Lego Train Town Project

Trying out the sights

SWB — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 15:12:10 +0000

Well folks, we thought we’d share some pics of trying out different positions for the kits we have built so far, and to let you start seeing the slow replacement of the holiday display. I hope you enjoy the pics.

This is our way of “trying out the sights” and starting to get ideas of what may work. Of course, because of my step-daughter, the first thing we had to put in place was the horse trailer.

A Huge Find

SWB — Sun, 28 Feb 2010 11:53:51 +0000

Well, we scored a huge find.

Thanks to my wife’s younger brother, we now have an additional 35 to 45 pounds of Legos to sort through. It appears that the find contains anything from the Pirate Ship kits to Space Police.

So far it’s taken me about 4.5 hours to get through one third of the container … I figure I should be here the rest of the year .

My wife and her daughter completed building the 4wd truck with horse trailer. The little one ended up playing with it for hours. It was definitely a good buy for that reason, and she’ll love seeing it in her farm area of the train set.

We have a few more small sets, we’ll tell you about those once we get them together.

The Horse Farm

SWB — Sun, 21 Feb 2010 22:41:32 +0000

One of the things we promised my step-daughter to always have as part of our train displays is a farm with horses on it. I know she prefers it to be a “rescue farm” due to her aspirations to become a vet.

She’s young, so as most young girls do, she loves horses.

Go figure, right?

One thing we’ve determined is that she is interested enough in wanted to become a vet, to take her seriously … so we’ve continued out promise of started a farm in the Lego based display by purchasing kit 7635, which is the 4WD truck with a horse trailer. Considering it’s the most expensive kit so far, I hope she likes it

Display Info

SWB — Sun, 21 Feb 2010 22:32:42 +0000

Here is a little starting info.

The train platform is constructed of two 32 inch by 80 inch Luan doors. I got this trick from a friend that constructed rather large holiday displays years. The doors tend to be very straight and stay that way, because normally they have a corrugated honeycomb within them. They are also very light to move and store.

With exception to the transformer that drives the train and trolley, the power for the display is provided by a computer power supply. It was chosen for the following reasons:

It provides multiple voltages ate 3.3v, 5v, and 12v
The are multiple safety precautions in computer power supplies, making them great for use around children (ie. they shut off very quickly q=when shorted, etc)
The are generally provide very clean power, avoiding damage to any items you power with the unit.

The track is traditional Lionel O-27 with 27 inch curves. Personally I like the traditional track as it runs a little more quiet than the regular O scale tracks. This limits you to trains and cars that can make a 27 inch radius, but also saves you on space (we live in a duplex, so that is a concern.

Our Project

SWB — Sun, 21 Feb 2010 03:17:29 +0000

A pic of our first Lego kits built for use on our train display.

A while ago we starting putting back together our Christmas train display. After fixing up our basement a little, we decided to keep the O-Scale Lionel/MTH display up all year. We realized the holiday display would not be appropriate for all season, so we wanted to find a unique display for the rest of the year (that wouldn’t take us broke). I also know of people make large scale Lego Train displays from all Lego products, but we wanted to see if we could do it with the O-Scale display.

Since both my wife and I loved Lego’s when we were younger, we figured that would be a neat way to go … especially since her daughter could also participate.

So, if anyone actually reads this, wish us luck on our journey into Lego Land.