"O" gauge trains and LEGO

As for scenery and structures I'm hoping to have a 2 x 2 or 2 x 3 area on the layout with rotating dioramas so that I can get all the different things I want on the layout. I'm planning on a zoo, a waterfront, Cape Not Canaveral, an intermodal yard...  LEGO looks like it'll be helping with the waterfront,Cape Not CanaveralI've also got a space shuttle and mover to go with these launchpads. a transload crane to go with the intermodal yard, a hangar and helicopter for the airstrip/air museum that may get posted if this thread generates enough interest.

Coach - you are speaking my language!  I love legos mixed with o gauge.

Main street (in the background) is a mess right now from the kids playing there but you get the idea.

The backside of main street, normally diagon alley and the Halloween haunted house, currently hosting the Steelers station in the middle.

My main lego project right now is trying out regauging brick built rail cars for o gauge.

I am waiting on a pile of brick link orders to keep this one moving, but the chassis is just about figured out.

JHZ563, you're doing some wonderful stuff with LEGO rolling stock.  I've seen some LEGO buildings like the ones you've got on Main Street in a LEGO store at the mall.  They look very good and I thought they would make a great little section of town but the prices kept me from trying it.

Is that Steelers station LEGO?

Wow, guys... Lego has come a long way from the ones I had when I was a kid!!! Before the pandemic, I went to a Lego store in The Westchester (don’t dare call it a mall - they still charge for parking!!!). As long as the sticker price doesn’t cause a coronary conniption, some of the building kits were amazing. Look forward to see your new layout Joe.

No, the Steelers station is Mth.  It was part of a static display in the living room until a recent spectacular debacle that ended a mildly promising football season.

Back to Lego.  The buildings are all lego kits.  Some of the smaller Hogwarts ones are actually my wife's.   They have collected over 7 or 8 years. The firehouse was definitely my favorite for one large structure.  One of the other really fun builds was the detective office.   There's a pool hall and a barbershop on the first floor that I really enjoyed.   Back when I was part of a modular o gauge display group I would bring the building and set up a real city block.  It was always a big hit with kids and parents.

I am quite fascinated with starting to make O gauge compatible lego rolling stock.   The big issue is of course the gauge.  I think I have a solution for rolling stock worked out like I said above.   Eventually I would love to making a full working locomotive from lego for O gauge.   There are lego motors but they are lower voltage and not cheap!

I did get the latest lego crocodile,  because at just under $100 it was too cool to pass up.  The motor / battery kit is close to another $100 I think.  I passed on that.  I think I am just an early adapter.  Brick model railroader's bearing selection and new Kadee mounts are a game changer.   

I've got a decent collection of modern LEGO trains.  It's a pity they are just off O gauge or I'd run them on my layout too.  But as for my layout, all the rubber tired vehicles will be LEGO.

The bridge abutments and overpass on which the railing sits are Lego Bricks:

As is the underpass:

@sinclair posted:

I've got a decent collection of modern LEGO trains.  It's a pity they are just off O gauge or I'd run them on my layout too.  But as for my layout, all the rubber tired vehicles will be LEGO.

grab some mpc era trucks, drill out the center hole to 3/16".  Add a technic pin (and a washer if you need one to prevent rocking if the car is sitting on the technic pin collar) and you are good to go.

this car was built with a gap for the shoulder on the pin so it rides nice without a washer around the pin.

Nice work on the Gondola.  Pittsburgh colors by design or were those the bricks you had laying around?

John Sethian, what did you do to the abutments and portals to make them look so realistic?

@coach joe posted:

Nice work on the Gondola.  Pittsburgh colors by design or were those the bricks you had laying around?

Totally by design!  It was meant to be a Rail-Gon theme but I actually like running it with my MTH Steelers equipment

Making progress on the hopper.

Got the truck design locked down for this edition.  Always room for improvement but I am pretty happy with them.

I will post pictures of the hopper as the rest parts come in.

