peterab

Yeah that is odd. I can understand people buying small scooters due to the retro European cool factor, but I don't think they're a good technical descision, since they're less stable due to the small wheels, and have a lot of the disadvantages of a pushbike in traffic. Given most are about the same price here as a 250 I cant see why you'd buy one. A 500cc scooter probably combines a lot of that with a much heavier bike. I think a lot of people assume a scooter is easier to ride, but I'd argue they're actually a lot less stable than a 250, both at low speeds and at higher speeds, and therefor more risky. They have less traction on the road too, though since most people don't really go very fast on them that is probably less of an issue.

I think what you see there is normal train track crossing at different levels.

Also it's not a new design, I think it's an old Spiderman one.

It means one of the moderators has added this thread to the Moc index, to allow it to be easily found in the future.

There's at least one; Mel who is Australian. I've never met her but she has friends in my LUG. I was told she designed the molding machine exclusive set.

Its main problem is lack of traction I've found, add a second motor and change the rubber bands on the wheels (or just use wheels with the newer transparent bands) and that train base pulls like a beast.

Poor Jamie :-) He must get that a lot. I had a few talks with him while he was at BrickExpo, and he all but promised me a sand red modular, that's what I remember anyway* he said sand red is gone and won't return (though a future similar colour is not impossible). Won't stop me reminding him at every opportunity that I'd like a sand red modular. Obviously he's not able to discuss upcoming sets so no hints were forthcoming, but it's a pretty good guess there will be more modulars. I'm sure Jamie is well aware of what AFOLs want, since they are a significant part of the market for modulars, and he gets to talk to lots of them I imagine. BTW I had just seen the VW camper video, and tried to talk to him about it. I wasn't aware the video had leaked since it was the official video, and was initially confused when he said "What VW camper?" :-) * Joke not to be taken seriously.

As long as we get Dark Azure 1x2 bricks I'll be happy. Even more happy if there are 1x4 and more 1x6 bricks (they are available in a spongebob set). I think the dogs and cats are usable in city despite being stupidly cute. Some real breeds also look stupidly cute, they are bred that way. There seems to be a couple of different dogs, and two cats unless their heads turn. I'm interested to know if the horse is a new mold, I don't recognise it anyway. The new hair will also be useful to me. All in all while I doubt I'll be buying many of these, I'll be picking up some parts from BL (and maybe LUGBULK) if I can.

I've added a few photos with the roof off, and a close up of the pantograph and the bogie to my Flickr set As you can see it's a slider bogie design to reduce friction around curves. The previous version ran quite well for a few hours at BrickExpo and AMRA Caulfield train show. This version is two studs longer to allow a larger gear, but is essentially the same, so I think it will also be reliable.

That's the other insidious way, licensed sets were considered outside those rules. I've been told one of the main factors in IJ being cut was it wasn't popular in Germany due to the tanks etc. and Nazi figs.

I sold my second one when prices started to rise, but had it been my only one I'd have kept and built it too. Jamie Berard made a talk about the design process of CC at BrickExpo a few weeks ago. You are pretty much correct. There was no interior because the marketing people didn't want to scare boys away by making it too much like a dolls house. The whole concept of the modulars was a difficult sell because TLG had no idea about who such an expensive set might appeal to. The success of CC gave the designers a bit more freedom in the later sets.

It was nice to be able to find a good design I could copy While I quite agree on the resolution, the optics on 3Mb cameras tends not to be very good, and since they tend either to be cheaper or older (mine is both) they are not very fast, so result in blurry images. I'd love mine to be sharper, and I hope to improve my lighting to help that a bit, and pull my tripod out, but a better lens and electronics would help a lot too. Thanks both of you for the positive comments.

I've built a couple of carriages (2 compartment cars and a buffet) but want to build the observation car from the Rheingold, and get some printed TEE bricks made before I show them. My sister gave me some money as a present so I made a Bricklink order for some tan windows and dark red bricks :-) I have a couple of other engines, another passenger train and some freight cars that I could photograph at the moment, so I'll try and do a little every now and then, since it appears people are happy to see them despite the poor photos. I'm trying to hatch a plan to get some better photos too but that might take a bit longer.

I'm very impressed you've got working PF and such a realistic look in only 6 wide. I like your choice of engine too, I've been considering building something similar, but am currently leaning towards a 218 because it's slightly larger and more boxy so it's a bit easier to hide the PF.

