Details: Here's a particularly strange LEGO electrical project for you. This one is far from purist, but the effect is interesting enough even if it does involve tinkering with valuable monorail track (you may think I'm kidding, but on BrickLink, a single piece of straight track can sell for over $20). If you're familiar with the model railroading hobby - or with LEGO's own 9V Train system - you know how a train can draw power from certain kinds of track that carry electricity. This is a much more efficient system than the battery-based type of trains LEGO current makes - you don't need to worry about replacing or recharging anything as long as you can hook up your speed regulator to a wall socket. Although the LEGO monorail system is fairly legendary, it too is limited by battery life. Until now! Apparently a bit of copper tape on the track and some hacking to make the motor draw power from brushes near the wheels is "all" it took!
More videos and photos are available - just follow the thread linked at the top.
Details: Bill Ward brings us photos of the latest BayLTC layout. BayLUG is now gearing up for their area's first big LEGO convention, Bricks By the Bay, which will be held Friday-Sunday, April 9-11, 2010, at the Fremont Marriott Silicon Valley.
We know there are a bunch of recent posts missing - don't worry, they're coming (although a few may end up as short and rushed as this one). This one's for Sunday - expect to see last Friday, this past Saturday, and Monday come up later today.
Details: Seeing that we covered a rendition of the Metroliner set in monorail form, we would be remiss if we did not mention a similar rendition of the Emerald Night. There are few real flagships in the Trains series, with the high raw costs of the sets (if you think in terms of price-per-part and factor in comparable other trains, they're usually inexpensive, but that's not immediately apparent) frequently scaring off even most people who are impressed by the designs, but both the Metroliner and the Emerald Night stand out as important classics. The Metroliner was in the first round of 9V system kits, and looked snazzy with its Amtrak color scheme (slightly more European stylings elsewhere made it a tough sell to some serious train fans, but it was decidedly more realistic than other 1990's LEGO train kits). The Emerald Night is the first train kit to feature the new steam locomotive wheels, and the options for motorizing it introduce the new Power Functions system.
Which is why the both warrant microscale tributes, but doesn't say too much about this little version (I'd like to see you try writing this many words about other people's LEGO creations every day and not getting a little off-topic). This is a simple and elegant build that mimics the features of the original set fairly closely.
Sometimes you come across things that completely take you by surprise. That's how I felt when I saw this collection of photographs of Legoland [Lego in general, for that matter] when it was in its infancy. It's hard to believe how far the brick has come since the 60's.
Maybe you'll like these photos on Flickr as much as I did.
Peter Norman (Swoofty on Flickr) brings us a lovely "weathered" boxcar. Complete with all the details you would expect to see on well... a rusty old box car.
The look achieved here is great. I'm genuinely impressed.
Have you ever wondered what the Metroliner set would look like if it were actually a monorail?
LEGO®'s Monorail system came out in the late 1980's, but last appeared in a set in 1995 (the rarity of the parts have made them are desirable collector's item among LEGO fans). The "monorails" are powered by a battery-operated 9V motor that sits in between the chassis of the two cars. The tracks that the monorail rides on have teeth pointing out horizontially on each side that are used to propel the vehicle fowards by a means of gears gripping onto them. They are controlled by small buttons on the side of the motor which can be switched with special pieces of track.
Besides the obvious wizardry of combining a 4-studs-wide monorail set-up with a more well-known 6-studs-wide train set, this model is also unique in having a third car. Extra monorail cars are not easy to come by, and LEGO never designed a way for multiple cars to be strung together (although a few builders have successfully fashioned their own ways of connecting cars.
Although this post for Wednesday's model of the day is appearing late, it's only appearing at all thanks to the work of new blog-member Brickapolis.
Details: Bill Ward has posted a wrap-up of this weekend's event and posted many photos to flickr. It looks to me like it was a great show - I'm particularly jealous of the bridge and the rail yard. There are tons of great details to see in the 113 photos - it looks like a few people went all-out with custom stickers to squeeze in extra details.
Details: Sorry for the problems yesterday - that post still isn't fully up because of some technical difficulties on my end. In the interest of keeping things moving, here's a fresh model for today.
