[WIP] Lego monorails. [Custom Rail Systems (CRS)]

[Holodoc]

17 hours ago, MonsieurCaron said:

The idea is to make the slope the same way we do the curve, but by flipping the rail 90 degres on its side.

Such a simple yet ingenious idea! Well thought out.

Thanks for sharing!

[MonsieurCaron]

17 hours ago, Rijkvv said:

Is this self-supporting, or does it rely on baseplates?

 

All my tracks rely on baseplate. I was not able to make them stand alone. 

[sed6]

On 12/7/2019 at 9:46 AM, MonsieurCaron said:

Since then, I found a smooter way to build a slope. Photos are on my Flickr.

The idea is to make the slope the same way we do the curve, but by flipping the rail 90 degres on its side.

Great idea!

[Digger of Bricks]

For those interested, @Zusammengebaut has posted an interview they'd done with @Masao Hidaka back at Skaerbaek Fan Weekend 2019... 

 

[Arefalalmani]

Now my SRS Train drive fast!

SRS = Suspension Railway System

Idea and first Motor Design by Yoshihito Isogawa.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=LY8cFDXPHgQ

I rebuild and Step by Step I build a complete own Public Transport System and call it SRS.

https://www.instagram.com/p/B7Oe4V-Ic80/?igshid=1vuqxbk59pq4l

In my Insta you found more about. I build a Railway Switch too!

[Trekkie99]

1 hour ago, Arefalalmani said:

Now my SRS Train drive fast!

SRS = Suspension Railway System

Idea and first Motor Design by Yoshihito Isogawa.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=LY8cFDXPHgQ

I rebuild and Step by Step I build a complete own Public Transport System and call it SRS.

https://www.instagram.com/p/B7Oe4V-Ic80/?igshid=1vuqxbk59pq4l

In my Insta you found more about. I build a Railway Switch too!

Oh hi mate! I didn't realize who you were.  Been following your progress on Instagram. So cool! 

[Arefalalmani]

On 7/3/2018 at 7:02 AM, FiliusRucilo said:

Getting in the same trouble during my display last month i've also have redesigned the motor carriage. In a first attempt i have simply build clamps around the old design wich results in a little bit tubby carriage. But this solution is tested an runs more than 4 hrs without any maintanance. Disadvantage is, the the space between the gearwheels don't have the 100% correct distance and this leads to a slightly jamming behavior. I'm convinced that the incorrect distance was the core problem of the older constructions leading to pushing the bricks apart. BUT IT WORKS in long runs and you can also use a M-Motor instead of a XL-Type. Using the M-Motor will multiply the driving speed by two but reduce the power for climbing on solped tracks. ;-) See attached some pictures and a link to a LDD File.  :-)

LDD File

Hallo Filius,

leider ist die LDD Datei unter eweidner.de/downloads/Powertrain_6_small_tire.lxf fehlerhaft. Wenn ich bei Bricklink den Upload zur Teileliste mache wird mir

The following errors were found in the file:

• Part not found in catalog. item No:11955

genannt. Vorab ersteinmal vielen Dank für Deine Mühen! Deine gelbe Bahn ist legendär! Ich weiß gar nicht wie oft ich das Video von Henry gesehen habe. :3 Wo iimmer ich ein Teil deiner Plannungen sehe staune ich.

Nun möchte ich mich auch an eine steinegebaute Bahn wagen nachdem ich eine Schwebebahn und eine LLRT gebaut habe.

Vielen Dank, wenn Du beim M-Motor die Datei aktualisieren könntest.

Sorry my dear english Writer. It was easier to write from German to German my Problem :P

[FiliusRucilo]

Hi Arefalalmani,

since macOS Catalina LDD is dead!   I've ported the LDD files to Bricklinks Stud.io and updated them. You can download the latest Version from here:

http://www.eweidner.de/downloads/Powertrain_6_small_tire.io and http://www.eweidner.de/downloads/Powertrain_7_small_tire.io

[Arefalalmani]

15 hours ago, FiliusRucilo said:

Hi Arefalalmani,

since macOS Catalina LDD is dead!   I've ported the LDD files to Bricklinks Stud.io and updated them. You can download the latest Version from here:

http://www.eweidner.de/downloads/Powertrain_6_small_tire.io and http://www.eweidner.de/downloads/Powertrain_7_small_tire.io

Thank you so much! But both Files are with XL Motor, do you have the File with M Motor ? You and your works are amazing!

[FiliusRucilo]

Hi Arefalalmani,

You simply have to replace the motor. Both motor types will fit. 

[Arefalalmani]

Hi FiliusRucilo,

this is amazing! Thank you!

[djm]

Towards the end of October last year, I displayed my monorail at my LUGs annual "big" show. My monorail train uses an SBrick rather than the LEGO infra-red controller and I was also experimenting using @Cosmik42's Brick Automation Project to automate the running of the monorail.

It had been a little while since I had run my monorail. The motor for mine was built fundamentally around the design by @Trekkie99. During the show, I experienced issues where the bricks which form the motor would separate every now and again and the train would stop moving. I managed to jury rig a solution on the fly and made a mental note to re-examine the design of the motor carriage to see if I could diagnose the cause and come up with a resolution.

