Brickstarrunner

Very nice looking! Surprised there's no Mr. Bean reference in here. You know, the one where he's slipping on the kiddie's slide or is hanging for dear life on the diving board. Aw well, it still looks great without it!

I'd only use LDD for baseplate size and placement. I've had to learn the hard way finding out that moving entire buildings in LDD can crash it.

I want to borrow your car schematics and/or designs so bad. I am absolutely in LOVE with late 40's and all of the 50's American Culture! I'll give you whatever you want

All aboard the FRIENDShip Express! Choo Choo! For a larger res, look at this... (Don't worry mods, the res is 629x600) For a more in depth look at the train AND rail cars that come with it, take a look here. PS: I'm not too late, am I?

What has driven me to insanity. What have given me the thought, rhyme, or reason to create this. WHAT IN GOD'S NAME HAVE I DONE! Men, I present to you THE lowest point in my entire time here on Eurobricks. I give you... The Friend's Friendship Express Train Set... oh god... Now if you're saying to yourself, "Hmm, those rail cars and that locomotive look very familiar..." You are correct. I stole borrowed Disneyland's original 1955 Engine No.1 (C.K. Holliday), three of their original freight cars, and one of their original passenger cars. I gave them all a new coat of paint. I just hope the paint isn't permanent. I have to return these things before the roundhouse manager sees that their most prized possessions are missing, or worse, they find their most prized possessions are covered in non-removable permanent paint! Let's have a closer look at the train, shall we? What have I done to the original C.K. Holliday... I'll tell you what I've done...I've earned a one-way ticket to the fires of damnation! What I have committed is a sin in the Disneyland Fan's eyes! The Friendship Express' locomotive! you'll notice there is no coal or wood in the tender. That's because our train runs on the magical powers of LOVE, TOLERANCE, FRIENDSHIP, and day old spam. Because nothing says magic like spam. All aboard! Choo Choo! A look at the combination car. Now let me get this straight. This is not only the original 1955 combine car that ran on the Disneyland Railroad, but it was the ONLY combine car in the entire park. And I just coated it with a paint that I am not even sure comes off or not. This is the Princess Promenade, our combination car. It's called combination car because it's a combination between a mail car and a passenger car. Aren't we clever! Painted that boring old brown floorboards a nice colorful gold. How lovely. The mail section seems to be delivering a cargo of sugar, spice, and everything nice. Just don't couple the car with the tank car carrying Chemical X. Things could get pretty ugly. Cattle Car...nothing more to day here... This is our Milk and Cookies car. It may look like a regular old cattle car painted in an eye soring beautiful pink. Where do cookies from from? Milk! Where does milk come from? Cows! And where are cows stored? In the Cattle Car! That's why we named it the Milk and Cookies Car! Come in for fresh baked cookies and a tall warm glass of milk! Just mind the extra chocolate on the floor. Our chefs are a bit messy with their supplies. The gondola car. Might I ask who buys gifts THAT big that it requires an open gondola to transport them? In fact, what's even inside it!? I hope mine's a football! PRESENTS! PRESENTS! PRESENTS! PRESENTS! PRESENTS! PRESENTS! PRESENTS! PRESENTS! PRESENTS! PRESENTS! PRESENTS! PRESENTS! PRESENTS! PRESENTS! PRESENTS! PRESENTS! PRESENTS! PRESENTS! PRESENTS! PRESENTS! PRESENTS! PRESENTS! PRESENTS! PRESENTS! PRESENTS! PRESENTS! PRESENTS! PRESENTS! That was very informative of us, wasn't it? I hope my PRESENT! is a football! (Kudos to you if you understand the reference!) Over here we have the caboose coated in a baby blue blue. Out of all the colors, I find baby blue the better color of them all. Why? Because my room's colors is baby blue (Long story. Don't ask. You really don't want to know) Over here we have our Dreary Dreamy Dreams Caboose! You can take a nice long nap in here and not have anything to worry about! Throw your cares out the window and sleep away! Moving onto the station. It's a very simple station. Gold colored platform, candy cane lights, white picket fence. Nothing much offered here (Just like LEGO's rail stations that come in the sets with the loop and locomotive!) Here's the Candy Mountain Rail Station! Coming here is like an adventure! An adventure! It's full sweets and joy a...and...joyness. Here's the railroad crossing using the classic wig-wag colored to an appropriate color. This here's called a wig-wag, because it does a wig wag! The wig-wag's got a very long and interestingly important history in the railroad...but NO ONE wants to hear that! So let's skip ahead onto more mind numbing goodness! Here's the local village...or at least I think it's a village. That's what it says here in the manual. I don't see how a group of three cottages, no, three SHACKS can be a society, alibi a small one. I thought societies were based on autonomous collective or an anarcho-syndicalist commune, where they take it in turns to act as a sort of executive officer for the week. In fact, where's the law? Where's the order? Does one person just rule against them all? And here we have our Friendship Villiage, an entirely Capitalist Society, free of crime or horror o- No you're not. I did a quick research trip on the internet. You have one ruler that rules over everyone else! I object that you automatically treat me like an inferior! I am king! Oh king, eh, very nice. And how d'you get that, eh? By exploiting the workers! By 'anging on to outdated imperialist dogma which perpetuates the economic and social differences in our society. If there's ever going to be any progress with the- Supreme executive power derives from a mandate from the masses, not from some farcical cyberspace ceremony. Shut up! Ah, now we see the violence inherent in the system. Shut up, will you! Shut up! Oh! Come and see the violence inherent in the system! Help, help! I'm being repressed! Bloody manual that comes with the set! Oh, what a give-away. Did you hear that? Did you hear that, eh? That's what I'm on about. Did you see him repressing me? You saw it, didn't you? Good, that should shut that bloody manual up for a while. Sorry for that interruption. Manuals, you know them. Always getting in the way and all... I based the entire set off that very classic 'My First Train Set' design (Fig. 1) Toy. You know, the one with a simple loop, some buildings, and a train? And if you know your toy train history very well, you may of noticed I based the train's color design off of Lionel's pink girl's train (Fig. 2). What an odd choice for a train color scheme indeed, Lionel. Very strange indeed. Fig. 1 Fig. 2 Now if you'll excuse me, I got a lot of scrubbing to do. Have to get the paint off before they know...IF the paint CAN come off that is PS: Rockin' avatar, isn't it? Made it for that 'Friendsify' your avatar contest.

