Ashi Valkoinen

Thanks for your article. Do you allow me to translate it to my native language (Hungarian) and share is on our blog? With correct references, of course.

I can totally feel your pain. :D

Truly said I got used to measure every real-car dimensions also in mm-s since somehow it is more comfortable when it cames to calculate with 1 stud = 360 mm, 1 plate = 144 mm scale. Total car length, lenght between windows, width of windows, height of roof and all details come easier to be measured in mm for me.

The image above is the only reason I haven't upgraded my own layout with BT or TB R104 tracks, however on our club layout a nice amount of TB points appeared. I waited around 10 years for large radius 9V points, I think one or two more years won't make difference.

I modified my post so now it is clear that 24500 mm goes for the real train. If both of you think the same, then maybe my post isn't clear. I ordered some parts for the RaaberCity cars the last week but I need an another big order to complete them so I guess it would be around March when I finish them.

No, the real thing is 24500 mm long between buffers, resulting in a 67 studs long LEGO-chassis in 1:45 scale. :)

My latest MOC and last MOC of 2020 is a single Y-car of GySEV railway company. In real life this is a 24500 mm long car, with 10 large side windows and 2 small toilette/corridor windows on each side. I tried to replicate the real thing as good as I could taking care of exact sizing of windows and the separation between windows as good as it possible from LEGO bricks. My scale is 1:45. The following images show the two, "fortunately" different sides of the passanger car. You may also notice one separation between two large windows to be wider than others - most of the are 4 plates (9 plates wide window glass), but one of them is 4,5 plates (1 stud + 2 plates), this is the place where the smoking and non-smoking areas were separated in those times when smoking was allowed on trains. I made the entire row of windows in SNOT, with 9 plates wide and 7,5 plates tall glasses - the half-plate gap above the glasses is filled with 1×2-2×2 green brackets. This technique allows a plate-sized step making the width of windows and the separations inbetween allowing many different type of cars to make. I was forced to figure out and use this technique when I realised that the regular 1×4×3 train frame doesn't serve my needs due its bad proportions but now almost all my traditional traincars do use the technique above instead of using the train window frames. Other noticeable building technique is the toproof solution eliminatint the 0,5 plate high edge of double curved slopes 1×4 and curved slopes 2×2, depressing them 0,5 plate into the row of 1×2 45° slopes with cutout. This is the end of traincar - the top part of roof using curved slopes is held be brackets (making the half-plate Z-offset) and all the second row of 45° slopes is made the 1×2 slope 45° with cutout part. Next photo - the insidings and the roof upside-down: And lastly, the new passanger car behind my GySEV Vectron locomotive - I plan to build another 2 GySEV RaaberCity car to complete an inland GySEV InterCity train.

You can handle unprecise track segment as well. There is a tool on the upline, where you can choose putting down pieces on different grid sizes - 32,16,8,4,1,0.5 studs - but if you click the grid icon directly, track pieces won't attach automatically and you can play a little with offsetting them. https://brickshelf.com/gallery/AshiValkoinen/TownLayout/fx_r104_future.png Here, on the "left" end of platforms I used this option to create the Hogler Matthes grand curve connections.

Regardless of this height-problem the model is still far one of the bests I have seen in the past 11 years and make sure you don't forget to enter it to BrickTrainAwards 2021 competition! And hopefully, after the borders are free again, we can do this as well: https://railcolornews.com/2020/06/15/hu-expert-mav-and-westbahn-kissing-in-hungary/

Amazing build - especially the building techniques here. I was lucky enough to see the first car of this built and I maintain what I said at those times - all details in place but train height is really mismatched if we play the scaled trains thing. But also - this is my opinion and the height problem is almost invisible thanks to the fantastic sloping pattern and the play with the different blue colours. I think this page (second photo, around the middle) highlights my critics if you compare the photo to your train's sideview. https://railcolornews.com/2016/07/06/at-first-images-westbahn-kiss-2/ Hunting the real train while only on remained in WB colouring - I can understand the pain. When you started to build it, there was no any sign of the contract DB and WB made about selling the couple of years old trains.

Okay, didn't what you have under the second car. I went mad two years ago poweing my Siemens-SGP ULF tram (two wheels were driven, 6 running), and the tram started to operate when I removed those O-rings from wheels not driven. On the other hand - your design is the most well-packed I have seen in years, those locos are extremly small, very nice job on them.

Surely better traction with wheels powered underneath the battery container. You should also consider to remove the traction O-rings from the wheels NOT powered - their drag in curves slows the train down and you need the simple wheels to run as smooth as they can.

