domboy

Same here, even though I thought they were really cool when I was a kid... I especially wanted 6991 Monorail Transport Base, but I never got it for exactly the reason Lego isn't interested in producing monorails again... cost. Though I have to admit I never had any trains of any type for exactly that same reason. I am fortunate enough to finally have some, but I really doubt I would be interested in a new monorail, as I also would be much more interested in Lego expanding the regular train system (which apparently is also a hard sell I hear). In my opinion the main thing Lego monorail has going for it is the ability to quickly change elevation via the ramp track piece (or whatever it's called). Otherwise I prefer tracks with two rails... That said, I watched the videos on the brick-built monorail on Cuusoo, and I have to admit that it is really cool... that switch is amazing!

That's exactly the kind of thing I meant when I said it's too bad Lego never made an adapter... official Lego or not that is really cool!! I obviously haven't tried it either, but it's tempting...

Oh, ok. Cool, thanks for the link!

I really like the building in the video that the train runs under! Is that some sort of resupply structure, like for water or coal?

I believe what you need to make the 8866 train motor work is a Power Functions Extension Wire, such as: 8886 Power Functions Extension Wire 8871 Power Functions Extension Wire 20” The latter only if you need a really long one. I believe You could also use an older 9V cable if you happen to have one (I've heard of people connecting this motor to the 9V motors).

My vote: 4. Trijntje - 3 9. Oky - 2

Interesting design, if the picture is accurate in real bricks that very well could work. I wish I had the right parts to try it! (I don't think I have any extra 1x1 brick with stud on side, or whatever the official name is.) I do agree, filling that half-brick area is a lot harder than I would have thought! It's too bad lego never made some sort of adapter to transition between train systems...

Blue might be weird, but I'm not too picky on light gray vs dark gray vs dark bluish gray, at least not yet. One could always put the less desirable colors in a less visible space, and I think someone previously suggested that. I am interested if you find a brick-built solution for the 1x4 tile part ("rod-clip-tile-holder")... I don't have any extras of the 52107 piece you mentioned. I spent quite awhile trying to find a way to fill that half-stud space and couldn't get anything to match up seeing as the tile has to end in the middle of the stud to match up with the rails... so it's really a half-stud off 90 degrees to the rails. If I was doing ballast on this it might make things a bit easier to get to match up as I could use the "1x2 tile with one stud" piece... Actually the 1x4 tile is the important part of the brick-built section, as without something to span the half-stud between the new and old rail types (or the brick-built rail) there is a very noticeable and jarring bump as the train moves over it, and according to the discussion at first link I posted, having that space increases the risk of derailment. Thank you all for the comments and suggestions by the way!!

I have been searching for solutions for mixing 9V/RC track with older 4.5V/12V track, so I hope the moderators don't mind if I bring back an old thread. And if anyone wonders why bother, I want to include two old sets (7838 and 7835) in my layout without changing out their track... I guess I'm just weird that way... but hey, that's 64 studs worth of track that would be wasted! Though I did buy four additional 4.5V/12V track pieces via bricklink to use in my conversion attempts. Anyway, as many of you may already know, those two track types don't mix easily. The old track pieces are exactly sixteen studs in length, but the newer prefab pieces protrude approximately a half-stud extra on each end to connect to another pieces. This is the root of the problem! I first found the solution that SavaTheAggie posted. And that works rather well from my own attempts. Disclaimer: I used pieces I had on hand, so attempts at color-coordination are not very successful. The trains I have tried on it have no problems, and the slight indent/groove on the inside of the RC rail does not seem to pose a problem. The main drawback to this method that I've found is it is not possible to mount it to a baseplate, as one side of the connection is going to be off by a half-stud. It may be possible to do with ballast, but I don't have the pieces for that. So I sat down with a bag of random parts to try to come up with a solution that could be mounted to a base plate, and built without modifying any pieces. I also wanted it to conform to Lego's track system as much as possible, i.e. the smallest official track pieces, the flex track, is four studs long, so I envisioned building a transitional section that would be at the minimum of four studs in length (well, 3.5 plus the .5 overhang of the RC track), or multiples thereof. That way it would be easy to include without throwing off everything after the transition. Here is what I came up with: Again, this is built from pieces I had on hand so the coloring is a bit strange... though I have grown very found of dark red now... and I'm a sucker for printed pieces that are just there because they're cool. But I've managed to brick-build a functional transitional track that seems to work very well. Finding a way to fill that half-stud off-set was a royal pain, and I'm not sure this is a legal build. There may be a better way, but I'm fairly new at MOCing. I had a an 8x16 base plate to add to my 16x32 base plate, so I went with 7.5 stud transitional section. This results in the track filling up the 32 + 8 studs worth of baseplate exactly (nothing hanging off either end, or ending prematurely). There is still a very small space between the RC track and my brick-built section, but it doesn't seem to be an issue. I would really like to have fit this on a single 32 stud base plate, but I discovered flex-track can't mount to base plates either. Do'h! I'm thinking an ME-rails half length track section would be just the ticket, but I don't have any of those. After all this I am curious if anyone else has come up other solutions, better, simpler, or just different.