Is that all LEGO with "O" gauge wheel sets?

Here's a LEGO helicopter next to a die-cast Canada Air Rescue copter that I believe is 1:60.  I imagine the LEGO chopper as being a commercial commuter type, 6-10 passenger capacity.  That accounts for the size.

Looking good Guys - keep the photos coming!

John Sethian,

THAT is one incredible photo!  When I see layouts like yours, I want to just go downstairs and trash my layout with a sledge hammer.

What girder bridge did you use in that photo please?

Thanks,

Mannyrock

@coach joe posted:

Is that all LEGO with "O" gauge wheel sets?

Yup.  Wheels out of a set of older plastic trucks, bearings and lego compatible bracket provided by Brick Model Railroader, actual coupler by Kadee.   All the actual parts by Lego.

Coach Joe and Mannyrock,

Thanks for the kind words

Coach Joe: cover one face of each brick with spackle, do not smooth.  Stain with diluted craft paints.  Use a full strength light color craft paint as a mortar during assembly

Mannyrock

Please don't take a sledge to your layout, just keep rebuilding it and it will get better and better. If by the bridge you mean the truss bridge, that is a Lionel Postwar #317 Trestle Bridge

Some more views of the truck assemblies, including the underside. As you can see the base of the assembly is now 3 wide.

And here's some views of the hopper in progress. I was hoping my last couple orders would have showed Saturday but no such luck.

Got some more parts and some time to spend on the hopper build last night.

Observations:

1.  Assume all the parts you didn't order because "of course I have tons of those" will be buried in the bottom of the bins.

2. Lots of interesting techniques on this model, but it makes some of them rather delicate during construction.

3. The final width may be a problem.  8 wide studs looks pretty good with O gauge, but the ladder details hanging off the sides pushes this out to nearly 10 wide, which is more than I bargained for.  This will need to be reconsidered sometime after this model is done.

4. Only Batman and people who are suckers for eyestrain work in all black, and I am not Batman!

Anyway, here are some pictures:

Oh God where do I start!?

Vrmm Vrmmmm....

What way does this go again?  Oh Jezz don't tell me I put the last four on upside down!

Break time!

Okay, starting to look like something here.

O I am going to need more coffee more this...

To be continued....

I recently assembled a Batmobile from when my son was younger and trying to follow black in those LEGO instructions is incredibly difficult.  I had my jewelers magnifying visor and a flashlight working just to see where the "new" bricks were being added to the existing.

Legos and O gauge trains. That's an interesting idea. Lego bricks or small models do make great loads for the trains. You could use small, black Lego pieces as coal loads in hoppers or gondolas. Brown cylinder pieces attached end to end and rested on a flatcar with stakes or a Lionel log dump car horizontally make could make perfect log loads. I like the submarine and generator loads. That picture with the bridge on Lego bricks looks amazing. I thought that the bricks were foam or something. Mind blown! Maybe I'll find some ideas for my layout. One of my ideas (not while the trains are running) is to have Lego Star Wars figures having a battle on top of the train. Superhero characters could work, too.

John Sethian,

How did you get spackle to stick to the face of the plastic lego blocks?   I know that they make a synthetic, plastic base spackle, but I don't even see how that could stick?

Mannyrock

JHZ, 

What brand of ballast did you use for the roadbed?  It really looks great, and has that slight bluish tone I am looking for.

Mannyrock

@Mannyrock posted:

JHZ,

What brand of ballast did you use for the roadbed?  It really looks great, and has that slight bluish tone I am looking for.

Mannyrock

Manny that was chicken grit from my local Agway, Ephrata PA. Sometimes also sold as a traction aid winter time.  It came in woven plastic sacks that unfortunately fell apart over time sitting outside at a former house.  I always thought it was some of the best looking stuff I had every seen and the cost was really good too.  It's not quite O scale, but I am not the guy who cares, after all this is the Lego thread!

