peterab

It was certainly a brilliant module but it was also part of a larger layout as you can see in this pic; Brickvention 2014 - Overview by scruffulous, on Flickr The operation on that branch was limited, mostly to engines that while very pretty are known to be too fragile for the main line (you can see the end of the double loop to the left of the picture).

Most of them went overseas, but I think Teunis Davies might have scored some. He built an alternate observation car and some double decker stock, so the Santa Fe that runs on our club layout is long and unique. Many of the builders in the club don't build sets any more so a lot of what we display is custom. http://www.brickshel...ery.cgi?f=81723 The last couple of pictures are Teunis and James Mathis comparing their domecar designs. I could buy nearly 3 Emerald Nights imported from the US for the price of a local new yellow cargo train at the time. The TTX cars in your signature would not be cheap to buy now. I still think it is a matter of when and where you bought it. Of course his collection of MISB trains is now worth a mint. And we had no idea if or how trains would survive. A lot of people stockpiled 9V stuff because they knew they were never going to be able to buy it at retail prices again.

Probably just in the right place at the right time. The Santa Fe stock was slow selling and was eventually heavily discounted. One of the members of my train club bought palate loads of the cars and shared them with others train clubs around the globe they were so cheap. http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?f=42776 I know a few others on that list were also discounted such as the holiday train.

Sorry Haddock51, I didn't get to open up our controllers and forgot to reply to this topic. It seems you've solved your power supply problems. I had not even thought about replacing the diodes which I assume are in the rectifier bridge, but it looks like you've got some good electronic advice at your end. Once you build your other three controllers you sound like you are ready to go. I must admit this project sounded a bit crazy at first but I look forward to seeing the result. It is still crazy, but in an exciting way now. Good luck.

Another consideration is that the size of the LEGO wheels is quite restrictive, and if you built only to the scale you are suggesting the number of prototypes would be limited. There would not be drivers large enough for most express steam engines for example. Building in 1:30 scale also puts much more strain on the available motors, it can be done but is much harder to achieve reliable running. Along with everybody else's comments I hope you can see that there are necessary compromises if you want to build LEGO trains you can run reliably, which compromises you settle for are your own choice but most people choose a scale dictated more by factors other than track gauge, which I think is entirely rational since the radius of LEGO track is inherently wrong anyway.

The grey 12V controller can be restricted to 4.5V by flipping the dial upside down (it cant turn as far then), and then all you need is the pickups for your 4.5V motor. See page four of the controller instructions; http://www.toysperiod.com/lego-set-reference/train/supplemental/12v/lego-7864-12v-transformer-controller/ The pickups you need will depend on your motor; http://www.bricklink.com/catalogItemInv.asp?S=704-1

For the relative rarity of motors being burnt out (once you are used to how many motors you need to pull heavy AFOL trains) I'd agree it is probably not worth the effort. Clubs already have access to some great support, and as the numbers of shows and clubs rise it makes sense for LEGO to make that support as easy to provide as possible. It would be nice if PF motors were still available via LUGBULK but I doubt they were removed without reason.

Many people complain that LEGO trains are not stocked in retails stores. I've been carefully watching and have personally seen the last four sets of trains on retail shelves locally (before that was my dark ages though I know at least some were stocked). In Australia it is at least partly due to the way stock is sold here. While the trains have up to a four year run, the retailers may not want or be able to re-order after the first couple of years. Many only have stock for the first Christmas after release, and most sell out well before Christmas. Also not all our large retailers stock the trains. In practice since this is only three or four months every four years, it's no wonder people who are not checking all the toy sections miss seeing them on the shelves.

Successful is probably a bad choice of word, popular would be an improvement. What I mean by that is a small company who makes 1000 of a single set in a market of 1 million toy buyers can successfully sell their whole production even if they are appealing to a niche market. The same company trying to sell 500,000 of a single set in a market of 1 million toy buyers cannot appeal to niche markets, they must appeal to the wants of most of the population. Because of the scale of LEGO's production now, the potential loss of an unpopular product would have far greater impact than when they were a smaller company. This is where the comparisons between model train manufacturers and LEGO always fall down. A HO engine which sells a few thousand copies is a huge success, but even LEGO ideas sets need to be likely to sell 10,000 to be considered for production, and they are the smallest niche LEGO currently serves. I imagine a City set would be expected to sell far more, since City is among the higher selling lines. I think you are partly right on this, but there is also an up side to the licensed sets. We have had a couple of pretty OK trains come out of Toy Story, Harry Potter and Lone Ranger, which we probably wouldn't have had City trains to replace if they didn't exist. Having a train attached to a movie brings them into focus of kids and these sets also help to spread the costs of the moulds of the train specific parts further so the theme is cheaper to maintain.

The stepping was probably used to keep production costs down, and reliability higher. Good analogue speed controllers are more expensive. You should be able to get a reasonable quality 12V one designed for HO trains. Be careful not to use more than 9V and you should be OK. The 9V motor has a thermal cutout which will trip when the motor overheats. The motor will stop working till it cools down again. If this happens often you are probably putting too much stress on it, by either running it to fast too long, or pulling to much weight with it. Some motors are more sensitive than others and seem to cut out after a while even under light loads.

I think they are interested in other stuff. Star Wars didn't exist when I got my first LEGO train. Trains don't seem to be huge in media for kids, when they do appear it seems to be aimed at younger DUPLO aged kids. The full train sets are quite expensive which doesn't help much either I guess.