I'll add my 50 cents to the discussion - I run trains only based on rechargeable batteries, but I'm still waiting for the metal tracks. I don't want to run trains from tracks, taking care of sections separations, deal with voltage drop to the outer sides, limited train movements (coupling and decoupling different motor units at the same track), but the LOOK! Just compare RC LEGO-tracks and 9V LEGO-tracks, ballasted or not... they look, they feel real.

Amazing! So if someone buys two pairs to make connections between two paralel tracks, will have an extra 12 pieces R104 tracks. :O (4 standard R104 come from paralel returning, 8 R104 equivalent tracks from 4-4 R104 A and R104B.)

@coaster, could you tell me, placing an R104A and R104B curves together will result at same geometry as putting 2 pieces of standard R104 together?

It took two months to order and use the bricks I needed for my BVmot train upgrade - but now she is finished and I have only my ÖBB Railjet train with not proportional train cars. I brought you a couple of photos of the brick-built train (while I'm massively changing previous images in this topic from Brickshelf to an another hosting page): The entire train: Sideview of each traincars: The old design - note the use of not proportional train window frames (1×4×3) and the height difference (2 plates): If I had two of these trainsets: ( :D ) Old an New design compared in LDD: Old and New traincars next to each other: After redesigning this train I'm almost done - in year 2020 I rebuilt four Stadler FLIRT units, a Bombardier Talent unit, three Hungarian InterCity cars, a Taurus, a Vectron and V63 locomotive, two ÖBB InterCity cars and these four cars of BVmot EMU - only seven passanger cars and Taurus locomotive of my Railjet train are left. Removing height from entire trains and locos was a hard task to perform and front designs changed a lot doing this progress - but maybe finally I will be satisfied enough with my MOC trains not rebuilding them anymore :D

6720 mm of Stadler FLIRTs. :)

Since the Stadler KISS proved that even 70+ long cars can safely handle the R40 geometries I started to rebuild my rolling stock beyond the electric motor units (FLIRTs, Talent) and started to make 72 long car bodies for cars with real length of 26400 mm between their couplers. The MÁV-Start BVmot ("Samu") train consists of four cars, three of them 26400 mm long, the motor car is a little shorter. The image below shows the current design (upper one) and the future design with 72 long car bodies and proportional to the real thing. M major mistake when building the first version was using the single LEGO train windows for the train - these are surely too narrow and a 5 studs wide unit (window and separation between windows) would be good. Surely the windows needed the hardest work in LDD, however I figured out a nice SNOT-design with the original one on the 1st class car. The middle two cars have the same length, between their doors as well, but one of them has 10, other one 11 large windows on one side. Fortunately however I decreased the height of the train with 2 plates, I was able to keep the front design - a great help it would be when rebuilding the train with real bricks! Large image: https://img1.indafoto.hu/4/9/2269_99ef04eb612baf0e86671a5109e22154/26736375_491c3522cf8b31fbc08d80233e45b866_xl.jpg Large image: https://img2.indafoto.hu/4/9/2269_99ef04eb612baf0e86671a5109e22154/26736373_1a8b14c25f7c2fbeea003b6334444274_xl.jpg

I built interior to keep the train similar to my other designs - I know ost of the people at shows don't look into the trains if anyone is setting inside but this is for me to know I built all the details I was capable of. Staying almost with everyhing on side studs 1 and 8 forces me also to think more about the possible solutions of different problems. I checked your flickr if you have any photos of the Stadler KISS and I was glad to find those photos. As far as I checked it seems 69 or 70 studs long which is a needed length for this train cars if you go for 8w! The only part I don't like is the front, it reminds me to the older Stadler FLIRT / SBB KISS front, but when I checked the real one it had been delivered with the updated front more similar to FLIRT3 design. The curves play off well, but for the older front :)

Video of first test runs and R40-compatibility:

