2010 Train Sets

[3D LEGO]

Schöne Gruß Holger,

I have a little question regarding the new motor: Does it allow you to do a triple axle arrangement? If so, then this will be a day of rejoicing for AFOL's everywhere! If it is true, then that means all those fabulous BR 103 E-locs could finally get the triple axle trucks they deserve.

[Melfice]

Schöne Gruß Holger,

I have a little question regarding the new motor: Does it allow you to do a triple axle arrangement? If so, then this will be a day of rejoicing for AFOL's everywhere! If it is true, then that means all those fabulous BR 103 E-locs could finally get the triple axle trucks they deserve.

It does look like there's an extra axle-hole between the powered ones, so it should be possible.

I wouldn't know if it'll actually take corners, though, considering the wheels. I have no experience with running trains or cars with a triple axle arrangement.

[HoMa]

Schöne Gruß Holger,

I have a little question regarding the new motor: Does it allow you to do a triple axle arrangement? If so, then this will be a day of rejoicing for AFOL's everywhere! If it is true, then that means all those fabulous BR 103 E-locs could finally get the triple axle trucks they deserve.

Hi,

The hole in the middle is the same as in #8866. The shorter end of a 3/4 Technic pin will fit into this whole, but it will be very loose. There is no room for a full 6 long axle to go through the motor. But I don't know any train wheel which will fit on the longer end of the 3/4 pin?

You could put anything with one stud in the hole, but the connection is not very tight.

Tschüß

Holger

[broomhandle]

does anybody know when these are released? and in the USA?

[lightningtiger]

does anybody know when these are released? and in the USA?

All I know is Europe mid-June and Australia mid-August (hope Kmart or someone has it for mid-year toy sale as a short term exclusive - wishful thinking eh ?)

I'm a conformist! !

[Melfice]

If I get the passenger train, I know the first thing I'm doing is rearranging the seating arrangement.

That's all fine for a first-class car or perhaps even a second-class as you'd find in an InterCity train, but horribly inefficient for a second-class car on a commuter train. :P

Though... I'm very much drawn to the cargo train too. Choices, choices. >__<

[MojoLego]

All I know is Europe mid-June...

Amazon.fr already has 7936 through 7939 listed. Brickset already received its copy of 7939 and built it: http://www.flickr.com/photos/hmillington/s...57623887501399/

[broomhandle]

Amazon.fr already has 7936 through 7939 listed. Brickset already received its copy of 7939 and built it: http://www.flickr.com/photos/hmillington/s...57623887501399/

The US gets the shaft for Lego trains. I hope they come over here. The RC trains were here and gone in a flash, and kinda hung around at the lego store. i would imagine the trains would come out with the other city summer sets.

[MojoLego]

For those readers not trolling the Town forum, there has been a discussion regarding whether the new light rail set (4808 Public Transport) has train wheels or not.

4808 at Brickset:

http://www.brickset.com/news/article/?ID=649

Brick built example of how the light rail may indeed have train wheels:

http://www.eurobricks.com/forum/index.php?...st&p=735873

[hoeij]

You mean to say that AAA batteries will produce the same performance as AA batteries, AAA's can not supply the same amount of current than AA batteries. So torque might not be as good with heavy rolling stock, higher the current - stronger the magnetic strength inside the motor, better the torque - if my studys at school of electronics 25 years proves me right.

I&#39;m a conformist&#33; everyone.

300mA is already a fairly heavy load for the 9V train motors, that's enough to pull a 5 feet

long train.

AAA batteries can produce 5 times as much. So the limits in pulling

power don't come from the batteries, the limits come from the traction

and/or the motors.

Of course, the smaller the batteries are, the sooner they'll run empty, that's clear. But 6 AAA batteries

can produce the amps needed to pull a long train.

[lightningtiger]

300mA is already a fairly heavy load for the 9V train motors, that's enough to pull a 5 feet

long train.

AAA batteries can produce 5 times as much. So the limits in pulling

power don't come from the batteries, the limits come from the traction

and/or the motors.

