Bricktrix

No prizes for guessing where youve taken 75% of the design from eh?

There is also a smaller one (for Brickish) this weekend, Sat and Sun at the Bucks Rail Centre

Your going to have huge problems with that track layout if you keep it as it is. The tracks are way too close together, especially on the corners. Overhang from rolling stock and engines through curves, will result in collisions, more so if your running them in opposite directions. If your planning on having this a long-term layout, I would seriously suggest you redesign it to avoid these problems.

Thanks for all the great comments Its no secret that this is used in the new Harry Potter Lego game due to be released. I designed the game model, this is my personal redesign to allow it to run around curves, points, etc, plus I got to tidy a few areas up that I wasnt happy with the first time round due to deadlines, its taken 3 months of my limited personal time to make all the changes and get this build finished ;) Davey, thank you, the longest this has been run without stopping is about 2 hours, with no problems. To be honest, with the type of shows I do, thats probably the max time it will ever run in one span, as I tend to swap the engines and rakes over often to demo them all. MattD again thank you, a GWR version will be along at some time, but will probably be changed into a Castle class. I've uploaded the break down pictures of this tonight to my Brickshelf account, so they should be up within the next 24 hours. Siegfried thank you, yes it runs well now, it took a lot of messing around with though to get it smooth through tight point sections (the type that TLG advise you against!) The pistons and piston boxes are all pivoted, which allows them to angle outwards through curves, being pushed by the rear pony truck wheel. They then fall back into place on straights. However, the weight of the carriages with interiors are extremely heavy, I had planned on doing 4 carriages, but these 3 are all it can manage with just 1 9v motor, if I could manage to cram more weight into the tender to stop the wheel slip when pulling extra weight it would be okay, sadly just not enough room in there now. Brickster Petes layout is absoloutely stunning, certainly a sight to behold and the feature of many magazine and DVD articles. Luckily I'm priviliged enough to be welcome back there. His models are amazing also, they are scale weight and use working suspension, the engines "wheel slip" on pulling off and the right "clickety clack" sound resonates around the barn when they run.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/31223598@N08/ for more info. Big thanks to Pete Waterman for the use of his superb layout again.

I have no interest in the EN or fitting this into it. I'm interested in the 9v motor without motor, which I'm presuming is the empty black case and metal wheels?

I'd be interested in it. Could you email me and sort it via there please? Carl

High praise indeed thank you Matt The "Siphon" is on my "to do" list, but who knows when?

Thanks for the comments guys Sealander, I'm afraid I dont have the part number as its available in different lengths, I just searched for 3mm hose(soft) in brown on Bricklink for the extra pieces I needed. Although its described as brown, longer lengths come in reddish brown so its a bit of a mismatch

So if you use the new motor with AA batteries, in theory it will perform better and last even longer than AAA's?

This has been a build I've wanted to get done for some time. The real versions could be found at the front end of passenger train rakes quite often back in their day. Flickr link: http://www.flickr.com/photos/31223598@N08/ Brickshelf link to more component part breakdown pictures when moderated: http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?f=430393

I have a real soft spot for the old sets. Your design compliments them perfectly and I like the fact you've mixed small modern detail ideas into "old school" style and form. Great job and that 12v motor , tires and rods look like brand new!!

The engineering within this model is great with nice features. The way the doors work is lovely.

I've been an admirer of the grey one on Brickshelf for some time. These are quite superb and nice to find you on Flickr now also (get more of your great work put on there!) Are these display only or do they negotiate curves and points?....I cant see that the wheelsets pivot at all?

When one is personally happy with it or if someone points out a glaringly obvious improvement which one has overlooked.

You've chosen a very nice method for the cab screen / roof build

Agreed, these are great. Very nicely detailed and nice sticker usage. Totally captured the look and feel of the protos. They are long though...VERY long! How far inwards do the middles overhang through curves?

Mark, thats interesting regarding the 12v flasher unit....it may explain why I could only ever get 3x 12v lamps to work off it rather than 4?

Nope, no need for the amount of working impliments I have in mind, plus I dont think trying to accurately scale to suite LEGO ever works. What looks good visually and selective compression are the LEGO way and the ways I preffer, mixed in with a bit of artistic licence ;) No stickers on these windows, the build originally had taller legit LEGO windows, but the height of it just didnt look right in comparrison to the surrounding area / buildings it has to tie into, so they got taken down to standard height. Have you thought about just making 2 indivdual boxes?...your proving my point here about scaling not working correctly with LEGO elements?!

I wish I had 25ft to play with too! This is for a modular portable exhibition layout which will have well over 100ft of straight track in it. At the moment I dont have enough free space for the complete layout to stay built, hence working on sections at a time of it.

I understand what Melfice means about being "charmed" by the first rendition, as it was an elegant clutter free build. Admitedly, I preffer the 2nd version. I'm a stickler for superdetailing whatever I can cram in, this does not lead to clean builds though and is just my preffered personal build taste. Generally trailers like these are riddled with details. If your going for details then the bogies need work, along with the trailer underframe, sides, tops (container fixing points) and end couplings. In my opinion, this build doesnt need any of those as its really nice as is, hence I didnt suggest these in the first post. If you want more details, the skys the limit with stuff like this. There is also an art to making an instantly recognisable model of a proto without the need for all the details which is what you have currently done. There are basically 3 routes for stuff like this: 1. clean and simple. 2. super detailed. 3. middle of the road between 1 and 2. What direction do you want to go with this?

I'd say even for an experienced builder in this field, let alone a first attempt that these are really very nice. They are a clean functional build that look good. Detailing?...All really depends on what your planning, if your trying to replicate a real proto, or if your just building a generic type. Either can make quite a difference in what details you want / need. Personally viewing these as a generic type build I'd say leave them as they are, they are certainly nice enough as is.

Thank you The freight shed is a revamp of this one http://www.flickr.com/photos/31223598@N08/...57615197973534/ so the colours tie in more to Corfe Castle station. The signal box levers are metal train wheel axles inside flex tube (I messed up on order quantities ordering boxes rather than singles of the axles and have 100's spare!) They are also inside the stair handrails as they help keep the flex tube straighter.

As I now have a plan for the new display layout (25ft in total), I've been busy building stuff for one of the sections. Here are some I've just put onto my flickr stream. http://www.flickr.com/photos/31223598@N08/ The signal box will only ever be viewed from the rear so I've put moving levers and linkage inside it

Thanks guys I'm being asked everywhere for vids of it working. I'm afraid I'm not able to download vid from camera or phone to my PC, dunno why, it just never works or comes out at mickey mouse hi speed rate. I'm hoping one of the more savvy Brickish members will be able to vid / download it for me at this years STEAM show in October.