peterab

in his haste to push down his windblown kilt he found an icy three fingered hand on his thigh. The assembled company looked towards him, and were shocked to see over his shoulder ...

A lot of the hobby train models have real life prototypes, the swiss crocodile, the ghan etc. I've read that the metroliner looks _very_ much like a French train (I always assumed it was intended to be Amtrak as well). The 7740 shows a lot of similarity to German TEE trains. The grey era steam trains (and some of the earlier blue track trains) have the colouring of DB (German Federal Railways) steam trains, though the wheel arangements are not necessarily of a particular class. Some of the diesels also look like German ones, but could be any generic European shunter too. There is a small red engine that looks very much like an early german electric. I think the further you go back the less definate you can be because the level of detail falls. My gut feel is even if a set isnt intended to be an exact replica, real prototypes influenced the designs.

Just in case you have overlooked them, if you go to this page http://www.flickr.com/photos/gambort/31123...57611206516332/ you will find links to pdf and mpd files of the instructions which should give you all the details you want.

Given the current size of the Lego company, they probably have wildly different sales expectations for a line now. What was worthwhile in the 70's may not be considered so now. I desperately want two or more Emerald nights. I'd even buy them at the current RRP. But add $40 of shipping and it becomes just a little too expensive.Fortunately a lot of the Lego exclusives are offered as exclusives through retail stores in Australia, often reduced in price, where generally they sell out very quickly. I hope to pick up the Emerald Night this way or perhaps through a group S@H order to share the shipping costs. The fact that these sorts of more expensive sets do very well here, once on retail shelves, and possibly on sale, suggests lower price and easy availability would help the sales of the train line, at least in Australia.

I bought two of these (they were on sale locally) and am not dissapointed. Lots of civilian figs, cows, rare colours, good design, good price per part, you could hardly expect better than this. Compared to the City farm set (which is around the sme price here in Oz) this is a way better set. I'm not a castle fan, but these sets will make a great medieval centre to my town/train layout. Peter

Fair Enough. Given the campaign to save 9V I would be very surprised if we ever saw the track produced again by the Lego Group. They have already considered and rejected the idea. They even said the cost of the track was one of the reasons which led them to discontinue 9V. If the community wants to do this I fear they will have to finance it themselves, and I doubt they are likely to be able to break even if TLG didn't think they could. I for one welcome our new PF overlords.

As others have said MS is less detailed, but cheaper. The architechture is clearly Dutch (it was designed by a guy from the Netherlands if I remember correctly), so may or may not fit with your chosen style. It is a good source of light and dark blue bricks. The stairs are an interesting building technique. I would have bought one, but found some on sale here in Australia, so I bought two. BTW A lot of S@H exclusives get sold off in Australia at the end of their run. I'd suggest this is what is happening now, as it is turning up in our shops. If you want Market St, now is probably the time to buy it before it is no longer widely available and the price rises. Peter

For those that do not know Tim is an Ambassador. Perhaps the mods could put him in the Ambassadorrs group if that's appropriate. It would add a bit of weight and veracity to his inside insight.

Hi Cale, Thats a great engine, I'm envious of your building ability. I hope I dont appear to be rude, but I'd love to know where I can find more photos of the roundhouse your engine is in front of. I'm currently building one myself, and it looks like mine uses the same geometry as yours. I found a photo of yours from brickworld, and was quite dissapointed. I was not only beaten with the geometry, but your roundhouse has captured an simple industrial elegance which I haven't with mine. Peter

This sounds quite exciting. And the rules mostly seem to make sense to me. The one rule I find problematic is the re-sale one. I can understand TLG not wanting the program to be the basis of anyones bricklink business. On the other hand some of the members of my LUG make huge Mocs, an eight foot high Eifel tower for example. After our yearly show those Mocs are broken down, and the parts resold, to finance the next years parts purchase. This rule effectively excludes those members. I think perhaps a better rule would be 'You may not sell these parts at a profit'. Although that may compete with PAB which is probably not a desired outcome. Any new bulk source of lego is probably a good thing, I just hope it's at a price where I can afford to take part.

Well I'm relieved at that. I'm 43. What is it with all the old blokes from Australia on Eurobricks

1x3 curved slopes, in at least black, light & dark bley and white would be handy for train roofs. http://www.bricklink.com/catalogItem.asp?P=50950 Hinged Train Gates 2x4 http://www.bricklink.com/catalogItem.asp?P=2873 Of course if we are going to head into complete fantasy land how about 9V track and motors. By the way, my local Lego Ambasador has said that its almost out of the question that old parts will be brought back just for PAB so our only hope for the older parts is that they are brought back for use in new sets.

I voted steam, as I like the fact that their functionality determines their shape. This is less true with diesel or electric trains whose shape is more a box which contains the function.

Pelmet boxes are the boxes built around the top of curtain rods, along the top of windows. The idea behind them is they stop warm air from flowing from the top of a room down behind the curtains and out the bottom after being cooled by the window. I imagine they might be less common in Europe where double glazing of windows is more common. They're just the right size for a lego train. Thanks for the welcome Brickster, I'm sure I'll enjoy the forums here. I've been reading for some months already and thinking about joining, but the Train Tech gave me the final nudge.

Hi I'm an AFOL train and town fan from Australia, My first Lego sets were from the late sixties (sent out from my German grandparents), my first train was 171, which I combined with the 4.5V lego motor. Australia had limited trains (171, 181 & 182) so I didnt get any more before my dark ages started around 1980. In 1995 my dark ages ended with some of the exploriens sets, and a bit of a space binge. I also bought a few town sets which awakened a nostalgia for the 70's legoland sets, a lot of which I bought on eBay including most of the 4.5V and some of the 12V trains. I then discovered the 80's grey track trains and the 9V trains. Unfortunately I can't afford to buy all of those I'd like I've bought a few wagons from the sets and built up a few from individual parts. I have 3 hobby trains and bought a holiday train. Somewhere along the way I decided having a Lego train/town layout was cheaper than a HO train layout and Lego as a hobby. I'm now concentration on building a layout with modular style buildings. It will be European styled, with trains style on German ones but with a mix of fantasy and reality. BTW thanks for the focus on trains, its inspiring seeing all the great train Mocs from your staff and members.

All this train tech has finally forced me to join up :-) One cheap and easy idea for train storage is to put track across the top of your pelmet boxes (if you have them) and store a train there. Most pelmet boxes are wide enough for a train, they are normally out of direct sunlight, and it gives you an excuse to have a train in every room. I will do this as soon as I build pelmet boxes for my windows :-)