[OFFICIAL] LEGO TRAINS, "Put your own 2 bricks in"

[Legodac]

Hey fellow brickers, sorry for being infrequent lately, but I'm going to devote an entire day to get this topic rolling.
   The time has come to fully share my experience and my LEGO train with you all (always remember Lego is watching us too).
   I'm going to dedicate this topic idea to the moderater here, Rakoa or Supersonic as he now calls himself (I wish you brickers would stop changing your names, I'm old and dusty and get confused easily). My MLN Questers leader wrote me in a PM that he would appreciate a little advice on train layouts etc. It ocurred to me to start this topic so we could share our ideas with everyone.
   I'll be offline for a bit, taking pictures, we're going to concentrate on layout first and why I think that train layouts should be on shelves rather than 4 by 8 plywood tables etc.
   PLEASE, feel free to start asking questions and making your own suggestions in my absence, in other words, "put your own 2 bricks in".

[Rakoua]

As Legodac here requested I'll pin this as the official train layout topic.

[Legodac]

OK, let's get started, first we'll start with a smile, you know lol means more than laugh out loud, well, it also means lots of lego. So to start I'll give you this, trains I've made that aren't really there anymore, but may be again some day.
 


So we'll start with the layout and why I think trains should be shelved.
   These are pics of my living room, when my wife and I watch TV, the following below is above us.

   Later we'll get into shelves, trees, ground work, houses, construction sites, figure placement, backgrounds, fastening etc. etc. etc., this is gonna be FUN.

   The set runs thru 2 rooms, my living room and my bedroom (the LEGO ROOM). Everyone above the age of Zero loves the layout and picking up the little ones for a new perspective when we're rolling makes them think you're awesome.

   YOU NEED THIS SIZE OF SHELF SHELF AT EACH END IF YOU WANT YOUR TRAIN TO RUN NON-STOP. The other end is in the closet of my bedroom, I'll show a pic of that as we continue (tunnells included).

  


 

We're still on layout and shelves, so let's shift to shelves for a bit. I use MDF board, that's medium density fibre board, it's more expensive than plywood but the gains in construction far outway the extra expense. It cuts with a jigsaw easy and drills well too. IT NEVER WARPS, unless you expose it to undue moisture, 3/4 inch thick is what I used here, no signs of warping after 5 years.

    You can also cut slivers of bourd, drill the horizontal plane, and attach to the shelf on the outside, look closley at the pics. This is a great way to add scenery to your train layout and DIORAMA (3 dimensional picture).

    Before attaching the outside slivers, you have the oppertunity to add more foilage to your shelf, the train looks real cool when running around the tracks behind additional scenery you have created.

 



 

The last pic above (I think) shows the slivers of shelf you can attach afterwards, I'm going to take a few more pics detailing and explaining how these extented shelf pieces are attached.

   A WORD TO THE WISE, YOU NEED SOME HEAVY DUTY TOOLS AND EXPERIENCE TO PULL THIS OFF, BUT IF YOU'VE GOT THE TOOLS, OR YOUR DAD DOES, GO FOR IT, AND ASK YOUR DAD TO HELP, HE'LL HAVE FUN TOO.

[Rakoua]

Interesting...
How much money did you spend on the shelf for your layout only?
Oh, and are flexibile tracks any good?

[Empire981]

im not sure what were supposed to do here, but can i help?

[Legodac]

Interesting...
How much money did you spend on the shelf for your layout only?
Oh, and are flexibile tracks any good?

I added some more words and pics to my last post buddy, check it out!

   To answer your question, I need only look above me, swivle in my chair and remember that my entire shelf layout, wood only (MDF Bourd) was 4, 4 by 8 sheets of MDF, at 40 bucks a piece Canadian, that's 160.00. After a year I extended it with 3 more sheets to run farther into my bedroom

For Empire981, give us your advice on Lego Trains and building in general, it's all part and partial

[guitaralex]

Wow!
It looks like you spent months doing that but it is really cool!

[Legodac]

Wow!
It looks like you spent months doing that but it is really cool!

Actually, it's been years, an ongoing project, and thanks, keep on Brick'n eh

[Kritzelei]

Hey, legodac, I've never been a huge trains fan, but I always wanted to get one set at least. I can see you've been collecting them for years, and I think if the Emerald Night goes down in price at a sale, I'll seize the opportunity to buy it .
Also, your LEGO Factory train creations are, sadly, not available in the UK. I clicked check price on most of them, it said "Sorry not available in this country: United Kingdom". Ah well.

[Empire981]

Hey, legodac, I've never been a huge trains fan, but I always wanted to get one set at least. I can see you've been collecting them for years, and I think if the Emerald Night goes down in price at a sale, I'll seize the opportunity to buy it .
Also, your LEGO Factory train creations are, sadly, not available in the UK. I clicked check price on most of them, it said "Sorry not available in this country: United Kingdom". Ah well.

i wanted that set for those rare drawers, but i just ordered them off lego.com.

