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Jongudmund

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  1. Jongudmund
    I mentioned at the end of my previous post that I have acquired a table for my hobbies, including Lego. Actually, my wife found it being offered free to a good home on Facebook.
     

     
    In preparation for the table arriving I had a play around with the Lego train track I had in a box. I knew the basic loop measurements from a box was about 10cms less in either direction than the table measurements, so I laid it out.
     

     
    I quickly realised the size wouldn't allow for sidings outside the loop, so I began to experiment with a proper train set style inner sidings set up.
     

     
    I placed on the Octan oil holding tank to see how that would look.
     

     
    I could get a bit of extra space if I curved the siding, which would also help when I got round to building the unloading pipes.
     

     
    I changed the upper siding to add in an extra length as well.
     

     
    The table arrived!
     
    I put the basic track on it to double check it fitted. It did.
     

     
    My blue cargo train 60052 was the first train I ran on the loop. I also filled all the sidings with stock. I think the Octan wagons look really good next to the holding tank.
     

     

     
    The gantry crane is a double length version of the crane that came in the 60052 set. I extended it and mounted it on the road plates, which I think works very effectively.
     

     
    You can see the length in this picture
     

     
    It's also important to provide facilities for the workers! (This loo is from one of the construction workers sets in the City range)
     

     
    And a final shot of the container crane siding. Yes! That is a wagon I haven't told you about yet.
     

     
    As you can see in these photos there are a few new wagons and I have another surprise for you as well - the next blog post will be a rolling stock update. There is lots to include.
  2. Jongudmund
    I know this follows hard on the heels of a previous set review, but there were about six months between purchases. I'm not just running out and buying sets. This is the third set I've bought, having started the whole thing with the 60052 Cargo Train Set.
     
    (To address the obvious question, did I need another train set? Not really, but this set is disappearing from the shelves in most stores. It had a 20% discount and my lovely wife said she thought I deserved a reward for working hard on my MSc Dissertation when I got my results a few weeks ago.)
     
    I don't have the usual box pic to start, so I'm just going to get straight on with the build.
     
    First up, the loco. This is in red and comes with the usual Lego power functions control set up.
     

     
    The starting point is a grey 28 stud base, exactly as in the Passenger train set.
     

     
    I had some help from two little guys during the byuild
     

     

     

     

     
    The cab swings up to get the train driver in. This is yet another train with no working doors.
     

     
    And here is a shot of the engine on the lay out.
     

     
    The most exciting wagon in the set is the brown hopper wagon. I built this next.
     

     

     
    I felt the hopper had a prototypical feel. It looks like it could be used in a genuine industry. This may be why it is commanding a decent price on the aftermarket.
     
    The other wagons were incredibly basic, with most of the building being the "loads". First there was a helicopter transporter wagon, which had a bit of an underframe, but otherwise was mainly a rather basic helicopter in a bag.
     

     
    You can see how the wagon itself offered a very small technical challenge.
     

     
    I was actually quite disappointed with the helicopter. It looks very low-definition and blocky compared to most City sets. A friend described it as the kind of Lego set that would be a "giveaway" in a newspaper and that does about sum it up.
     
    The next wagon was even more basic. A 28 stud base and two bogie sets and a backhoe to go on top of it. The backhoe at least could serve some use as lineside ornamentation. It has a 70s JCB feel to it.
     

     

     
    Both the helicopter wagon and the backhoe wagon are likely to get upcycled into different wagons, a bit like the cattle wagons (now minerals wagons) and the blue wagon (now a car transporter) from 60052.
     
    The whole set suffers from 'mixed freight' syndrome as per the other Lego cargo set. I can understand Lego doing that as this is a toy marketed mainly at children, similar to Hornby starter sets. However I feel the contrast between the quality of the hopper wagon and the other wagons lets it down a bit.
     

     
    The other contents of the set were a long loop of track, a blue loading scoop crane and a small pedestrian crossing set. I'd already purchased and built a blue crane, so the new one is sat in its bags. I will build it at some point, especially as I have re-used the other one in a mash-up to create a mobile crane. The blue crane is a great build and looks very nice so that is definitely a point in favour of this set.
     
    The verdict
     
    Pros
    The red loco looks really nice. I think it looks a bit more UK prototype than the other cargo train.
    The hopper wagon is very nicely made and I can see why people would want to acquire more of them. (I do too!)
    The blue crane was a great build when I bought one from a re-seller. I'm looking forward to building another one.
    I really like the 'hard hat area' sign in the blue crane set. That's useful in an industrial railway setting.
    A useful source of parts for building other wagons.
    The JCB-esque backhoe could feature in a permanent way yard.
    A long loop of track and none of the 'flexible track' pieces.
    The track crossing signs could also be useful.
     
    Cons
    Two very simple wagons let the set down.
    The helicopter included as a wagon load is beyond basic. I can't really see a use for it anywhere on the lay out.
    No points (switches) in the set, so not much of a challenge operationally.
     
    So overall, the good aspects of the set outweigh the slightly disappointing bits. Having 20% off RRP made it more worthwhile in my opinion.
     
    What next?
    I need to build the blue crane. Originally I planned to use the blue crane in a scrapyard setting, but now I wonder if a permanent way yard would be better with ballast to load into hopper wagons. That may mean acquiring more hopper wagons...
  3. Jongudmund
    Back in October I took a trip to Toys R Us. A combination of money off, an additional voucher and a freebie Lego set if I spent over a certain amount saw me come home with a 60051 white passenger train set.
     

     
    (Geoffrey the Toys R Us mascot was the freebie.)
     
    In the box was a loop of track, the power functions kits and 7 bags of Lego parts.
     

     
    The train is built on three identical gray modified plates. They are 28 studs long and have holes in so they can be used with motors and the wires can get in and out.
     

     
    I started with the central coach. A flaw became apparent when building it, as there are no doors. How will the Lego minifigures get in?!?
     

     
    Also, with shocking disregard for passenger safety, nothing was done to cover up the holes in the floor. (Maybe that's how the minifigures get in!)
     

     
    But the finished coach looked OK, even if it was a bit short. It looks more like the length of a tram or street metro train.
     