Finally I could proudly present my Hungarian Stadler KISS EMU, built with real bricks! It happened more than 3 years ago when Hungarian State Railway company MÁV-Start announced that they will be their first double-decker train, and knowing the fact that at those times 123+20 Stadler FLIRT units were operating in our country (MÁV-Start and GySEV companies) it was quite obvious that Stadler may win the contract. The first previews and digital renders of the real train did have different colour pattern compared to the actual one, but is was only matter of time in LDD to match the LEGO-design with the real thing. The first version was very inaccurate though. I had no information about the car lengths, the LEGO-model was too tall and I had no information about the window distribution between two side doors. Stadler KISS trains were delivered to different countries with different lengths, window distribution and inside layout, at this point I played LDD almost blind. After starting with the redesign (height problems mostly) of my trains aiming for more accurate 1:45 scale I redesigned the Stadler KISS in LDD - it meant a lot of help that videos and photos of testruns appeared on the internet, and I could study the layout of the insidings as well. Later in March I found finally an accurate (but without exact details) technical draw, learning the major differences between SBB and MÁV KISS (each consists of 6 waggons, but as SBB KISS has different length for driver cars and middle cars the MÁV version has almost the same car length for each car, and windows are also distanced and toilets located differently). This year March I started to gather all the bricks, starting first with a very work-intense listing from the LDD-model, comparing what I already have in bricks. After I used all the bricks I found I started with BL-orders, and using 5 stores to order only a few batches remained to gather. Fortunately friends and LUG-members helped me out with the missing ones, so during May I finished with the train. Here she is: (large image: http://www.brickshelf.com/gallery/AshiValkoinen/0-HUN-trains/MAV-StadlerKISS/0-img_0273.jpg ) Total length: 349 cm between couplers: On long radius curves: (large image: http://www.brickshelf.com/gallery/AshiValkoinen/0-HUN-trains/MAV-StadlerKISS/img_0245.jpg ) The train is driven by the two identical driver cars - each has a PF AA battery box, SBrick, two train motors, 3 pair of led lights and a polarity reverser for the train motors inside. All the insiding except two stairs in the motorcars (where the battery box is placed) is designed according to technical draws, resulting in 300 blue minifigure seats (the real train has 600, but our figures are thick :) ). Inner cars have ballbearing underneath for smooth run, the 71 stud long train cars are fully compatible with strick TLC R40 geometry (however all our LUG is waiting for FX-bricks P40 9V switches to be launched to continue this hobby closer to model railroading). Challenging parts: The complete sidewall of upper deck. This part is built angled, however the authentic window sizes needed SNOT technic inside a wall element, and these walls are only connected to the main body at two points to keep the possible most space for the minifigures and inside design. The photo below shows the non-covered upper decks and waiting sidewalls to be built in: Closer photo of sidewalls and the two connecting hinge bricks. You can also study the SNOT-pattern in the line of the windows: The next challenge was to make these cars to hold their weight. They are 71 studs long, and as you can check on the following photo, the side walls are broken with the angular pattern between the blue and black parts: Since I prefer to use the internal 6 studs for inside layout, a funny fact, but all the cars are kept together with the one stud wide top centerline - plates and tiles. Before applying these on the top the cars are bent thanks to their weight. After figuring out these parts the merge of sloped front and angled sidewall on the driving cars was an easy task to perform: And as usual, I tried to make the LEGO and REAL photo, this needed some time to get the right permissions to get inside the train shed the completed trains are stored - their owner is still Stadler and thanks to the COVID19 pandemic the test runs were suspended for uncertain period of time which meant the completed trains didn't stay or run at publicly accessable tracks. But fortunately everything went well and I was allowed to make a try, however the engine shed at Dunakeszi city wasn't the perfect spot for this photo. Your comments and critics welcome!

My favourite photo:

From "Index" topic: "Vehicles must be built in minimum scale of around 1:20." So 1:45 scaled train replicas don't play here?