Ok, I'm bringing back a slightly older thread... again... I need closure... I finally got a trigger to buy 3677 Red Cargo Train. I bought it for my little boy (now ~4.5 yr) as I had originally hoped. He's thrilled! It was awesome to see him carry that big box to the counter to check out! Like I said it in last post on this, it really did come down to having available funds, as the desire was always there, but I don't usually have $160 just laying around. Once I had the funds, the decision was easy. And the funds came from a lucky break (or a Providential provision depending on your world view) of buying a lot of Legos from a co-working who was selling them for her son who was "outgrowing them" (right... he may regret that someday). I "bricklinked" the missing pieces and resold most of them (kept 7641, 7994, and 7734) on ebay and ended up with enough profit $$ to buy the 3677 train set, some extras (switches/points etc) to go with it, PF stuff for my Emerald Night, and also to finally finish my Bricklink reconstructing projects (10027 and 7838). Very cool... well worth the time spent sorting, rebuilding, and photographing... I must say one of the reasons (a secondary trigger perhaps) I decided I really should get 3677 for my son (instead of the other two, yellow cargo or red passenger) was I realized the cargo pallets for both the box car (hazard car) and the maintenance car is the same design Lego used in 7733 & 7734 so the play value would be greatly increased by having all three sets (which we now do) and being able to move the cargo the between truck, train, and plane. Pretty cool! I love it when Lego does something like this to make different sets go well with each other (unfortunately the story with containers isn't so happy).

I finally got some flex track, and I must say after seeing it in person I think it's quite brilliant. Even if it does have all the downsides that have previously been mentioned. I wonder if the disdain for flex has faded any since it's been around for quite awhile now... Sorry to bump an older thread btw...

That looks pretty cool. But what I want to know is how you managed to get the different track types to match up? In the picture there doesn't appear to be a space between the indiviual rails on the movable section, and the regular modeled rail pieces. But I know from my own attempts at matching up the two on a plate (or baseplate) that the closets they can get to each other (unmodified) will leave a half-stud space between them. If there is such a space, how do the locomotives handle it?

I too would like confirmation on this, especially since the link still doesn't work...

Very interesting. My brother discovered a system of modular units for his model N gauge trains, and I've been wondering if I couldn't do something similar with Lego trains. I am curious, how did you fasten the baseplate to the wood on each module?

On topic I'd say. If individual rolling stock isn't the way to go, a set like 4555 would be a very nice compromise, and possibly preferable due to providing play value to the said rolling stock... in this case a crane to load and unload containers. That's what I'd like to see. Having a less expensive set like this available might convince a kid that's into city sets that he/she also needs a train set to expand their city. But maybe it won't work as well now as it did in 1995...

Um, aren't there four versions? We have: 4708 Hogwarts Express 4758 Hogwarts Express (2nd edition) 10132 Motorized Hogwarts Express 4841 Hogwarts Express (3rd edition) 10132 at least ought to be considered a "real train". It has real train wheels, came with 9V track, speed regulator, etc. And it was released well before the drivers from the Emerald Night were designed. I agree the first two versions aren't very good, and they used car wheels instead of train wheels, but 10132 and 4841 fixed that. 4841 should be easy to motorize on 9V, but I agree PF would take a bit more work. It does seem that Lego at least somewhat intended it to be motorized, or why include real train wheels, and why does the item description on Lego.com for the 88002 power functions train motor actually say "May be used to motorize #4841 Hogwart’s Express or #7597 Western Train Chase". (Wasn't sure if it was ok to post the link to the Lego.com site or not.) No, 4841 wasn't intended to be an adult/teen/older child model like the Emerald Night, so I'm not surprised it doesn't include the drivers... that would make it more complicated (unless you leave out the pistons like the Toy Story Train). All that to say, first two the second two Of course, I'm not enough of a Harry Potter fan to own any of the sets, but the trains are the most interesting part of the line to me...

