Dan-147

I agree with Thorsten. As much as I like the Santa Fe SuperChief, I'd rather have a version of EMD's F-unit in a color-scheme that has more meaning to me. I've started gathering pieces for a VIA-Rail (Canada's passenger trains) FP-7 in blue and yellow. While it follows the general guidelines of the LEGO Santa Fe version, I've also included a few more recent pieces that were not availible then, such as the Black Wedge 4 x 6 x 2/3 Triple Curved (52031). I've also lengthened it by 2 studs and shortened the nose by 1 stud because I feel it has better proportions that way. The Santa Fe SuperChief is certainly one of LEGO's best train models but nothing looks more like a SuperChief than another SuperChief, whether it was built from a set or from parts. When I finally get all my parts, I'll post a few pictures. P.S. I can't wait to get my hands on the Maersk train. I've already decided it will be a 7-stud wide SD-40-2!

I agree with your choice of mounting the switch on an ordinary 2x4 plate instead of modifying an out-of-production and rare train base. Recently, I've also become less of a purist since the LEGO company doesn't always give us what we need. However, I try not to modify the bricks themselves. In this case, I would have tried to find a micro-switch that would have fitted in a 2x4 technic plate. But sometimes you don't have them on hand... Your work is of great interest for me because I have a 7720 and a 7760 "clone" powered with 4,5volt motors that I've wanted to remotely control for some time. I was just curious about how you fitted the PF receiver (8884) into your train. Do you think you could post a picture of your set-up? Thanks and keep up the inovations! P.S. Any chance of a few pictures of your modified 4.5volt tenders?

Sweet! I've been wanting to convert all my old 4.5volt trains to Power Functions, actually any kind of wireless remote, for some time. Power Functions is great because it makes it an all-LEGO solution with minimal conversion. My biggist hurdle, apart from not having any Power Functions for the time being, was that Power Functions uses 9volt while the motor wants 4.5volt. But if I read this quote correctly; the Power Functions receiver could work on 4.5volt. Please confirm if I got it right or if I'm totally out in left field... Thanks!

I was going to skip this set because I wasn't too thrilled by the way LEGO had rendered it. It seemed short and squat to me, plus it had no doors... your modifications have transformed it into what it should have been from the start. This set has now gone to Must-have for me (with most of your modifications). An additional modification that I might suggest, especially to LEGO purists that might object to paper bellows between the cars, are Jason Allemann's Close Coupling Technique for Shared Bogies http://railbricks.com/media/iltco-docs/CloseCoupling.pdf A few years ago, he made a model of Ottawa's O-Train, which is a standard Bombardier Talent. It is even in the German Railway's colors because it was pulled right off the production line for a pilot project.

I love LEGO and I particularly love LEGO trains but their marketing strategies have forced me to make a few changes in my hobby. For instance, the fact that the seperate LEGO train couplings and magnets are no longer available (you can only get the one-piece buffer and magnet)has led to my adoption of Kadee "O"-gauge couplers. I can't really complain as I now have remote uncoupling. And I feel that the Kadee couplers look great! All that without modification to the LEGO brick. The disappearance of 9-volt track and the difficulty in obtaining proper packaging of RC track will probably make me adopt code 250 nickel-silver railway track. In addition to going back to powered track, this option will finally allow me to get larger radius curved track, something that has proven elusive when sticking only to LEGO products.

Actually, the PF train wheels have been available for quite some time on Pick-a-Brick (Lego Shop-at-Home): Train Wheel W/O-Ring, Element ID: 4289864, Price: 0.52 USD You can also get the regular train wheels : Train Wheel Ø8.2/14.6, Element ID: 4295370, Price: 0.21 USD Train Wheel Ø16.6/Ø23, Element ID: 4496343, Price: 0.24 USD Which will need : Prepack Flat With 2 Axles, Element ID: 4580964, Price: 1.73 USD (1 pack for every 4 wheels) It is kind of pricy but it's pretty much the same (or more) on Bricklink. Dan-147

Imagine that!! I'm also in Sherbrooke. I have to agree, it's a great place. Daniel

Don't forget the 8886 conversion/extension wire otherwise you're dead in the water!

UNDERPOWERED?!?! Typical trains here in North-East North America have 4 or 5 4000+HP locomotives pulling 100 to 150 heavily loaded freight cars, including articulated double-stack container cars. I can't speak first-hand for European trains but from pictures I've seen, they usually seem to have 30 to 50 freight cars, some of them having only 2 axles. Having grown up with them, I prefer the long North American freight trains with their different types of frieght cars in every train. However, both budget and space make it hard to model in LEGO....

Great information legoboy3998! I'm seriously interested in getting a bunch of Kadee couplers, especially now that the separate magnets are no longer available from LEGO. I like the fact that this conversion is just a bolt-on. I was looking over the instructions for the Kadee coupler and I noticed that there was no counter-indication to cutting off the end of the draft gear box. They even recommend it in this flyer http://www.kadee.com/html/S-G%20body%20mount%20couplers%20ins.pdf Since I don't like to mutilate LEGO, that's the option I will probably take (I like the close-coupling feature). I'll try to post pictures when I get some couplers.