I brushed it into place with a cheap paint brush, put some tape over the rails, and drizzled a 50/50 mix of white glue and water on it.  That section is actually on a 2' x4' module I made years ago for use with a club to which I no longer belong.  It has been transported several times without any problem of the ballast falling off.

Well, I got time to finish everything but decals I haven't ordered yet.  Overall pretty cool.

From left to right, mth, lego, weaver, I hope the picture is big enough to see.

So this lego model is a little higher than the mth and weaver.   The overall body proportions are pretty good.  The length is about the same as the mth, the weaver is longer.   The Lego model breaks down when you compare the ladders which are neccessary clunky for lego. 

The width of the body is pretty good, but again the ladders really stick out.  There are other ladder options,  but these are probably the best looking compromise. 

It did make a couple loops on a mixed train with 0 72 curves.  I will take a video after I get some decals applied.  Overall I really like it,  and consider this to be a successful full lego build.   There's always room for improvement,  so I am sure I will build a few more later this year.   

Let me know if anyone else tries something like this.

Are you planning to design a Lego O gauge locomotive? Seems like an interesting challenge - I can help if you need it.

Maybe you should see how it looks without the handrails - might look better. These may also look okay:

https://www.bricklink.com/v2/c...tem.page?P=32028#T=C

I am thinking about it.  I am not sure right now about getting power to wheels with 3 wide trucks,  but an outside truck frame could work for a diesel.   I was originally thinking about how hard it would be to use track power but for lego battery power is a viable option.   A steam engine may need to be tender driven.

Like I said though,  I want to experiment with other rolling  stock build ideas.  I have made much of my living at coal fired power plants so I really like working with hopper cars.  There are some internal features of this build I want to tweak if I build a second copy.

Personally, I don't like tender driven locomotives; it's much cooler if you can power the drive wheels. I can imagine a couple ways it can be done. The largest issue would be bending the drive train 90 degrees - this is usually done with bevel gears, but there wouldn't be room for bevel gears if standard technic beams are used. But... A worm gear might be feasible. You would have to gear up the connection between the motor and worm gear, though, in order for it to not be incredibly slow.

Coach Joe, I put some flats on a flat car and my grandson made this using Legos....He's working on another...He's far more creative than I.

JHZ, very well done.  Blends in fairly nicely.  Like you said some of the finer details, ladders, grab-irons and such may be a bit too big.  I could definitely see  4-5 cars and a caboose being pulled by quite a few different O-gauge locos.  I don't know if I have the LEGO chops to create something like that on my own.  It took me about as long to come up with my boxlike transformer as it took you to design and build the hopper.

Ed what a great way to get the grandkids involved.  He did a great job.

@coach joe posted:

JHZ, very well done.  Blends in fairly nicely.  Like you said some of the finer details, ladders, grab-irons and such may be a bit too big.  I could definitely see  4-5 cars and a caboose being pulled by quite a few different O-gauge locos.  I don't know if I have the LEGO chops to create something like that on my own.  It took me about as long to come up with my boxlike transformer as it took you to design and build the hopper.

Ed what a great way to get the grandkids involved.  He did a great job.

You're giving me way too much credit. That hopper is built from commercially available plans from Brick Model Railroader.

Here is the hopper car, stickers applied,  and running in the middle of a batch of weaver cars.

Towards the end my daughter is singing to herself in the background. 🙂

Looks pretty good.  Maybe some of those single round ones added to the top to make the load look a little better.

@Johnbeere posted:

Are you planning to design a Lego O gauge locomotive? Seems like an interesting challenge - I can help if you need it.

I may take you up on that offer.   Right now I'm trying to conceptualize a power train for a steam locomotive.   Since I will only have a 3 wide base, I don't room to but a beveled gear sideways between the frame pieces.   I am thinking there are two possible avenues, depending on how much can be hidden. 

One path would be to have a motor drive a worm shaft with a gear transfer to one driving axle.   Power to other wheels would transfer either through rods or intermediate gears.

