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I've been experimenting with 7 wide and it looks a lot better than 6, but it's tricky to build. For now I'm sticking with 8 wide. :)

Not at all, at least for now. I've been planning to build the VR's old diesel and electric locomotives, there's a railroad 2km from my house and the red/white Dv12 diesel locomotive is a common sight.

Got this set yesterday and built the locomotive + tender, I put in the medium motor and tested it right away on my 12V test track, to my surprise it worked perfectly! No problems with traction. The next step would be to modify the locomotive for the 12V system + DCC. :)

Very nice! However, I'd probably use Brick, Modified 1 x 2 with Grill on the sides instead of the Tile, Modified 1 x 2 Grill. :)

You could have two loops like this: This is my current home layout, I have 4 trains on the layout, two are always "in reserve" on the sidings and two on the loops. It's a bit boring layout, but better than nothing... :)

Unless the parts are in mint condition they don't have much value ie. one piece of straight rail costs $0.05 - $0.10 on BrickLink.

I wasn't referring just to the electric parts. :) For example I like to build in the gray 12V style, wagons use the old wheels etc. Shops that I've found useful: Bestmecki Diana's brick shop Gabi's store joerilla Magic Magnus Mattoncini-Mania Paul's store Tines Steine-Welt I'm a 12V buff, but I use a lot of 9V and some new parts too. :)

I have all the idea books and the first two are easily the best. I have couple of models still built - the excavator and a jeep, but I'm planning to build some more when I have the time, I'll take pictures of them. :)

It depends on what you're looking for, 12V (blue/gray), 9V, 4.5V or the RC trains...

I built one for my 12V/9V layout, I don't own the actual set though. However, I made a few changes when building it, I added some details on the area where the RC motor would be, I added old style window shutters on the sides, but there's no such thing as green windows with the shutter tabs (or the bricks with tabs) so it looked a bit silly, other than that I'm quite happy with the results. I made similar modifications for my 12V Crocodile which is based on the 4551 9V set, it has old style windows, roof and windows shutters on the sides. I'll try to remember to take pictures of both of them... :)

It's brilliant! :)

Ministickers.nl is one site selling all sorts of (train) stickers. I've bought some train stickers from them and the quality was excellent.

I prefer the old style, usually I make my own "modules" of them using 16x32 baseplates and 1x1 and 1x2 plates for ballast. I've just ordered parts for making 40-50 of these for my new layout each averaging 100 parts total... :P

I'll probably try those, unfortunately there's only one choice of color: black and I really need red wheels... :( I haven't really used the 9V bogies on 12V track, just a few quick tests and I didn't notice any problems?

The BBB wheels look very nice and for a long time I've wanted to buy them, but as mentioned the lack of traction is a big issue. I think they might have better traction on the 9V metal track compared to the plastic tracks. I use the 12V track and I doubt the wheels would work at all on the notched plastic rails... :( Has anyone found good rubber bands or O rings to use with the BBB wheels?

Nice layout and some really cool train sets. :)

With DCC you can have pretty much as many trains running as you like with remote controlled points etc. and you can get the power and all the remote controlling information from the rails. NO batteries needed. ;)

My first train set was the 133-1 locomotive and I still have it. The yellow piston moving when you pushed the train was cool and I think there was only 2 other sets that had this. I've upgraded mine to use the old 12V motor and with some 70's wagons it makes a nice little train and it's my favorite of all the 60's and 70's locomotives.

12V + It feels more like LEGO than any other system ie. you connect 5 parts to get one piece of track + Has COOL stuff like remote controlled points etc. that NONE of the other systems have, it was all downhill from here, less and less "real train stuff" in every generation + The basic track, crossings and points are cheaper than in 9V and making your own remote controlled points and what-not is even easier and cheaper than in 9V - Some of the original sets and parts are very expensive 9V -/+ Lacks all the (original) cool stuff from 12V (I always expected LEGO to introduce it's own "legofied" DCC system for the 9V!), you have to make everything yourself - which can be more fun than just slamming together something reading the instructions! + More realistic, the track and motors are similar to the HO trains - Motors are less powerful than in 12V, you need two to get the same kind of "umph" RC & PF ---- Batteries IN a train? Oh please, that's for the pre-school kids! -/+ NONE of the remote control stuff released by LEGO has really worked (based on my own experience, I haven't tested ALL of them), if you're familiar with the "real" RC models then the LEGO RC feels like the kid who sees a black & white TV set (and it doesn't even have a remote control!) for the first time in his life! (+) PF combined with 9V/12V can be used for some really cool stuff, but then again, this is hardly anything new since the 4.5/9/12V motors have been around for quite some time! Honestly, I can see no reason why someone would choose RC/PF over 9V/12V if REALLY interested in trains. 9V/12V are as good or even better than the HO trains. For these two the choice comes to what's more easily available, at least in Europe any of the 9V/12V stuff is easy to get (sure it can be quite expensive, but you can always check the HO prices and compare!). For some who prefer realism, the metal rails and no third rail make it an easy choice. This is my (biased towards 12V) opinion, if you don't like it, that's not my problem. :)

And they cost $40+ a piece on BrickLink, that's a ridiculous price for a 1 x 1 x 2 window!

The red bogie ain't the only extremely rare part in this set, it has also the BIG red wheels (the ONLY set that has them!) and 1x1x2 and 1x2x2 black windows too... These parts are what make this set so special, personally I like the small steam engines more than this. :P EDIT: And let's not forget the RED 12V motor, you can get a set like 7725 WITH the black 12V motor for the price of one red motor! :D

I prefer the original road plates from late 70's and early 80's, 300-1/551-1, 301-1/552-1, 302-1/553-1, 302-2 and 6304-1. Sometimes I use the 6312-1 for marking parking zones on the streets.

Here's another AFOL from Finland. Classic Space/Town and Technic were my thing when I was a kid and after The Dark Ages I started collecting more sets and added 12V trains to my collection. Now I collect Technic sets from 70's right up until the mighty 8868 (I have two of them, they are the pinnacle of Lego Technic evolution!), apart from the sets with those silly Technic figures and similar "simple" sets. From Classic Space I'm mostly interested in the sets from late 70's and early 80's, before the color scheme changed from blue-gray (like 918, 924 and 928) to blue-white. I have some later sets too, but I draw the line to Futuron/M-Tron/Space Police. For me the Classic Town starts from early 80's and ends on 89-90. I prefer the original road plates over the newer versions. The first Train set I got was the 133-1 and I've recently built a replica of it using new parts and equipped it with a 12V motor, 180-1 is another set from the early 70's that I've equipped with a 12V motor and have it running among the classic 80's trains, like 7740. I probably need to make another post in the Train tech about my 12V collection. :) Currently I'm designing/building a town using the 80's sets, just need to make a huge table first to build on (already made one, which was not big enough! :D ), I'll post some pictures of the building process later.

Brilliant work! The Gordon and G-man decals are just perfect! :)