Of course, the smaller the batteries are, the sooner they'll run empty, that's clear. But 6 AAA batteries

can produce the amps needed to pull a long train.

But the Ah (Ampere hours) is much smaller, just ask any auto electrican about CC Amps for car batteries higher the better.

These cells are of course connected in series only the get the voltage up to 6 Volt so the big question is what is the current draw of said train motor and if you add lights how the impacts of battery (cell) life - remember as the cells start to lose the ability to produce enough potential or emf the motor will suffer and lights will dim I think a 25% drop in voltage results in a 50% drop in preformance.

Those heavily into trains I think would swap the AAA pack for a rechargable one.

I&#39;m a conformist&#33; everyone !

Edited May 17, 2010 by lightningtiger

[Brickthus]

But the Ah (Ampere hours) is much smaller, just ask any auto electrican about CC Amps for car batteries higher the better.

These cells are of course connected in series only the get the voltage up to 6 Volt so the big question is what is the current draw of said train motor and if you add lights how the impacts of battery (cell) life - remember as the cells start to lose the ability to produce enough potential or emf the motor will suffer and lights will dim I think a 25% drop in voltage results in a 50% drop in preformance.

Those heavily into trains I think would swap the AAA pack for a rechargable one.

I&#39;m a conformist&#33; everyone !

The AAA battery box is better for occasional running at home. The LiPo battery is better for shows, with intensive use and repeated recharging.

Neither will last long on a single charge. The LiPo battery takes a while to charge so you would need 2 or 3 LiPo batteries for a set of however-many trains running one-at-a-time in the same direction at a show, in order to always have a fresh LiPo battery ready to put in the next train (assuming it takes about twice as long to charge as it does to discharge). Therefore my advice is to build trains so that the battery box is easy to remove and swap. Having said that, the charge current is about 700mA so if your trains need only one train motor each and no lights, two LiPo batteries might be enough. Some of my trains have up to 4 train motors, 2 auxiliary motors and lights; the peak current draw is 1300mA, too much for one LiPo battery as they are limited to 800mA.

Yes, adding lights and auxiliary motors will shorten battery life. After a point in the discharge cycle the battery can no longer hold its voltage, and so the train will slow down. The point of flatness is 1.35 volts per cell for Duracells, giving 8.1V for a 9V battery box. This is still more than the 7.4V of the LiPo battery but even at 8.1V a set of AAAs or AAs could not provide the current because the charge is not there.

A 25% drop in voltage would mean 9/16 of the power to a resistive load because power is VxV/R (3/4 x 3/4 divided by a constant). Remember that a motor is an inductive load so the equation is more complicated than that, depending on out-of-phase voltage and current with integrals: V = L x di/dt. Whilst DC motors respond to voltage, the equation also depends on motor back-EMF, which rises as load falls (for a resistive load V - E = I x R). The initial limit of performance as battery voltage decreases is more on the peak acceleration and in overcoming drag than in top speed, as long as the load on the straight is low enough (no wagons are still in a corner so drag is low). Motor speed will decrease more easily at times of greatest load.

Presumably the 5ft long train is 6-wide, composed of standard sized vehicles? Mine are 8+ wide, with some vehicles around 64-80M long. 3 such vehicles is as much as 2 9V train motors can pull.

Mark

[Piranha]

Checked the price of Duracell AAA Rechargeable today and it wasn't pleasing

$20 for charger

$15 for set of 4 AAA Rechargeable Batteries

You need 9 to run the trains so that is $65 total

For $10 more I can just buy the official rechargeable battery box from LEGO for $50 and the wall charger for $25

Worth the initial investment looks like.

[lightningtiger]

The AAA battery box is better for occasional running at home. The LiPo battery is better for shows, with intensive use and repeated recharging.

Neither will last long on a single charge. The LiPo battery takes a while to charge so you would need 2 or 3 LiPo batteries for a set of however-many trains running one-at-a-time in the same direction at a show, in order to always have a fresh LiPo battery ready to put in the next train (assuming it takes about twice as long to charge as it does to discharge). Therefore my advice is to build trains so that the battery box is easy to remove and swap. Having said that, the charge current is about 700mA so if your trains need only one train motor each and no lights, two LiPo batteries might be enough. Some of my trains have up to 4 train motors, 2 auxiliary motors and lights; the peak current draw is 1300mA, too much for one LiPo battery as they are limited to 800mA.