Hello fellow Train Tech members, As most of you know, FXBricks announced their track system for LEGO trains offering wide radius curves and R104 radius points and crossing, and more important, these are meant to be compatible with the 9V train tracks made by TLC. If you missed, you can read about in details at the following references: Announcement Updates Eurobricks topic As some of you know I'm building 1:45 scaled trains using LEGO-bricks, and while trying to make them move on R40 geometry the 64-72 stud long passanger cars don't look good on such geometry. The reason I stick to 9V and this way I got mad at R40 geometry is simple - in our LUG, Hungarian L-gauge Railway Club (MLVK) some members still use the old 9V-system to run their trains and - however I'm running all my trains through SBrick or Infrared V2 receivers - I kept the metallic tracks for backward compatibility, and, honestly said, these LEGO-tracks just look better and more realistic compared to the full-plastic ones. I'm really happy to see FXBricks starting on R104 (or in their terminology, P40 = point with 40 studs long straight section) points and also on custom size straight, like 4 (=length of flexitrack), 8 and 32 long straight. However we don't have these new tracks in our hands, I went forward in BlueBrick layout software and made the future design of my current train station. Since I have really no time to rebuild all my platforms according to the new track geometry given by these new products, I tried to make a tracks layout with these items matching the older, R40 based geometry - and during the try and error method I discovered some possibilities. In this text I'd like to show you how it went. I also avoided the use of exceptional "return" curves designed for custom points. (If you want to plan R40-geometries for station, this guide could be useful: https://brickmodelrailroader.com/index.php/2017/01/02/lego-9v-train-track-geometry-by-ashi-valkoinen/ ) Image 1.: My current train station at the latest event I participated. I think the image tells itself why I don't want to alter the width of these platforms and change the founds of the whole setup. Image 2.: This print shows the current train station (down) and my future plans (up). Due to the length needed by R104-geometry it will be longer with 5 32×32 baseplates - 125 cm. Some lengthening was needed because of the longer space need of R104 points, other was needed to keep the platforms' useful length. 16×16 orange baseplates show the 9V connection points, red marks the insulations. (You can find HERE a higher resolution map exceeding the forum allowed image width.) And now let's see the geometries in details. For first, the right side. Image 3.: The right side of my station geometry, current (below) and future (up). Basically R104 points do the job what LEGO's R40 failed to do - connecting two paralel straight tracks having an offset of 16 studs (8 studs between sleepers). This arrangement is quite common on LEGO-layouts, and except cutting 9V points for a single connection (see current version) or using non-9V PF-crossover we have nothing in R40 to smoothly connect paralel tracks. But TLC's R40 can connets according to standards paralel tracks with offset of 32 studs (placing one straight between the turnout parts of two points), which is not so easy to do with R104, they geometry is better for ladders with 16 offset tracks. Image 4.: it wasn't easy to line up the last track with the old platform. Unfortunately placing two straights beetween the turnout part of two R104 points resulted in one studs wider platform, which I wanted to avoid. And then remembered, that Holger's method of long radius curves is not only suitable for grand curves, but useful on smaller scale. The image shows the difference between fully connected track pieces (left) and not fully connected pieces, where there is a little (less than helf stud) gap on one side of the tracks connected. This method here served my good, but you can also think about it when you are in the nedd of a half or one stud displacement perpendicular to the track lines. You can also note this small line-up on image 3. Image 5.: And the left side... well, it's a little odd, but at least needs no major modification of my current setup. The uppermost track turn to paralel with platform with one R104 and one R88 curve, used together. The R104 point under the road turning back can be replaced with two full R104 curves and remove that track - but is a good new storage place for one of my electric motor units. Image 6.: Using long radius curves technique again - as stacking the R104 points gave a displacement from me current platforms I needed to turn back somehow - and long curves are the way to do it nicely. On these amount of baseplates the small rebuild of the platform is a fair and afforadble price for me (in time) - and fortunately a long-radius curved platform was tested 8 years ago when I designed my very first trains station. You can note here one piece of TRIXBRIX 1/16 straight - my station was always powered from both sides to train can roll over on this with no problem. Image 7.: My much more smaller station 8 years ago - now a build I used there will return in some altered form. So summerized - with the use of S4, S8 straights, the R104 9V points, R88, R104 9V curves I managed to plan a layout close to the current one based on R40 geometry. I'm hopefully looking forward on FXBricks releases, however, being more than 10 years in the hobby, it's almost irrelevent if I can use this at the end of 2020 or 2022. :) In BlueBrick layout software I used the R104 point of TRIXBRIX released some weeks ago and BrickTracks R88 and R104, since they were in my library already. Cheers, AshiV

Since my last post I was silent - mostly because watching at the 10th year anniversary photos I realised that I'm not satisfied enough with the shape of my trains built in the era of 2009-2019. So, as the new decade approached I decided to rework all my train fleet and get their proportions closer to the real-life prototypes and strictly stick with the 1:45 scale (even if this results a little "wider" track gauge under my trains). The 1:45 scale will result in 72-73 studs long traincars, which mean a new difficulty level to make it run on R40 - I prefer to run on wider radius, but they MUST work on R40, too. The first and most important step was to get out 2-4 plates of height from my trains (depending on the model), they were to tall to their scale. Some plates could be easily removed, when you built mostly horizontal, but this rebuilt resulted in the complete redesign of the front shapes I figured out some years ago. For my first, best and favourite Stadler FLIRT units it was a great help - with the appearence of the new, small wedge curved slope 1×2 with 45° cutout new dimensions appeared for train design, especially when two, differently angled surfaces need to meet. I brought some photos of the recently redesigned train, which is my four Stadler FLIRT units in different colours and my Bombardier Talent. Red Stadler FLIRT EMU was my first real train MOC - I really hope now I'm done with her after 10 years. :) Front view of GySEV and MÁV-Start FLIRTs - the wede slope 1×2 really makes the shape and pattern I wanted. A 5 seconds long photo in the evening of my Bombardier Talent EMU showing the motorised pantograph in action. I updated my GySEV Stadler FLIRT in March - and bought two sets of Audi Quattro of Speed Champions for the wedge slope 1×2 in yellow - at those times Bricklink didn't even know if it existed in yellow. GySEV FLIRT was an easier issue to update the SNOT front. And finally a video showing the freshly renewed trains running at full speed: