peterab

A good rule of thumb is don't do either unless you are adding new information that will be of interest to others. If it adds to the old topic it belongs there, if it is unrelated it doesn't. When you are adding to an old topic, you should think twice, if it's just a 'me too' comment like 'I really like that' which doesn't advance the topic, don't post. Anything you do post should be important enough to be considered more important than the newer topic you will push from the first page. As a guide it should probably be worth the same as starting a new topic, but because it's closely related to the old one it's better there. When I discover a new LEGO train forum, I'd rather find one with informative posts, each with a consistent topic, or about related Mocs, and including as much of the information on a topic as is available.

Hi Ed, As you've found, most LEGO hobbyists don't provide instructions for their custom models. There are varying reasons for this, which range from 'I'd like to but I don't have the time or required knowledge of CAD programs to produce them' to 'I don't want others to copy the unique design I laboured to create'. Pretty much anyone who creates a design will be asked for instructions, the more popular, the more it happens. As you can imagine it can get quite frustrating. Most of those who do make instructions and are willing to share them, either make them to sell, or as a gift to the community, and in both cases they normally make it very obvious where to find them. If it's not obvious (like a link to Railbricks or an LDD or LDraw file) then they probably don't exist, or the designer doesn't want to share them. There is also an expectation among some in the community that you do your own homework. As Duq suggests, many AFOLs publish their models in the expectation that others will copy, but also expect the photos to be enough to reverse engineer the details. Many designers build custom models because they like the process, but find making instructions a chore, and it's unnecessary for them to build their model. In those circles it's quite OK to ask how a particular feature was built, and perhaps the original designer will explain, or maybe spend the time to take an extra photo showing you. There is also a group where people share clever techniques for building trains; http://www.flickr.com/groups/legotrainideas/ I guess part of the expectation is, hopefully you'll develop the skills to design your own trains along the way, so you'll eventually add to the community rather than just follow instructions. Some people will take offence at a request for instructions because in many cases (particularly outside the AFOL hobby) it comes with the assumption that the builder didn't design the train himself, or the assumption that designing a train is easy, as is making the instructions. Many TFOLs seem to give off the 'I can't do it so I want you to provide instructions' vibe too, which doesn't endear them to people who find the design process difficult, but still persevere. Just be a little careful and respectful when you ask and you should be fine. For some more directly helpful advice, you might want to check out swoofty's sets http://www.flickr.com/photos/swoofty/sets/?&page=2 He has a bunch of CSX engines, and in all probability some c40's in multiple liveries. No instructions as far as I know, but plenty of good pics of the sort of things you seem to like, so plenty of fodder for reverse engineering. Pick one you think you can copy without too much trouble. Make a start. Check out any similar instructions on Railbricks for ideas. If you get stuck on a detail, have a look at similar builds to see if you can find something helpful, and if all else fails stick a work in progress picture up on Flickr, and ask for help in the LEGO trains group. You'll get a much better response if people can see you've made a start, and have a particular problem that you need a solution for

http://shop.lego.com/en-AU/Horizon-Express-10233 It may be hard to find since it's a LEGO exclusive, which means LEGO brand stores and the online store only.

I liked the yellow freight train a lot more than the passenger train, it has more track and a crane to play with. The red freight train is also good, but I like the wagons on the yellow one better. The horizon express doesn't come motorised but is a very nice build, it would be my choice if I had to choose only one. For a child though I'd guess the yellow cargo still has more to play with. On the other hand you could always ask your daughter which she likes.

When faced with this decision about the time the RC trains first came out, I decided to concentrate on PF track. 9V straight track is even more expensive now than then so it would be an even easier decision for me. The metal tape on PF track does work but not for very long, the tape needs to be replaced fairly regularly by some reports.

I'd guess that since the track is mostly curves, the higher friction on curves is causing your motor to overheat. Will the motor pull just one set reliably? If so I'd try and reduce the friction, firstly by replacing the bogies with technic axles. If that doesn't work, consider adding another motor.