     
    The roof comes off so you can put the passengers in.
     

     
    I then built the motorised engine and the dummy rear car. I either didn't take photos of the build in progress or I have lost the pictures. Still, here's a photo of the full train sitting on the current track set up.
     

     
    In the overhead shot you can see the pantographs. I'm not going to build Lego catenary.
     

     
    I don't have a passenger station. One is included in the set but it's laughably small and the ungated railway crossing looks very unsafe.
     

     
    The verdict
     
    Pros
     
    I got this set much reduced and it was a good size collection of parts.
    It's a cheap way to get the power functions motor and set up
    The train looks fairly sleek and modern
     
    Cons
    Not a very interesting build. A lot of the parts are the same and the build got repetitive.
    No doors and holes in the floor seem slightly careless design flaws.
    The moulded nose cones are tricky to fit and have limited alternative uses.
    Because of the moulded nose cones there are only four sets of buffers in the set, making it less of a resource for freelance building than other sets.
    The "station" is barely a halt. It looks more like a bus stop.
    The train is very light, meaning it flies off the corners way before it reaches top speed.
     
    So, overall, I'm glad I got the set but I'm glad I got it reduced and didn't pay anywhere near the original RRP. I was slightly disappointed in it.
     
    What next?
    I have seen people insert extra coaches into the train to make it longer, or even merge two coaches to make longer, more prototypical coaches. However the longer ones have extreme overhang on the tight Lego corners. I am more interested in freight trains, so plan to keep this just for a bit of variety and to run something different occasionally. When I get bored of wagons I might come back and modify it or build a station for it.
  4. Jongudmund
    I have put a load of posts up on here about this MOC car transporter wagon, but in the last couple of months I have been tweaking it and it's now quite a different animal. I have also ordered my first ever parts off Bricklink, a very useful Lego website. I'm quite pleased now with the finished (ha ha ha) result. This is a collection of 20 photos to show the end stages of the project. (I've put the photos on quite small. If you want to see a bigger version just message me.)
     
    First off, the top deck. This was based on the car transporter lorry I bought earlier this year and was too heavy with Lego plates under the ladders that were being used for ramps.
     

     
    I stripped all the plates back to produce a framework only top deck that looked a lot lighter, more prototypical and could still carry cars. It's a little bit flimsier but I just need to be careful.
     

     
    I then decided to work on the ramps.
     

     
    They looked blocky and didn't line up well.
     

     
    I also decided I didn't like the chassis. The long Technic beams with stud-holes worked but they lacked finesse. They also made the wagon taller than I felt it needed to be.
     

     
    I decided to experiment and see what I could come up with instead.
     

     
    I'd also been working on the loading dock that I mentioned a few posts ago. I used the office building from the crane I got in my original train set and mounted it next to the ramp. I really liked the barrier so kept it.
     

     
    I also added some buffer stops. (These have now changed.)
     

     
    On Bricklink I found some moulded ramps I never knew existed. I ordered four. When they arrived I realised they were huge and I would only need two. I also ordered a load of other bits that I thought might be helpful and/or fun.
     

     
    I tried the new ramps on 'outward'.
     

     
    That didn't work. I reversed them.
     

     
    The problem was the moulded angle in the ramp was too steep to drive a car over. I switched to some of the other pieces I'd ordered.
     

     
    These fitted and with a little tweak were the perfect height for the loading dock.
     

     
    Cars could be driven on quite easily now.
     

     
    Right up on to the top deck.
     

     
    I now had a new worry - clearances. I felt the buffers needed to be clear of the ramps. I extended them by inserting a 1x6 Technic beam into the bogie between the buffers and the wheels. This actually give the buffers a bit more depth.
     

     
    I made a few more orders from Bricklink. I had a number of different colours on the wagon. I'd changed the red connectors for yellow, but I still had some green hinges on the ramps. Those parts were available in yellow for pennies on Bricklink, so I swapped them out. I also ordered a control panel for the side, which the freight yard staff could use to raise the top deck. (The arrow is pointing at it.) Again this cost a few pence. I've seen it as a remote control for a small submersible in a deep sea diving set.
     

     
    I still wasn't happy though. The undercarriage now looked a bit odd and I didn't like the way the control panel extruded from the side of the wagon (you can't really see it in this pictures but it bugged me).
     
    Time for a change, and off came the undercarriage.
     

     
    I attached an angle bracket in the undercarriage cavity in such away that the control panel, wagonworks logo and pressure gauge now sit flush with the edge. They are also at a much more convenient height for the staff!
     

     
    I think this looks pretty good and I'm very happy with it.
     

     
    And that is it. I think this is pretty much unrecognisable from the original boring wagon I started with. At some point I may take some more photos of it being used to move some cars around. But I think it's time I moved on from this project and I'm sure you all agree.
  5. Jongudmund
    I said last time that the final version of the car transporter probably wasn't final because the ramps weren't right. So I went back to them. This was the starting point. (I put the transporter next to another wagon to compare the height.)
     

     
    But first I also needed two more cars to load onto the transporter. I mentioned this to my wife, Cathy, who went and had a rummage in the Lego boxes and dug out this fire chief's car that she had bought a while ago and not got round to building yet.
     

     
    It was ideal as it was the right width and looked the right length. As a general rule I tend to build things at least once the way it's meant to be. Then take it apart. I duly built it.
     

     
    You can see how by not putting on the stickers and taking the light off the roof it could easily pass as a regular car. However, there was a problem. It was a bit long.
     

     

     
    It was also too high. The transporter fits convertible cars. The roof had to go. Out came the bits boxes and I rebuilt the back end as well. I also gave it doors from the bits box.
     

     
    The tan bumpers were from the bits box. I dumped them and gave the car some killer exhausts as well.
     

     
    The other donor car was a Lego Friends animal ambulance that I had picked up super cheap in a supermarket a couple of months ago (mainly because it had a Lego hedgehog in).
     

     
    I quite like the Friends kits as they have a different colour palette to most other sets. I had thought when buying it that the bits might be useful. Now I was looking at those pale blue wheel arches thinking, yeah, that could work.
     

