Ashi Valkoinen

Hello! Do we know something about the judges, and the judging criteria? Like how the LEGO-build matches an existing prototype, proportions, scale, brickbuilt solutions over sticker and printed parts, etc? Last worldwide competition seemed to be really heavy on "british style" train winners.

@michaelgale Could you give us any estimated schedule on P40 switches in production, _IF_ everything goes well? (I ask this for selfish reasons - if it is still months for they come I'd pre-order some R104 curves, but if pre-order will be available soon then I save my founds for the points - 6 pair I'll need!)

These are very, very good news! I can't wait to make the first orders for these! Thank you for that good work!

@michaelgale May I ask about the P40L and P40R switches? FX website say coming in 2021, is it still possible to happen? I would like to inquire about the 1/5 and 1/10 tracks (3.2 studs, 1.6 studs), will be these available after a while?

Thanks for all of you for the nice comments. Truly said I felt proud after finishing this project, but it is really good to read reactions like this. And I'm always opened to critics as well. :)

Hello all, it was for a while again since I posted last time here, but I got really busy about moving to a new place, starting a new workplace and this project I show you in this topic consumed also tons of money so there was nothing new LEGO-creation to post until this month. My latest project is the SOB (Südostbahn) Stadler Traverso also known as FLIRT4 regional train which is a MOC train which has really no relation to Hungarian Railways I'm used to build for. Larger image: https://img1.indafoto.hu/4/9/2269_99ef04eb612baf0e86671a5109e22154/26984249_b953fff3b7470d8a4d7803ad3dba544b_xl.jpg This is the overall look of the train, unfortunately I don't have any photos of my own about the real thing. But anyone familiar with the real train could know that the copper or bronze colour of the real train is a pain when it comes to pick a LEGO-colour for it. When I was asked to design this train, I asked a friend to make some samples for me with copper-chrome colouring of some random bricks, but the larger surfaces didn't look so good as I expected so I looked around for LEGO-colours when a single and ONLY dark orange piece popped up in my "mixed" box of parts. Made a quick BL-search, many parts in this colour not existing, including larger plates and tiles, so LDD-design seemed to be a challenge. Also part costs are extreme compared to another colours, the 300+ 1×6 plates, 550+ 1×2 cheese slopes and the special, 4×8 plates for floor (no 1×8, no 2×8, no 6×8, etc) were a pain. After making the complete design the guy who asked for it was concerned about part prices, but I started to like the look of the train so I started to order in March of 2021 and everything arrived (and I could pay for) until second half of September. Digital planning and real assembly took around 300 hours. The train is driven by 4 PF train motors, 2-2 in each half, controllod via SBrick. Interior lights and front/tail lights also included. It consist of 8289 LEGO-parts, including all the extension cables, lights, motors. However it is "just an another FLIRT" in my fleet, some parts has been modified significantly as an experiment, to update my older FLIRT design on my existing other 4 FLIRT units. The most significant part is the angle of the roof part - when I built the first FLIRT back in 2009, I used 45° slopes because there were no other options, now small hinges and cheese slopes offer better options. The front cone is totally different compared to FLIRT1 and FLIRT3 designs, and making it using Dark Orange was really a pain, making PF led lights to fit. LDD-plan of front cone - outside and inside: Front cone builtof real bricks, including PF-lights and using my own technique with light transmitting cables to fit into small places at the front: The entire train with lights on and other FLIRTs around: The two, non-identical halves of the train - 1st class traincars have different positioning and number of windows: Video of the train running:

Depends on the size and the wight you want to pull. I have four locomotives equipped with two PF train motors and V2 IR receivers, but I build 72 studs long trains cars, each with 600g -800g weight, the locos with batteries 1200g-1500g. But for "normal", set-sized trains consisting of 5-6 cars the V1 IR receiver will do the job.

PF AA or AAA battery box and a short or long PF extension cable would do it. Put the cable's dark bluish gray plug to the battery box, the light bluish gray plug to the motor. This will test, if the inside MOTOR works. But this method won't test, if current pickup is working. Most 9V motors die because power pickups inside got dirty (repairable) or broken.

Thanks for clarification. Now I also found were these were presented: https://www.fxbricks.com/fxblog/?post_id=26&title=fx-track-system-+-other-news (S16 and S8 pieces cut to 5 equal sections in the middle of the figure.) And yes, the useability of these short straight segments is very wide - ultimately theywere designed for the ladder yard, but as a 9V-conducting piece they offer a lot more if it comes to design ladder yards with unique perpendicular spacings (for wider platforms) keeping it still modular, or designing lateral offsets for mainline tracks. I don't want to extrapolate from my personal needs but designing my future layout plans using FX P40's and having an another station with tons of TrixBrix R104 switches required many times using S1.6, S3.2, S4 and S8 segments to come alive. Maybe the box of short straights you mentioned and a combined, larger box "ladder yard" including more P40 points than a single pair and these short pieces would be great.

