architrains

No scale time for the scale speed...it is just calculated based on scale miles. Here is a link to the table I use for my trains: Scale Speed Table. I haven't tried directly measuring with Lego trains yet, but "O scale" trains are pretty close in size, so those times could be used. The times on the table are for how fast the train traverses three (real) feet. So, if it takes a Lego train 3.5 seconds to travel 3 feet, it is going 25 mph. I'll have to see if I can get my 7939 to switch the yard at 5 mph, but I doubt it...19 seconds to travel 3 feet is pretty slow! About scale time...there is actually something called a "fast clock" that is used when serious (some would say far too serious!) model railroaders want to operate their layouts to a timetable. It helps because a train might be scheduled to travel between two stations in 30 minutes, but the stations are only 10 feet apart. Using scale time helps make the timetable match up with the model. I've never bothered with any of that and if I ever want to run a timetable I just have the trains arrive and depart in sequence.

Yes, I usually only go as high as 3 or 4 with PF. With my 9v, I usually never go above half speed. The only time I use full speed is if I'm intentionally causing a wreck. All the everyday interesting stuff (switching in a freight yard and coming into or leaving stations) happens at slow speeds. Speed with trains in scale can be tricky to judge, though. The tracks through my town have a posted speed limit of 40 mph, but a 130 car coal train moving that fast still seems like its going 80 mph (and sounds like it too)! In contrast, running a model train at a scale 40 mph can be excruciatingly slow to watch, unless there's lots of scenery modeling to look at as well. When I actually measure my usual model running speed, I find that even my freight trains are clipping along at a scale 60 mph.

Interesting to note that the cab-forward locomotives built by the Southern Pacific here in the states mainly had the cab at the front to reduce the risks to the crews from exhaust smoke in the long tunnels rather than the improvement of visibility. Other locomotive types with the cab at the rear usually forced the crews to wear gas masks. Unfortunately the crew was left more exposed in the event of an accident.

It looks to me exactly like the water tanks on the narrow gauge railroads in Colorado: Rio Grande's Cresco, Colorado tank They were short and stumpy in order to reach the tenders of the diminutive little trains.

The only problem I've had with PF is that with a long train stopped on a curve, sometimes on speed setting 1 the loco just sits there and hums. I look at it positively though and see it as being more realistic, as in the real world sometimes the throttle has to be opened all the way to get the train moving. But the train still slows down perceptibly in curves, which as far as I can tell has always been a problem with Lego trains (my 9v had the same problem), so broader curve geometry should fix both problems. I've had the loco "rocket" every now and then, but I think what's happening is that the "clicks" on the tiny dial are too close together, which means that sometimes you can stop in between two clicks, and it goes ahead and clicks one (or two more, if your finger is still on it, adding weight), either up or down. I've considered trying to design something a little more appropriate for controlling trains, using those technic slots in the middle of the dials. By taking the radial movement out to a larger circle, the clicks would be farther apart. Maybe a miniature train-styled control panel similar in size to the 9v controller could be built? I'm not a good enough MOCer yet to attempt it, but it's an idea. I haven't had many line-of-sight issues with PF, the only time was when the room was carpeted and people were bending over the train. I think the hardwood floor I use it on now helps the signal bounce. I had a track dead-end behind the couch in flex track so I could hear it approaching the end of the line, and the controller still worked. I have 6 rechargeable AAA in my 7939 loco, and it can still derail at top speed by itself or with a few cars.

I'm about to move quickly through Steps 8-10. Mainly because I spent my winter break digging through my one large rubbermaid bin rebuilding all my childhood sets, only to have a game of Brikwars render it all into the same mess again in the bottom of the bin. Never again! There WILL be sorting...

Great ice cream parlor! With the red and white color scheme and art deco style it reminds me of the one at the local dairy in my old hometown. Nice work!