A second option is to use a bevel gear right off the motor also with the motor shaft perpendicular to the axles.  That power could be transferred through the a larger diameter gear and smaller gear on the same shaft.

I am battling in my head between how to build the drive train,  and what type of model to build around it. 

Also, while I am familiar with Lego,  technic building and lego motors are somewhat new territory for me.   I feel somewhat ignorant of what the possibilities and practical examples really are.   It's a fun and daunting mental exercise.

Sorry about the late response. Personally, I'm not that experienced with Lego mechanics either. I mean, I've only built 3 powered locomotives and have no way to really test them well, but I know enough to probably help. A worm gear is a good option to look into - you'll have to have gearing between the worm and motor, though, since you don't want to gear it down so far, since Lego motors are already geared down internally (I think).

@Johnbeere posted:

Sorry about the late response. Personally, I'm not that experienced with Lego mechanics either. I mean, I've only built 3 powered locomotives and have no way to really test them well, but I know enough to probably help. A worm gear is a good option to look into - you'll have to have gearing between the worm and motor, though, since you don't want to gear it down so far, since Lego motors are already geared down internally (I think).

Sent you a Stud.io file.  I am trying to figure out if I am setting up the spacing right between the technic lift arms I chose for frame rails.  Stud.io is better than some other applications I have used but there are an awful lot of tricks to learn!

Just loaded up the file, looks like some parts aren't loading in right for me. This is what I see...

Anyway, I notice that you're using bevel gears with the worm gear - I don't think that will work right. With the spacing you have there, a "12 tooth double bevel" gear may work.

You may have realized this, but Studio hides parts that aren't available in the color you have selected. To get around this, uncheck "hide unavailable colors" in the color menu - I just thought you may not have been able to find the right gear you were looking for in the menu because it was hidden.

About the axles, you probably want to buy 6 long axles and cut them to length to get them just right. I suggest using a file to smooth off the ends after cutting, they'll be jagged if they are just cut and left alone. Besides - black 5 long axles are pretty expensive.

I tried to send you a follow up file and the email kicked back for some reason. I finally just deleted the frame rail that was driving me nuts and cloned the other one.  Just to make sure the frames were lining up I used 3l pins and a 1x3 plate between the front of the frame rails to verify spacing.

I grabbed a regular gear to try, but I like your double bevel gear idea too.  I found that a large motor combined with a worm gear will mesh with 24 tooth gear, and be lined up axially and vertically.  This is all practice at this point, trying to work out a reasonable plan in digital form.  Everything is up for discussion.  It may actually make more sense to have the motor over the drivers and use the offset space to gear up to gain some speed.

Looks like a worm drive to an axle mounted gear will work in general, which is great. 

the image below is a render from the stud.io software, which is a pretty cool feature.

It's going to be necessary to gear up between the motor and worm somehow - if you don't, the locomotive will be incredibly slow. I actually used a worm drive in my Lego B6, with a gear ratio of 4.8:1, it's very slow. The setup you have above is 24:1, about 5 times slower than my B6. Here's a Lego gear ratio calculator, the closer you get to about 1:1 the better: http://gears.sariel.pl/

On another note, it's only really necessary to drive one axle - the drive rods tend to work fine for transmitting power.

@Johnbeere posted:

On another note, it's only really necessary to drive one axle - the drive rods tend to work fine for transmitting power.

The extra gears were just from playing with the parts.

It's a shame the lego motors run so slow.   With the worm drive you lose a lot of speed,  but outside of a transverse mount arrangement for the motor,  I don't see a way around the worm arrangement.  And the modern lego motors are way too long for that, and the older motors are really low power.

@coach joe posted:

Is that all LEGO with "O" gauge wheel sets?

Here's a LEGO helicopter next to a die-cast Canada Air Rescue copter that I believe is 1:60.  I imagine the LEGO chopper as being a commercial commuter type, 6-10 passenger capacity.  That accounts for the size.