There were a few guys trying to get a LUG started in Adelaide but I haven't heard much from them in a while. Ask on ANZFOL http://aussielegofans.forummotion.com and you might find someone who knows, though it has also been pretty quiet of late. You could also message Lightning Tiger who is a member here (you are sure to run into him, he posts a lot) as he might know since he is also from South Australia.

She lives in New Zealand, and was active on an Australian and NZ blog, but has dropped off the radar there too. The AFOL scene in NZ seems to have taken off in the last couple of years so I hope she just has AFOLs a lot closer to talk to now. I hope she is well.

This is all speculation, but consider how sales of LEGO have changed since the eighties. LEGO is now the second largest toy producer in the world according to credible reports. Back then it hardly had inroads to the US market and many other non-european markets. Now people actually talk about boys going through the LEGO phase as if this is vital in the development of all boys. Back then, as a smaller company it was less critical for LEGO if they made a less popular theme; their production volumes were less, so the potential loss was less, and retailers were re-stocking LEGO products far less often, so a slower selling item was a less visible problem. Now large retailers stock new LEGO several times a year, the sales of each set are far greater and LEGO is constrained by its production capacity, so in effect making any less popular set means loss in profits multiply many times in many ways. What does this mean for track side structures? To be a wise manufacturing choice a track side structure would need to have sales estimates higher than any other set they could think of making, which means they need to have the manufacturing capacity to saturate every more popular idea first. From the train projects on Cusoo/LEGO Ideas it's clear trains are nowhere near as popular as other stuff, so unless that changes, or LEGO expand their production facilities hugely, it's highly unlikely we'll see track side structure sets. Perhaps we could lobby for one of the 3 in 1 designs of creator sets be a track side structure. That way the other two models would need to provide the large sales figures, but an extra boost from train fans could be had because instead of three rather similar houses, one of the builds is a goods shed.

Hi Rail Co, Since there are many variations of the motor and you haven't really been specific enough to identify yours, you have made it more difficult for us to help you. Since you know what you have in front of you you will be better able to help yourself; the Bricklink catalogue may be more complete than the Brickset one as far as variety of old parts goes, getting to know how it works will enable you to answer these sort of questions for yourself in the future. To get you started I'd start with a parts search for 4.5V parts; http://www.bricklink.com/catalogList.asp?catType=P&catID=&itemYear=&searchName=Y&searchNo=Y&q=4.5V&catLike=W I'm guessing you have a bb07 motor, since it's the more common one; so bring up it's page and then click the link for the sets it appears in in blue; http://www.bricklink.com/catalogItemIn.asp?P=bb07&colorID=7&in=A from there you can check the inventories of the sets to see which of them is most likely.

Hi yogi_007, What city are you in? There are a number of active groups in Australia which have good exhibitions. I'm in Melbourne and the M>LTC displays a layout many times a year. The biggest layout is normally at Brickvention in January.

If your issue is mainly the size the easiest alternative is to remove the case. The PCB within is quite a lot smaller, a lot of the additional space is taken up with a kid friendly switch and connectors and robust packaging. I'm pretty sure with a bit of google searching you'll be able to find pictures of the internals.

Since the PF system is in principle designed to run at 9V, 3.7V would result in the motor running much slower, in fact I'm not sure 3.7V is enough to get it to move at all.

Pretty much anything you like is a not too expensive proposition except Star Wars or superheroes minifigs. Both Star Wars and superheroes have had some exceedingly limited releases of figures which have quite insane prices, so wanting to collect all of them means big money. Star wars has a huge variety though, and some fairly cool niches. I can't help myself when it comes to droids and aliens for example. You really should get to know Bricklink as others have suggested. You are less likely to be lied to about condition, the prices are more consistent, and you'll find what you want far easier. There is a bit of a learning curve to using it but once you master it, it's a lot more convenient than Ebay for LEGO.

These things are now rare and collectable. Hence the Bricklink prices. Your best chance for a bargain is a bulk lot from someone who doesn't know their value on ebay, but you'll probably have to search long and hard. I wouldn't worry about the decoupler, I've heard from people who have it, that it is not very reliable.

Take a look at the bricklink inventories which will tell you what each set contained; http://www.bricklink.com/catalogList.asp?catType=S&catID=694

Most regular LEGO trains have normal bogies so it is unlikely they will cause any trouble. Really long trains will eventually pull apart due to the weight on the magnetic couplings, and the HE is quite heavy, but I've run much longer and heavier trains without problems. The newer couplings have studs on top which can be joined using a 1x2 tile if you experience trouble.

The problem is that 2006 nose piece is arguably the worst ever piece LEGO has ever made, not only is it a large limited use piece but it was also poorly moulded (it had bad gaps when connected) and had woeful clutch power.

Welcome along. The Constitution train chase set might be a good option, or try to find just the Engine of the Emerald Night, many people bought multiple sets for extra carriages.

I won't disagree there since green is far more useful to me. While by his own admission he allowed teal to die, it was to save dark purple, and I'd never be able to build a 1920's Rheingold without that. Besides he's also responsible for Dark Azure which is a better fit for what I wanted to use Teal for anyway . Mark takes his job as a toy designer pretty seriously, and he would only say something like that if he had some market research to back him up. He'll still slip green windows into a set if he thinks that would please AFOLs and not hurt sales to kids so we might get lucky.