roamingstop

10: CarsonBrick - 2 4: Multiverse - 2 2: Lisqr - 1 All options were hard, but I picked those which I would buy if done by TLG

No block for me - from near Zurich.

Check the photo of the item very carefuly. Was the statue missing? Were the bricks missing? Technically if it is in the photos you should expect it to be delivered, if not buyer beware. In this case 'parts accounted for' can mean that he acknowledges they are missing or replaced, but in general it would be expected to mean complete. Ask the seller, prove the missing parts on the photo, and a small discount should be awarded. No response from seller - then open an ebay complaint. If I sell something via Ebay I will always state what I know to be wrong or missing.

I know. But one can dream. Fusion is not fission. Nuclear reactors are generally fission - the holy grail fusion reactors are still not working in areal world sense. Shielding would still be needed. Perhaps put the reactor in the back of train, running powerful through electric cables to motors. Real time video cameras relay the view to the locomotive driver - who is at the other end of the train shielded by all the passengers. http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carbon_tax gives details on carbon tax from emissions. On a serious note it would need to be added onto the costs of coal -> steam -> generator -> motor. Excess heat is used for what? Efficiency of moving parts means mechanical linkages should be minimized. But could an electric engine still have the class of look and feel as old steam? Just because it is modern does not mean no class

Interesting work in progress. Some consideration points to add: Fuel efficiency vs loading weight. If Coal is a cheaper product... is it cheaper for extraction to the environment (dont forget recent carbon tax is quite high). Heavier locomotives have greater traction power... but cost more fuel. There will be an optimimum peak which will be different for different use cases: Pulling coal trains... Pulling passenger Express (intercity), Pulling regional express (multiple start, stops, top speed for short durations) Personally a fusion powered steam locomotive would make the best option: cheap fuel, with regular visits to the sea for natural Deutrium and Tritium, and no risk (ahem) when the inevitable cost savings on the tracks cause a slight accident. And the boiler / piston designs would hark back to the golden age of Steam.

I really hope you guys get to enjoy your roadtrip... and remember to take a camera into the cab so that the family can take photos of any passing trains!

I saw some long trains on the line between Las Vegas and Los Angeles, and sure enough there are often locomotives mid line to help with the inclines etc. Barstow is the major sorting yard... so a Barstow junction would be an ideal station to stop into.

I faced the same problem with my mod for a more realistic br1020 locomotive (slightly longer nose, lights etc). Like you I found the thick roof a pain but it seems to work well enough. Congrats, and looking forward to some nice metro liners to work with it

Red Santa is your friend. Sorry coca cola. Seriously leave the corroded terminals in coke for about one hour and rinse. Possibly use a cotton wool bud to help removal. Corrosion might also have got into the switch. Just don't let the coke evaporate and get sticky.

Once again your models look very organic and real. Congratulations. A question: The Model Railway photo seems to show a wheel; motor driver; wheel and wheel arrangement... but the model just seems to have three large wheels (no motor driver). Did I miss something in my 'wow' factors?

This is one of the most powerful new modular MOC I have seen in a long time. Some innovative pieces and if this were official model it woe be bought tomorrow

A 9v pp3 battery / cable will power a rf receiver: connect only the two outer cables (c0 and c1 are not connected). This can be an easy custom cable. After the ir receiver connect pf motors: the receiver generates the correct control signals. It may be that the c0 and c1 lines are also powered via the extension cable - I never checked. If there is insufficient power for the ir receiver it might work, but not be able to generate the outputs onto c0 and c1 The power on those control lines are Pwm modulated and control the actual speeds of the motors

On the news post http://coredevelopersteam.com/news/

As long as the wheel base is not too long, two bogeys work well. I did something similar, and uploaded the instructions for the 7777 redux contents. Whilst I like the simple design, I also have a few 10016 Tanker wagons, and they just looked out of scale / proportion so mine got sold. I think I had built around 10-12...

Others may correct me... but if the motors turn slightly different speeds this might cause a problem. Rather I would load them through a differential to ensure they are both working maximally

Hallo Patrik Willkommen bei Eurobricks... Seems that there is now a small CH component here - with ZuriHB, and an honorary member by way of Steinkopf. I like the modular concept - makes the models much easier to display and rearrange. Perhaps a solution to my own issues of what to do with them all. The OpenDCC is a nice idea - is this hacked back into the models, or replaces the current IR receiver?

Reminds me of the Devon Belle - first shown as a model idea for the emerald night. I did an April spoof for model 7812 - also on here somewhere. The Idea of such much glass would only fit the latest train designs and might not pass the Lego drop off table crash test. But then fill it with some series one crash test dummies to find out. Seriously though it is a nice model to add to the train carriages, especially over a scenic line

Check out sava's excellent guide at railbricks http://railbricks.com/blog/my-nerd-sense-is-tingling-part-two/ This lists the best ratios for container building. Some will fit the older ttx intermodal models and look fine

Does this mean an end to Cuusoo trek models? Let's hope so... ;-)

Depends how you want to do it and on whether it should be ldd or ldraw. But will pm you

To be honest I find it a bit too long... for the proportions. Instead, I would build the grill bricks using SNOT: 90 degrees to vertical, placed on top of a single tile. If you add two sets of grill bricks together you can reduce the overall width and it will look more realistic. Have a look at the nose of the BR1020 below. BR1020 PF: MOD of 4551 Side view by roamingstudio, on Flickr

I agree on all points and switches with Kyphur: put the wheels further apart, insert an upside down M motor and power one axle... it should be enough for most switching activities.

