roamingstop

Toilet = Future Sewage Works; complete with PF motorised rotating spreaders, and new moulds of fly's and mosquittos.

Thanks for the tips; I went ahead on FlickR... what is the main difference between 'Sets' and 'Galleries' - and is there a way to subgroup them (not everything I post will be Lego related!)

I know there have been several threads in the past about where to host photos (FlickR, MocPages, Brickshelf etc) but I wanted to find out a little more about which is best for searching, cross referencing and linking for models etc... To back up a bit: Currently all my models (including photos, LXF etc) are stored on my private webspace, and Im happy to use this for posting into EB threads. However I'm aware that others often use sites like FlickR which have automatic 'tags' for cross referencing to other creations, techniques etc. Although I rarely visit these sites directly, when I do (often after viewing a great MOC) I find the tags, and suggested links to be really useful in finding other great designs - so much so that it is easy to become overloaded. Therefore does anyone have a a good opinion on which of the sites to use for distribution of images and MOC's? Is there a preferred site for different themes? And which has the best sectioning, as although most of my MOC's are still at the train stage, others which including buildings will be coming in the future. Thanks

Beautiful 8 wide carriages - definitely great. It helps confirm the 8 wide approach as being the best for 'models' - even if it is not ideal for 'toys'. The trucks (bogeys) look like the style used in the official Railbricks models (forget the original designer). Really nice - thank you for sharing.

I generally package the item using a second box; the first is inside (gap of about 2-3 cm) with scrunched up newspaper between the walls. This seems to be effective even for trans-atlantic. To be even safer, you could add some scrunched paper to the inside of atlantis box in order to stop it being 'squashed' - but generally that does not happen. You could also volunteer to add insurance at the buyers cost.

Offer is valid May 3, 2011 through 11:59pm GMT May 4, 2010 This means... 00:00 May 3rd until 23:59 may 4th. So only two whole days.

I have just taken my 7597's out of temporary storage to assemble and make sure all the pieces are present, before I started on a rebuild to a larger scale - it always looked a bit small. However I did a little google search for Western Caboose and came across this delightful little story of a restoration to Caboose #3. - so I thought I would share. Looking at this, it seems that actually the scaling of 7597 Caboose was not too bad at all - if it had been made from reddish brown plates it would look excellent... even if it is a shed on wheels. I know where my next MOD will be. Really not much space to add the full bunk bed and ladder. A small grey fuel stove is missing; formed from a cone and round brick would look fine. And some more reddish brown windows / door... 6 wide is very small. I removed the door frame + red door (why no brown) from the interior photos.

32/ The Final Ruins by Jalkow : 2 points 14/ The Cairo Bazaar by Athos : 2 point 6/ Museum of Antiquities by TooMuchCaffeine : 1 point 21/ Professor Hale's Oasis Hacienda by Rufus : 1 point 18/ Treasure hunt on the river Nile by Nieks : 1 point Although I wish I had more than 7 points to choose; I felt it better to go with models which appeal to both KFOL and AFOL, and have a strong playability factor.

Thanks Grindinggears - that is exactly what I had in mind (as also correctly pointed out by dluders). Just need to find time to sit and build it...

Im building up a custom train locomotive (freight) and was thinking about slaving two PF-M motors to provide power to the trucks (bogeys). I know using a PF train motor would probably be better, but they wont fit on the base (split level) which I am using. Currently my idea was to mount the two motors into a differential, and use this to generate power on a drive shaft, which in turn is split between the two ends of the split level train base. However will this work? Or is it better to link the two motors directly (with pole reverser if necessary). Is there any good resource online to check out? I know of some examples in Railbricks which shows some PF-M motors directly linked, but am not sure if this is the best solution. Thanks Edit: I should add; the reason for using PF-M is the size factor - the PF-XL is too large in the 6 wide model. Speed is not an issue; it will be pulling a long train...

My understanding after discussions with various operators... Items are often dispatched from a central warehouse; for multiple countries. So whilst one country can sell out, another will not (in allocated stock numbers). Thus an item can be listed on sale in 'Europe', sold out in Austria, and still available at that price in Germany (for a short while). I regularly see different sales in different countries for the same items, and that further complicates the system. Finally, the website (S@H) does not reflect the prices and quantities which are actually available on TLG's actual internal purchasing system which operators have access to. So an item could be listed on sale on their internal system, perhaps for a few days, but the S@H database takes time to synchronise itself; so could easily go from 'avaible' to 'discount' to 'sold out' within one resynchronisation.

Earlier in this thread (back many pages) it is stated that the battery box is red; it is a new version. The IR receiver is hidden behind the doors, which is why there is a strange light grey stripe.

Now that is wow. Slight pity the center element is not 4 wide, but the rest of the design rocks. I should mention my office (near Zurich) overlooks a siding where these regularly appear. Thanks Helos for pointing out the AM are Vossloh... I have no idea on manufacturers details, numbers etc, just know things from aesthetics.