I'm pretty sure http://www.flickr.co...otos/bricktrix/ will have something you like. Also the LEGO train MOCs group http://www.flickr.co...ups/legotrains/ might have a few more. There was a challenge to build a class 66 a while back too, only one complete entry but it was awesome http://www.flickr.com/groups/legotrains/discuss/72157622449335399/

Because the industrial production of hydrogen is expensive, and if you need to produce it at a huge plant anyway, why not just use whatever energy source you'd use to produce hydrogen to drive a steam turbine and produce electricity. Then you gain the extra efficiency of not having to drag your fuel and electricity production around on every train, and you can most likely produce electricity more efficiently at large scale, which offsets the transmission losses. The only reason not to use pure electrics is if your use of the line doesn't justify the capital expense and maintenance cost of the overhead wires.

Jordan Schwartz who was one of the designers of the Palace Cinema is an AFOL. He was offered an intern position in the Design Lab in Bilund after having applied for a designer position. He probably just likes the old monorail and put it in the poster. In the past we've been told by LEGO employees that the moulds for the monorail track have been destroyed, and that when surveyed kids in the target market find monorails boring, so we are unlikely to see a new monorail.

Since the two designs there depend on 1) a fusion reactor and 2) a Hafnium 178 fuel cell, I'd say you can safely bet they are wildly speculative at the very least. A controlled fusion reaction is the holy grail of energy production, since it would essentially mean limitless clean safe energy. A working fusion reactor doesn't exist yet. Hafnium is a very rare element, mostly produced as a by product of Zirconium purification for nuclear reactor use, there is only about a ten year supply in current known reserves, so it's hardly a practical fuel. Not only that the mechanism to get an energy release is surrounded by controversy.

Yeah the original tyres were not much good. Using the newer ones will help a lot. I also use two motors if I need to pull a long train (which I often like to at train shows). If you have another newer LEGO engine with a cosmetic un-powered bogie you might find it has better traction tyres.

Legally at least in some countries, the design would automatically be copyright. In the case of copied instructions like brick city depots they are copyright. Ebay cares about copyright but you have to go through their process each time the seller puts up the instructions. After a while Ebay will ban the seller, but it's fairly easy for them to create another account and start again. Enforcing the copyright in the courts is another matter.

Both kieran and Pet-Lego are correct. I'll do a step by step to explain what you'd need to do to make these work the way you want them to. If you take a look Werlu Ulcur's very useful link, there are four pictures. The top one shows the PF light disassembled to reveal the circuit board, next is a close up of the circuit board with the components labelled, next the circuit diagram, and finally the circuit layout. The first thing you'll notice on the circuit layout is the lights are symbolised by little triangles with arrows emerging from them. This tells us they are light emitting diodes. Diodes have the property that they allow current to flow in only one direction (ie they have a polarity). When the polarity is correct LEDs light up, otherwise they don't. You'll also notice four more diodes in a small square on the circuit diagram. This is a rectifier bridge, the purpose of which is to correct the polarity of the incoming power, to the required polarity. Ie if the polarity is incorrect, it rectifies it. It should now be obvious why the PF lights don't work as you expect. As Pet-Lego suggests one solution is to remove the rectifier from the circuit, an then jumper C1 and C2 to + and -. After doing that you'll have two lights that will both work when the polarity is correct, and not otherwise. If you now swap the direction of one of the LEDs you'll have what you want; one LED will light up for each direction of the current. Just one final warning, unless you're soldering skills are pretty good you'll find it difficult to solder the jumpers on. If so I'd probably just replace the circuit with larger components on a breadboard (this is kieran's suggestion), but you'd probably be better off going the whole hog and buying some LED's and just cutting up an PF extension wire to get the plug in that case. If anything is unclear just ask and I'll try to clarify.

What you want to do is possible, but I'm pretty sure it's not possible without cutting up the PF lights if you want to use them. I can explain it to you, but it will require me to speak about polarity, diodes and rectification, I'm happy to explain these as I go. Unfortunately jargon is required when you are dealing with concepts that laymen rarely encounter. If you'd like me to I can, but not until I get back after work tomorrow since I have to go to bed now due to an early start in the morning.