Having investigated and experimented a bit earlier this year, I came to the conclusion that the primary cause of the bricks separating is that the two gears being used to drive the wheel; the 12 tooth bevel:

and the 8 tooth gear;

although they will physically work when placed vertically between two Technic bricks, the fit is too tight. Over time, the bricks end up separating due to the tightness of the fit.

This lead me to re-work the design for the motor. I came up with an approach which has a similar sized footprint using two of the 12 tooth bevel gears and appears to resolve the brick separation issue. The refined design looks like this:

At the same time as reworking the gearing, I have come up with an alternative connection mechanism, inspired by the solid ball joint concept described here:

The premise of using the solid ball joint is to allow the connection to not only turn in the horizontal plane for cornering but also in the vertical place for climbing or descending slopes.

Caveat: while I have physically reworked my train to use this modified motor build and different connection, it is still a little experimental. The train does run but I haven't yet had the chance to run it for a sufficiently extended period of time to see how robust (or not!) it is. I am figuring by posting the design here, it will allow others to experiment with the solution. Further, if the solid ball joint mechanism doesn't prove to be adequate solution even if the motor bricks no longer separate, I believe the coupling mechanism is sufficiently modular to allow it to be easily replaced with an alternative design.

The building instructions are available for the motor;

• as a PDF and
• as the corresponding LDraw file

I've also reworked my monorail train design ...

.. to not only use the modified design for the motor and connection, but also to lower the position of the SBrick within the carriage, to lower the monorail train's centre of gravity.

The building instructions for the modified train are available;

• as a PDF
• as the corresponding LDraw file

If anyone tries the modified design for the motor, irrespective of whether or not they also use the solid ball joint approach as a connection, I would appreciate it if you would post back to this thread to let others know whether or not the design is more robust than the original design.

Regards,

David

[Trekkie99]

@djm Awesome!!! I was recentely fidling around trying to do the same of replacing the eight tooth gear with a second twelve tooth bevel gear, but ran into a couple of road blocks.

On a seperate note I did however find that simply shifting the eight tooth gear over by half a beam helped quite a bit. 

 

Edited June 22, 2020 by Trekkie99
photo reupload

[ruebezahl]

On 12/7/2019 at 7:46 AM, MonsieurCaron said:

The idea is to make the slope the same way we do the curve, but by flipping the rail 90 degres on its side. I have 7 2x2 at the top going down and 7 2x2 at the bottom going the other way to make it bend. The middle is just a strait rail 5 plates thick. The hard part was to make the link between the rail and the slope. I will have to take more photos to show you how I manage that, but you get the idea. (Hint: I used 6016172: Angular Plate 1,5 Top 1X2 1/2 and the bottom one -  the 2x2 in light gray in the photo).

Hi MonsieurCaron, would it be possible for you take a couple of photos of this slope rail connection you describe?  I can’t figure out how you did this... !  Thank you.

[MonsieurCaron]

2 hours ago, ruebezahl said:

Hi MonsieurCaron, would it be possible for you take a couple of photos of this slope rail connection you describe?  I can’t figure out how you did this... !  Thank you.

Sure. I took some photos of the connection to help. Check the other images on my flickr.

 

[ruebezahl]

22 hours ago, MonsieurCaron said:

Sure. I took some photos of the connection to help. Check the other images on my flickr.

Thank you.  The additional photos made the construction of your transition very clear and easy to understand. That is a clever and elegant solution you have devised. I like how the SNOT bricks with the attached curved rail comprise a single module that then slots down onto the main support pillar.  I hadn’t comprehended that before.  Very cool.  Thanks for sharing.

[Rijkvv]

I'm thinking about using these parts:

And then inverted tiles on one of the sides. But I have no idea if it'll be rigid at all. Have you tried those by any chance?

[Masao Hidaka]

I'm working on a monorail similar to Skytrain in Singapore.
I uses Powered Up, so this is a two-car monorail.

 

Edited March 10, 2020 by Masao Hidaka

[Masao Hidaka]

I respected "60225 Rover Testing Drive" and made this monorail.

 

[Phil B]

42 minutes ago, Masao Hidaka said:

I respected "60225 Rover Testing Drive" and made this monorail.

 

Masao-san, I really love your Monorails. Since the track is covered with tiles, have you experimented with the PoweredUp Color sensor yet? I think that by switching to PUp you could add a whole level of automation to your monorail layout - adding colored tiles to make the train automatically stop at stations, and to operate your excellent track switches for example.

[Masao Hidaka]

On 3/13/2020 at 7:45 PM, Phil B said:

Masao-san, I really love your Monorails. Since the track is covered with tiles, have you experimented with the PoweredUp Color sensor yet? I think that by switching to PUp you could add a whole level of automation to your monorail layout - adding colored tiles to make the train automatically stop at stations, and to operate your excellent track switches for example.

Phil B-san, thank you for the advice.
I already checked the sensor and made the program.
 

 

I'm working to build the monorail garage for my Lego Monorail.

 

[Phil B]

4 hours ago, Masao Hidaka said:

Phil B-san, thank you for the advice.
I already checked the sensor and made the program.
 

 

That is wonderful, and it works! Love to see one of your large layouts fully automated with this! Fantastic.

[Masao Hidaka]

I think this structure is simple and not bad.
 

 

[Masao Hidaka]

I'm building this Lego monorail similar to "LEGO 6399 Airport Shuttle".

 

[Masao Hidaka]

I used Boost Color and Distance Sensor for this Lego monorail.