alainneke

Awesome work! The curves on the locomotive look great, and the interior lights are a nice touch. Congratulations on adding this masterpiece to your layout!

Wow, your layout looks pretty impressive! The open construction looks really cool, and the Plexiglas is a clever solution. You even found time to paint the whole thing :) I'm eager to see the videos!

I used a Zimo MX645 (the wired version), which I bought from digitrains.co.uk . It came pre-loaded with the Flying Scotsman sounds.

Hi Ludo, (Sorry Zephyr1934 for hijacking your thread!) Thanks for the kind words! I've done some additional mods since taking the above picture: LEGO Emerald Night by alainneke, on Flickr Apart from visual changes, I managed to source a sound decoder with the Flying Scottsman sounds. I'm also particularly proud of my custom made nickel silver wheels on the tender The Seuthe smoke generator used is a number 7, as my track voltage is about 18V. Thanks for the invitation for Maldegem! I'll surely stop by and take a look.

Manual mini lathe, on the kitchen table :) Sorry, I'll try to explain better. With sliding contacts, I mean thin copper wipers which rub against the backside of the wheels. I used some sliding contacts from ESU (model railway manufacturer), but they didn't work very well. Lots of power interruptions and stuttering motors. Maybe when you make them yourself, they will work better. Use thin material! I now use 'ball contacts': metal pins which push agains the backside of the wheels. You can buy them from Schnellenkamp or AMZ Munz (both German, search for 'Kugelkontakte'). Traction on the tires is not bad. My 7760 is able to pull 3 coaches. Put some weight on the loco, and it will perform better. The price: aluminum is cheap. Machining a set of 6 tires took me an afternoon, but I had fun making them. I don't have experience with "slot car" style pickups. I don't expect them to damage your tracks.

Here is the current and final design of my modded 7760 (with tapered treads and 'LEGO-friendly' flanges; the actual pickups are spring-loaded and push against the back of the flanges): 7760 with aluminum tires by alainneke, on Flickr The decoder has been replaced since taking this picture; it's now sound-equipped and I was also able to squeeze in a capacitor, too: 7760 wire mess by alainneke, on Flickr @BrickTrix: no O2 for me this year, but feel free to PM me!

Not at all professional, but fully self-educated I use a 2011 alloy myself (contains copper), but I've read that 6000 alloys are also easy to machine. You could try to ask your friend if any of the listed alloys have specific characteristics which are better (or not) for model railroading. I have some 'Neusilber' on order, which I was told was the material LEGO used on their 9V train motors. On one of my locos, I used some commercially available copper sliding contacts. Unfortunately, they proved to be too unreliable for feeding a DCC chip; they are good enough for wagon lighting, though. In any case, I would say thinner is better. I saw Mireks work on Brickshelf some time ago. His wheels look great, and he told me that he had them custom made on a CNC lathe. The only 'issue' I could see, is that the wheels are not insulated at the axle (I.e. you cannot use the train wheel holders, because the axle has to be split). For my trains, this would limit their usefulness.

Great work, all 3 of them!!! The smoke effects on your Class 37 look very cool; what smoke unit are you using?

Hi Udo, from my personal experience, I would use aluminium tires. They do wear (slowly), but machining replacement ones is easier than making new pickups or new tracks. What grade aluminium are you using? As for the geometry, I've had success with a 5 degree taper on the tread, and a 22,5 degree angle on the flange. If you use a DCMT insert (55 degree), you can get both these angles without repositioning your cutter. Good luck!

Try this document (http://www.brickish.org/members/files/whoward/MonorailSwitchAnatomy.doc)

For a pure LEGO solution, you can also use flextrack @kieran: DCC (with 2 rails) won't solve the issues with tracks looping and short circuits, so you still need to think of something to detect approaching trains and reversing polarity accordingly. DCC trains will however continue to move in the same direction when you reverse polarity

The shipping on my last orders took about 2 weeks. Be aware that you'll probably have to pay VAT and 'formalities' on orders of €25 and above!

I've had some success printing it myself using plain white sticker paper (comes in size A4) and a cheap inkjet printer. The hardest part is getting the colors right: the color on your screen will look different than the printed color, which again will look different than the actual color of the LEGO bricks. Good luck!

I think you can get the part of the train covering the RCX to 7-wide (and leave the rest 6-wide), by using (vertical) tiles instead of bricks: http://www.bricklink.com/catalogItem.asp?P=90498. You can cover them with printed stickers to match the colors/lines of the train. Mount them with 1x2 brackets (http://www.bricklink.com/catalogItem.asp?P=99780): this way, you can easily remove the plates when you need access to the RCX' buttons

I see that you removed the battery cover to make the RCX slightly smaller. Why don't you try to separate the whole battery compartment from the rest of the RCX to make it even smaller: http://www.mralligator.com/rcx/ ?