peterab

You are comparing apples and oranges here. The emerald night carriages have newer 9V wheelsets which have far less friction. I wouldn't count on getting more than an hour with your 12V wheels. If you can fit the 6 AAs in, that's what I'd use. In regards to the RC motor, while it does get bad reviews, they mostly come from AFOLs who do train shows, they worked OK for most kids. I have a pair of them, and when combined with an RC base they make a very nice loco. The main disadvantages are the slightly higher connector which is not a problem if you use the RC train base (which has a battery box and RC receiver built in). Having two motors gives a lot more traction, and putting on the newer clear traction bands on the wheels helps a bit more. It probably wouldn't be my first choice, but given the availability problems of the PF train motor, I'd consider it depending on cost.

You made a beautiful interactive display putting it all back together on the first morning too :-)

Sorry Sir, I wouldv'e grovelled but I didn't realize you were staff since you had no tag bling. I think you need a pickle tag :-)

The Hungarian train club seem to be fans of overhead wiring too I agree that if you have electric engines they look better with all the trackside poles and wiring, but I've never got past the fact that it's a lot of work to achieve. My club doesn't even ballast the track very well, purely because it takes so much time.

Depends what you want to do with it. 9V has some advantages, but most of those are more relevant for clubs who run displays. Changing batteries every few hours is a pain. PF has it's own advantages, such as more flexibility with wheel placement in Mocs, the ability to run more trains independently on the same track, the new PF train motor is stronger according to tests, you have a choice of motor sizes if you wish to use the XL and M motors. The main advantage if starting from scratch is price and availability. From the sound of it you want a passenger train, which you won't modify, and a bit of extra track. I suggest just look at the passenger trains on Bricklink and make a choice based on price and availability and the one you like the look of most. I wouldn't be too concerned about if it's 9V, 12V (or even 4.5V & RC) or PF, since you can convert most from one system to another, just be aware you might want to do that. I got back into trains just as 9V was being discontinued, and apart from battery issues running stuff on my train clubs 9V layout have never regretted going with RC & PF.

Brickhead who wrote the Railbricks article and designed some of the instructions in the latest issue seems to be building a complete overhead wiring system. His latest effort on his Flickr stream; a substation Working overhead wires are a real problem in all railway modeling because you need to keep a good contact between the wire and the pantograph, which requires everything to be under tension. It's still a lot of work (and pieces) if you only want it to look OK, though not having to make contact makes it a lot easier, since you don't need to avoid getting stuck on the catenery.

The American market according to Jim Foulds is third or fourth biggest behind Germany in first place. It may be that AFOL/exclusive sales are better in the US since they have more Lego shops but that is pure speculation on my part. All the current city trains have designs close to real world European prototypes, the EN is clearly European, and the Mearsk train while being a US prototype, has appeal in Europe because it is a Danish company. Over the history of Lego trains I think it is clear they've made more European trains. They did have a spate of US trains but they coincided with TLG getting into financial trouble and I doubt the Santa Fe carriage sales are viewed as successful, since they were clearenced here very cheaply. I'm pretty sure TLG are now following a policy of selling complete trains only now, so that indicates the My Own Train line, wasn't seen as the best method to get sales either. If I had to guess I'd say we may see more German like engines in the future.

My Lego Ambassador stated there would be no re-issue of Cafe Corner as the mold for the 5 high windows is retired, and it would be almost impossible that it will be allowed back into production.

In the past they've had poor sales for re-released sets. Also they'd have to put certain parts back into production. Since they try and maintain a fixed number of part/colour combinations that has flow on consequences for other sets. Since the controls on their production is part of the reforms that brought them back to profitability, it's probably not an easy decision to make to reintroduce these for possibly small sales. I think part of what makes these sets skyrocket in price is they start out as expensive sets to begin with so many people put off buying them. They also have rare and unusual colours so building them from parts after they are discontinued becomes hard. Buying the set is much easier than hunting down all the parts.