     
    I'm not quite sure what the rear assembly on the white car was meant to be, but I liked the look of it. The windscreen is the rear window from the fire chief's car.
     
    I tried all 4 cars on the transporter. They fitted and I was pleased with how it looked.
     

     
    However, the rear assembly on the white car meant it didn't fit on the lower deck, so I had to junk it. Probably for the best.
     

     
    I mentioned 'greebling' in my last post. I had some ideas for adding detail along the sides of the wagon using half-length Technic pins, grills and things. I also identified some new pieces to make the hinges.
     

     
    The 1x1 printed tile is a spare piece from a Nexo Knights set I got given as a birthday present and I thought it would make a nice 'maker's mark' for whichever wagon works made this. Unfortunately, the greebling interfered with the elevator rods preventing them from laying flat when the top deck was collapsed, so I had to scrap this idea. The 1x1 tile worked, though and you can see it in the photo below. Even better, the hinges worked, closing up the gap when the ramps were dropped. I had to mount them differently on either end, but the wagon is asymmetrical anyway, so that didn't matter.
     

     
    In this photo you can see there isn't much of a gap now for the cars to drive over to get off the ramps.
     

     
    So, I am finally happy with this. The ramps work. The top deck lays as flat as possible. I may go back to tinker with the white car at some point, or replace it if a cheap set with a 4-stud wide car comes available, but there is no rush for that.
     
    Thanks for reading these blog posts. I hope you enjoyed them. I have a couple more to come including news of a new addition to the rolling stock manifest.
  6. Jongudmund
    At the end of my previous blog post I said I had plans for the rather boring long wagon that came in the original cargo train set (60052).
     

     
    I was prompted to use it as a 'donor' base wagon for a car transporter project by this:
     

     
    It was on special reduction in my local Asda. I saw it one evening and had a think about whether I wanted to buy it, then went back the next day and bought it. I think it's good value as the car transporter alone usually cost between £20 and £30.
     
    The other two models came boxed within the box. I plan to keep them as gifts for some of the kids I know at some point in the future.
     

     
    It's very rare I buy a Lego model and don't build the model it's supposed to be at least once. I had a good reason to do it this time as I wanted to see if the car loading mechanism was transferable to a wagon. I skipped bag 1 as I wanted to get straight on with the truck.
     
    Bag 2 is a fairly straightforward, satisfying build of the truck cab.
     

     
    Bag 3 contained the truck ramps and the trailer.
     

     
    And then I went back to bag 1, to build the cars.
     

     
    In the parts photo you can see the moulded chassis for the cars. They are 12 studs long. This turned out to be an important detail. Also in bag 1 were the minifigures.
     

     
    I particularly liked the yuppie's slicked hair. The driver's clipboard is a sticker, not a printed piece. I've already made my thoughts clear in previous posts about how stickers are a disappointing substitute.
     
    When built, the cars looked pretty nice.
     

     
    There was even space included for the yuppie's briefcase.
     

     
    I tried them out on the transporter.
     

     
    But two problems quickly became apparent. Firstly, being 12 studs long the wheels lined up badly with the circular slopes on the floor of the transporter's lower level. This led to a chronic case of 'overhang'.
     

     
    Secondly, the ramps to drive the cars up onto the transporter were too short. Which led to an insurmountable grounding problem.
     

     
    I'm surprised by this because the engineering in Lego sets is usually much better. Most of the time they design the cars to fit the space for the cars to go, but equally if they knew they were using the 12 stud chassis piece, why didn't they work out where the wheels were going to be on the floor of the transporter? It was also annoying that you couldn't drop the truck's upper level when the trailer was attached. So you would have to load up the truck first, then attach the trailer and load that up. Fine, as long as you load the cars in reverse delivery order, but any change of schedule and that would be a real bind for our delivery driver.
     
    So, there were several learning points to take from this. Firstly, the build techniques and most of the parts looked transferable to a wagon. Secondly, I'd need to make sure the car wheels weren't positioned on the top of slippery circular slopes. Thirdly, I needed to find a way to bring the top levels down together.
     
    So the next thing to do was take the car transporter apart again ready to re-use the pieces...
  7. Jongudmund
    Well, I'm back after more than six months. When I started this blog last year I talked about the train set that kicked this off. I made a throwaway remark in that opening post about turning the cattle wagon that came in the set into a wagon for scrap 'metal' (actually Lego Technic and Bionicle bits). But I didn't have any pictures of it. I then moved on to blog about tanker wagons and didn't say anything more about the newly repurposed scrap wagon.
     
    So, this post is a bit late coming. Apologies!
     
    What's prompted it is *cough* an eBay purchase of another cow wagon. I'd been meaning to get one for a while and then one finally appeared on eBay for less than £10 and, anyway, what we have here is effectively a before and after shot of the new arrival complete with cow, and the converted scrap wagon.
     

     
    You can see there in the picture how unsuitable the wagon is for transporting livestock. For one thing any cow worth it's salt would be able to jump out of there.
     
    I like the Lego cow. It's quite a friendly looking beastie.
     

     
    She also comes with a farmer to look after her. Again, not exactly true to life as putting a person in a metal cage wagon with a cow for a train journey is likely to end poorly. It's a nice mini-figure, though, complete with neatly trimmed beard.
     

     
    The cow from my original set has been absorbed into my larger collection of Lego and this one is going to go the same way, along with her hay bales, her farmer friend and his red bucket. Actually I might keep the bucket for the goods shed area I'm planning. What I need to do now is sort out another scrap load a bit like this one.
     

     
    I'm planning on using the blue crane to load and unload scrap on one of the sidings. I do have a tub somewhere of other Bionicle bits and random Lego parts that would be suitable for an industrial scrap-pile. I will fish them out shortly.
     
    Meanwhile I have another project coming using one of the other wagons from the original set. It won't look like this for long!
     

  8. Jongudmund
    I said in yesterday's post that another tanker wagon was on its way from eBay. Well it arrived today (along with something else!) and so I had the chance to take some photos of the modding process.
     
    Here it is straight out of the packaging. For some reason, some people send them pre-built, which I think surely costs more than sending a packet of Lego pieces. As you can see from the picture, this had been built for a while and had gotten a little dusty.