For a few years now, American train destinations have been using "Day Out With Thomas" events to get kids interested in trains. Trains aren't widely used in the US, but Thomas is still a widely popular character here (with kids, anyway - there aren't as many of us adult Thomas fans out there). This year, LEGO is promoting their DUPLO Thomas the Tank Engine and Friends sets by providing DUPLO play areas and a giant sculpture of Thomas made out of regular-sized LEGO bricks. Not much info is available beyond that - I only realized LEGO was involved when some photos started showing up on flickr earlier this week (click on the photo above for more photos from that set). Sorry for the late announcement, but if you or some kids you know want to check this out, click here for the tour dates listed on LEGO's site. I'm assuming that the dates LEGO mentions are the only ones with LEGO involved - there might be other Day Out With Thomas events without this sculpture.
Details: Yes, DUPLO models do count - LEGO has always been the manufacturer of DUPLO bricks (and they're also to blame for that "LEGO Explore" rebranding initiative a few years back - what were they thinking?). I've recently been looking into the world of DUPLO trains as a way of getting the little kids more excited about the displays my local LUG (LEGO Users Group) puts up. Surprisingly, there's actually a "programmable" train kit for young kids that's easier to work than the nearest adult solution (apparently when this came out in 2003, you could buy the DUPLO train motor for $55 dollars (to work with track not included in the set - a set with track could be bought for $100) but if you wanted similar control over a regular LEGO train at the same time, you would have had to invest in a 9V train set ($100+) and a MINDSTORMS RIS kit ($200+) - not to mention having to work out the programming yourself). Of course, I missed my chance to get any of the DUPLO train motors at a good price, but this one builder has taken it upon himself to create a resource for the people who did manage to get the parts. The site above has a complete hacker's guide and a variety of exciting layouts - this is just one highlight out of the bunch. The track from the more affordable Thomas the Tank Engine line works the same way as the more expensive track, so if you have some Thomas tracks you can try some non-motorized versions of his layouts at home. The tunnel and bridge pieces aren't comparable to anything in the "big kid" train lines (OK - I think that the very hard-to-find monorail sets might be similar), so it's pretty much impossible to build layouts like this one with non-DUPLO track - but that only makes this more awesome.
Details: For obvious reasons, I couldn't let National Train Day here in the states go by without posting a nice Amtrak engine. Of course, one of the classic 9V LEGO® train designs was 1992's Metroliner set, but train buffs often complain about the inaccuracies of the design - although it's pretty and immediately recognizable, it doesn't truly resemble any particular train and the nose shape is reminiscent of European trains (which is, for obvious reasons, wrong on an Amtrak train because "Amtrak" is a portmanteau of "American" and "Track", and Amtrak is a quasi-governmental company in the United States). This engine, on the other hand, is based on a specific Amtrak design and gets in plenty of accurate details. A few stickers were used, but surprisingly no printed parts from the Metroliner set appear. There are some interesting building techniques at play - the cockpit windows are done with clear bricks and studs-not-on-top trickery, and the rear of the engine makes good use of Technic steering elements (circa late 80's early 90's), panels, studs-not-on-top elements, switches, and minifig-scale steering wheel bases. Two 9V motors are used in the wheels to provide extra power (and thus the ability to drive more train cars at a decent speed). It's worth noting that the engine looks great in the 7-studs-wide scale ( clearly visible from the front) - builder Christoph Eisenring definitely made the right choice when picking that scale!
I don't know if any LEGO Train Clubs are involved with National Train Day or not, but if you're in the states and can make it to one of the events today (Saturday May 10th), I'm sure it'll be fun. Personally, I'll be sitting it out, but I'd love to hear about it if anyone reading this goes.
Details: This train engine is excellent. There are quite a few great features here - while normally the studs-not-on-top sections might steal the show, the rails surrounding the engine actually turn out to be far more impressive. Sure, it looks simple enough once you recognize those silly Life-on-Mars theme arms, but then there's that angle where the railing moves up - how did he do that? Well, look closely - there is a pair of black minifig hands in there. Oh, and for all you train fans out there, this is a 5-wide cab, so there must be some offset stuff hiding in there somewhere. If only there were more pictures...