There's quite cheap black poly garden edging sold here which might work, with spacers which looked like sleepers it might even look the part too. I imagine garden edging is designed to with stand the sort of conditions we have in mind too :-)

This would be very useful as is for a hump yard. If your decoupler is located just past the peak of the hump, your engine could shunt cars over the hump, reverse to decouple them, and they'd roll down the hump. With a few automated points you'd be able to do prototypical sorting of cars. Of course all your car floors would probably need to be the same height for this to work but that's not too big a restriction

In this case the idea is sort of obvious, and the design is a natural extension from the 9V crossover and the PF straight track. Hence I'd guess neither the design would be copyrightable, nor would the idea be patentable. It's also pretty reasonable to charge for the effort of actually making these, particularly since they've used a CNC machine to do a very neat job. The most important thing in my mind is, there's simply no way of knowing if they've ever seen the Eurobricks mod, since it's completely possible they came up with their version independently.

I tend to use a jewellers screwdriver to lever the battery out from the end opposite the spring, they come out pretty cleanly with a bit of practice. I've come to L-guage from HO and part of the attraction now is trying to cram as much detail into a LEGO model as I can. There are some quite awesome models that are very good lookalikes of real prototypes out there. It has taken me a bit of time and dedication to build at a level that pleases me, though the time spend looking at and learning from others has been enjoyable in itself.

Ah, now I know what you mean, one of the train guys from Queensland recently opened one and asked what it was for. It's not a fuse, it's a radio interference device, the wire just winds around a metal tube inside it.

I'm not sure the connection wire has a fuse, in any case we haven't had an issue using the standard wires, but part of the idea behind multiple connections is you can safely carry more current. I'm pretty sure we've never blown fuses in the standard 9V controllers we use (I can't remember if there is a fuse in it and I couldn't find mine immediately when I just looked). Our custom 3A transformer is fused separately.

There's a really good article on that in one of the Railbricks issues, and a similar discussion in the archives here. You get the ability to have more functions on your train (independent lights, doors etc) and the benefits of remote control, but the hassle of recharging is removed by fixed track power. The track doesn't even need to be fully powered, you could in principle just have a section of your depot powered (say a coaling tower), then you could go through prototypical movements, always having to return to refuel after set periods etc :-) It's a bit easier just doing a portion with 9V, because the 12V pick-ups will get stuck on unpowered crossings and points, but there may be a clever way around that too.

The surgical part is only really necessary if you plan to run more than four engines (assuming the standard controllers will handle about 1A). I wouldn't bother with that unless you find you really need it. It should be a relatively easy job for anybody with a bit of skill with a soldering iron and the ability to find the parts needed for the upgrade.

I've always thought it looked like a German BR 218.I'm not sure if you'll find a yellow prototype since all the DB and DB AG ones I know of were red, but you might as they have done advertising paint jobs on some newer engines, and older ones have been sold off to freight and rolling stock rental companies. Diesel-electric is the usage I'm familiar with, I've never seen electro-diesel used. I can't help with American stuff since it's not my area of interest.

Track gauge is not an issue. You can use workarounds to connect all the track systems together too though it may look a bit odd. Pretty much all the magnet systems will work together too. The only real issue you will face is the older wheel sets (12V and older 4.5V trains) had far more friction and larger flanges so are probably best avoided with engines with 9V, RC and PF motors.

This is certainly possible, in fact many LEGO train clubs use more powerful controllers because it is easier. You don't need to replace the whole controller though, you can just replace the wall wart. We run a more powerful transformer through a pair of standard LEGO controllers. I think our transformer outputs about 2 x 1.5A at 10V. If you want to do this, take a look at the input and output specs of your wall plug (they vary from region to region), and buy a higher current transformer with the same output voltage. You should also check if it's AC or DC out, and if it's DC what polarity is used for the plug.