     
    Fortunately, Lego is easy to clean. A quick dust with a dusting brush later and most of it was fine. However, the top red plates were very dirty, so I used a dab of Fairy Liquid and an old toothbrush to gently scrub them up all shiny.
     
    This wagon has a short, fixed wheelbase, unlike the longer wagons that have bogies. Here is a picture of the chassis and tank separated.

     
    I wanted to make this one look like my others, so I gathered the necessary parts from my trusty bits box. (You can also see how shiny the top pieces are now.)

     
    Ah, yes, the bits box. Every AFOL has to have one. I've actually got five like this. They cost £2.49 in Home Bargains and are worth every penny.

     
    Anyway, the bits went on (the grey 2x2 jumper tile went back into the bits box) and here it is modded and ready to roll.

     
    This gives me a nice rake of three wagons. The new one is the middle of the three - you can tell because the Octan logo sticker and the stripe sticker are placed in a slightly higher position.

     
    I'm OK with this asymmetry as in real life wagons differ slightly depending when and where liveries are applied (which is the case here). This also illustrates a downside of buying from eBay - someone else has stuck the stickers on. Also, because it has been out on display, the stickers have started to peel slightly. If they hadn't been fragile I might have risked peeling them off and re-sticking them, but I didn't want to damage them. I have peeled and re-stuck the logo and stripe on one of the other wagons I bought, but it is a nerve-wracking process. Of course Lego could avoid all this hassle for builders by printing the pieces (grumble, grumble).
     
    In case you are wondering about couplings, Lego have used magnets to link rolling stock together since they began doing trains. (I think. I'll check that, but I'm pretty sure they have.) They used to have little magnets that clicked into clips. Now they have all in one magnetic units that attach very firmly. They also have a stud on the top so if you wanted to create fixed rakes it would be very easy to reinforce the linkages with 2x1 plates or tiles to lock the magnets together. Here's a top-down pic to show what I mean.

     
    So that's the new addition to the fleet. I'm happy with it, despite the dust and the slightly peeling stickers. However it was one of two packages to arrive off eBay today. Here is the other one, but you are going to have to wait to find out what was inside.

  9. Jongudmund
    As mentioned in the first post on this blog, I was underwhelmed by the wagons in set 60052. However, the previous cargo train set (set number 7939) had a tanker wagon in it that I had seen and thought was rather nice. Lego wagons crop up all the time on eBay, so, knowing that the cargo train set was coming I successfully bid on two auctions.
     
    Here is the wagon, virtually as shipped in the 7939 set.

     
    You can just about see from that picture that there are horizontal clips holding the side ladder in place at the bottom. These are additions, but the rest of it is built as it should be.
     
    Octan is the Lego world's fuel company. They have an attractive corporate colour scheme: white, red and green. Over the years, Octan road tankers have appeared regularly, as have smaller trucks, and even Octan-sponsored racing teams.
     
    I felt it was a bit plain and didn't like the free-flying ladders, so added the clips from my Lego bits box. I also added domes to the top under the filling caps and coloured discs to the plain wagon ends. The discs are visible in these pictures, which includes the first trundle around the track for the loco. As the wagons arrived before my birthday they were already built and waiting to be used.


     
    However, I wasn't one hundred per cent happy with the modifications. Then I popped into my local Lego Shop and noticed they had green horizontal clips in the 'pick and mix' section. (I love the pick and mix section and have to fight the urge to fill a pot full of Lego pieces.) Realising these would be perfect clips for the tankers as they were 'Octan' green, I bought several.

     
    This sequence of photos illustrates the issue with the tankers as supplied by Lego. Firstly there is no clip to hold the side ladder in place.

     
    This means the ladders could swing up and down all crazy like.

     
    It looks much better clipped. The hinge bracket at the top is green so the new green clips look great for the part.

     
    In the above photo you can see my attempt to add some control / warning pressure dials to the wagon chassis. I bought these in the pick and mix too, but I didn't feel it really worked mounted there. I tried mounting it on a direction-change plate instead, but didn't like how it overhung the axle box.

     
    So I gave up with the dials for now. In the pick and mix I'd also bought a load of white slatted 2x1 tiles. (2x1 refers to 2 Lego studs long by 1 stud wide - a tile is a thin piece of Lego with a smooth surface, as opposed to a plate that has studs on the top.) My wife refers to these as 'bathmats' and I thought they would be a useful addition to the top of the wagon to prevent Lego crewmen from slipping over.

     
    I bought a decent amount of grills, so I also had enough to replace the round discs on the end of the wagon. These might not look prototypical, but they look a lot better than just four bare studs.

     
    So, those are the two tankers in the freight fleet. I am happy with how they look and am planning on adding to their number to create a short 'rake'. In fact, one is on its way from eBay as I type this. I'm not sure what the maximum number a loco could pull, but for now I am happy with two and will be even happier with three.
  10. Jongudmund
    This blog is about my Lego trains. Just a disclaimer, I am what's known as an AFOL (Adult Fan of Lego) and I do buy more of the stuff than most grown ups who actually have children to buy it for. Lego is a versatile building tool and crazily well-engineered. We have a Lego Shop in Cardiff and the stuff in there is amazing.
     
    I have a 9v train-set that was produced back in the 90s. This runs in a similar way to classic model railways - power goes through a transformer and is picked up from the track by the engine. It's a nice set - a passenger train with space for cars to drive onto it. However, this type of Lego set has been superseded by radio control, battery powered locos.
     
    I've written about the City Cargo Train (60052) on my other blog, but I thought it might be worth putting some more thoughts out there, so here is a brand new blog.
     
    This is the set.

     
    You can see from the picture what you get in there - a freight loco of a vaguely European design, but which could also pass as American outline. (These sets are sold worldwide so they have to be fairly generic.) Three wagons, of which the cable drum wagon is both the most useful and prototypical. An overhead crane, which is a decent unit to be fair. And an oval of track and two points so you can make a little passing loop.
     
    This is what you get inside the box.

     
    The build was great fun. The loco was probably my favourite part of the build and the finished item is really nice.



