zephyr1934

So where did you hide all of the PF??? (grin) Seriously though, excellent work, harks back to 3677.

Those are great MOC cars to complement a great 3rd party set. Excellent work all around! That's amazing that they fit all of the PF in to that tiny little locomotive.

We as AFOLs need to keep building really great trains, show them off, take some time to make good designs to share (ideally with stickers to make the build pop), and attract 100's of new AFOL rail fans around the world each year. Far smaller market than Lego is interested in serving directly, but as I said, they are producing the parts we need to build MOCs, and what isn't available from lego is starting to show up in the third party market. The fact that new City trains continue to be released is good for all, some of us like to build, collect and run them as is. Others like to use the train parts contained therein to build something else. The winter village train and depot might have even been a deliberate boost from TLG to help our hobby. Since the sets are tied in to an annual collector series, they will sell to people who would not otherwise think of lego trains. Get people looking and some of them will be hooked. I took my lego trains to my son's model railroad club open house and most of the club members jaws hit the floor. At pretty much any public display most people do not even realize that the trains are lego. But yes, even with well written instructions, there is still a huge learning curve to figure out bricklink or other sources of bricks. That is where clubs and forums like this come in, welcome all who are interested and offer tips and support. While it would be great if someone produced 3rd party train sets, a quality build would likely have to be more than $0.30 per part to make it worthwhile for someone to assemble the sets. So here too, they would only reach a limited market. By selling all of the PF parts in the set Lego can subsidize the rest of the train parts. If they excluded the PF then the set would likely have to be more expensive than simply subtracting the retail price of the PF components.

If you build your own base for the train there is an even simpler solution, put a hole for the motor wires behind each of trhe motors and run both forward. The wires leave the motor at one plate above the studs so you can even do this when you have a buffer plate on the wire side of the motor. But you might need an extension wire in this case, which is only slightly cheaper than the polarity switch. Of course reversing the polarity is still eloquent, all a matter of the particular design and what will fit.

Wow, there are some stunning details on that MOC! Running gear can be a real challenge to get working well. I've always had to build and rebuild my designs until I got them working. Quick diagnostics might be as simple as flipping the locomotive over and looking for places where parts rub, collide, or otherwise not do what you want them to do. I've learned the hard way that it always helps to start by getting the running gear working before I build anything else. In this case you do not have that luxury, but if investigating the current model doesn't work or if it turns up a fatal flaw, before ripping it apart you might want to make a mock-up to test ideas. Using technic gears in place of the wheels to get the pins where you need them and just enough structure to get the other critical parts where they belong could help you quickly find a solution that works to your satisfaction. And only then, rebuild the model to match. In case you are looking for feedback/suggestions, I assume you know or have tried most of the following, but it always helps to double check the details. Looking at your design, does the piston go in to the cylinder? If so, do you need a flex point off of the dark blay technic axle? Moving technic axles in and out of holes takes a lot of force and doing so at an angle can be particularly problematic (e.g., the stock Emerald Night design). I've found Cale's half pin and bar solution to be much more energy efficient (I can't find one of his posts announcing the trick, but I've used the trick here). Looking at the photos, it appears that you are using technic axles with stops to hold the wheels on, the stop protruding from the wheel might collide with the rods as the wheels revolve. You do have an axle connector going across, keeping the wheels 1/4 turn apart on the two sides of the locomotive, right? ("quartering" as they say, and it is one of the easiest things to overlook in a steam locomotive design)

That is your first train MOC?!?! Wow, I can only imagine what you might produce for your second or third effort. And it is not like you chose an easy starting point either, getting the mechanicals to work on a steam engine is no easy feat. Excellent work all around and that is a really great looking steamer.

Could you use a gentle slope to make the coupler want to rest in center?

Maybe try a single rubber band? On curves the two wheels are going to want to turn at different rates, a pair of bands will make it harder for either to slip and the relatively weak motor can't overcome this, but a single band (or possibly multiple bands on one side) might not suffer the same problem since the other side is free to slip.

