roamingstop

Check all the ebay scams at the moment for Lego UCS Star Wars items - there is a massive racket at the moment as some people have twigged the AFOL community can be easily hooked. Alternatively people are buying on others behalf to collect the VIP points; perhaps even with discount codes?

Follow some of the excellent bogey designs in Railbricks... or look through the instructions of some of Lego's older train sets (e.g. 4564, 4561). They can be found from Brickset.com or Peeron.com and reuse the same parts as you have in your model.

4564 Freight Rail Runner - B-Model, Theme: Trains The 4564 Freight Rail Runner had some pretty good B model designs which can often be found floating around popular online auction places. Since the instructions are also official, I present it here. Mods feel free to list it as a sub-model. LXF File Errors None, apart from stickers / decals. Submodels 4564-B-Model: Locomotive 4564-B-Model: Log Wagon 4564-B-Model: Truck 4564-B-Model: Wagon for Containers 4564-B-Model: Wagon for Freight

4564 - Freight Rail Runner, Theme: Trains LXF File Errors The hooklift piece is a functional replacement The 9V connector cables are custom. The decals / minifig stickers are wrong or missing; alternatives substituted where possible. The sliding doors of the box car are not the old style; so dont work, hence shown floating in the air. Submodels 4564: Locomotive 4564: Wagon for hooklift containers 4564: Wagon for Gravel 4564: Box-car (post) 4564: Truck with hooklift 4564: Hooklift Containers 4564: Ramp

Thanks - it brings back many fond memories from many years ago... I have some ideas I wanted to implement and this provides motivation to finish them.... damn more BL orders.

It would be useful to have a PDF of the 7777 instructions; Peeron is overloaded trying to serve all the pages. Is there a PDF available for this competition? (I could also make one from Peeron images, but dont want to walk over copyright issues). I have some models I was planning anyway so this would be a great opportunity to finish them - assuming I get time.

You would not be buying any battery boxes from Farnell by any chance?.... I have some cables kicking around; but would also be willing to double up from a S@H purchase if you wished.

Maplin are ok... but Farnell and RS Components are often much better stock 6 Battery Holders Small ones for around 4 pounds (pack of 5). Long Flat ones for around 5 pounds each.

I got another 50 minutes from the battery pack this evening; total over 4.5 hours....

The James May Toy Story: Lego House used tons of bricks, which were especially ordered, so it _could_ be possible, but that was a special issue and I suspect not reproduce able for AFOL... I would suspect quantities in hundreds of thousands would be required, and probably pre-planned months in advance.

If you are going to hack up your box... and are happy with a little tin foil and stiff cardboard... / bolsa wood + glue.... I would recommend making a custom wire to connect the batteries in series to 9V and GND; run this wire into the PF receiver. The recevier will then generate the necessary C1 and C2 signals for ports A and B... you can then make this fit inside the wagon in a easy to replace way. Good luck

Most definitely; I stopped after 3.5 hours to go to so sleep; and will see how much charge is left tonight.

Someone in Switzerland listed a load of Lego 4.5V trains on Ricardo.ch (eisenbahn); if anyone wants me to bid for them I can.

Thank you - I remember having this many years ago, building some of the models... and it too brings back memories... now unfortunately lost during one of the dark ages.

Tuesday here; I replaced the PP3 / adapter with a Lego brand rechargable battery pack... A 1.3 hour recharge (red light stopped flashing), it has been running continuously for 3 hours (180 minutes) - and will probably keep going for much longer. Hands down: PP3 is too weak!, but probably sufficient for short shunting options. Otherwise it is time to work out how to hide the rechargable battery box in older models; possibly in a way similar to 10219 Maersk Train.

6668 Recycle Truck, Theme: Town An old classic, only two hooklift vehicles were made; the recycle truck, and the container truck in train 4564. Here is the little recycle truck. LXF File Errors No hooklift, a custom version built with a transparent brick No elastic bands or string fitted. Incorrect minifig decals (as always)

7939-Cockpit: If you colour the frame, the glass is coloured the same. You then need to recolour the glass... I probably should update the LXF, but no-one notified me of the problem. Re the other cockpit piece; I have a custom versions for my homage to 7939 If anyone wants the LXF file for the <insert that tiresome argument> versions; they can be found below: 32 stud long 28 stud long

That was my next task; but I went cycling instead ;-). Tueday, I need to recharge the battery box first. Note it is heavier than the PP3 so might generate more traction.