     
    The rest of the build was also fun, but I quickly decided to alter the 'cattle wagon' (which was open and entirely unsuitable for transporting livestock) into a 'scrap metal' wagon. The scrap was actually a load of other Lego parts, mainly from Technic and Bionicle ranges, that I have acquired in collections of second hand Lego. I have plans for a small scrapyard - more will be revealed later. (As a bonus I now have a spare Lego cow.)
     
    Here are some photos of the train set in action.


     
    Observant readers may note additional wagons in that last photo. More on them in a future post...
     
    So, in conclusion, what was good or not so good about this set?
     
    Good points
    Really nice loco - nice to build and looks the business trundling round the track.
    A decent radio control unit, which allows for excellent slow running.
    The crane is a well-designed piece of equipment and looks suitably industrial.
    Decent amount of track and two points.
    You do get a lot of Lego in the set and the various bits are packaged individually and have their own instruction booklets. I built it over a few evenings to spread out the fun.
    You also get a little truck to load stuff on to and a forklift truck to build as well.

    Not so good points
    The price. The RRP on this is £140. I got it with a significant discount and used birthday money to buy it. But that kind of money puts it into the same price bracket as 'proper modelling'.
    The wagons were uninspired. The cable drum one was OK, but the cattle wagon was silly and the other wagon had space for a pallet, a wheelbarrow (why?) and the forklift truck. I'm not sure how the forklift was supposed to get off the train to unload the pallet. The train looked a little odd when running with the three wagons that came in the set.
    An over-reliance on stickers. Like most AFOLs, I much prefer printed pieces. However, most of the markings on the train and the crane were stickers. The yellow and black warning stripes were particularly fiddly.

  11. Jongudmund
    A short while ago I saw a Dapol advert in one of the modelling magazines for a new 2-wagon set of Black Park Colliery, which operated pits in Chirk and Ruabon. As my Dad was born in Ruabon (and likes wagons) I told him about it. On one of his trips to the Wrexham area he took a small detour to the Dapol shop to look at (and buy) the wagons. What I didn't expect was that he also bought me a set. To complete the coal train he also bought me a wagon Dapol have done from the Llay Hall colliery in Wrexham, Now this has particular family significance as it is the pit where my great uncle Ishmael worked as a collier, so when Dad saw it he bought one for both of us.
     

     
    The first thing I want to say is that Dapol has vastly improved the quality of its wagons. I have some from a few years ago and compared to Bachmann and Hornby they were distinctly third rate back then. Well, not any more. I was very impressed with the finish and detail on these. Coal wagons are fairly plain and can look really cheap (and the ones Dapol used to do did look very cheap), but these don't.
     
    They also come with coal loads, which manage to not look too plastic and fake. That's quite a hard thing to pull off.
     

     
    I'm not sure how these are going to fit on the DCC train set when it is built. As previously mentioned, the engines and rolling stock in the set are more suited to a Northern England lay-out. Realistically Northern England had plenty of its own collieries and I can't imagine they would have transported much coal up from North Wales. Sending coal to Newcastle is, after all, the classic idea of a waste of time.
     
    More in keeping with the North England theme is another wagon I have acquired recently - a Hornby Railroad "NE" box van. Here it is with the coal wagons.
     

     
    Now this wagon is very basic, but considering I bought it for just £4 brand new from a city centre toy shop, it's alright. The idea is to use it to practice weathering because at that price it doesn't matter if I make a mess of it. Of course, whether I ever get to weather it is another question. If When I build the train set, you'll probably see pictures of it rolling round still in it's shiny just out of the box state. But it's one for the project list.
  12. Jongudmund
    I've had a very strange and busy nine months since I last blogged here. Going back to Uni, health issues (I won't bore you) and a change of job, but I am working towards getting a DCC train set up and running. I'm just not sure how.
     
    I also got distracted by a birthday gift of a Lego train set. Being a fan of Lego, I already had a 9 volt train from about 15 years ago. This is one of the new radio controlled types. I've augmented the set a bit with two bonus tanker wagons and changing the cow in the open wire-frame wagon for a scrap metal load (actually Lego technic spars and Lego Bionicle bits). Anyone who complains about Peco or Hornby set track spacing should have a gander at Lego for a rigid system without any give.
     
    Here are some photos just for fun
     




     
    Lego is very easy to customise. Not sure about weathering, though.
  13. Jongudmund
    While looking through the components of the train set I realised there was a discrepancy between the outside box, which said it should have included some extra power clips, and the contents. There were no power clips.
     
    I emailed Hornby through their web contact form one evening and got an email back the next morning apologising and saying they would send the clips, which arrived a couple of days later. Reading some of the comments on RM Web, there seem to be plenty of people who knock Hornby, but I thought this was very good customer service from them. No quibbles, just sending the missing bits out.
     
    The leaflet that came with the train set mentions these little clips that pop into the points on the DCC trainset to keep everything live. As I've bought some bonus extension kits, I realised the other points didn't have the clips, so I went looking for them. I tried Hobbycraft initially as I thought they might have been in the clearance sale along with everything else, but they weren't. I then tried the ModelZone concession in WH Smiths as they seem to have everything else Hornby. But no clips. I stopped in the new Hamleys and looked in their Hornby area. Guess what, no clips. Then I tried the Ian Allan bookshop where the lady at least knew what I was talking about, but told me they "must have sold out." Finally, as I left the city centre I went into the Antics model shop, which has a bit of train stuff at the back. They had the clips! It was only the fifth shop I'd tried. Admittedly, I'd probably got them first go if I had gone to one of the dedicated model railway shops outside the city centre, but it seemed strange that some of these places that sell the DCC sets don't sell the bits you need to expand your layout and keep it DCC.
     
    Anyway - these are the bits in a poor resolution phone camera picture:

     
    A few posts back I listed the rolling stock you got in the set and said how annoying it was that you couldn't build up a rake of them. Well, there's a shop in the city centre that sells second hand railway stuff and imagine my surprise when I saw the four wagons from my DCC set sitting in one of their glass cabinets. I mulled over whether I wanted to get doubles of the wagons, and decided later that the plain box van would probably be a useful addition.
     