Way To Go Coach Joe! Canada Air Rescue copter is my Favorite of all time livery.... and US Coast Guard, and Twin Canadair CL-415 Water Drop Firefighter! (great idea, I'm in, got one on the way! Great Idea, <salute Joe>

Miggy I've got the three USCG helicopters made by the same company that made the Canada rescue copter.  I think the Lego helo works with them.

This turned up in my YouTube recommended about an hour ago... a couple of hours ago*

Most of this is only really relevant to dedicated Lego operators, but I recalled talk on this thread about building O-gauge compatible powered units. Round about 6:24 in the above is something that may be of interest.

Being that that aspect of the above project is in development, it might be possible to ask if there is a possibility of an O-Gauge compatible variant (most likely in the form of 'O' compatible wheel/axle sets) being added to their motorized bogie project. It could potentially be useful to more than just Lego-derived trains.

---PCJ

Unfortunately the lego wheels have always been plastic except for the metal 9v track train motors,  which of course are L gauge.   I read the article about this on Brick Model Railroader,  and one of the main reasons the author was excited about the track was the ability to eliminate the batteries.  He said constantly dealing with batteries was a major stress point during a public show.   So despite some folks saying dead rail is the future,  someone was has dealt with dead rail and batteries for years says the opposite.

I always loved Lego trains. Thanks for sharing that great video, RailRide.

@Johnbeere posted:

It's going to be necessary to gear up between the motor and worm somehow - if you don't, the locomotive will be incredibly slow. I actually used a worm drive in my Lego B6, with a gear ratio of 4.8:1, it's very slow. The setup you have above is 24:1, about 5 times slower than my B6. Here's a Lego gear ratio calculator, the closer you get to about 1:1 the better: http://gears.sariel.pl/

I didn't realize how slow the lego motors turn.  What a pain!  I was doing some math today, and gearing up any of the lego motors to go an appreciable speed is going to be challenging.  The only thing that works in my favor is the diameter of the drive wheels. 

It looks like I will need to change from technic lift arms to technic bricks get enough length.   Getting power to at least one axle without the speed loss incurred with a worm gear is going to complicated.

This is such a cool thread! I love all the pics and projects!

What about a chassis like this?

The idea to build Lego trains capable of running on O gauge track is pretty appealing to me, I might even consider seeing if I can convert some of my Lego trains to O gauge. I see several advantages to it... The track will be closer to scale, will be much cheaper, and it means that my Lego trains can run on my O gauge track. Currently, I don't even have enough Lego track to sit all my trains on at once, let alone run anything.

So I've designed a O Gauge Lego axle to be imported to Studio to help design O gauge Lego trains. I'm going to experiment tomorrow how 3D printing the wheels goes, it might be a viable method to make suitable wheels.

Here's the axle I designed:

Studio renders it a bit weird, but no big deal.

I've attached the file for the model of the wheelset, you need to import it to Part Designer and then export it to Studio.

where do I find part designer?

Here you go: https://www.bricklink.com/v3/studio/partdesigner.page

I got this guy for the fun of it, but also for the parts!  It has one bluetooth hub motor controller and two L motors for less than the cost of those items individually,  plus a fair amount of gears, pins and lift bars. Caboose for scale!

Also ordered some XL drivers from BigBen bricks.

As you can see,  they are very close in size the Camelback on the adjacent track.

I have not had time to do any design work, as many other parts of life are getting in the way.

Some more LEGO for use on my future layout.  I don't believe I'll have enough room for my Lionel intermodal crane so these LEGO cranes will come in handy for a small intermodal scene.

@coach joe posted:

Some more LEGO for use on my future layout.  I don't believe I'll have enough room for my Lionel intermodal crane so these LEGO cranes will come in handy for a small intermodal scene.

Positively Fantastic!