[Rakoua]

Hmm...
Can train tracks bend upwards a bit?
I could connect an existing shelf to my layout, but the gap between some maps on the opposite wall is a little higher, some five inches up over a distance of nine feet...
Oh, and can Lego trains turn completly in a space which is only fifty studs wide?

[Empire981]

ide make a bridge, and a canal for boats but i dont think thats in the big plan.

[Legodac]

Hey, legodac, I've never been a huge trains fan, but I always wanted to get one set at least. I can see you've been collecting them for years, and I think if the Emerald Night goes down in price at a sale, I'll seize the opportunity to buy it .
Also, your LEGO Factory train creations are, sadly, not available in the UK. I clicked check price on most of them, it said "Sorry not available in this country: United Kingdom". Ah well.

I wouldn't buy it, unless your putting it on display or planning to make a layout, many pieces are common, the colors are different though, I'm only agreeing with you on price, it's an awesome model. Heartfelt aggreance, I hate it when I see "not available in Canada".

Hmm...
Can train tracks bend upwards a bit?
I could connect an existing shelf to my layout, but the gap between some maps on the opposite wall is a little higher, some five inches up over a distance of nine feet...
Oh, and can Lego trains turn completly in a space which is only fifty studs wide?

5 inches over 9 feet eh? That's a tough question. Yes I think the new Lego motor could handle it, however, the intricate carpentry required to make wheels of the train run without misses on the track would be an engineering feat in itself. You would have to have an arch for a wooden shelf, smooth and perfect. 5 inches over 9 feet is pushing it.
   Drop or raise and continue the shelf so your layout is flat. The flater, the better, when it comes to battery operated trains, they'll run a whole lot longer

Sorry for the double post, I'm trying to answer everyones questions with the respect that they deserve, as individuals


So someone post some advice so I don't have to triple post!! 
Supersonic edit: Merged.

[jamesster]

Wow, cool layout! How flexible are the Lego track pieces?

[Legodac]

Wow, cool layout! How flexible are the Lego track pieces?

That's only 1 tenth of the layout. Hey buddy you're new eh, I'll have to befriend you in MLN, how do you feel about poetry and LDD?

On that note, continuing on, a few pics along the wall of the living room. Hey, a picture tells a thousand words. I havn't forgotten to tell about the about the "scenery slivers", coming soon...
 

[Vanderdecken12]

Wow! You have some neat layouts, LEGODAC, and I like your house! 

[Rakoua]

Emerald Night in ACTION!

Anyways, I have a few questions to rap it all up...
1: How deep does the shelf have to be to have a 360 turn?
2: Can you post a bunch of tips on making the scenery? I don't have enough LEGO to make it...
3: If I had a 1.5 rechargable battery, could I use it on the trains?

[Legodac]

Wow! You have some neat layouts, LEGODAC, and I like your house! 

  Thanks for the kind words pal, btw, check out V12's blogs, he's really into LEGO

Raise your hands if you want to see more pictures, apply them here brickers, show us what you've got!

Here's the first corner....


 

[Rakoua]

Yay for pics!
I'll check out that blog.

[Legodac]

OK, let's finish the layout pictures. We started in the living whaere you see the three houses, the green one btw is the design of JediMaster_Syfodias. A larger shelf area is required to allow the train to loop around and go the other way, thus allowing for continous operation.

   As we came from the loop and along the wall towards the first corner we came to the switch tower. My LDD design of a Train car hoisted onto a wall to lookout over a train yard.

   The following few pics are the next wall where you see my LDD design of an old style Pony Truss.

 




We've passed the Pony Truss and now we're approaching what I've called Train Yard 2. This is the wall with the two tunnels entering and exiting my bedroom. You can clearly see my train shed and water tower. The red brick tunnel at the edge if the door is where power to feed the tracks, charge the Emerald night and power the lights are all controlled on the bedroom side of the wall.
   The tunnell that exits the bedroom you see just at the back of the train shed.

 






The picture above, you can see the passenger car of the EN inside the tunnell. The pictures below are now viewing the bedroom side of the layout. The rest of the pics simply go in order around the bedroom towards the closet where the train loops once more to the other way.

 




To finish up the layout and moving around the room we come to LEGO's train shed which I bought two of and put them together. You can see at the point of the red train shed that the tracks run 5 wide, 3 in one direction and 2 in the other. A small note on layout, when I built all this the tollerances and distance between tracks and distance between tracks and wall were very tight. I had to do two things when I bought the Emerald Night. One, was to remove the wide pieces at the top front of the engine and I also had to relocate all my hydro poles in the living room area.
   Where as they used to be positioned between tracks, they are now mounted on the inside edge of the shelf.