Yes, adding lights and auxiliary motors will shorten battery life. After a point in the discharge cycle the battery can no longer hold its voltage, and so the train will slow down. The point of flatness is 1.35 volts per cell for Duracells, giving 8.1V for a 9V battery box. This is still more than the 7.4V of the LiPo battery but even at 8.1V a set of AAAs or AAs could not provide the current because the charge is not there.

A 25% drop in voltage would mean 9/16 of the power to a resistive load because power is VxV/R (3/4 x 3/4 divided by a constant). Remember that a motor is an inductive load so the equation is more complicated than that, depending on out-of-phase voltage and current with integrals: V = L x di/dt. Whilst DC motors respond to voltage, the equation also depends on motor back-EMF, which rises as load falls (for a resistive load V - E = I x R). The initial limit of performance as battery voltage decreases is more on the peak acceleration and in overcoming drag than in top speed, as long as the load on the straight is low enough (no wagons are still in a corner so drag is low). Motor speed will decrease more easily at times of greatest load.

Presumably the 5ft long train is 6-wide, composed of standard sized vehicles? Mine are 8+ wide, with some vehicles around 64-80M long. 3 such vehicles is as much as 2 9V train motors can pull.

Mark

Oh, dear I was out by just under 6% - I was using information from Hella auto electrical from years ago, light globes and dc motors are non-ohmic devices so Ohm's Law is very hard to apply as a constant source of data. Anyone who has studied Physics knows that inductance opposes any change in current by the use of back-EMF (to use the Yank term) hence the use in the past as regulators in old radios and current control in fluro lights. The amount of said back-EMF I doubt anyone could measure even with 40MegOhm impedance multimeter on mV scale, so it would have no bearing at all in this case, higher voltages and currents - well then it would matter.

Past motors have actually been also used as CD player spindle and sled motors, neither type of appication has great torque involved, though I think these motors were for Technic projects not trains.

The new trains use a whole new motor, so I guess a trial could be undertaken to see what it's limits are ?

I&#39;m a conformist&#33; !

[hoeij]

Presumably the 5ft long train is 6-wide, composed of standard sized vehicles? Mine are 8+ wide, with some vehicles around 64-80M long. 3 such vehicles is as much as 2 9V train motors can pull.

Mark

In essence, the length of the train is not a good measure for the load on the motor(s). The load on the motor(s)

is roughly proportional to the weight of the train (if the wheel holders are good, more on that later).

A 6-car long 4511 (front engine, 4 middle cars, and back engine) is exactly 5 feet (note: this train looks

much better moving than standing still). This train is a fairly reasonable load for a 9V motor, I estimate

that the average load is well below 300mA, though I admit that I have not measured that for this train.

A 4-car Santa Fe train (one engine plus 3 cars) is quite a bit shorter, but it is a heavier load for the

motor because the cars weigh much more.

I bought most of my trains used because I started only a few years ago, and I've noticed that the heavier

trains like Santa Fe all had wheel sets that had a lot of friction. Page 51 in railbricks_2.pdf explains why

this is so, you have to make cuts to the wheel holder, if you don't, then after a while, the wheels do not

quite fit anymore and start rubbing against the wheel holder, and this happens sooner on the heavier

train cars. Before I made the cuts described on page 51, this 4-car Santa Fe was a very heavy load

for one 9V motor, but with the cuts, the load on the motor is cut in half (which means that the

motor will last *much* longer. The reason I started looking into this is when one of my motors died).

With the treatment, it seems to me that the load is pretty much proportional to the weight (the length, the

number of wheels, the number of cars, etc, does not seem to matter much). Without the treatment,

the load on the motors can be very much higher, and just keeps going up the longer you run the

untreated wheel sets.

