MOD: Emerald Night Coal

[Rail Co]

Hey Guys! I am sure many of you have most likely already done this but I still wanted to share!

Ever since I got my Emerald Night I always thought the battery box looked so out of place. So i had tried flat tiles which didn't work. So I thought just to make is look like a rocky coal bed!

Coal for a more realistic look on the Emerald night by Railco1, on Flickr

There is a 4x4 plate at the back for easy removal to turn on the train with ease!

Side view of the tender by Railco1, on Flickr

The side view is a little odd (as the height is different), but I like it. Sorry for glare didn't have the best of lighting.

Hope you guys like it!

-RailCo

Edited August 17, 2014 by Rail Co

[LEGO Train 12 Volts]

Nice solution! ;-)

[garethjellis]

Like

[snowvictim]

Quite a good way to conceal the battery box. I'm gonna apply this to my EN, heading off to BrickLink after posting this.

[Redimus]

If I had EN, I'd probably raise the height of the tender by 1 brick all round (and maybe lengthen it slightly), which would make it easier to put coal in there without it brimming over the top (not very safe on a loco that would probably reach 70+mph on a regular basis).

Mind, I'd probably then breakdown and just redesign the undercarriage of the tender to take a 9v track powered motor, and be rid of the PF stuff altogether!

[snowvictim]

If I had EN, I'd probably raise the height of the tender by 1 brick all round (and maybe lengthen it slightly), which would make it easier to put coal in there without it brimming over the top (not very safe on a loco that would probably reach 70+mph on a regular basis).

Mind, I'd probably then breakdown and just redesign the undercarriage of the tender to take a 9v track powered motor, and be rid of the PF stuff altogether!

Everyone probably would, but the parts are a pain. Dark green is hard to come by in normal sets, which means you'd have to resort to BrickLink (maybe not worth the rebuild after all). I saw a guy build an EN from 2 EN sets. It had a long tender and the engine itself was longer.

Edited September 22, 2014 by snowvictim

[Redimus]

That's not so much of a problem for me seeing as my existing stock of Lego is rather old and chewed, so I tend to resort to BrickLink anyway! (If I didn't have LDD I'd build nothing good at all.)

[cgarison]

Mind, I'd probably then breakdown and just redesign the undercarriage of the tender to take a 9v track powered motor, and be rid of the PF stuff altogether!

If I had started building Lego trains about 6 years ago, there is no way on this earth that I would ever consider the engineering nightmare of shoving all that monstrously huge PF gear into a train for it to simply run around a track. I still think that Lego made a blunder when they dropped the 9 volt system. It is a shame that I waited too long before getting into trains.

[Redimus]

The track is a tad expensive, but if you're willing to take a hit and replace your track, the design headaches disappear (at least until you start mucking about with stand alone motors and gears) and the motor bogies curreently go for around £20-£25 on Bricklink and ebay, so it's actually still far cheaper to power your trains with 9v (once you have the track).

I only got into Lego trains at the beginning of the year, and I'm glad I realised 9v was the way really early on.

[cgarison]

The track is a tad expensive, but if you're willing to take a hit and replace your track, the design headaches disappear (at least until you start mucking about with stand alone motors and gears) and the motor bogies curreently go for around £20-£25 on Bricklink and ebay, so it's actually still far cheaper to power your trains with 9v (once you have the track).

The majority of train builders that I work with in Pennsylvania, USA are PF builders which is why I made the leap into that direction. It was not until I was working a layout a few weeks ago built with 9V track that I learned how nice it is. And the 9V motors do not have the circuitry in them that times out the train when they get hot like the PF motor.

[Redimus]

Odd, I could of sworn it was my first 9v loco that did that once... Eh, it could have been a PF loco, it's only ever happened once for me either way.

[ZeldaTheSwordsman]

Now that's thinking like a modeller XD. It's the perfect solution for this, looks loads better.

If I ever get Emerald Night I'm doing the same thing, provided I don't just convert her to 9-volt (Yay for having two different 9v motor bogies thanks to owning both the LEGO Express and the Railway Express, plus a bunch of track) and thus have to slap bricks together to put the coal on.

[peterab]

And the 9V motors do not have the circuitry in them that times out the train when they get hot like the PF motor.

The 9V motors have thermal cut outs also, in fact some 9V motors are very sensitive to heat and cut out too quickly. Older motors which have had a hard life tend to thermal cut out more often, possibly because they are less efficient and produce more heat.