I have recently discovered the beatiful world that is the 12V, grey era, train system. It began when I bought a lot on a garage sale in Denmark, while I was attending Skearbaek Fan Weekend.

For 40 euro's I had a box that contained lots of material, a complete 7725 passenger train amongst other things. So I've started MOCing with the loose parts I've got  .

First production is a shunting locomotive with working lights.

Instructions are available on ReBrickable

I had also began working on a PoweredUp shunting locomotive but that one didn't really work out (see below)

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I wanted this one to have a function to decouple train carriages. I have this 12V decoupler and I love it, there just has to be some way to do something similar for PU trains.

 

The Idea was to make the buffers moveable so they can push away the connected carriage. However the construction prooved to be too fragile and it cannot overcome the magnetic force. The reason for this fragility is ofcourse that the shunter rides on bogies (it had to be able to account for curves). It just a little to long to be running on a fixed chassis. I could probably get around this by building the mechanism above the funning board but ofcourse that would take more space and I personally thing this shunting locomotive is already on the large side...

This video also demonstrates that a train motor isn't the perfect choice for shunting operations, as the speed is a bit hard to control. I've learned from this forum that people like to use PU Linear motor's instead.  I now see why. Nevertheless, using such motor would probably demand more space. Anyway, back to the drawing board with this one.

I hope you like it!

I'm brainstorming about a 12V layout now but I'm struggling with the approach. I don't really have the space so I need some kind of modular way of setting it up.

Edited December 28, 2024Dec 28 by Sebeus I
Fixed video link

That’s a very good looking shunter! Is it based on a real life one?

With regard to a layout, I’d suggest starting with the Bluebrick design program, it has all the track elements in it. A quarter circle of track fits on a 48x48 baseplate (or equivalent area) and if you are building a modular system try and line up quarter circle sections to the edge of a module. I work on modules that are 3x5 baseplates, which gives enough space for a full half circle and/or up to 10 straight track sections. 
Wiring is also a challenge, and depending on the size/complexity of your layout you can either keep all the wiring in one module and build the controller into it or with a signal as an example, drill through the board your module is built on and put a short wire through it, then when you set up use a longer wire to connect the first wire to the control panel. This may also mean drilling through some Lego… 

Hope this helps, ask if you have questions. 

  On 12/28/2024 at 4:00 PM, Andy Glascott said:

That’s a very good looking shunter! Is it based on a real life one?

With regard to a layout, I’d suggest starting with the Bluebrick design program, it has all the track elements in it. A quarter circle of track fits on a 48x48 baseplate (or equivalent area) and if you are building a modular system try and line up quarter circle sections to the edge of a module. I work on modules that are 3x5 baseplates, which gives enough space for a full half circle and/or up to 10 straight track sections. 
Wiring is also a challenge, and depending on the size/complexity of your layout you can either keep all the wiring in one module and build the controller into it or with a signal as an example, drill through the board your module is built on and put a short wire through it, then when you set up use a longer wire to connect the first wire to the control panel. This may also mean drilling through some Lego… 

Hope this helps, ask if you have questions. 

Thank you!

It's not based on any real locomotive, the design really came on its own, building around the old 12V motor block.

I'll definitely look into Bluebrick, I have been trying to model my layout in Stud.io but had little succes, thanks for the tip!

Edited December 28, 2024Dec 28 by Sebeus I

Sweet.  It has the 12v vibe. 

 

I like the design and the colors, very good looking locomotive!

Cool, small locomotive, I like the retro vibes!

  On 12/28/2024 at 11:48 PM, dr_spock said:

Sweet.  It has the 12v vibe. 

 

 

  On 12/29/2024 at 12:03 PM, SpacePolice89 said:

I like the design and the colors, very good looking locomotive!

 

  On 12/29/2024 at 7:58 PM, _TLG_ said:

Cool, small locomotive, I like the retro vibes!

Thanks, It has to fit in my 12V layout after all.

Beautiful project ... 12 volt and lights are two aspects I'm very sensitive to
I like the use of the new lego pieces (bracket and slope curved) to increase the details but maintain the charm of the gray era!

Nice train! I really like it! I have a 4.5v gray era train (7720) that I made remote controlled. I had an old Newbright RC car battery box and controller lying around. The RC car battery box was three AA and the 4.5v train one is three C batteries, but they both are 1.5v batteries. So I thought since the volts are the same it will be fine. Now I have a fully RC train. The only down side is that I have to put the RC battery box on a car behind the engine, but it still works great!

Looks great! Are the lights original 12V lights?

Eventually I would like to get into 12V grey era MOCing as well. But many projects to finish before that can take off. 

  On 12/29/2024 at 9:08 PM, LEGO Train 12 Volts said:

Beautiful project ... 12 volt and lights are two aspects I'm very sensitive to
I like the use of the new lego pieces (bracket and slope curved) to increase the details but maintain the charm of the gray era!

Thanks 😊

  On 12/29/2024 at 11:32 PM, ILoveSeatron said:

Nice train! I really like it! I have a 4.5v gray era train (7720) that I made remote controlled. I had an old Newbright RC car battery box and controller lying around. The RC car battery box was three AA and the 4.5v train one is three C batteries, but they both are 1.5v batteries. So I thought since the volts are the same it will be fine. Now I have a fully RC train. The only down side is that I have to put the RC battery box on a car behind the engine, but it still works great!

That sounds interesting, there was a 4,5V motor in my lot as well, maybe I can do something similar 🤔.

  On 12/31/2024 at 11:34 AM, -DoNe- said:

Looks great! Are the lights original 12V lights?

Eventually I would like to get into 12V grey era MOCing as well. But many projects to finish before that can take off. 

I know the feeling, I have too many ideas laying around as well. I'll probably need to scrap half of them.

Those are original 12V lights yes. I really like how flexible the 12V system is.

  On 12/31/2024 at 12:59 PM, Sebeus I said:

I know the feeling, I have too many ideas laying around as well. I'll probably need to scrap half of them.

Those are original 12V lights yes. I really like how flexible the 12V system is.

It's great to hear you used the 12V lights. Shows what can be accomplished with original parts. I managed to snag this lot for roughly €70 2 months ago, still haven't done anything with it but it's a nice start!

 

Edited December 31, 2024Dec 31 by -DoNe-

  On 12/31/2024 at 4:06 PM, -DoNe- said:

It's great to hear you used the 12V lights. Shows what can be accomplished with original parts. I managed to snag this lot for roughly €70 2 months ago, still haven't done anything with it but it's a nice start!

 

 That is a very nice start indeed, that red train motor seems to be quite a rarity, nice haul!