That was probably me as I was the one most often running PF at BrickExpo. I was the long haired scruffy looking one :-). There was another guy running RC a bit though. I've found one meter to be the limit for reliably getting a response from PF, though it will sometime respond up to a couple of meters away. A lot depends on the height of the ceilings.

Not quite what you mean I suspect, but there is a thread on the Flickr LEGO train Mocs group which has many examples of purist weathering.

I'm not sure what they're called as I've never done it myself, but I'm pretty sure there is an article in Railbricks which explains how to go about running long trains. It might also include a description of the magnets.

It was really great to meet you and TazManiac. Now I hope we can coax you both down to Melbourne for Brickvention.

Jim Foulds when he visited Brickvention in Australia said he and other LEGO employees occasionally got access to prototype or test parts, mostly normal parts in rare colours. While in normal circumstances these should never be allowed into the hands of the general public, they were sometimes given to AFOLs, on the condition they should not be sold and the understanding they may have faults since they had not been completely tested. Many employees could lose their jobs for distributing such parts, but a select few could get permission to pass a few on. Ryan McNaught had some printed parts at Brickvention, which he could only tell us were printed in Denmark on official LEGO bricks. They were sold with funds going to charity. I can only assume they were some test parts. They had Post Office and parcel designs. This was part of a conversation had at Brickvention six months ago and the details might be slightly incorrect.

My gut feel from experience is they're a little weaker. I have read they use a smaller stronger magnet, but it is enclosed in a plastic case, which means the force between the two magnets is less than if they were touching. Adding a strong magnet between the two coupler magnets is a common method used by train clubs for really long trains, but it does use the non lego magnets.

It was awesome to exhibit at BrickExpo and meet I Scream Clone, Siegfried and TazManiac. It was also great to catch up with previous friends. Most awesome is my hat signed by Jamie Berard, who is a very friendly and tolerant guy.

My local railway had a very nice blue colour scheme when I was growing up. See. I'm pretty sure one of the reasons that we haven't seen more blue colour schemes is that LEGO's biggest market is Germany, and it's not the most common of colours there. I'd imagine that train sets sell better in the German market than elsewhere (trains seemed to be a far more common toy there) too, so I guess they try to tailor there city train sets a bit to that market. Germany did have a famous Blue train though, and a couple of very common Electric loco's of the 60's were painted blue as were 1st class carriages for a while. Green was by far the most common colour in the sixties for German freight engines, and pretty common on passenger carriages too. The 7740 looks very similar to 1st class German express coaches of the 70s & 80s. The second class coaches were blue and tan, so I guess they chose the more exclusive option in that case. By the late eighties there was quite a mix of colours in German trains, with white becoming a common theme. I'm pretty sure these days red is just about universal in Germany. I think we've seen that reflected in recent sets. I have no explaination for the yellow cargo train though, so I guess the influence is not absolute.

Is that because they've been displeased by some of the relationships they've had in the past? I could see them wanting to distance themselves from Shell (South Africa) and Exxon (Oil Spill), and they've had printed parts of both those companies in the past. Is there any public statements of this policy? It does seem to fit known facts. You don't have to like them all. I just restrict myself to aircooled VW's. I've never owned any other car. My current work vehicle is a 1973 Superbug :-) I'm pretty sure I'll be buying one of these or building a Moc based on it for my girlfriend. She's a bit nuts about combi vans. Her car is a type 3 station wagon.

I'd love these sort of sets but I cant see them being good sellers. Trains are already a niche. Adding a train carriage to a building means many city builders are going to avoid it because it's a train set not a city set. Adding a building to a train carriage mens previously unsuccessful individual carriages get more expensive, not likely to be any more successful. H aving an individual loco has in the past meant that was the only train set many kids got, stealing sales from the complete trains. Unless the latest train sets are selling much better than the last few rounds I can't see this as likely at all. If it were just a grain elevator and a truck, which tied into a train set with a grain hopper it might work though. To be worthwhile train add ons would be wise to try and harness the huge sales of normal city sets rather than cater to the niche interests of the train fans. As soon as you add track or carriages, you risk losing the interest of the city buyers.

