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zephyr1934

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Everything posted by zephyr1934

  1. zephyr1934
    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.
  2. zephyr1934
    Nice job!
  3. zephyr1934
    You could try door rails,
  4. zephyr1934
    You might want to try adding an insulator on one or both rails at the start of a siding so that NO current can pass through from the adjacent section and then only provide a closed circuit to siding using your control panel. When I last tried insulating track like this, I used a piece of clear packing tape folded over and wedged in between the rail contacts.
  5. zephyr1934
    Definitely still of interest, thanks for sharing the updates
  6. zephyr1934
    Watching the video, the rods on the 4-2-0 have a nice Walt Disney feel to them. Lego should have done that from the start (given the handy mounting point, perhaps they did in a prototype but later scrapped it)
  7. zephyr1934
    When lego introduced the RC motor it replicated the form factor of the 9v motor, but the wheels were no longer integrated. Then the PF motor replicated the shape of the RC motor. When you look at the plastic wheels you will see that they have rubber bands on them. The first two generations of bands were loose and wheel slippage was VERY common. If the bands are gray they are almost certainly the first generation. Quick test, pull off all of the wheels from the RC motor set them aside such that you don't mix them up, and replace with the wheels from your best running train. Is the problem gone? Then you know the source. Call lego customer service and you'll have a good shot at getting free replacement wheels, or failing that, they would likely sell you some (they might be in the online PAB too) Off the top of my head I do not remember what the second generation of bands looked like. I believe the current wheels are the third generation and have clear bands. Those should not slip. Back in 2011 Cale found a solution using faucet o-rings from a hardware store, that is another option (bring a wheel with you to the store and find the best match)
  8. zephyr1934
    Nice work! Also interesting that the prototype does not have runningboards around the end of the hoods to allow the crew to get from one side to the other without walking through the cab.
  9. zephyr1934
    The spine cars look fantastic (as do the well cars, even if they are mediocre running, they make a stunning static train) great work all around.
  10. zephyr1934
    Interesting topic that I missed first time around. I hate having a PF cable running between a tender and locomotive (or boxcar and detailed diesel locomotive, etc.). It would be nice to have a 4 pin to PF connector that combines the plug and play of @Paladonius solution with the supplemental attachment of 4DBrix. Oh, and @ALCO, your want of N American style couplers just needs a small saw (evil grin)
  11. zephyr1934
    You could always build a repaint of the EN in a different color using the instructions available at lego.com
  12. zephyr1934
    9v is to die for, but with some of the third party devices that are now available I think it wouldn't be hard to tackle those grades with PF. The PF XL motor is far more powerful than any of the train motors. The hard part with PF is getting all of the motors on the same speed at the same time. Difficult to do with the standard IR, but the SBrick allows you to do that. So you could have distributed motors all synchronized to respond to the same speed command. But you would need a $50 SBrick and perhaps a $50 battery for each cluster of motors (I didn't say it would be cheap), and it would be a lot harder to hide than the low profile 9v motors. You could probably even get fancy with the user interface to have different sets of motors run at different speeds to get past a certain spot in the layout. In other words, never say never. But none of that takes take anything away from the fact that you managed to do the impossible with 9v. I think what he was getting at is that the lego trains are so light weight that if you are pulling a heavy train from the front (all motors in the locomotive) the cars can derail on the tight curves simply because the force pulls them laterally across the tracks more than longitudinally along the tracks. I've had that problem when attempting to pull more than 50 cars around standard lego curves. Given how weak the motors are and how much friction there is already in the lego bogies, you can't really add a lot of weight to the cars like you would in an HO layout. Initially I was surprised that you were not having that problem, but as you discussed earlier in this thread, you've avoided it by putting the motors under the cars as well as in the locomotive.
  13. zephyr1934
    Does the train try to cut the corner when doing a 180° curve? I had not thought of that but I could see it being a major problem/challenge. It sounds like you are mastering the art of getting it around the curves (challenging grades for the locomotive driver). If that is the case, could adding a mid train or end of train helper help, just like on real mountain grades?