    The golden rule when you see something for sale second hand is to buy it and risk regretting it later. On this occasion I ignored the golden rule and the box van had been bought by someone else. However, I made up for it by buying a second Breedon and Cloud Hill open wagon. So, at least I've got two of those. Box vans are fairly generic anyway so I'm sure I can pick up some that look close enough.

     
    I don't really want them rolling around empty so I'm going to have to find out what a load of lime will look like and mock something up. If you can save me the effort of researching it, please leave a comment
  14. Jongudmund
    As I mentioned previously, the DCC train set came with a loop of track and a siding, which is the base oval and expansion pack A. I also bought three Hornby extension packs at less than half price - packs B, C and D.
     
    Together they give me two ovals of track and another siding, along with a level crossing to add some operational interest.
     
    I decided to lay out the track to get an idea of the size board I need for the layout. The following photo is how Hornby suggest you lay out the track.
     

     
    I don't really like the look of this as the crossing is next to all the pointwork, which seems unlikely in the real world. I know this is a 'roundy-roundy' trainset and there is a prototype for everything, so somewhere there is a level crossing butting right up to a crossover between two main lines and siding off, but I still felt it looked ugly. So I moved the point of the inner siding to the other side.
     

     
    I felt this arrangement of the siding worked better. I could imagine driving across the level crossing and past the buffer-stop on a siding. I'm not sure why, but that felt more authentic. However, there was still the crossover. At the moment I don't have any point motors, and initially I might be changing everything by hand, so it felt sensible to see if I could put all the points in close proximity. This version would also give a nice uninterrupted bit of straight track on the other side.
     

     
    The only issue is that the outer and inner sidings are opposite. So a train would need to change direction and propel wagons into one of them. There is also one way into the inner loop and no corresponding exit, so a train going in would have to change direction to get back out again. That's not a huge problem, but I could have an 'opposite junction' so trains could drive into the inner loop, circle it a few times and then drive back out. Unfortunately that would mean losing the sidings.
     

     
    But that really is just a roundy-roundy and I'd quite like something to shunt wagons into. Option 3 still feels like the best way to go. I was playing around in Microsoft Paint, and wondered about using the inner siding as an oil terminal. That would give me an excuse to build some industrial-looking buildings, shunt wagons in and then take them back out again. Tanker wagons are ideal for this as they look the same if they are full or empty. Plus I like tanker wagons - the older style, not TTAs. If the siding was private industry I could put a fence between the main lines and the siding, which would break it up even more and hopefully make it look less like a trainset. (Not that I'm trying to hide that - it's the name of the blog after all!)
     

     
    So, in this plan, lorries and cars would cross the level crossing to access the depot one way, and I'd put a bridge across the lines as well. I'd fill the rest of the space with industrial buildings and put a retaining wall the far side of the bridge to imply a higher elevation, as if the railway went through an urban cutting there. Again, this is about masking the curves a bit and reducing the trainset feel ever so slightly.
     
    I'd welcome comments. If you think these trackplans are rubbish, please help me find a better one!
  15. Jongudmund
    I've read quite a bit about DCC and despite lots of reassurances from RM Webbers saying that DCC isn't complicated, it always felt like it would be difficult. This isn't a criticism of any individual RM Webber, but one problem is there are often conflicting views and from a non-expert position there's no arbiter to help you work out who is right. And the likelihood is, in their way, everyone is right, depending on their circumstances.
     
    I read the Hornby booklet that came with the train set and it seemed very simple indeed. Hornby try to make their train sets to 'plug in and play', so I assume you can just do that. However, I still felt a little short on the knowledge department.
     
    A quick trip to the Ian Allan Bookshop later and I bought this useful publication from Railway Modeller, for the princely sum of 75p!
     

     
    I have found it very helpful in demystifying DCC. I did look at some of the larger books. There were two in there, and they are probably more suited to modellers further on than me. But at some point I will probably seriously consider buying them.
     
    As a new starter in DCC, I'd recommend this booklet to anyone else thinking of getting into it. As I said in my first blog post, I have jumped into this. I have no regrets, but I think it would have been useful to have read this book first so I had more of an idea exactly what I am getting myself into.
  16. Jongudmund
    I have wanted to try DCC for a while. I have also wanted to build a 'roundy-roundy' layout, so I can run trains for fun. My first effort at building a lay-out faltered pretty fast. Looking back I think I needed to go through the 'learner steps' of having a train set first.
     
    A visit to my local Hobbycraft during their clearance sale ended up with me buying Hornby Mixed Freight Digital Train Set for less than half price. The set comes with a Hornby Select controller, two 0-6-0 locos, four wagons an oval of track and a siding. I also bought some Hornby expansion packs, enough to create a double loop. These were also less than half price.
     
    I'm going to use this blog to explore building a 'train set' lay out, while learning how to use DCC at a very basic level.
     

     
    Why a blog?
    I did post the question on RM Web about whether to do a blog or to start a layout topic. Lots of people replied and I'm grateful to them. I decided eventually on a blog as that's a format I'm comfortable with (I have several other blogs). I like the way layout topics facilitate conversations between other people, but sometimes it can get a bit of a ramble.
     
    I also had to think what I wanted from writing all this down, and I guess I want some kind of journal or record, and I felt a blog would be better for that. I also thought it might be easier for people who are learning DCC like me to learn from my mistakes :-)
  17. Jongudmund
    About six months ago I blogged about building an oil depot tank for the Lego railway. Six months later (and one MSc dissertation out the way) I have finally sorted out the missing roof and I'm quite pleased with the result.
     
    Here's a picture of the tank getting 'plated up'. You can see the Technic frame holding the plates in place.
     

     
    Now I needed a roof. It's hard to build in circles using Lego , but then I hit on an idea using 'A frame' pieces.
     

     
    These enabled me to create a 'star' that fitted nicely resting on the uppermost circle of Technic rods.
     

     

     
    My plan was then to fill in the gaps using plates. Easier said than done as the studs didn't line up on the rays of the star that were at 45 degree angles to each other. I tried several experiments with shaped roof plates.
     

     

     
    And then tried to build it with offset plates that would only be connected to four of the rays. But this didn't work either.
     