While not technically a LEGO kit this submarine is a LEGO compatible Angry Birds kit from EDUKIE..  A little more basic than offerings from LEGO, no exterior lights or mechanical grappling armes so I added a steering wheel, some lights and some interior decals to add interest.

This guy will find his way onto a flatcar, as will some LEGO unmanned DSRVs, and they will join the sub  from the original post and the propeller flatcar from the Lionel Titanic set to make a shipwreck salvage train.

It seems like interest in this topic is waning but here is my latest LEGO addition.

I've a Hallmark LM ornament and two other LEGO Space Shuttles so this Creator 3 in 1 is going to be built as the rocket.  Voila!Not really a Saturn V but still a pretty estimable rocket in my opinion.  If I ever get my 4x8 set up in the spare bedroom I'll put out all my air and space stuff out and post some pictures of all the LEGO on display.

It's neat to see Lego content on the OGR site. I have been a seller on Bricklink since 2012 and it has helped fund some of my train purchases. I'm less involved with it lately and I'm winding down my inventory and will close up when it's all gone. The market has been pretty saturated since about 2015-16 for sellers and it has become less and less profitable.

I've already got a whole thread dedicated to this but my Lego Liner 100% fits here:

It's a heavily modified Lego KT404-1 Small Locomotive with Tender set from the early 2000s that's currently outfitted with an MTH trolley motor, but by this weekend will hopefully have a Lionel Junction 0-4-0's frame and guts in it.

It's also a bit different but I purchased a Cobi (lego lookalike) kit of a German Panzer 3 tank which conveniently enough is 1:48th scale. As for why and how a German panzer found its way onto an American freight train, if the US Navy can get the warship "Prinz Eugen" as war loot, the US Army can have a couple tanks, as a treat.

Patrick, I'm glad you brought the LEGO Liner over to this thread.  I spotted it on some of the Modular group photos Peter posted and asked him if you could post about it.  Seeing what others on this thread had to do to make LEGO trains run on O gauge track I found your way of mounting Lionel trucks very interesting.  As I said on your thread I have a Harry Potter Hogwarts Express that I may try converting like the LEGO Liner.

Does anyone have any experience with the "Creator" series of town buildings and how close to O scale they are? These buildings look pretty impressive from what I have seen online.

@Big Jim posted:

Does anyone have any experience with the "Creator" series of town buildings and how close to O scale they are? These buildings look pretty impressive from what I have seen online.

It's LEGO, scale is a nebulous concept.

@Big Jim posted:

Does anyone have any experience with the "Creator" series of town buildings and how close to O scale they are? These buildings look pretty impressive from what I have seen online.

I have lots of Lego buildings,  including a few that are still in the boxes.  If you mix trains and toys the scale is pretty good.   If you're a rivet counter it doesn't work.   Lego minifigures do not scale to anything remotely human.

@jhz563 posted:

Lego minifigures do not scale to anything remotely human.

I understand about the figures. It's even worse with Dept.56 figures! I was just curious as to how the buildings in this series scaled out?

@Big Jim posted:

I understand about the figures. It's even worse with Dept.56 figures! I was just curious as to how the buildings in this series scaled out?

Sorry I just don't have any good pictures in my phone right now.  I will try to take some though.  Let me know if you had certain building set in mind.  I will look for something I have with a similar height, and take a few pictures next to a common size loco.

@Big Jim posted:

I understand about the figures. It's even worse with Dept.56 figures! I was just curious as to how the buildings in this series scaled out?

Jon mentioned the term nebulous above.  I tend to agree, but my term would be adjustable.

Why is that?  In the early days (1960's), before umpteen-gazillion "special" pieces, we had bricks of only a few configurations, and then windows, doors, small wheels, and slightly larger wheels.

Assembling a building, or a vehicle, from this limited set of pieces always resulted in a fixed scale, which to your eye the size of  the windows and doors had established.  This scale was in my opinion very roughly 'O', even though the bricks individually were clearly much larger than 'O'.  They were clearly not HO, N, G or anything else, other than maybe 'S'.