My only lost piece was a minifigure that decided to wander... I got the Cargo Train at Thanksgiving last year when Lego had their online Black Friday sale. Around February, the brakeman/switchman figure in the orange vest from the locomotive went missing. I looked all over the living room, my room, everywhere the train had been. None of my roommates had seen it. I checked my studio space, wondering if it had followed me to campus. Nothing. Then, in late April, I was helping my girlfriend do her laundry at her apartment. I pulled some towels out of the bottom of her laundry bin, and did a double take. There was the brakeman laying on top of the last towel in the bottom, still clutching his walkie-talkie! I can only assume that he got knocked off the handrail on the side of the engine while I was moving it between my room and the living room, and fell into her laundry bin when we were doing laundry at my place sometime in February! I should give him a three-cornered hat and a spyglass instead, and call him "Lewis" or "Clark."

Very nice details! That is the kind of station I would eventually like to build on a standard green baseplate with some track and "landscaping" included. Maybe a water tank for filling steam locomotives on a baseplate next door... The ticket window is a nice old-fashioned touch.

It's quite possible I'm being disloyal to HO scale trains by playing with Lego ones! I suppose "trains" in general have been my main hobby since I was three, but as of late my scratch-building of narrow gauge HO scale equipment just isn't compatible with the highly mobile lifestyle of someone who just graduated into unemployment in architecture! Not to mention I've got more important things to be doing with my spare afternoons right about now! So, Lego trains are a perfect portable low-maintenance train hobby that I don't have to think about too hard. Plus there's just something fun about running tracks with big trains all around the room every now and then.

I currently only own two trains, the 4561 Railway Express, and the 7939 Cargo Train. My next goals are to get enough track to go around the walls of an average living room, and then I'll probably get an Emerald Night, as I'm partial to steam. I like the look of the older 12v era trains as well, but they're so expensive I'll just bricklink some lookalikes eventually...

Until I grow my Lego collection some more I just use two 2x4 bricks staggered up over one rail as a makeshift wheel stop/derail. It works well enough at low speeds.

I would hate to see PF go, not only because I JUST INVESTED in it at Christmas with the Cargo Train. The main reason is that I love it for the ability to have multiple trains running with DCC functionality, without the expense and complication of an actual DCC system. The constant failing of my HO scale trains is the need for complicated wiring to get more than one train on the track at once and let my friends be involved in "playing trains" too, instead of having them getting bored watching one train go round and round. PF provides a simple DCC-like system that is easy to get multiple people running trains with, and is more importantly for me, PORTABLE. Which brings me to a major point about marketing trains in general: There is always a gap in model railroading groups between the kids playing with trains and the settled-down middle-aged men and retirees building massive layouts that will be in their basements until they go to the nursing home. I am one of two twenty-somethings I know of that have continued being seriously interested in model trains through their college years. That gap is the same gap that correlates with most Lego "dark ages." The reason? Twenty-somethings move around a lot (A LOT and even more so in the current economy) and don't have a lot of free time to mess with complicated models or systems, and don't have room for large bins of trains or Legos. The promotion of the "apartment layout" and the shelf layout in model railroad planning literature over the past ten years has helped keep young adults in the hobby to a certain extent, but the gap is still evident, especially with kids increasingly preferring the virtual world when they reach their teens and never looking back. TLC needs to realize that PF is one of those products that packs so much into a simple package it can keep young adults as loyal customers and increase their total sales. Since buying the Cargo Train, all my money that would have gone to beer and movies went to Legos instead (and I've probably been happier and healthier to boot). I can set up my PF trains in five minutes, and pack them in the same amount of time, and not worry about them getting broken in transit. And, I can always make them take up less space, if need be, by taking them down to bricks. Now I don't have to go without trains until I start sprouting gray hairs. Thank you Lego. Don't take that away.

Thanks for the video and it's a beautiful engine!

I have been using regular AAAs in my 7939, but I need to find some rechargeable ones soon, since I already have an Energizer charger that charges AA and AAA batteries. How long do the rechargeable AAAs usually last?