Talk about a highly subjective topic! And a lot of one's opinion will probably have to do with personal likes and dislikes. I hate really dislike stickers (hate was kind of a strong word), and have a huge preference for printed pieces, or less decorated sets if it means less stickers. So the more recent increase in stickers and decrease in the number of printed pieces to me is a bad thing, and definitely not golden. I expect tons of printed pieces may be one of the things that got Lego in financial trouble, but that doesn't make me like stickers any better. Of course, a specially molded pieces could definitely take the place of either to me, such as the recent "brick" brick piece for example (not sure of its official name yet). Minifigs - lots of people go on and on about minifig detail, back printing, having tons of different facial expressions, but this doesn't matter that much to me. Sure some of the modern minifigs are awesome, I think too detailed can be bad too... I'd rather less detail on minifigs and more printed pieces. And each theme probably has its own Golden Age, or lack thereof. Most castle fans love the mid eighties, including me. But I loved the 2007 fantasy line (one of the things that got me back into Lego), and the Kingdoms line that replaced it was rather bleh to me. A lot of people feel the reverse. Many train fans bemoan the discontinuation of powered rails when Lego switch to power functions for the train line. Then again the two recent exclusive trains are incredible, PF though they are. Licensed themes are a problem for. I think they're awesome (aside from fleshies), I can't afford to really get into them due to the characters... I'll want to collect them all, and that is out of the budget. Regular non-licensed themes don't have this problem, and it's more about the model than a bunch of characters. That said, my little boy has picked up an interest in superheros (probably from his little friends at preschool), so Batman Lego couldn't have come at a better time for him. And I'd rather get him a Batman Lego set than some action figure (something that never really appealed to me). The great thing about Lego is that it can all go together, and with places like bricklink, ebay, online yardsale sites, etc, one can purchase most any set (depending on how much you're willing to pay of course). No wonder Lego was always my favorite toy...

I found the Queen Anne's Revenge for $79 on the clearance isle at Walmart last week. I don't have the money but I bought it anyway. I was probably going to pass on it @ $119 (obviously still hadn't bought it), but $79 was too temping. Yay, I finally have a pirate ship! There were a bunch of POTC sets on the clearance isle but that was the only ship, and the only one at a serious clearance price that I found. The box was a bit beat up (very small hole in one place), but otherwise it still looked sealed. Are they clearing out POTC sets? Hmm...

I also really appreciate your posting the instructions and parts list for the EOL Buffer. Very neat. I happened to get a shock absorber in (old) dark gray from a ebay pieces lot, so I'm on my way to building one. Yay!

Ahh, and that must be what the first two posters were getting at. Whoops...

So you guys think the trains are just randomly deciding when to go right or straight on the point/switch track? I saw no hands moving the switch so it must have been remotely controlled. Maybe I've got a breakdown of logic here. Sure, there are no close ups of the moterized switching going on. So yes, I think you missed something. Nice crash at the end!

Funny, just the other day I was wondering to myself if anyone has found a use for the pins that hold the track pieces together (track sprues I believe you called them), and voilà! I can't tell, is this powered in any way?

Good question. I think right now it's probably just a lack of available funds (I only just bought the motor to power the Maersk, and I've had that since July). I love the red locomotive, which is why I've thought about using my little boy as justification... I'm sure he'd love to have his own train, especially a red locomotive! Of course, he's only 4, so does he really need his own Lego train just yet? He's getting pretty good a building Legos with help on the instructions, and understands how to use the PF controller and change the switch tracks. I'm sure I will get him his own train at some point, but I don't know if it'll be the red cargo or whatever comes next.

What triggers "buy"? Interesting question... To preface that, as a kid I always thought lego trains would be awesome, as I loved trains as a kid. Too costly for my family. As an adult, when I started rediscovering Legos I thought about trains, but figured I'd better not as if I got the bug it would become expensive. Emerald Night was very tempting, but I resisted. For some reason the Maersk finally did it, and once I'd committed, I knew I had to get both it and the Emerald Night. See? Expensive. The regular train sets in the city range at the time (Yellow cargo and Red Passenger) didn't do it for me as they aren't as interesting from a building perspective, or as a train type. I think modern American diesels are what I find more appealing (that and Steam). I am somewhat tempted to find the money to buy the Red cargo train, though mostly to get my little boy his own train then for me. If Lego does another train exclusive I'll probably buy it. Oddly enough at a $100-120 price point it's easier to swallow than a complete train set with track and structures etc. I can buy track a little bit here, a little bit there to spread out the cost. Might be more expensive in the long run, but easier to fit into the budget.

I saw the Maersk was on display at the store in Raleigh North Carolina, early last summer I think it was. I have no idea it having it on store-front display had any affect on sales, but I have to assume a lot more people were exposed to the model than if it had not been on display. Who knows, maybe it got a few train fans in the door...