Details: Freebee posted a nice set of custom train cars. The hopper makes use of Technic parts for details. The design looks great, but it's the type of thing you can't build without tan 1x1 Technic bricks. The locomotive features some studs-not-on-top effects that are very well done. There's even a custom coupling mechanism.
Details: Here's a reproduction of the Forth Rail Bridge in Scotland. Lots of pictures here, but there's only newspaper articles to go on for info about it. It looks to me like there's 9V train track running through it, which means that this is roughly at minifig scale (even though this model is very large and probably wouldn't fit in your train layout).
Details: I suspect most of you who follow other LEGO® fansites have already heard the bad news: The LEGO Group is no longer manufacturing 9V trains. This marks the end of an era - while most Adult Fans of LEGO (or AFOLs) were around before the 9V line started in 1991, this is really the only format of LEGO® trains that today's kids know. Additionally, the 9V trains were designed as part of a larger catalog of 9V electronics used in LEGO sets - light packs for spaceships, sound effect boxes for police sirens, the Cybermaster, Mindstorms Robotics Invention System, the motorized Technic sets, etc all used the same connectors and voltages. This meant that it was easy for anyone with a varied collection of LEGO parts to build trains that lit up or were controlled by computer. From what I can gather, the new "Power Functions" sets work similarly to the LEGO® MINDSTORMS NXT kit, and the new train line that will be unveiled by 2010 will be compatible with those components. Of course, if that's the case, then there will always be adapter bricks out there...
So naturally, I wanted to spotlight a train today. This beautifully detailed train was made with the 9V parts as a base, but then this hobbyist carefully added other LEGO® parts to get the exact effect he/she was going for. I'm not enough of a train buff to recognize whether or not this one was based on a life-size train or not, but I love the LEGO® detailing here - the curves, the studs-not-on-top effects, the lettering, the way the front lifts up...
Details: Here's a spiffy model of the Thalys train - made using half-stud offsets to get extra details in the front. Other cool features include the color scheme, the custom couplers, and the spot-on custom stickers (technically cheating, but perfectly done here). There's some extensive information about this one at the link above, and even building instructions - you might even be able to attempt your own version of it from that.
Details: Here's a great town/trains layout assembled by ItLug . The picture I chose to feature from this set shows a pre-Cafe Corner corner house with some great details - keep an eye out for the detailed window decorations and the use of spaceship wings in the roofing. There's also a solid-looking car-carrying train and a fancy park and entryway. A variety of train cars adds some great character here - I love the way that some of these are styled to match officially-released LEGO® Train sets.
Details: The photos here aren't as high-quality as you're used to seeing here, but this model is quite good. From what I can tell, this builder designed his train by mimicking a picture of a particular train from a book. There are lots of great details on this one. I especially love the way he did his wheels with TECHNIC parts. Actually, that hook-up for the front wheel looks pretty clever too. I'm assuming that there's a smooth tile in there that we can't see providing extra support to the model. The only problem with this gorgeous engine is that it is not powered in any way - but then again, there's not a place where any standard LEGO train motor would have fit here anyway.
Details: This is a nifty little locomotive featuring some cool colors and some cleverly used parts. I love the way that hands and arms were used to add details here. The use of a TECHNIC beam to fix a height issue with the coupler is a good idea too. The car windshields being used as side windows are amazing. The Brickshelf Gallery for this model features a number of "in action" photos with some other nice train cars and minifigs as well.
Details: This clever and detailed train layout is worth a look even though it is not yet complete. The roadways aren't typical LEGO roadways, but rather, are long walls of 1x2 bricks on their sides. This allows a little more give for more for flexible roadways, and also makes it easy to create dividing lines, lanes, etc. DUPLO bricks separate a lower level of the layout from an upper layer of the layout. There are other nice details too - overgrowth near the tracks, hinged details on bridges ...and of course, there's that set of train tracks leading into that railroad shed. That might not be subtle, but it is really well-done.
"What it is ... is beautiful" 
kit, and the new train line that will be unveiled by 2010 will be compatible with those components. Of course, if that's the case, then there will always be adapter bricks out there...