First off, anyone who is looking for a realistic train is not going to find it in the City Train sets, that has ALWAYS been the case. Some AFOLs are perfectly happy with the stock city trains, some are not. Neither view is wrong. While all of the "realistic" trains from the AT&SF loco to the HE were great, even these are a far cry from what can be done. I would argue that we as the AFOL lego train community need a nice gateway set to help others join the hobby, but that is more of a problem for us rather than for the Lego Group (TLG). For the short term the solution to the lack of a gateway set is either custom sets like those from BMR, or MODs of the stock sets (I would love to see more in this domain), or instructions from a host of locations (e.g., SRW Locomotive Works). That is not to say that Lego does not care about the AFOL lego train community. They are doing a pretty good job making sure the critical train parts are available in sets and they know that we know how to get this stuff from Bricklink, Lego customer service, or lugbulk. The fact that the train doors are appearing in new sets (with the old window glass no less) tells me that they are going out of their way to provide us with the parts we need. They are slowly sneaking out parts to serve us, like the steam loco pilot. I just wish they would produce the bogie plate and 6x28 train base in black again. That is not to say that Lego hasn't made some dumb moves in the past, e.g., releasing the hobby train while simultaneously putting ALL of the unique parts up in the on-line PAB. So much for the set being a parts pack. Part of what drove sales of the EN and Maersk locomotive were the rare colors being parted out on BL. The fact that HE had few rare color parts is likely part of the reason why it was not a big seller. The RC trains were out for a single cycle, you are probably right that they are using the trains as a testbed. Good catch about the IR receiver, you might be right about that, but that could also just be the preliminary artwork, before they have the final form factor figured out for the receiver. I sure hope they don't do WIFI-only receivers (that would make shows difficult to do), if they are introducing Bluetooth or WIFI, I would guess that they shorten the tower on the back and produce something that looks more like an S-Brick.

Not being familiar with the UK locomotives, I googled "Class 67 Thunderbird" and 2/3's of the photos had them pulling Class 91 trains (saving me another google, grin). These are great builds, and the trick with the wagon end is brilliant.

If you purchased 8885 from lego when you actually wanted 8879, they might take it back or give you credit.

Excellent start, though I'd go even simpler for the first round, just do R104 curves in 9v (or R88). Then second, add 32 stud long 9v straights (folks already have or can get the standard straights), keeps the power loss down at the rail joints by cutting the number in half. Oh wow! You have been a busy bee haven't you?

Brilliant!

Hey, those tires fit on half bushings! I never knew. That is a very handy trick. Wandering back to topic though, excellent modifications and improvements to the brick built monorail track system. My first lego "trains" as a kid were monorails on 4 stud wide track (no turns or switches) so I am always fascinated to see what can really be done with brick built monorails.

You should check out Ondrew's Brickshelf gallery, the past master of 9v switch modification. There are a couple of "how to" power point presentations there too, e.g., this one.

Wow, you mean a track pack that contains useful parts? That would be cool. I could see a friends "monorail" using the new roller coaster track system, I bet that track shows up somewhere in friends set this year.

If you can get both motors under the lead unit I'd suggest doing that solution. I tried doing a trainline through multiple cars using the old 9v connectors and that just proved to be too much of a hassle to deal with. With the harder to disconnect pf connectors I could see it being a real pain. However, if you don't plan on taking the train off the tracks too often then this hassle isn't really an issue.

Great work!

Another excellent build. So is the real 8444 the UP RR heritage unit then? (wrt, the original photo where it is in with all of the fallen flags)

Interesting stands.

Brilliant! Great work and please keep us updated as you progress.

Oh wow! Fantastic technique... but that streamliner coach looks to be unbelievable. Please post a separate thread on that car.

Well, if you used lego bags or the edges from around lego stickers for the insulators then it would all be lego (grin)

Ah, it is not often that you see an SD70 out on the 12v branch, especially all the way out in the blue era. All great pieces (please post a link with more photos of the trains), and a nice, brick efficient tunnel. And of course, all combined together it is more than the sum of the fantastic parts.

Nice job!