With the addition of so many special pieces over the years, to introduce curves and add details, doors and windows no longer set the stage.  Sizes for special pieces are all over the map, and often created initially to make nicely complex models of varying sizes without regard to a specific scale, but still built around the core bricks.  Therefore these models are never scaled to a standard, but they are scaled to some undefined reference scale, in order to make them look correct, in three dimensions, to your eye.

My conclusion: Things can be made in many scales, but approximately 'O', maybe 1:50, is probably the smallest size when you're building with Lego in which you see start to see nicely-detailed models, given the nature of the special pieces.  Anything smaller and they're not detailed enough for most of us.

It goes up from there.  Clearly if you shoot for 'G' you can build much more nicely detailed stuff than if your target is 'O'.

Most often though you use the special pieces to set the level of detail you'd like to see, then the scale follows automatically from there.  What ever that scale turns out to be, precisely, is of no great consequence to most Lego modelers.  This makes it hard for 'O' scalers because you have to work backwards.

Mike

@Big Jim posted:

I understand about the figures. It's even worse with Dept.56 figures! I was just curious as to how the buildings in this series scaled out?

I moved a piece of track in front of "main street".  I hope these give you some sense of scale.

Main St. looks fabulous!

@jhz563 posted:

I moved a piece of track in front of "main street".  I hope these give you some sense of scale.

Thank you. That looks very nice! Supports my idea that the Lego "Creator" sets would add a lot of "play value" to a child's layout!

O the lego buildings make a huge increase in play value for kids.  Technically,  you can't break the buildings,  although they do get rearranged🤔.  My kids will play with the layout even without the trains running.

Along with that, the Creator series has the back of the buildings open in order to play inside like a doll house!

A couple additions from the Mega Bloks  Alien Agency Line from some years ago.  First up is the DNA Lab.  The building front is 24" wide by 2" deep.  It sits on two base plates.  It would make a great flat against a wall but the base plates are 7-1/2" deep to allow for the all the examination and experimentation  equipment necessary to analyze the aliens.  I may lose the second story section and create a single story building on a single base plate or I may cut one base plate in half and use the pieces to get a 3-1/2" deep building flat.

Next is Hangar 18 from the Arrival set.  I think it's pretty cool and I have a second sheet of corrugated roofing and the semi-circular pieces for the front and rear elevations. I'm going to try to cobble together another one.

Mega Blocks- Nooooo!!!!!

I've got a whole bin of 'em in the garage.  Dragons and ice castles and some sort of ship.  I kept all of this stuff once my son outgrew toys because I thought I could use it on layout.  I've been putting some of his bigger sets together to make sure all the pieces are there with the intent of selling them but he's kinda convinced me to keep them and display them in th train room.

What is the website you use to buy LEGO bricks?

www.lego.com

Bricklink

Thanks guys.

Joe,

I think the buildings look great. You just prove that there many different ways to tackle scenery.

Thank you Alan.  That means so much coming from such a skilled modeler. 

Ok gang, you gotta check this out.  Someone has designed a Lego replica of the classic tinplate blue comet.

Rebrickable link

Of course its designed for L gauge, but I think it's cool.

I need to check out this thread more often, this is some top quality stuff and it's giving me a few ideas... Especially that gear assembly for a using a lego motor in a locomotive... BRB going to fire up Studio....

Finally got the observation car body don, will post pictures tomorrow.   I need to work out the trucks yet.

So here we go.   The plans were purchased over rebrickable.com and most of the bricks from various vendors on bricklink.com.   Those two shades of blue were definitely not around when I was younger.   

And for comparison,  here is the body sitting with a lionel traditional sized passenger car.

So now I need to work out the truck assemblies.  That will probably take a couple weeks just due to other things going on.

I hope you like it.

@jhz563 posted:

So here we go.   The plans were purchased over rebrickable.com and most of the bricks from various vendors on bricklink.com.   Those two shades of blue were definitely not around when I was younger.   

