SD100

Lol, I talked with ya, I'm the BuffaLUG guy with the hair. SD

Michael had a great display at ToroLUG Toronto's Bricks in the 6, with a display of all the upcoming larger radii, and all the prototypes and pre-production models of the electric elements. The power feeders look great, lower profile than the 9v ones and they will save us all a lot of rewiring old ones. It sounded like we were getting a lot closer to seeing some of those things come to market. My wallet is still in pain, but it knows that the worst is yet to come... lol. SD

That is great. You nailed the HEMTT and everything else the way it fits together. I'm def stealing some of that, lol. SD

Awesome. I love to see real world inspiration brought back to Lego. SD

Love it! I've wanted to do something similar but you just blew it away here! Definitely a classic in this hobby. SD

That is a huge draw of nc's design. It fits at a play level and it looks great too. Best level of detail achievable at that scale that I've ever seen. SD

I don't know how you feel about aftermarket, but Bricktracks makes shorter rail sections (4 stud and 1.6 stud) That may be enough offset for you and keep your rails on grid. https://www.bricktracks.com/product-page/short-straight-track-pack SD

It really looks nice with the matching wheels. I also built one from DaMango's instructions, but in normal green, I've got to pick up green wheels for it. The best part was showing it running at a show to a family friend who actually rode the tender pushing coal on it's US tour from NY to California. Seventy year old man sat right down on the floor to watch it going by at track level because it brought back so many memories for him. SD

That is the nicest looking 6w lego-ified P42 and amfleet set I've seen! It's a shame wedge 2876 has never been made in Dark Blue, but you're giving me ideas on trying to build your loco in either Empire Service colors or one of the heritage schemes. Awesome stuff, it would be great to see it in real brick! SD

I belong to a newer LUG that doesn't have a whole lot of experience running big train layouts, but I'm a train guy and over the past couple years I've worked to expand the size of our displays, and also the size of our trains. I've got quite a few long 6w trains that I've been running, but unfortunately I'm finding that the performance degrades from show to show. I generally try to run trains with as many motors as possible to spread the load, either 4 9v motors, or 2 9v with 2 PF motors attached. Two controllers supplying power, and multiple power feeds around the loop. I cleaned our track with a good scrub of a pink eraser and then rubbing alcohol. I still have continuity issues and stuttering in some places, and they get worse each show. We're also burning up 9v motors like crazy. Some layouts they run for days, others they are toast in a couple hours, I can't make any sense of it. My PF motors however go like mad no matter what. What advice do you have for me, or tips that will help me make a better running layout? SD

No we haven't taken measurements yet, I've got to wire an inline amp meter up one of these days. However we had the exact same performance issues with a standard 9v motor with 2 axle pickup and the single axle. The spacing completely removed it. I will do some tests this weekend and come back with my results. SD

Members of my LUG got a bunch of Bevin's Bricks axles and experimented with them at our last show. Using a single axle for power supply does not work well even at speed, BUT using two single axles spaced out longer than a track section resulted in the smoothest running train we've seen so far. We're using all old 9v track that I meticulously cleaned but there are still small continuity problems between pieces here and there. This wouldn't be solved by the double axle truck, but the spaced single axles do a great job, all the stuttering and jolting issues we had with even lego 9v motors disappeared. SD

Has anyone tried fitting these ballast plates to FX bricks track by any chance? SD100

I'll take pics later, but for an SD40 MOC I've been working on I put the 3rd axle on a pivot, braced by part no. 45590. (https://www.bricklink.com/v2/catalog/catalogitem.page?P=45590&name=Technic, Axle Connector Double - Flexible Rubber&category=[Technic, Connector]#T=C) I have yet to have an issue with truck steering with it. SD

That is a sharp looking locomotive right there... Do you have any plans on running it at conventions in the near future? SD