Aw, now that's cute. Really like the diagonal striped pattern in the back. Very creative

Yeah, sorry about that. To quote the vultures from Splash Mountain: "He learned his lesson alright..." "But I'm afraid he learned it too late!" There we go. Now you can have your trains in a bite sized format. I need to keep that process in mind next time I post. Thanks for reminding me!

Just a smll update on the Train Station. It's coming along fantastically, and will look better with the Passenger Train alongside it. A little assistance as well? How can I improve the T-junction between the roof tiles? The only inverted roof corner in LDD that I've seen so far is only 1 brick high. Besides, both roof tiles come at different heights (2 and 3 studs high). Is there a way I can improve that design, or is that as best ad I could make it?

During the late 1800's early 1900's, a wealthy plantation owner, William Smith Right, had a summer home that sat along the banks of the mighty Mississippi River. He wasn't a wealthy person, but he wasn't modest either. He owned a modest sized plantation, a great looking summer home, and most of all, he had the love of his life, his wonderful wife; who kept her original last name, Lillian Sophie Belle, but just preferred to go by the name of Lilly Belle. She had a grand fascination with steam works and how they worked. So much so that she owned an early steam car, frequently took the steam train, even if it was just to traverse short distances, and most of all, would sit on the back porch for hours, staring at the many steam boats that would pass on by, blowing their horns for her as they passed. As time went on, William secretly compiled money and a crew to build and pilot a small privately owned steam boat. Once it was completed, it was presented as an anniversary gift to Lilly. She was enthralled to say the least. Whenever she got the chance, she would just ride the boat up and down the river with no rhyme or reason. She kept it clean, spotless, and well oiled, even when it was sitting at the dock. Not only was it near and dear to her, but the name just made Lilly latch onto it very quickly. William chose the name with such care, such passion. After much thinking, he came up with the perfect name. One that would hold true to this day. The Steam Boat was christened with the name... The River Belle.