     
    So I went old school. I got a load of long Technic bricks and connected them sideways using black Technic connector pins. This creates an incredibly strong structure, like a sheet of bricks welded together.
     

     
    I then plated over most of the Technic bricks, leaving a few exposed as I thought it gave a nice effect.
     

     
    I was pleased with the complete structure. It looks round enough to work and is suitably imposing to look like a real industrial structure.
     

     
    And here is what it look like in situ on a roundy-roundy loop lay out that I was mocking up in readiness for having a table to put the trains on.
     

     
    I still need to create an unloading system and I want to put a ladder up it, but I've been a bit distracted by having the table and actually being able to set the trains up and get them running. More on that very soon!
  18. Jongudmund
    Hello everyone. You won't see this on my freight yard train set when I eventually set it up, but this year the wife and I bought ourselves the Christmas train set for our Lego Christmas decoration shelf. If I get the chance I will post some more pics after Christmas. In the meantime I hope everyone has a very blessed Christmas and an enjoyable New Year!
     

  19. Jongudmund
    A big shout out to Jack, who responded to my wanted advert here on RM Web to offer me two older Lego sets dating from the mid-noughties, which are now highly collectible. Jack kindly built the sets to check they were (almost) complete, then took them completely apart so I had the pleasure of building them myself. He also sent me a quantity of old 9 volt track. I can now set up an extended run for my 9 volt train that is sat in the Lego cupboard.
     

     
    The sets were the TTX Intermodal Container Wagons from 2005 and the large Octan tanker wagon released as part of the 'My Own Train' range in 2001.
     
    The TTX is actually an articulated wagon with two cars sharing a central bogie.
     

     
    The containers themselves are a bit small, but they stack, just like the real thing.
     

     

     
    The Octan tanker had two integral pieces missing, both easily replaced from the spares stock. I turned round the 'fence' ends to make it look less continental. It's also missing the tiny valve wheels it's supposed to have on each end of the tanker. But those looked a bit silly anyway so I haven't bothered replacing them.
     

     

     
    Compared to the other Octan wagons I have, this is a good deal bigger. The smaller wagons have fixed single axle wheels, whereas this has the rotating double axle set up common on bigger wagons.
     

     
    It will look OK in a train, perhaps as the first wagon followed by the three smaller ones.
     
    Back in January I acquired another wagon, this time from eBay. It's a box car wagon from the 7898 freight set (the same set the red tipper wagon came in). It's a very light wagon, despite being brick-built. I feel it offers a different profile for a train, so am very pleased with it.
     

     

     
    With one roof panel piece removed and the addition of a friendly Duplo character it makes a Triang-esque giraffe car!
     

     
    (Spoiler alert!) My next post will be about cranes and buffer stops.
  20. Jongudmund
    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.
  21. Jongudmund
    I realise I haven't kept this blog up to date as I have acquired bits and pieces for the railway. Never mind, let's start with my latest acquisition, which all started with the news that Toys R Us has gone bust meaning I was left with a useless Gold Card from the store.
     

     
    Useless, I thought until Smyth's Toys offered any Gold Card holder the chance of 20% off any purchases if they handed in their Gold Card. Off I went to Smyth's Toys. I bought, um, let's just say a few things, and one of them was another set of 65001, the white passenger train.
     

     
    Last time I posted about this I said it was a bit of a disappointing set and yet here I am with a second one. Well, I had my reasons. Firstly, I wanted a power functions set up for my Christmas train and this is one of the cheapest ways to get the motor, battery box and controller. Secondly, as noted in my previous post, the three car train is a bit lightweight, meaning it derailed easily, and it was too short to look satisfyingly like a train.
     
    There are enough parts in the box to make two carriages, with about 4 parts substituted and 7 very small bits added from my spares boxes.
     

     
    I was very pleased with that and think that bringing it up to a five carriage train makes it look much better. I set up a test loop on the living room floor and the extra weight of the carriages keeps it firmly on the track.
     

     
    Even though I have professed to having more interest in the freight trains, I am now thinking about building a station. That's my next project, maybe. In the meantime I will dig out some other photos of things I have been working on in the past year. Thanks for reading.
  22. Jongudmund
    Happy 2019!
     
    I had a great Christmas. You know what's better than getting a Lego train for Christmas?
     
    Getting two!
     

     
    Thanks to my wife and my brother getting some Black Friday deals, I was a very lucky boy.
     
    The set comes in multiple bags, as per usual. You also get a loop of track with only 4 straight pieces. It's practically a circle.
    l

     
    What's new about this is the Powered Up system, which operates on bluetooth instead of infra-red. The main functionality is contained in the battery box, which has a built in bluetooth receiver rather than using a separate IR receiver. Everything runs off AAA batteries as well, making it lighter than the Power Functions system my other trains use.
     
    I learned all this building the first part of the train - the powered loco.
     

     

     
    I like the styling of this train and it feels much better designed than the white passenger train. The cab is much easier to access.
     

     
    The battery box is built into the design and is also very easy to access compared to other trains.
     

     

     
    The two coaches are a buffet car and a passenger car. The buffet car has a small serving area complete with coffee maker.
     

     
    As it's a passenger train, it comes with a passenger.
     

     
    She's packed Lego for her trip.
     

     
    And her case fits into a neat little luggage rack between the set of seats. It's a good thing she's the only passenger with luggage.
     

     
    The set also comes with a massively underwhelming platform.
     

     

     
    Maybe I should have put the sticker on the panel, but I don't think it would have made it look any better. I left it off because I might use the panel elsewhere.
     
    Also in that bag was a traffic signal. It's not the most exciting thing, but hey, better than nothing.
     

     
    I have got some video and overall pictures of the train - I will sort those for another post. Having two sets means I could create a six car train, rather than a 3 car train. But the 3 car train whips along.
     
    Overall verdict
     
    Pros
    A very nice-looking train set.
    Much better design than some of the previous ones. No holes in the floor, easy access to the batteries and to the cab, it honestly feels like Lego have taken some real care over this set.
    Buffet car interior is fun. Loved the coffee machine detail.
    Passenger luggage complete with Lego set made me laugh.
    Powered Up is a much nicer system and worked with absolutely no glitches. The battery box is nicer than the Power Functions one that it replaced. Not having to make room for an IR receiver is helpful, as that always had to 'poke out' of the top of a train using Power Functions.
    The motor is, if anything, overpowered for the contents of the box. it pulls a six car train with no bother to a scale speed of at least 100 mph.
     
