My 7740 Restoration

[Heppeng]

I could not have a 12V railway without the iconic 7740, but as per my usual ethos, I wanted to spend as little as possible, and I enjoy a restoration job so I have ended up with this for a tad over £80:

The £80 also included all track, minifigs except the chef, and the station which had the platform top replaced with dark bley plates - which is a bonus as they match my modern platforms which need extending! The red roof tiles are just enough to finish the roof off on a Pizza Hut MOC. The motor works too, as does one of the 12V light bricks which is a blessing as they were advertised untested. The interior of the coaches is a bit barren, missing all the seats, but luckily all the missing pieces generally are the cheaper ones. Those that I do not have in stock - which is most of them - can be had from bricklink at just over a tenner.

Of course at the same time I had to bricklink a 7815 and 7819 to go with it so maybe not so cheap after all, but I love it!

Edited October 20, 2013 by Heppeng

[LEGO Train 12 Volts]

What a beautiful train ...I love the 7740!

[Heppeng]

Yes, that is pretty much what I am aiming for! BTW, I believe the reason the restaurant car has the pantograph is to power the cookers/ovens/on board supplies etc. I notice that you moved it to the mail wagon where in real life there would not be much call for additional power? Mind you all is possible in lego!

[Heppeng]

The first orders from bricklink/ebay have arrived, and this is the result!

All the doors are now the right colour, the roofs are much more grey, the loco has tyres, and a start is made on the 7815.

[Heppeng]

The next tranche of bricklink orders have arrived and this is the result:

The 7740 is almost complete just waiting on windscreen, black 2x6 plates and a couple of other little bits. And the addition of seats now means that I can fill it full of passengers! Still a bit more required for the 7815, and the 7819 is just a small pile of bricks, but there is one big order yet to arrive which will hopefully contain enough to complete everything.

[ronenson]

Fun project. I might wanna do this in the future as well. When I was a little boy, I could drool over the 7740 from the 7777 train book.

I have that book, but never had the 7740. Good to see it come to life in your project.

[Andromeda]

Yes the 7740 was very much coveted by boys of the time, and I dare say quite a few adults too. I have seen these for sale and they are still very popular today.

I was never fortunate enough to own one when I was a boy, but I do own one now! I managed to scoop it up for £102 from fleabay with track and transformer - which still had it's 13VAC cover in place.

I imagine a set of repro sticker from JopieK's ministickers.nlwill be in order to finish this fantastic train. You will also be able to get repro stickers to make the 7815/9 sets to go with this, the stickers are very good. He's got a new printer and when I visited a few days ago they were rebuilding their shop.

[LEGO Train 12 Volts]

BTW, I believe the reason the restaurant car has the pantograph is to power the cookers/ovens/on board supplies etc. I notice that you moved it to the mail wagon where in real life there would not be much call for additional power?

This is a good point of view ...I've moved the pantograph at the end, on the mail car only for an aesthetic reason

[alainneke]

This is a good point of view ...I've moved the pantograph at the end, on the mail car only for an aesthetic reason

Nah, your mail car is probably equipped with some fancy mail-sorting-machine which needs a lot of power :)

Very nice to see this beautiful train come to life! For the stickers, I would also recommend those made by JopieK

[dartmar]

I love what you are doing to restore this train. I own one and I am still looking for the 7815 passengers/sleeper carriage to make it complete.

But keep up the good work restoring old vintage sets I remember all too well.

[Merkurius]

Great work with the 7740! After 32 years of drooling, I finally got it a couple of weeks ago. Funny enough, I haven't tried it yet:-)

I needed some of the stickers and got them from JopieK and they were brilliant, but the SPEISEWAGEN sticker was nearly twice the original size.

And now I just got the thread were Andromeda shows how to fix the signal switch. Life is grand!

Edited November 10, 2013 by Merkurius

[JopieK]

That is not good! I will have a look at it and will change it (I have 7740 in bricks with originals), better also mail me about it! Must have been a conversion problem from the old to our new machine (I needed to convert all old stickers...)

[Merkurius]

Oh, Sorry, it wasn't meant as a complaint! I fixed it and now both my 7740 and 7750 looks great! Thankyou!

[JopieK]

No but I want to always make it as good as possible of course!!! :)

[Heppeng]

Well hopefully it will be the right size on my order!