I keep thinking of Winterthur and Berne... but im sure there are many others as well.

Cuusoo may not be representative of children. But at least 10,000 people voted for western town, and most of these are AFOL and not random joe. Pif paf town looks great but is likely to be in the shadow of the existing modular western town. If AFOL don't buy into the concept, it is even more unlikely that children or parents will. I can hear the next comments "it is all about marketing to the right audience". I agree, but how much will you spend? A 2minuite promotional video costs about 1-2 days studio work plus production and costs between 10-20k. Run a nationwide advert campaign: 150k€ for some newspapers. Tv exposure? €€€ Multiple this by countries and very quickly costs escalate. If TLG could figure out a way of making it work I'm sure they will (one day). But right now there are many more well hyped sets which recoup costs quicker and are better market investments. The only way to change this would be to rise to the challenge and as a group: stop complaining and start producing the sets we think will work, resell via bricklink and get the Viral internet Market. Post well made train videos onto YouTube demonstrating play features and see feedback you get. If you don't want to register on YouTube or Cuusoo then team up with Someone already there. Complaining will NOT change the attitudes, demonstration WILl

An example (based upon my real life work as a product manager): Large retailers will command at least a 50% margin on the final sale price of goods. At the end of the financial year, many will demand the manufacturer buys back unsold stock; or allows them to sell at huge discount. This may not be the same for TLG (since they are a well known brand) but imagine the logistics of having 3 different train expansion sets (example, Tanker, Caboose, Hopper) sat on shelves of local super market. They sold ok... the 1 AFOL in town bought multiple copies. 20-30 parents bought one of each for Christmas because Johnny wanted it. The rich kid(s) in town wanted two copies of Tanker and Hopper just because they were rich. The local TRU had better luck, but the Caboose just did not sell. End of the financial year - massive discounts hit, and the remaining stock is liquidised. No-one wins. Next year, TLG announce the Orient Express Expansion series. Most retailers will remember the massive discounts they had to give last year, and would prefer to fill shelves with high volume licensed brands which appeal to casual buyers. Whilst you may be tempted to say this is the example from My Own Train - and Santa Fe expansion series... it is not. It comes from other products, but matches pretty well what has happened in the past with those examples. The biggest game changer since then is electronic retailing, and D2C. But even then, most volume will be done in bricks and motor stores, as this is where Joe Public go. Now we have Cuusoo and there are some really good train designs on there. Not just expansion packs. Winter Village Train Depot: 112 supporters. Lisbon Tram 155 supporters. Space Mining Monorail: 75 supporters. Ter Trans Rapid Express: 81 supporters. Pennsylvania Railroad Carriages: 12 supporters. Emerald Night Sleeper Car: 11 supporters. Now tell me that there is a massive market for trains, and expansion packs, when AFOLS' cannot even get these well designed projects to above 200 supporters? Whether you agree that Cuusoo is the right venue with it's rabid fandom or not, AFOL trains are simply in the minority especially when it comes to licensed branding. Non-licensed projects like Japanese Architecture scores 2871 supporters. British Birds 2102 supporters. Lego Mountain Biking 1909 supporters. Realistic Trees 920 Supporters. Roller Coaster 430 Supporters. Personally I would love expansion packs... but I dont see it ever happening. Marketing wise, you either need to generate a lock-in effect, in which case people will buy 'upgrades' (expansion)... which is clearly done with Star Wars (how many times have certain sets been reworked and re-released, and still sell in very high volume!) or you sell a large one off, which fulfills >80% of the market need. Small Tie-in projects provide a good expansion (extra rails, motors, railway crossing) etc. Someone mentioned the idea of using Lego trains as the next evolution of model railroading, and I agree the potential is there (integrate Arduino control, JopieK). But the level of expertise needed to build realistic models out of Lego is probably beyond most builders - who prefer kit pack assembly using prefab plastic, and paint. Watch the series of Garden Railways just to get an idea of how dedicated some modellers really are. So as a Challenge: Design the expansion packs you want to see; and place them on Cuusoo. Go through the design stages, work out the instructions so that everyone can build them easily. Put together the marketing materials, and get each of your expansion projects to 1000 supporters. The Cuusoo challenge would be a AFOL / electronic version of the same idea. As a paper exercise you could ask JopieK's school kids this question: present your perfect Lego Catalogue with the extra models; together with some of the latest licensed branding... and see what comes back. Ask the children if they could only buy 2 sets, what would they want? How much would they or their parents be prepared to pay? Perhaps only through this approach would the AFOL community be able to demonstrate real marketing numbers to TLG (who have a massive market research group working in Education brand which we hardly know about)... and either prove them right or wrong. But bickering on here does not help anyone.