And for comparison,  here is the body sitting with a lionel traditional sized passenger car.

So now I need to work out the truck assemblies.  That will probably take a couple weeks just due to other things going on.

I hope you like it.

That's incredible!

Scott Smith

That's sweet.  Length is not far off but it does look more massive.  The height doesn't look too much taller,  how's the width?  Are you building "O" Lego trucks or are you going to try to mate some Lionel or MTH trucks to it?  Did you print up decals?

I needed a ship for my underwater salvage operations so...

I built according to the directions so I would see what I had to work with.  I moved the superstructure as far forward as I could and removed most of the dinosaur restraining equipment to gain more deck space to fit as many mini subs and DSRVs as possible on the ship

@coach joe posted:

That's sweet.  Length is not far off but it does look more massive.  The height doesn't look too much taller,  how's the width?  Are you building "O" Lego trucks or are you going to try to mate some Lionel or MTH trucks to it?  Did you print up decals?

The decals came with the purchase of the instructions.   My intent for this project is Lego built trucks with O gauge wheel sets.  The hopper trucks from the last Lego project will be the starting point.

The width is only slightly larger.  I really like the proportions.

I know it's been a while since you posted the link for the plans, did procuring the parts or life cause the delay in the build?

Life, death, economics, etc.  Mostly I decided it was finally time to get A Round Tuit.

I'm attempting a LEGO iPhone controlled crane car for O-Gauge, with a (in theory more useful) grabber instead of the hook, functionality like the TMCC Lionel one I couldn't justify spending 300 on. Could you please like this if you would buy one? I'm an engineering student trying to make grocery money, have fun, and get better at Engg.

@Matthew Davis. I keep trying to play your video without success.   I like where your head is at, but I think you're going to have a hard time beating the function of a tmcc crane with lego for a $300 price point, though I would love for you to prove me wrong!  It will certainly be a challenge to get a battery box a motor for spin, boom elevation,  hook, and grabber all into railroad crane package using lego parts.

I will try you video again later.

Here's a slight modification I made to one of the Lego sets I plan to use when I set up m take on Cape Canaveral.  It always bothered me that the shuttle transport had wheels instead of tracks like the transporter from another set.

I contemplated adding similar tracks to the shuttle transport I would have to build out too far in order for these tracks to clear the transporter frame.  A redesign of the frame would be needed.  Before I dedicated any time to such redesign I came across Lego Technic Snow Groomer set 42148, sorry no picture.  This set was $12.95  and from the photo on the box the track length looked like it may fit the wheel spacing on the transporter so I figured I would give it a try.  I grabbed two and off I went.

The Technic tracks sections were narrower and not as heavy as the gray tracks above but with minimal changes to the transporter the wheels were replaced with tracks in short order.  The snow groomer track length was significantly longer than I thought, what is on the transporter is about 60% of the length intended for the snow groomer.  Full length would have been too long for the length of the transporter and 80% length would require some redesign so I took the easy way out. 

I think that a lot of folks following this post may want to know three things:

1.  Is there a glue that will hold Lego blocks together?

2.  Is there a paint that will stick to Lego blocks.

3.  Is there any easy method for cutting off the cylindrical dots on the top of a Lego brick?  (If you used them to make a wall or trestle pier, then you would want to cut those off on the top bricks.)

Thanks,

Mannyrock

Some input on previous questions:

1 - Any glue that works with plastic is fine though not necessary needed.
2 - Painting - https://sominibricks.com/blogs...-to-paint-your-legos
3 - Not sure you would cut off or place a lego cap on the top brick. See some examples at https://www.brickowl.com/catalog/lego-parts/tile

Custom built LEGO buildings can look great with O scale. I built these two skyscrapers years ago for my LEGO city, but here I've added 1:43 & 1:50 vehicles and 1:43 trees and accessories and in the second photo, an MTH 5 story building. -Duncan