    Cons
    The passenger station is just a token gesture.
    Limited seats - 4 in the carriage. This is not mass transit at all.
    No working doors anywhere. You can take the roof off to place people inside. And they can't get out once you put the roof back on, bwahahahaha.
    Stickers. The front of the cab and the rear of the power car have large stickers. They're not too annoying to place. I just have a thing about sets with an RRP over £100 coming with stickers.
  23. Jongudmund
    In my previous post I talked about how my wife and brother took advantage of Black Friday deals to each buy me a train set. So, I knew these were coming (that was a long 5 week wait until Christmas Day!) and so I went into the Lego store and bought a set of train lights that are compatible with the new Powered Up motive system. These are a bit expensive for what you get, but are fun to fit and really enhance the train.
     
    Here's what you get for your money:
     

     

     
    The cab interior is built to accommodate the after-market addition. The grey bars sticking out either side of the seat are there to run the wires under.
     

     
    The lights plug into the pin holes in the Technic brick at the front of the cab. You can see from these pictures how the wires go behind the driver's seat and plug into the secondary outlet from the bluetooth battery box. This means you can turn the lights on and off independently while the train is in motion or keep them on when it is at rest.
     

     

     
    Unfortunately when they were in there was a lot of internal cab glare. You can see the problem in this photo.
     

     
    It had a very simple solution - probably the easiest 'mod' I've ever done.
     

     
    And here is an 18 second video showing the train doing circuits with the lights on. I feel it brings a whole new character to the train.
     
    https://youtu.be/LbV-Q-PfQjk
  24. Jongudmund
    I've said before how I was very lucky and got given two of the Lego 60197 train sets for Christmas. This wasn't a mistake! I wanted two because I knew they would form one very nice train.
     
    I belong to some Lego trains Facebook groups. I've seen a lot of posts in the groups about putting two 60197 passenger trains together. Quite a few people have mentioned the difficulty of running both motors in sync and having to polarise one to run backwards instead of forwards, and so on. Having test run the 3-car train and seeing how fast it whips along, I really didn't see the point of putting a second motor in. So when I built the second set, I built a 'dummy' car.
     
    This started with my bag of left-over train bits from when I turned my second white passenger train (60051) into a couple of coaches to extend that train to something that looked a bit more realistic.
     

     
    I also fished out one of the instruction books from that set as it had instructions for how to build a dummy bogie to replace the all-in-one motor block that Lego use.
     

     
    In the end I built this dummy bogie and move the yellow connection plate two studs inwards from the couplings to make it fit in the right mounting hole.
     

     

     
    This isn't a like-for-like replacement for the drive bogie on the powered engine, because I couldn't fit the axle-boxes that are used on the motor's driving wheels. They don't fit over ordinary wheelsets.
     

     
    It's not the end of the world because you;d only be able to see that if you know where to look.
     
    One of the other issues was the bluetooth battery box. This forms an integral part of the train structure, but I wanted to keep it separate for use in another project. A quick rummage in the bag of spare bits pictured earlier, and I built a replacement to the same dimensions.
     

     
    This next photo shows how I followed the instructions using the ersatz battery box.
     

     
    And then one final change... red lights on the back.
     

     
    These don't light up, unfortunately. It would be difficult to run a wire the length of the train. But I might experiment with a freestanding light brick at some point.
     
    Now, if you can stand terrible shaky filming on a mobile phone, and you have 1 minute and 37 seconds to spare, here is a video showing the train running, switching the lights on, "night running", and a little review of the interiors of the coaches.
     
    https://youtu.be/wiTx_o7pKh8
     
    Thanks for reading!
  25. Jongudmund
    This is my fourth post about the Lego passenger train sets (set number 60197) that I received for Christmas. Post one was about building the train set. Post 2 was about adding lights. Post 3 was about building a dummy engine car. And this post continues the theme from post 3, modding the train set to make it suit my purpose.
     
    I often say that if you can't make any changes to a Lego set you've built to improve it, then you may as well give up on Lego as a hobby. I see a lot of photos and videos of creative track lay outs, and then Lego trains straight out of the box trundling around. It's a shame, really. Personally, if I take, as an example, all the freight wagons I have bought, it averages about one wagon per set that I don't change or adapt. So that's about 1 in 3 wagons that I consider 'okay' and ready to run. (Of course, this doesn't apply to collectible stuff - I wouldn't mod my TTX cars, although I do think I could build better ones. I must have a go at that sometime.)
     
    So, anyway, what mods did I put in this? I've already said how I had to adapt the cab to reduce glare from the lights that I fitted. And I built one loco as an unpowered dummy car. What else did I do?
     
    Well... I like the passenger cars, but being honest, they only had four seats in them, and that really isn't many. However, I had some spare seats from the tiny, token "station" that's included in the set. So I took them and raided my bits box for some 2x2 plates.
     

     
    But I had a problem. Do you see this yellow bit on the floor towards the end of the carriage?
     

     
    That's the bogie mounting pin attached to the wheelsets. If I encroached on it the bogies wouldn't turn. What to do? What to do?
     

     
    That's right! Round plates! No encroachment and they do the same job of lifting the seat one plate's thickness off the floor.
     

     

     
    I can't put a minifigure to sit in the seats, because there's no room for their arms, which is a bit disappointing. But at least having the seats there makes it look more like an actual coach.
     
    Having two train sets meant I had two driver minifigures. I took a satchel off one of the passengers minifgures and put it on the driver. I think this is a passable look for a ticket inspector or guard.
     

     
    I added in some more passengers. Currently there is a woman from Ninjago City, Lester the bowler-hatted mascot of the Leicester Square flagship Lego Store, Spider-Man and C3PO from Star Wars. But it's in the buffet car where it's all kicking off with some very hungry patrons.
     

     
    Yes, that's right, baby velociraptors courtesy of some very cheap Jurassic World sets. They've got eyes on that hot dog!
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