And think about just the look of metal tracks! I don't use 9V train motors anymore, just battery-operated trains with different controls (PF IR, SBrick, RC!), and even if I shouldn't have think about compatibility to others guys owing still 9V I'd like to stick to metal tracks, just because of the look and added realism it offers. I'm glad that FX just started the buisness in time, finally I can get rid off the R40 9V points Iuse at my train station and start for something more realistic, keeping the metal tracks as well. Last Monday I was out in the garden to shoot some photos of my MOC trains - I do owe ten almost completed trainsets, six of them are closed electric motor units (4 FLIRTs, 1 Talent, 1 KISS), at this day I took out my trains consisting of locomotives and traditional train cars. 1. All of them together: 2. All of them together, 2: 3. MÁV Ganz V63 with 3 intercity cars. In this case, the train cars are proportionally sized in 1:45 scale, but many details undeveloped - underneath the chassis and bogies needs a lot of work, including taking the necessary photos of the traincars. 4. MÁV Ganz-Hunslet BVmot: a bit exception, because it is an electric motor unit, but it could be separated two four cars, middle cars can be used in other trains, too, and the EMU could be lengthened up to four middle cars, including any other compatible cars as well. She is quite well finished, all the details and indoor stuff is right where it should be, however I need to fix the little bend of the motor car. 5. My latest full trainset - inland GySEV intercity train with GySEV Vectron locomotive, two of the RaaberCity cars and one older, Y-waggon in the colours of GySEV. Greens and yellows do really cheer up the colour palette of my trains, dominated mostly by white, blue and red. The Vectron will need one plate of height removed overall (will be hard to do but necessary for better proportions), the passenger cars are really finished. 6. MÁV Siemens Taurus and two ÖBB cars - an international train running between Budapest and Vienna. I'm not satisfied with the front look of the locomotive (the black part for windscreen and surroundings is really badly shaped right now), however finally I managed to get the front lights on the edge studs of the locomotive using no drilling of plates, just original LEGO-parts. The 1×2 round plate with open studs was a great help to do this. ÖBB cars miss a third one (I do own only the gray windows for it), and also they are totally missing some details underneath.

@michaelgale May I ask about the Track System? Half a year or more ago I found a document somewhere on your website which presented ladder yards built using FX P40 switches, the R64P curve at the last track and some S1.6 and S3.2 straight segments to make the perfect alignment for the ladder yards making all tracks fit to the standard geometry, but now at this menu ( https://www.fxbricks.com/fxtrack/ , "System Catalog" ) the short straights now disappered. Are theynow out of the plan?

Ballasted my S32 straights received two weeks ago. They look nice, elegant, and just like TLC's original tracks. I highly approve the work put into this product, especially that it looks exactly the same as TLC's track.

I already bought of these products. They are quality. If anyone thinking about buying 9V-tracks, consider to by FX-tracks instead of used TLC-track. Support them to get back their insane founds by time and for offering the motors, power pickups and large radius points...

No, it won't work, since R64 curves turn 22,62° instead of 22,5°.

Yes, we do believe.

@michaelgale Thank you for your reply. I found part of your comment earlier (I can't recall, where) and was aware of why it is P40 and not R104 switch, but also hoped if this difference is small enough to connect the tracks the way I needed (while that R64 fits nicely matemathically it questions the large radius geometry). Since track connections have some freedom (and remember Holger-curves method connecting straights) I'm pretty sure, that this 0,12° difference you described can be played well to make single sidings. The only problem occured around those S32 tracks that I was able to order only three boxes from JB Spielwaren - I can understand the limitation but we wanted to make a joint order with club members after I encouraged them to buy also at least one box/person to make the buisness run. But hopefully from the larger second production batch we can make a bigger order. :)

@michaelgale Received my three boxes of S32 straights (I think, first one to own them in Hungary) and I'm super satisfied with the design and the quality. Is there any plan to speed up to gather the production costs for P40L and P40R switches via some crowdfounding campaign, or these items will be based on how the other tracks (S32 and R72) sell? I have seen that you are planning a special R64 curved for the P40L and P40R switches to return to the standard grid in paralel tracks. Could you confirm or confute if the returning to the standard grid with paralel tracks could be also done combining two 11,25° segments of R104 curves and the P40L and P40R switches? I do own some TrixBrix R104 switches and R104 curves and they work together making a single siding with an offset of 16 studs.