I'll try and show the internal workings soon, but its basically the 3 axle bogie design from Railbricks 6 stretched a couple of studs, connected directly to an XL motor at each end.

I've always meant to post some more of my Mocs but I don't have access to a decent camera. Ours is 3Mp so worse than a lot of camera phones these days. I decided I'd post and be damned ... so sorry about the image quality. I recently built this for a trip to BrickExpo 2011 in Canberra, it has since been tweaked to upgrade it to two XL motors, so some small details have changed. More images can be seen on my Flickr account. I'm pretty sure there are no features that are uniquely mine; I've stolen been inspired by features of many BR 103s on the web. Particularly influential were this, this and this one. Finally I'd like to thank SergioBatista, I looked very carefully at some of his recent electric engines to work out how to build my pantographs.

I'd imagine in English a less literal translation might be BBQ. Though I have been to an outdoor community bread oven in Germany so who knows. In my mind Finland might be a bit cold for me to want to do either outdoors

There are whole threads here of fixes for the emerald night, have a search for them and check if any of the problems discussed are the one you are experiencing. There is also an article in railbricks which covers many of the tweaks. Unfortunately the EN becomes less reliable over time, and the tweaks are needed.

I'm pretty sure Gambort's intention is actually to revisit the train idea book with newer parts, so it should appeal to fans of all systems, 9V RC and PF included. In fact it should be ideal for your style of building since you tend to build in a very 'set-ish' style. The only real exclusions were locomotives, and the stipulation that they would prefer simpler designs over highly detailed reproductions of real prototypes.

If you are going to hack up the battery box anyway, it's probably cheaper and better space-wise to just buy a cheap battery holder for your AA's from an electronics shop, and mod the connection wire to the receiver. Might be too late now you've bought the Lego battery box though.

I'm not sure if it's new, but I've seen photos of a PF motor that is between the sizes of the M and XL and is a little more square from the educational range. I don't keep up with technic much so this could be old news, and I can't even remember where I saw the photo. At least with a small motor we could run wires around a layout from a transformer. Not totaly purist but it would be a step closer to purist remote control points. Are you just hopeful, or is there a reasonable source for hope?

In the past they've been full RRP, so around $300, but normally they have a 25% off sale so they end up around $225. As others have said unless you get pretty good shipping rates this isn't a whole lot more than you'd pay to ship one in from the US assuming you want it MISB. It is definitely worth the effort to know when they'll be in stock and be there the first day of the sale, as they tend to sell out quickly and not return.

I think part of the problem is most large retailers don't want to stock the 'extras' packs. They'd rather have an all in one set. And the large retailers are the ones TLG are interested in. I've read company statements from TLG that have basically said 'the large retailers are our only customers'. Those statements were from the bad old days of <insert that tiresome argument> city sets when TLG were being criticised for being out of touch with their end users, so things may have changed a bit, but it does give a bit of an idea of the scale at which management of TLG operates. I'm pretty sure many of the alternatives for train sales were suggested and even tested during Jacob McKee's time at TLG and the fact we are getting complete trains probably reflects the findings of those experiments (Santa Fe and My Own Train would be close to the right time period I think). I'm surprised the Toy Story and Hogwarts push trains don't have an easy upgrade path with a link to the Lego website though. I would have thought TLG would like to bolster their direct channels like their website and brand stores with exactly the stuff the big retailers won't touch. Another suggestion along the same lines; Many HO train retailers in Germany have standard expansion sets to their starter trains. There are a series of track plans, each slightly more complex than the last, using the standard expansion sets. As an example each starter set is an oval, expansions might be a) sidings b) curved passing siding c) straight track d) extra oval for double mainline etc. It might be worthwhile for TLG to show various track plans using the current track packs expanding each of the train sets. While I'm not sure how to do this profitably for TLG as an AFOL I'd love it. I guess we need to lobby for the replacement of all the push button lights like in the Winter Toy shop, and the sound bricks like the doorbell in the hillside house to be replaced with a new PF motor and maybe another coloured 6xAAA battery box :-) Actually I don't care how it is powered in the sets, just as long as it has a PF connector, so it could be useful for track-side accessories.

You could get this result if you added an extra receiver for the lights to each train. Then set all the light receivers to the same channel, and plug all the lights into the same coloured output.

Different design, the 12V ones are essentially an axle in a hole, the 9V ones have a needle bearing. The 12V ones end up having a much larger area which is subject to friction, so more friction.