6542 Load Launch Seaport, Theme Harbour Another seaport, shares a lot of similarities with 6541, but many strange differences in the harbour and boat designs. Obviously a time of 'reinvent the wheel'. LXF File The list of errors is pretty long, and will be filled out shortly (sorry, I need sleep). Errors No bow for the boat No correct rack / winder / winch on the crane (replacement designs) No correct lifting hook (replacement design) No correct rear cab piece (replacement design) The harbour pieces dont work properly (as mentioned in LDD4 Errors thread) Incorrect decals on most tiles and minifigs (but best replacements used) No correct 1x16 lattice for the gates. No hose pipe which flexes for the cargo engine No correct tyres for the truck, tractor and forklift. No correct forklift piece - the modern replacement is used. However it requires additional plates to complete the submodel, highlighted in green. No correct 2x2 plate with single wheel underneath (modern replacement used). Probably some more, but it is as complete as possible. Submodels 6542: Boat 6542: Bricks Container 6542: Crane 6542: Diesel Engine Container 6542: Forklift Truck 6542: Harbour Walls 6542: Pilot Boat 6542: Reefer (Refrigerated) Container 6542: Tractor Container 6542: Truck

For this thread I decided to see how long the 9V PP3 solution would last; and got a total of about 85 minutes continuous puling with 3 4512 Wagons (with stiff axles) and 2 7938 cargo trucks; at power 5. Nothing to write home about, but for smaller models probably sufficient. Thus to make a nice heavy duty locomotive out of 4512 would require either a rechargeable battery box housed on a different wagon, or sacrificing the colour scheme and hiding it behind some vertically mounted SNOT plates.

Agreed... but this can also be valid for non 12V ;-). The axles on the old 4512 coal wagons are quite stiff; and pushing around had some pretty obvious friction. That said, the 9V battery stopped (even powering the Locomotive) at around 85 minutes. I will let it cool down, and see if I can persuade it to give more output, but in the meantime it would indicate about 1 hour's play time for a middle of the run Lego train set. Not too bad, but definitely not in the same league as the rechargeable battery solution!.

As promised Ive started the Apples and Pears test, using some Oranges and Lemons. The reason for this test is to find a 'conservative' estimate of how well the 9V PP3 solution can work for a modest train; and be backwards applied to older non-PF models. Im not using 'maximum speed 7' as this is almost too fast on the extended O-Loop - and I believe most KFOL's will be happy at setting 5, starting and stopping (which will be done every 15 minutes). The locomotive is a modified 4512 running a PP3 9V Durcell battery; PF receiver, 8866 motor, older (lower friction) dark bley o-bands on the wheels. It is directly pulling two 12V cars from the 7823 Cargo Centre (my only 12V bits) and 3x4512 coal carriers. Interestingly... you can hear the engine speeding up and slowing down as the cars enter and exit the corners. Update once the battery dies.

6541 Intercoastal Seaport, Theme Harbour The old intercoastal seaport, with crane which readily falls over. Making this up was not so easy, as many parts do not exist and had to be replaced with alternatives (see list below). Errors also include wrong stickers and mini-fig decals. LXF File Errors The crane supports are custom made from bricks, and not the single Big Ugly Piece The tyres for the truck and tractor are wrong; but alternatives are used. The motorbike in the container is just plain wrong; and even then had to be hacked to make a legal fit. The crane jib does fit together with green highlights, but may not be future proof. The 2x4 plate + hinge modified with sunroof does not (yet) exist, so is a 2x4 plate + hinge. The rear window of the truck is a custom made piece with a 1x4 hinge plate (vertical). The plate with ball (vertical, down) does not seem to exist, so is a custom hack. The top of the boat (bow) does not exist so is made of custom plates, shown in red. The jib of the boat crane does not seem to exist, so is made of custom plates, but coloured white for now. Probably more, but the general gist is correct. Submodels 6541: Boat 6541: Harbour Walls 6541: Motorbike Container 6541: Tractor Container 6541: Truck

Here is [LXF] another suspect bar assembly. Pity it is not a real bar...

Sorry I deleted the illegal connection; but it is easy to reproduce with the bar and angle brackets. I also discovered it happens with many other plates; the error is in the bar. I guess the bounding box for the 'hole' has been made too large. Im also working on 6541 Cargo Harbour / boat; and the newly added raised base plates have errors on the bottom (joining bits). You can see that the 2x4 plates lock in place, but do not align properly with the front of the base plate. The same goes for adding 2x2 plates to the corners.