Sad to say, they have to remain stationary. The cramped spaces do not allow for a sliding action. No tiles for it to slide on, no arm to hold it. It had to remain on the studs to ensure that the dimensions are the same throughout the cars. If I were to make the doors movable, the roof would have to be 1 place to 1 brick taller than the others. In the late district, I got some good news for everybody! I am happy to announce that a second train has just arrived at the station! Engine No. 1; the C.K. Holliday and it's original freight train (Cattle Car, Gondola, and Caboose). The C.K. Holliday has a red and dark steel blue (Or at least I wished we had that color) coat and also has a balloon smokestack. The cattle car doors are non-operational either, and it would be a nightmape to make it slide back and forth due to the way the tiles are placed. Speaking of which, you CAN peak inside. There are no bricks behind the tiles so you have a full view of what's inside, but there's not much inside as it just holds the supports and other things that make the car look the way it is. The roof is also slightly a bit higher than the coaches by 1 brick. The caboose is pretty much just the Lilly Belle gutted and simplified, putting in an extra door inside, replacing the minifig seats with a brick with tiles on top, and that thing on the top. The back is the same as well except the railing is now colored black, the side railings removed, and the signal lantern being a simple red 'stop' type of lantern. I have also done a few alterations to the coaches. If you look closely, you'll noticed I added 1x3 inverted roof tiles at the corners under the roofs and did a few color corrections to the cars. Also, the headlight has been altered to give it a much more rounder look than the original so that it looks more like the real deal. Also the station's roof is proving to be quite difficult due to the lack of inside corners, since the only one available is 1 brick tall, when I need inside corners 2 and 3 bricks tall. This is going to require some creative thinking.

I got a sheet of the hard plastic and I am doing tests with cardboard boxes painted on the inside. I also got the idea of doing the Ballroom Dancers as well. But I seem to have caught a little snitch: How can I make the platform spin whilst the dancers dance? I can make a spinning platform and I can make dancers dance but I don't seem to be able to do both at the same time. I tried, and failed, to create a mechanism that not only makes the figures spin but the platform they are sitting on spin as well. I'm not that great with Technic gears, so a little help? I would copy the real Haunted Mansion design, but from pictures that I've seen... I am still confused on how to do it in LEGO. So the figures rest on motors that are attached to the main spinner thing, but how t do that with LEGO cogs... I am doing as much research as I can on the topic of gears online. Or would it be easier to work with non-LEGO parts to creating the spinning mechanism? Confound me and my brain for not being able to think

Just a really minor test I wanted to try. Nothing too special. I wanted to try and recreate that classic Organ Player scene from the ride the Haunted Mansion at Disneyland in the Grand Ballroom scene. It's all a theory at this point, since I've never tried the Pepper's Ghost Effect at home. I decided to do a small mock-up of what I plan on doing. Along with an actual picture of the Pepper's Ghost Organ Player on the ride. Has anyone here worked with the Pepper's Ghost effect before? I read as much as I could and I have a basic understanding of it...sort of. If you've worked with the Pepper's Ghost effect before, please do respond. I want to know what I have to adjust to make the effect come out right. I must know if I need to adjust the ghost's brick colors before I spend my money on Bricklink ordering the needed bricks. Also, the organ looked pretty neat, so that's another reason why I wanted to share this with you

Thanks for that! Endurance, Agility, and Sneak were probably the hardest ones to do and make look pleasing due to the irregular shape of the figures. Big Guns and Medicine also required a bit of thinking to make the large objects go at an angle. I'm not sure. I only did this to take some time off from my Other project. Only time will tell.

(The thumbnails are links to the high-res picture on Brickshelf) Overview of entire collection + Advertisement Overview of entire collection without display case and in straight row Row 1: All S.P.E.C.I.A.L. Bobbleheads (Strength-Perception-Endurance-Charisma-Intelligence-Agility-Luck) Row 2: Skill Bobbleheads No.1-5 Row 3: Skill Bobbleheads No.6-10 Row 4: Skill Bobbleheads No.11-13 An overview comparison of both the LDD renderings and actual in-game bobbleheads. Collect them ALL and PREPARE for the FUTURE! Vault-Tec

I'd hate to bump, but this needs to be updated, because the new coding is giving me trouble because it inserts images and links automatically instead of just having text.

