Having a train table (at last) meant I could finally get out most of my stock and run it. I found out there was just enough internal space in the loop to try something I had been planning for a while - doubling the length of the yellow gantry crane that came in my very first train set (60052).

Here's a reminder what it looked like.

It's been in a few of my posts recently, but this is the first time I have actually focused on it as part of the lay out. Some time ago I bought more of the yellow support girders and the guide rails with the idea of extending the length. I actually bought one more girder than I needed, so closed the gaps between them slightly. I also chose to mount them on some old 32x32 stud road baseplates so that the crane went over the road as well. Road vehicles had somewhere more realistic to sit while waiting to be loaded up.

Here is the reverse view as if looking across the tracks with the road on the other side.

I mentioned in my review of the Heavy Haul train set that I already had one of the blue cranes from that set, although it had been repurposed slightly. The story starts with this fun vehicle that I bought on special offer in a supermarket, mainly because I saw the potential of the tracked base. It is part of the 'Volcano Explorers' line, but in this photo is drilling into a 'Pick a Brick' cup from the Lego Store.

Without the bright yellow jackhammer drill bit, the potential for a trackside vehicle is obvious.

First I did a 'proof of concept' test - would the blue crane cab fit on the back and would it look any good?

I thought the results were positive, so I went ahead and swapped out the off-lime green pieces that are a feature of the Volcano sets. I had to use a yellow roof piece as I didn't have a blue one, but I think it works.

I'm planning to use this crane in some kind of trackside loading facility, probably loading 'gravel' onto the grey minerals wagons I have built.

In the photos of the yellow gantry train in action there are two forklift trucks. The red one came from the 60052 Cargo Train set. The green one came from this set in the Lego Superheroes range, that I spotted for half price and asked my foster sister to buy me for my birthday. (I know this is cheeky, but she's one of the people who always asks me what I want so she would prefer me to tell her.)

In that photo you can see some unused Lexcorp stickers. I left them off the sides of the forklift because I wanted to use it on the lay out. I'm not a big fan of stickers generally, preferring printed pieces, but I admit it is handy when you can choose not to use them.

I didn't need the forklift to be weaponised, so removed the "flick missiles" from the side of the forklift. (They don't work anyway.) It's a perfectly acceptable model and I think it looks as good as the one that came in the train set.

On the pictures of the yellow crane you may have also seen the buffer stops. Lego don't include a buffer stop in any of their current sets so you have to build your own. Mine are very simple and could probably use a bit more design work. I've seen some very accurate looking ones on the web.

This was my first attempt, showing a built one and parts to build a second.

I took out the wide central post, sacrificing stability for something that looked a bit better.

I then realised that mounting the buffer stops on a piece of the 'flex track' would have it's advantages. The flex track isn't particularly good for much, except giving you an extra half a track length here and there on the lay out. Mounting the buffers on flex track added a little bit of length to the sidings (always a plus!), and meant the buffer stops could be moved and handled as a unit, mounted onto the track. This meant they were much less likely to dissolve into a handful of parts if I was trying to more them. I could also add the flex track piece to a curved piece to end a curving siding and it would look OK.

That's all for now. Thanks for reading my blog post.