It depends what PF box is being used to run the system. Checking BL it is the technic AAA one, so yes, using some wire to connect across the battery terminal might work... but I seem to recall that the motors have a form of stall protection in them, and so may complain when the voltage is not at 9V. Actually with PF there are 4 lines; GND, +9V, C1 and C2. The voltage on C1 and C2 actually do the speed regulation, so in principle you could afford to drop two 10k resistors between the 9V and GND, and take an output between the two supply power to C1, but it would need a custom cable - (Philohome has more details on PF functions). You could also butcher a PF M motor and strip out the orbital gears, and replace them with something which goes slower; or use the Lego education PF Generator / Motor (natural resources element pack). And finally - looking at all the gearing which goes on in the 4999 instruction book; im sure you could reduce the ratios even more... Go on, be a bit creative with Technic solutions

Or more and more like the Swiss AM 842 and AM 843 I had submitted designs for one of these in a Lego portfolio in 2010.... but think this one does look better with the red battery box.

Yep a nice colour MOC - reminds me of seeing them as a child go past my grandparents window. For the slopes; you can fit 45 degree angle brick / inverted angle brick next to each other - but with one flat in between (under the inverted). This gives a good approximation of the angle, but not perfect alignment. There is a tutorial somewhere online for this. The better approximation is with the 1x1x3 slope 75 which fit next to each other to give a smooth diagonal, but not quite the same effect. I would not worry about lifting the roof line up higher; unless you want to have a removable roof and not worry about the door falling out... then a simple tile should be sufficient. For the base plate; the bluish grey colours are not a bad approximation, or you can choose to make a complete custom base out of plates, which is not too difficult, but slightly more complicated / costly building. That said, I really look forward to one day seeing this charging around with the black diesel fumes pumping out the air vents....

Whatever price; the Locomotive looks nice, and the rear carriage will lend itself to becoming a 10219 MOC. And that windscreen piece might just drive down the prices on BL (if it is similar to 10020 Santa Fe). And whoever did this, it is a nice design

Stage 2: The Fire Equipment Wagon. And the original from Windhoff Normally the equipment wagon will contain fire-breathing apparatus, spare clothes, paperwork, and on some LRZ a small trolley which can be mounted onto adjacent rails. However finding photos was not so easy. Inside I found space to fit (symmetrically) two ladders, 2x fire breathing masks (I have a third but was not sure to include it), some fire extinguishers, some axes. Im sure the internals could be made slightly more fun for KFOL's. I also fought myself long and hard about how the doors should work, but in the end am happy with the Bat Wings as used in the 4560 / 4561 railway express designs. I also reworked the location of the central hatch in order to keep the white stripe running. Still do to: The roof is 'open' when the doors are closed, as I did not have any spare 2x8 and 2x6 dark bley bricks. Find a load of dark bley cheese slopes for the roof line Add a portable hose carrier for the fireman to extend? It should then look a bit like the LDD design.

The link is wrong it should be http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Rail_MPV (without the extra .) Yep this MOC is not meant to represent the Windhoff design directly - that is actually much easier if you look at the old cargo train delux and green crane module... not sure why the design is not used in the forthcoming 3677 - perhaps a copyright issue. It would also make for an interesting series of MOC's (especially after reading the wiki-link - thanks). Anyhow for this fire-train MOC I wanted it to be more realistic for a KFOL set, and took the opportunity to reuse some of the older cockpit designs...

Thanks for the comments - the red and white stripe tanker locomotive survived.... the other modified into the equipment wagon. The only downside... I have rebuilt the equipment wagon 4 times and still not found a suitable solution until last night. Easter will soon be with us, so I will get some time to finish this off, and will post the images after the weekend. The MPV (rescue) wagons are still in LDD - and I have a nice solution for the beds and chairs which works. A quick question for those who might still be reading... If the MPV / Rescue wagons have a removable roof (e.g. like Emerald Night / Santa Fe 10022 / 10025) do children still enjoy placing figures inside? Or are the spaces (6 wide, 5 high) too high?

WOrking on it?... not really. But you just need a diode bridge rectifier (drops about 1.4V) or equivalent circuit to ensure polarity is always correct no matter which way around the train is put on track; then just a 9V --> PF converter cable.

Did you do a search? http://www.eurobricks.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=54087 I did not explicitly try it with 9V track, or do an electrical test, but did take this photo (my Digital Multi-meter died). Photo does show the colour differences from old grey to modern bley, and brown and 9V / aluminium track. BUT... the price and quality mean that it if you want a colour harmony, it is not too expensive to change totally.

In Switzerland: Bus stops next to a castle are often just called 'Schloss' - the 'Haltstelle' (Stop) is omitted. Train stations tend to be 'Burgdorf Bahnhoff' where Burgdorf is the name of the town, which happens to be dominated by a massive castle. A large trainstation in a city will always be 'Hauptbahnhoff' Greyers castle - is just called 'Greyers'. Even in the UK you dont find 'Castle Station' - but 'Castle Cary' has a station... Same with Corfe Castle, where the station name is just that of the town. I guess the reason being that there are not many train stations next to the same castle.

Hmm.. there is MagLev track listed on Lego's Education website (USA)... so it is not a impossible request. But I never did find how it was supposed to be used. Edit: Seems more info is now on their product site... not a complete Lego solution but since it is sold by TLG (Education) how does it match for purists?

I remembered seeing info on monorail switches... and here are some googled links