The first building for my other project, a Turn-of-the-Century Middle Town America based on Disneyland's Main Street USA has been complete: The Fire Station located near the plaza at the entrance of the park. http://i1137.photobu...eenShot11-1.png A shot without the Fire Engine http://i1137.photobu...eenShot12-2.png http://i1137.photobu...eenShot13-1.png Interior shots http://i1137.photobu...eenShot14-1.png http://i1137.photobu...eenShot15-1.png http://i1137.photobu...eenShot16-1.png The actual Fire Station on Main Street USA has a real apartment on the top. It was where Walt Disney spent most of his days in the park. Since I want my Fire Station to feel more like a station and less of an apartment, I chose to go with a more traditional style of station. http://i1137.photobu...eenShot17-1.png http://i1137.photobu...eenShot18-1.png http://i1137.photobu...eenShot19-1.png http://i1137.photobu...eenShot20-1.png http://i1137.photobu...eenShot21-1.png http://i1137.photobu...eenShot22-1.png The backside is very bare, but then again, I don't want anyone to see the backside anyways. http://i1137.photobu...eenShot23-1.png A closer look at the fire engine. http://i1137.photobu...eenShot24-1.png http://i1137.photobu...creenShot25.png http://i1137.photobu...creenShot26.png The actual Fire House and Fire Engine http://www.cable-car-guy.com/ptrain/images/disney_0808_fire_house_002.jpg http://karlsfirephotos.smugmug.com/FIRE-APPARATUS/CALIFORNIA-FIRE-APPARATUS/02/103796393_imPHk-L.jpg

The first building for my town has been completed: The Fire Station. http://i1137.photobu...eenShot11-1.png The thread going into detail about the station can be viewed here.

After a small amount of tweaking, I used a different door, scaled down the back end, shortened the height, removed the cab's roof lip, and overall shrunk it so that the scale wouldn't be so off. Below the first link I put in comparison shots of the new and old vans. You'll know which is which when you see it. http://i1137.photobu...reenShot7-3.png http://i1137.photobu...reenShot8-2.png http://i1137.photobu...reenShot9-2.png http://i1137.photobu...eenShot10-1.png Also, the fire engine and fire wagon are proving to be quite the challenge, seeing as most of both vehicles have very thin parts that curve all over the place; thinner than any plate or title available. I may have to cope the design from that Fire Brigade set.

Agreed on the size. I am going to shrink the back a bit because I put in a functioning door with frame. I'll see what alternatives I have.

After two recent trips to Disneyland (One on Mon, another on Wed, and one coming up on Fri) I started taking reference photos of buildings and such. One thing that kept on cropping up in the background were the vehicles, minus the trolley which I already mentioned. I decided to populate my town with an Omnibus (Double Decker Bus), 2 Vans (One Coca Cola and the other Milk, and 2 Horseless Carriages. Minor addition, but I had to take some time away from the buildings. Besides, the roofs of the buildings are extremely hard to try and get together, since most of the slants in my reference pictures with the corners and such are near impossible to do in LEGO. http://i1137.photobu...r/Vehicle01.png Once I have the full set (Fire Engine, HORSE drawn Fire Engine, and the residents of the town I will make a separate thread going into detail about all of them.

So very sorry about that. I'm starting to use Brickshelf and learning how to deeplink pictures and resized ones and stuff like that. I would like to thank Murdoch17 for lending me a MOC of a 4-4-0! I modified the driving rods a bit as well as the tender and gave it a fresh coat of paint. It looks fantastic! Station16.png I also refurbished the Lilly Belle as well. Station17.png Station18.png And the station is coming along nicely. Station19.png Station20.png PS: Sorry if pictures are big. I am still trying to learn how to deep link. I am in a rush because I am catching a bus to Disneyland today as well to get some reference photos (Annual Pass Holder) Edit: Thanks for that. I think I'll just link them from now on. It's a hassel trying to resize the photos in Gimp, exporting to Photobucket, etc.