Thank you. Be the time, got a lot of work to do but I'll make the translation, adding my experiences (I ordered 3 boxes of the S32 straights) and surely I'll refer to your topic (that's how things normally should go :) )

I'm really proud of you winning not even the region, but the global competition as well. This build is still one of the bests and I'm glad that I was one of those who got an early chance to take a look at this build when you were making it. (And omg, it was more, than a year ago :O )

Aaand is 1st of March, ordered my 3 packs of S32 straights! :)

Sent my application request. :)

Currently we are on the edge of great decisions. While switching to non-compressed cars we reached the 72 studs long traincars, and by this time TrixBrix came up with their nice points - especially thos double-slips. We operate a permanent exhibition from December, 2017, and we find 9V motors are definitely not for this task - mostly the power pickup parts get broken quite quickly, so many 9V locos were switched to PF (AA battery box + PF IR v2 + two PF train motors and this configuration does the job) and it wasn't problem anymore to have plastic-only tracks. While the permanent exhibitions has many plastic tracks now, the layouts for one-weekend events still have they R40-based 9V tracks with 9V traffics on them, just to keep our stations accessable for the only guy who owns 9V (but he is also thinking about developing a WiFi-controlled system on his own for his own trains). If FX-bricks succeeds with their brand new 9V tracks and after S32 straights and R72 curves the P40L and P40R points and R104 curves appear then surely we keep the 9V on very long term - for the look and and for the possible future DCC-options.

Thank you. I'll try to keep up, but for the following months I'll take my resources to improve my train station and layout, and less trains are expected. But two of mine owned ÖBB-cars will be renewed and also a third one will arrive to them to have a full EuroCity train for my MÁV Siemens Taurus locomotive as well. The giant modulars are built by Zoltán Pikkel (unfortunately, as an oldschool guy, he doesn't have any social media presence), he started with this style when we started to collaborate on City layouts together and he realised that for the "big" scaled trains (and not city scaled smaller ones) the original CC-houses don't look so good. As he owned many sets twice or three times, he decided to build them together resulting in a more realistic size of these sets. He also owns the town hall built from three sets: https://brickshelf.com/gallery/AshiValkoinen/MISC/img_1472.jpg (yes, I was taking a photo of the freshly installed double-slip points but I remembered having his build on this photo)

I'm happily reporting that my first builds of year 2021 are done. Yes, it was almost two months, but takes time to collect bricks and surely the money for these bricks. As I showed above I wanted to extend my GySEV train to a full inland intercity train having three waggons after my GySEV Siemens Vectron locomotive. The first waggon, an older Y-type car was built last year and now the other two has been completed. The newer ones are called "RaaberCity" cars (GySEV also known as Raaberbahn, having this name from the local river Raab near Győr city), the cars themselves were bought as used cars from ÖBB some years ago. They changed the ÖBB gray-red-white livery to some extraordinary one with different greens and patterns, and these cars became iconic on the mainline I'm used to live. First image shows the two traincars, the difference isn't visible, but one of them is Bmz, other is ABmz, having both 1st class and 2nd class seats. The only difference is the colour of the seats. Pencil and sharpener serves as size-reference - these cars have 72 studs long chassis! The two different sides of the cars differ in the underneath equipment details, and since these have cabins (11 of each) the corridor side has also ventilation grills in the green pattern part. End of the cars - door opener, 3 wide door with definitely lots of SNOT, and bogie framework. The bogies use ball-bearings. Also take a look at the 1×3×3 window frame in black I built for the toilet/corridor windows - surelywasn't easy to perform and also save the space for the minifigures in the interior! Roof removed and three cabins - I have 5 studsfor each cabin, including 2 seat in front of each other, a small separation between cabs using plate 1×2 with door rail parts and symmetric seating using headlights and brackets. I uploaded also a digital render of it how to place those seats just in the proper place (jumpers can't make the job). Building these and having the locomotive and the older Y-car make together the complete trainset! I also do own two different GySEV FLIRT units (FLIRT1 and FIRT3), and this will be my third completed green-yellow train. For the future I plan to equip all three green-yellow cars with indoor lights as well using old 9V battery box under the cars, PF-extension cable and 2 sets of PF led lights for each car.

Thank you. In this case I'll wait until you finish your article.