  14. zephyr1934
    Ah, okay, I see it now, you actually have three spirals. In addition to the main vertical climb, the mainline requires a pair of spirals to clear the low side of the ceiling. Simply amazing! Oh, and I must say, although the layout is one of a kind, the trains are quite interesting too (great TEE)
  15. zephyr1934
    Wow, that layout is incredible. I missed this thread over the summer but have been watching your earlier posts as things progressed over the years. Do you have a schematic of the layout? Or I guess the thing I don't see, once up at the top, are there two loops that go all the way around the room, or is it a single long loop that with a turn-back to give the double track in front of the mountains? Are there any passing sidings on the spiral? That could make for some interesting train operations to run trains up and down the spiral following some sort of train order scheme. In any event, truly stunning and I am looking forward to seeing more videos.
  16. zephyr1934
    Yeah, a while back I was on a trip and was playing board games in the UK. In one particular game, whoever had the largest house went first. I just said "I live in America, I'm first", to their protests I followed up with "I have a basement." They were rolling on the floor laughing at me. I am envious of the fact that in Europe you can go from high density, multi-unit houses to farm fields with only a wall in between. You only see that in the US for brief moments when they finish one development and haven't started the next. But getting back on topic, completely ignoring the fact that the layout is all integrated into a room that is already full of office stuff, I still maintain that that is a lot of lego trains per square meter. Even one considers just a single level there is a high density packed in, e.g., the lower level of this image,
  17. zephyr1934
    That's impressive how well they work, thanks for sharing.
  18. zephyr1934
    Excellent work!
  19. zephyr1934
    That looks and sounds more like you had succeeded in your attempts to build a railway through the Alps. Very well done and you managed to squeeze a lot in to such a small space without it looking or feeling cramped. I particularly like the fact that the trains disappear while traversing the loop, feels more real when the trains appear and disappear. The bridges are great, but that was a bit of a tease with the "track lift", could you talk more on that?
  20. zephyr1934
    Rather than buying 4x copies you should be able to buy the individual track parts from lego after the set has been out for a couple of months I don't know, I bet it is possible, potentially really ugly, but not impossible. For example, a separate tire in front of the train or between two cars could be used for propulsion
  21. zephyr1934
    A few years back someone came up with one of the simplest and low profile designs I've seen. I don't remember who came up with it, but you can find a variant of it on lego ideas here. It is essentially four road curve plates together with a very short platform and PF controlled wheels in the control shack on the turntable.
  22. zephyr1934
    I just googled lego compatible track and found the sprite world track. Never tried it, but the pictures seem fine. You will have a hard time finding lego straight track for $1/segment (cheapest in quantity on BL is $1.67). From lego I think you get 8 straights for $20 (plus more flex track than you ever wanted). I suppose if you don't mind the bumps of flex track, those are $0.19/segment on BL or $0.76 per the equivalent of a straight track segment. You can put down 2x plates to keep them straight. I think folks liked the Enlighten straight tracks as a lego alternative, but I think they are out of production now. The one hitch is that they are brown (stay away from their switches though, not worth the hassle). I think ME is out of the business, and I suspect 3D printed track will never come down enough for straight to be competitive with Lego prices. So that leaves molded track like sprite being the likely cheapest option. Of course buying lego brand train parts (even second hand) when they make what you need helps send the right message to lego that the trains are a good investment for them
  23. zephyr1934
    Yes, you can find the LDraw files for my rods and bars here ( @jesuskyr the renders are incredible BTW)
  24. zephyr1934
    Those are all some amazing builds! (I'm cribbing notes from the pilot truck on Jayhurst's Big Boy)
  25. zephyr1934
    Youch! I had no idea they were that bad. Why on earth didn't they give the biggest backers the highest priority for shipping? That is definitely inexcusable. I do hope that my earlier posts were not taken as offering any support for what the did do to backers like you, or any of the unfulfilled backers for that matter.
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