Thanks again for the engine! I modified the driving rods a bit as well as the tender and gave it a fresh coat of paint. It looks fantastic! I also refurbished the Lilly Belle as well. And the station is coming along nicely.

First came the PCC Red Car Trolley (Pictured in my signature), now an American 4-4-0. You just love to save me, don't you?

In the Town Forum, I've been doing a Turn of the Century Middle-American Town Based on Disneyland's Main Street U.S.A., and I began work on the Station and Railroad first. While I keep progress of the buildings and such in the Town forum, I shall keep you guys posted on the progress of the train and station. Anyways, when creating the station, it just didn't look right without any coaches, so in keeping with the Turn of the Century theme I have going on, I decided to recreate the original 1955 Disneyland Passenger Coaches, one of the Original Freight Cars, and the remodeled Lilly Belle (More on that later). Let me start off with the Combine Car. The Combine Car is short for Combination because it is both a mail car and a passenger car in one. Then comes the Passenger Coaches, which is pretty much self explanatory. All coaches are lit up by these gas powered lamps found in the ceiling. Then at the end comes the Lilly Belle, an original 1955 Disneyland Coach/V.I.P. Lounge/Caboose. Let me explain. When the Passenger Train was introduced in 1955, it was a great looking train and all, but it took quite some time to load and unload passengers. Things got complicated when they added two more stations on the line, creating a stop-and-go type of load and unload (In 1955, there was a siding at each station [2 Stations in total with 2 trains running at most at a time] so the other train could bypass the other train loading/unloading). QAround 1975, the coaches were switched out for the modern day coaches you see today, which are easier to load and unload. The coaches were forgotten and left to rot until a private investor bough all but one of the coaches and set to restoring them to their former glory. Now what happened to that one single coach? It was kept within Disneyland's arms safely behind the walls of the roundhouse. Was it left to rot? What did they do it it? In 2006, they did a full restoration of the coach, turning it into the Red V.I.P Coach it is today. (PS: My Lilly Belle is also going under some restoration of its own to make it more like the real coach, so what you're seeing is still not the end product) A closer look at the custom bogies located at the bottom of each rail car. Remember when I said that there were two trains? Yes, in the 1955 Disneyland, there were in fact 2 trains. One pulling the Passenger (This) and the other pulling the Freight. The freight is still operating today, it's just that it's been heavily modified so that they also match the modern day loading/unloading technique. I decided to recreate one of the original gondolas on the original freight (With one or two artistic licenses) Sadly, I could not find any pictures of either the original or modern day freight train, Now, the train is fantastic looking and all, I know that, but how will it get to the next station? It has no steam engine to pull it. Unfortunately, LDD is very VERY extremely ill equipped when it comes to the railroading section. There are some key elements, such as the giant driving wheels with the slots for inserting the coupling rods. Also, I am very terrible at making Steam Engines. They are great to look at, but all those tiny parts make my head spin. And the limitations of LDD can be a bit mind numbing as well. I am trying to mash together both designs, but I have come to no avail. Could someone please assist me? Or at least point me in the right direction? Leave a suggestion if you can. Anything would be very helpful right now. Or should I just leave it engine-less and make the excuse it uncoupled to go to the roundhouse or something?

Update Progress: Looks like it was a tad bit too ambitious for my LDD to handle. I had to cut the project into 3 segments: The Station, The Plaza, and the Hub due to my computer crashing every time I did a zoom out shot to get a good look at it. I hope I will be able to put it all together at the end without crashing Also, I know this is a TOWN forum and all, but I began work on the Station and will work my way down Main Street. Station01.png For any Disneyland geek out there, like me, you'll notice that I based the design off of the original 1955 Disneyland Coaches and the Lilly Belle, a refurbished original Disneyland COach to become a V.I.P Parlor of sorts. You are also a super-duper geek if you can tell that I also based that freight car off of another Original Disneyland Train, the Freight Train. PS: Anyone know how to make a good looking American 4-4-0 in LDD? Wait, why am I asking in a town forum anyways? Shouldn't I be asking in the Train Forum? I guess I'll ask there and here just to spread the chance of getting an answer. Started a thread in the Train Forum that not only asks for help building the 4-4-0, but also goes in depth of the coaches.