My own hopefully constructive suggestion would be to have all the stickers for one set on one, or perhaps two sticker sheets if they will not all fit on one. Currently it would seem that to get all the stickers for 7740 I need to buy four different sticker sheets, which also include stickers for 7760, 7819 and others. Not a problem for me as I happen to be building those models and need them anyway, but for someone only building a 7740, or a 7760 they end up having to buy a lot of stickers from other sets which they don't need just because they share the same sticker sheet.

Unfortunately as I have had no bricklink orders for this project arrive this week there are no changes to update you all with, hopefully more will be done next weekend!

[JopieK]

I have corrected it :) (I think the postal service already has had them for some days Heppeng). I just printed a correction sheet, so if you want I can also send that :)

About the size of the sheets, it is the difficult thing that there are so many logo's / numbers / differences. So in the end it will be much cheaper to sell it like this, we otherwise need to charge for a whole bunch of stickers one does not need:

If you only get the numbers and e.g. DB then you still have some left for another train, but won't have a bunch of different logos that you can't use. (and there are original sheets that are much much worse!)

[LEGO Train 12 Volts]

Nah, your mail car is probably equipped with some fancy mail-sorting-machine which needs a lot of power :)

lol

[Heppeng]

I have corrected it :) (I think the postal service already has had them for some days Heppeng). I just printed a correction sheet, so if you want I can also send that :)

About the size of the sheets, it is the difficult thing that there are so many logo's / numbers / differences. So in the end it will be much cheaper to sell it like this, we otherwise need to charge for a whole bunch of stickers one does not need:

If you only get the numbers and e.g. DB then you still have some left for another train, but won't have a bunch of different logos that you can't use. (and there are original sheets that are much much worse!)

I think you are right about keeping the logos and numbers separate, as I expect people would only want one style. I also think I may have twigged the reason for some of the other groupings like this one:

Is it because all these stickers need an opaque white background and therefore cannot be printed with the others that require transparent?

Would it be possible to replace the knifes/forks and Shell logos (which I think you do on other sheets as well) with two extra envelopes so that you could get all 4 required for 7819 on one sheet?

[JopieK]

Indeed, I group the stickers on a background color, but it is a good solution to put more Post logos on it! Maybe a separate sheet for all train + shell related items.

[Heppeng]

The last orders have arrived, and it is now complete apart from stickers:

Now, do I go through my bricklink orders to find out exactly how much this lot set me back in total or is that a stone better left unturned? Oh and maybe time to edit my signature!

Edited November 17, 2013 by Heppeng

[Heppeng]

First run last night - the coaches were dragging somewhat at first, to the point where the loco was occasionally pulling the magnetic coupling apart. So to reduce the friction, as well as the strain on the motor, a small amount of plastic friendly light oil was added to the pin on both sides of each carriage wheel, and what a difference it made - the complete train hurtles round the railway like new! I am always careful to use only a little oil - the smallest drop will suffice, as on a toy that relies on friction to hold it together getting it in the wrong place is unlikely to be helpful...

In case you are wondering this is what I use:

http://www.gaugemast...?code=GM619&r=1

You should be able to get this or similar from any good model shop or online.

Also, my curiosity got the better of me regarding pantographs on restaurant cars, as we never had them in the UK, so I looked it up. It seems to be something more common on DB trains, although other European trains do feauture them. Their purpose seems to be to allow the electric cookers to function whilst the train is stationary. Whilst in motion there are generators driven by the axles which provide power, or they may take power from the locomotive, I guess it varies according to the design. It means that for example, dinner can be cooked prior to the journey starting whilst the train is waiting for a locomotive to be attached, so that dinner can be served as soon as passengers join the train. It also means that when under way the pantograph is locked down as it is only designed to be used when the train is stationary and could damage the wires if left up whilst the train is in motion.

In the UK we just cooked on gas - BR must have had a good contract with calor for the supply of cylinders!

Edited November 19, 2013 by Heppeng

[LEGO Train 12 Volts]

The last orders have arrived, and it is now complete apart from stickers:

Now, do I go through my bricklink orders to find out exactly how much this lot set me back in total or is that a stone better left unturned? Oh and maybe time to edit my signature!

Wonderful! :wub: :wub:

[sube82]

7740 ist one of the best train Lego ever produced....

[LEGO Train 12 Volts]

I agree!

[Er!k]

Nice project!