Some of the 8 wide trains I've seen on the internet are really awesome, but this comes at a great

price: If I build even one of them and bring it to the train show, then all my 6 wide trains will no longer

look proportional, they'd all have to be made 8 wide. Or, one would need a separate display for the 6

wide, and one for the 8 wide (I'm doing a lego layout at our local train show all by myself, so that's

not doable).

The AAA battery box is better for occasional running at home. The LiPo battery is better for shows, with intensive use and repeated recharging.

By the way, although I'll bring the charger to the train show, I think that the rechargeable battery 8878 will hold up for the

whole day because no train in the layout will be always running, and no train will always stand still. The show is about 6

hours, and the battery lasts about 3 hours, so the Emerald Night can run half of the time, or maybe a little bit less because

it is pulling an 8 feet train.

[tulatin]

7938 Really looks like Airport Monorail 2.0, but I'm deeply disappointed by the lack of even simple "stations" with it. I know Lego wants to keep costs down and sell additional sets, but it could have been...

[GRogall]

We now have all HR images of the 2010 Lego train sets!

Warning pictures can be +2500 pxl.

Lego 7936 Level Crossing

Picture 1

Picture 2

Picture 3

Lego 7937 Train Station

Picture 1

Picture 2

Picture 3

Lego 7938 Passenger Train

Picture 1

Picture 2

Picture 3

Lego 7939 Cargo Train

Picture 1

Picture 2

Picture 3

Lego 7597 Western Train Chase (Toy Story 3)

Picture 1

Picture 2

Picture 3

Picture 4

Picture 5

Picture 6

Enjoy! :pir-wink:

Moderator please update first page!

Edited May 24, 2010 by grogall

[Iain]

I have just noticed that Toys R Us in the UK have all of the new train sets available to buy from their website

[Matt Dawson]

What I'm interested in is if the Toy Story set actually comes with coupling rods, as various photos have contradicted each other, even in the recent photos Grogall has recently posted (two posts above me^).

[MojoLego]

What I'm interested in is if the Toy Story set actually comes with coupling rods, as various photos have contradicted each other, even in the recent photos Grogall has recently posted (two posts above me^).

The directions for the set do not include coupling rods in the parts list, and none of the completed sets that I've seen on Flickr and Youtube have coupling rods. My suspicion is that Lego considered including them and had them in their early marketing photographs, but at some point they scrubbed them from the set. Perhaps the toy train in the movie doesn't have them. Or perhaps it was causing too much friction and trouble in a set meant for children.

Rob

[lightningtiger]

I can not see why coupling rods won't work - it's just some tech pins and tech plate (thin lift arm) right ?

Just posted in Aussie Sales - that the TS3 train has hit the shelves today at one of my local Kmarts.

I&#39;m a conformist&#33; !

[ZueriHB]

I got a release date for Switzerland (may be used as a guideline for rest of Europe).

A Manor employee was friendly enough to show me the internal Lego catalogue, it stated September 2010 for the four City Train sets.

Can't wait. Stupid Amazon.fr does not ship to Switzerland.. ARGH!

[Itrain]

If it helps anyone I ordered and successfully received the 4 new train sets from Amazon.FR to the UK. Postage was EUR 10,16 and took 4 working days.

I know they are now available in the UK on line now at ToysRUS & also my local shop had (only) the Cargo train as of Monday this week.

Best Regards,

iTrain

[roamingstop]

I got a release date for Switzerland (may be used as a guideline for rest of Europe).

A Manor employee was friendly enough to show me the internal Lego catalogue, it stated September 2010 for the four City Train sets.

Can't wait. Stupid Amazon.fr does not ship to Switzerland.. ARGH!

Yeah... Manor... our friendly store also exclusively stocking Prince of Persia - at huge over the top rates. I also cannot understand why Amazon.fr wont ship here.. but never mind. I will wait until general availability and then use toppreise.ch. Its worth it!

[Matt Dawson]

I've just seen the prices for the Train sets @ TRU uk:

Level crpssing - £15

Passenger train - £100

Freight Train - £130

Station - £35

The sets themselves are very expensive. And I thought they were going to PF to make it cheaper?