I didn't consider that, though it would be more of a problem with NiCd than newer NiMH batteries. Ideally you'd want to charge them individually. Also your charger voltage is not going to be high enough to charge them in series anyway. I think overcharging is likely to shorten the life of the battery, also NiCd batteries should ideally only be charged when fully flat as they tend not to fully discharge or fully charge after a while if you repeatedly just top them up.

I think this is critical, it all depends on how many people hang on to them, and for how long. If lots of people think it will be a good investment, it probably won't be as good an investment unless the market grows :-) All that being said there does appear to be a collectors market in Hong Kong, where people are trading in MISB sets for stupid prices. I'm not sure if this has something to do with perceived rarity, or conspicuous consumption but I suspect it might. I just searched compounding interest and did a calculation based on 30 years, $150 dollars investment, 20% interest (what a successful conservative long term investment on the stock market should return). After 30 years you should have $35,000. On the other hand had you bought 7740 for $150 and you still had it MISB you could list it (and maybe even find a buyer) for $3000. Not so good in comparison. That's a huge difference, so even though my figures are pretty much wishful thinking and guess work, LEGO has a long way to go to be a good investment.

Well that depends on when you look. A few years back before the end of 9V, many discontinued sets were selling MISB at below retail. 4560 is a good example. After the metroliner was re-issued its price also plummeted. Even the Santa Fe coaches were a bad investment, since they were clearanced at about US$20 a piece. The price has taken a long while to come up to a profitable level again, and in the mean time you could have had your money in a term deposit for a better investment. Many things that appear to be good investments turn out to be otherwise. Check out the number of people who bought up series four collectible minifigs. Obvious sure things tend to attract a lot of people trying to profit, so the profit becomes much less due to over supply. While I agree trains are better than world racers, and the Maersk and EN are probably the lowest risk, that doesn't make them good investments. There may be a profit to be made, but I think it's far more sensible to buy extra of sets you wouldn't mind being stuck with extras of and sell them if you feel the profit is better than the parts are worth to you. I sold my extra Cafe Corner and Market St when the prices shot up, but I only bought extras because they had very usefull parts and I got them at good prices. Had they not gone to silly prices I would have been very happy to keep them. I'm not sure for example that the Fire Brigade will shoot up when its discontinued since the supply has been much better (at least here in Australia) and it has been regularly discounted. I'd still buy extras if I could since the dark red parts are rare and useful to me, and if it did shoot up I'd have the option of selling it later.

I cant see any reason why not apart from heat (I'm pretty sure ventilation shouldn't be an issue since that would imply a loss, and rechargables must be a reversable process), and by limiting the charging current you should be able to limit that to reasonable levels. An easy solution would be to take a commercial battery charger, remove the electronics, use a modified Lego cable to connect to the battery box, and Bobs your Aunty. This of course requires that you know what your doing re modification of the battery charger so you don't electrocute yourself, so be careful; don't try this at home etc. Once tested and working hide the circuit inside a refueling depot, with a removable cable as a fuel hose ...

LEGO as an investment has traditionally been pretty bad, since the return over time has generally been less than inflation. Part of that is due to a limited number of collectors of the right age group, but as time marches on that may change. On the other hand sets like the Modular buildings are jumping in price after they are discontinued. There has been some discussion among the LEGO ambassadors about re-issuing Cafe Corner and Green Grocer due to the high prices on the second hand market, so if that happens I guess the potential profit is limited. Given you can sell the carriages of the Emerald Night right now at a good price resulting in some other very nice parts very cheap (some of which get very good prices on Bricklink) I'd suggest it's smarter sell now rather than wait for a future profit. The Maersk train is still relatively new so there's little point in buying these for investment for a year or two.

I'd second this advice, LEGO can be surprisingly heavy, and warp your table top over time. One suggestion I got from an AMRA show I exhibited at was to use aluminium angle for the frame. Light weight and similar cost to wood but much more stable.