.g., you could use a technic part to get the hole for the cylinder right where you think it will be when you use the 2x2 round parts. That will allow you to quickly revise and refine without waiting for parts to arrive, e.g., this before and after example using techinc beams as a place holder for valve gear bars. But you can also do that for the frame and connection points.

That is another crazy thing about lego, a part in a common color might be a few cents, but in a never-appeared-in-a-set color could be many dollars. It has been many years since the train baseplate was in black, but in blue it can be had from US sellers on bricklink for $2. I find that I am always checking part availability and price whenever I build. But yes, often you can bypass an expensive part buy building the same structure out of cheaper parts.