I remember when LDD first came out, someone at LEGO would post the better designs in a special gallery according to subject (of course, there was a Trains folder). Anyone who cared to could then buy whatever designs appealed to them and have the parts delivered. I was in a creative high then and I regularly posted designs, several of which did make it to that gallery. I only ever bought one of my designs since I felt that the price mark-up was pretty steep, but I am aware that several of my designs that were bought by people I didn't know. One of them even ended up on Ebay. Since then, DBM changed name, saw a major price increase and whoever picked the better designs stopped doing it. The DBM galleries are now filled with so-so designs. The point of all this ranting is that we don't have to wait on LEGO for cool train designs. We can share our own designs and for those who are not inclined to hunt out parts in their collection and/or on Bricklink, we can make designs based on the current PAB pallet. It would be easier if we could post these designs on LEGO's website since it is a common location that we all know but even if we can't, we can surely find or create a site to host these designs. Eric Kingsley had done just that with his Save 9V Trains site until it outgrew its usefulness (LEGO announcing that it was discontinuing 9V trains). If there is any interest, I would be happy to update my designs to the current PAB pallet and maybe even come up with a few new ones. I'm sure others would also like to contribute. Dan-147

That makes me think of the old Playmobile train that ran on LGB track (gauge 1). They had a sprung slider on each side between the front and rear wheels of the truck that picked up power from the metal track. Playmobile eventually gave up on track-powered trains and switched to battery-powered IR-remote on plastic track for pretty much the same reasons LEGO did (cost and upcoming legislation about wall-powered electrical toys). It might be possible to make brick-mounted sliders to pick up power from the track. They would have the advantage (compared to gutted 9-volt motors) of being smaller and easier to mount on any truck or two-axled car, plus they wouldn't destroy a 9-volt motor. I'm not all that worried for those of us who already have a sizable 9-volt train collection (not my case, unfortunately) when I see how many Europeens are still runnimg 12-volt layouts with components that are 20+ years old. It's more the newcomers (and older fans like myself who couldn't afford to stock up on 9-volt components when they were still available) who will be "stuck" with the new Power Functions based system. However, I like to look at it as a challenge rather than as a problem. Dan-147 P.S. I still have a grudge against LEGO for not distributing the 12-volt train line in North America in the 1980's!!

Indeed! Quite a bit cheaper. I had no idea that there would be a price difference between LDD and PAB. In my mind, they were one and the same. Plus that nasty 10 $US surcharge!!! Thanks for pointing this out. It opens up new purchasing possibilities for me. Just out of curiosity, what were those 9 railcars you bought? Dan-147

Here's the craziness of LEGO's online PAB. If I decide to buy your LDD model from LEGO, it will cost me 108.89 $US versus 99.99 $US for a complete Emerald Night!! Subtract what you can recover from selling the locomotive or parting it out and you can see that the PAB solution is outrageously expensive!! Granted, you can use parts from your own collection or buy from Bricklink to bring the price down but if you're doing that, you might as well use parts that aree closer to the real thing. I'm not trying to put down your efforts to create additional cars for the Emerald Night (nice work, particularly on the second version, by the way) but LEGO's incredibly high prices on PAB pretty much destroys any attempt to use it as a source. Dan-147

Could you elaborate on the purchase of straight tracks by phoning TLC's customer service? If it's the only way to get only straight tracks without the curves, I'll do it. Unless there's a huge mark-up... Alternatively, I could also try with Lugbulk. Too bad I didn't think about it in the first batch of 2010. Next time, perhaps. Dan-147

This question is a no-brainer. Of course, practically everyone would rather buy the straights separetly from the curves. The only people who don't want to understand this is LEGO management. Speaking of which, I always felt the whole RC track thing was a rip-off. Sure, the track is half as expensive as the 9-volt track but you need to buy twice as much to get the same amount of straights!! Net result, no savings since the curves are basically useless. Dan-147

From what I understand, The rechargable battery will be included wuth these trains; at least I hope I got that right. If this is the case, the battery should be part of the interior furnishings (the motor will be in the trucks). I understandwhat you mean about the Emerald Night. I haven't motorized mine yet because I dislike having to choose between an interior for the cab and a motor. I want to fit a 9-volt technic motor I have hanging around in the boiler so that I can have the best of both worlds but I haven't gotten around to it yet. Dan-147

I think that the use of the train wheels with the O-rings and technic axles has more to do with the use of the train motor decorative side. The 9-volt motor (and therefore the present motor) is a hold-over from the original 12-volt train motor. The wheel axles on this motor are off-set by half a stud from the present train wheelsets. That means that the new train sets will have four train motor decorative sides each. For me, this is good news since the decorative sides were no longer included with the new motors bought seperately. Dan-147

The only way I could see it happening (tunnel kit) is if LEGO comes up with a few giant BURPs (big ugly rock pieces). Personnally, I'm still upset about that giant wing piece that the newer airplanes use. Big pieces tend to be anti-creative so I'm not exactly rooting for more of them. So in my mind, a LEGO tunnel kit would be a mixed blessing. Dan-147

If it's the same piece, nice reuse of a part that seemed created for one specific use only.

Totally disappointing!!! It's just a rehash of all the previous Hogwarts Express trains with some minor detail changes. I was hoping that TLG would use the drivers from the Emerald Night to at least get the right wheel configuration!! I wasn't expecting a locomotive as glorious as the Emerald Night but I was certainly expecting the big drivers. What a let-down....

In the United States (where BNSF runs) passenger trains are run almost exclusively by Amtrak. The exceptions are generally transit authorities that run rush-hour trains. So if you want your BNSF locomotive to be realistic, it should be pulling only freight cars. That being said, this is your little piece of LEGO world and you make the rules. If you want it to pull passenger cars, by all means go right ahead. When the major train companies abandoned passenger service in the late 60's most of them were running stainless steel "lightweights". The cars designed for the Santa Fe Superchief are a very good representation of this type of car. I know that they are almost impossible to find now but the plans are readily available and most of the parts are easy to find on Bricklink. Personnally, I'd use the newer "light bluish grey" and "dark bluish grey" instead of the old "light grey" and "dark grey" as they have a more metallic look to them. You could customize it even further by replacing the row of grey bricks just above the windows with bricks or plates of a color that compliments the locomotive (dark green and yellow, for example). Whatever you decide to do, it would be nice if you could post a picture or three... Dan-147