New Product: LEGO 6061 Siege Tower Classic 1984 Castle Lion Knights Set
This vintage 1984 Castle set hails from the Lion Knights LEGOLAND series.
The set builds a siege tower on ‘wooden’ wheels …read more at
Hobby Trains
New Article: The LEGO Story Part III – LEGO Fights for Survival
The LEGO Story( , )
In 2004, LEGO posted its largest single loss as a Company in its history.
With roughly 400 million dollars in corporate red ink that year, most financial analysts believed that LEGO was beyond saving in its then current form as a family owned business.
Fast forward to 2010.
In 2010, LEGO posted one of the finest bottom lines for any toy company anywhere…..ever…..a profit in excess of 686 million dollars expressed in American currency, at a time when the number of dollars, krone, marks, pounds, or any other currency we might mention, available per capita for toy purchases worldwide was, and continues to be, at deep depression levels.
So what happened?
Surprises are common in the world of business. However, the majority of those surprises tend to emerge because company management have hidden the bad news from investors. When that happens, suddenly, people begin heading off to correctional facilities.
However, this was, and is, LEGO we are talking about.
The Kristiansens, maintaining the highest of business ethics simply because of who they were, and are, weren’t going to be spending time in confinement.
That said, though, the family understood another year like 2004 would certainly doom LEGO to, at best, a hostile takeover, and, at worst, well, no one in Billund wished to think about what the “at worst” scenarios might be. …read more at
NS to do 18 heritage units ? !
This was posted over on TO:
http://www.trainorders.com/discussio…2689879,page=1
In short, NS is said to be doing 18 heritage units as follows:
• Central of Georgia
• Conrail
• Erie
• Erie Lackawanna
• Lehigh Valley (red)
• New Haven (not definite yet)
• New York Central
• Nickel Plate Road
• Norfolk & Western (blue)
• Penn Central
• Pennsylvania (Tuscan Red)
• Pittsburgh & West Virginia
• Reading
• Savannah & Atlanta
• Southern
• Tennessee, Alabama & Georgia
• Virginian
• Wabash
ACe units (10) and AC GEVO units (8), paint application is said to try and follow the original schemes as close as possible.
Wow, that will be enough to get me out trackside here in Cincinnati big time.
Rio Grande Modeling & Historical Society
Hi all,
As the new RGM&HS President, I have some questions from members of this (Rio Grande) forum pertaining to the RGM&HS.
As the new RGM&HS President, I have some questions from members of this (Rio Grande) forum pertaining to the RGM&HS.
*Are you a member or not?
*If you are a member, why?
*If you are not a member, why?
*If you are a member, what would you like to see in the future for the Society?
*If you are not a member, what would make you want to join?
*Would you be willing to do an article for the Society’s publication and what would be the subject?
*Would you be willing to help the Society at a train show?
Please feel free to add any other comments you may have.
I am hoping this will help me get more people interested in the RGM&HS.
I really appreciate your input.
Thanks.
New Product: LEGO 6249 Pirates Ambush Classic 1997 Pirate Island Fortress
The jolly roger flag flies high above the water at the Pirates Ambush fort.
Build a pretend log-walled building with two …read more at
New Product: LEGO 6887 Allied Avenger Vintage 1991 Blacktron 2 Space Ship
This classic Blacktron II Space set from 1991 builds an interesting spaceship with an X-wing design.
The front pilot’s canopy has …read more at
Please help with my N scale brass steamer!!! (DCC installed- shorting issues)
Hi all. I recently got my hands on a Key Imports FEF-3 and sent it up to my favorite DCC supplier (mostly because the owner is a member of my club and gives me a nice discount) and he installed a MicroTsunami sound decoder in it for me. It ran great for the first 15 seconds on the track and then it started having contact issues (it would stop, the decoder would restart and it would go again after a second or two) and every few times it would need a nudge and then it stated shorting out my system all together. I have the NCE PowerCab as my DCC system and so far I have checked a few things such as whether or not the metal brake shoes were making contact with the wheels/drive rods and such and I can’t see where they would be so at this point I’m stumped. This is my one and only brass loco and I have absolutely NO idea what to do. I would send it back up to my guy, but in all honestly he is swamped with business and I don’t really feel like waiting the 6-8 weeks for turnaround if someone here on the forums can help me. Thanks in advance guys!!!
MEA CULPA regarding POWERING FROG
Rails,
a few posts back I sited this idea to wire in the dead frog on Atlases to its own closure rail by removing the insulator and then filling it with solder, to power the frog so that HEX FROG JUICER could then see the right or wrong polarity and then flip it if poles are wrong. I believe I made a grave error here as de-gapping then would make frog permanantly part of the rail it’s connected to ( closure rail ). This, of course would mean that this same rail then goes through entire RR. So this is not going to fly. I see now that frog HAS to remain isolated as it comes. So I guess HFJUICER DOES have to supply current to frog and then flip it if frog polarity is not matching polarity of chosen route through the switch track..I thought we could cheat and cover more switches than the six frogs each HFJ can handle ( be wired to ) by splicing into leads from juicer and making multiple connections to many more frogs than 6. I was wrong. Sorry..
I do wonder if there will be in near future a larger Hex Frog Juicer that can handle ,say, 15 frogs but be less costly per frog. Say, $100.00 compaired with $70.00 now. I won’t be surprised, as, typically, new electronic devices do become less costly as they become wider spread and as competition grows..We’ve seen this with TVs, lap tops, and cell phones..way less $ than 15 years ago…
a few posts back I sited this idea to wire in the dead frog on Atlases to its own closure rail by removing the insulator and then filling it with solder, to power the frog so that HEX FROG JUICER could then see the right or wrong polarity and then flip it if poles are wrong. I believe I made a grave error here as de-gapping then would make frog permanantly part of the rail it’s connected to ( closure rail ). This, of course would mean that this same rail then goes through entire RR. So this is not going to fly. I see now that frog HAS to remain isolated as it comes. So I guess HFJUICER DOES have to supply current to frog and then flip it if frog polarity is not matching polarity of chosen route through the switch track..I thought we could cheat and cover more switches than the six frogs each HFJ can handle ( be wired to ) by splicing into leads from juicer and making multiple connections to many more frogs than 6. I was wrong. Sorry..
I do wonder if there will be in near future a larger Hex Frog Juicer that can handle ,say, 15 frogs but be less costly per frog. Say, $100.00 compaired with $70.00 now. I won’t be surprised, as, typically, new electronic devices do become less costly as they become wider spread and as competition grows..We’ve seen this with TVs, lap tops, and cell phones..way less $ than 15 years ago…
Input on my plan
So I’m in the design stage of a new 36×78 HCD layout and looking for input. Those familiar will immediatly notice it’s based off of the Scenic Ridge plan. (I recreated it in xtrkcad using the parts list on Kato’s website as a starting point) A small yard has been added at the bottom and the inside curves have been tweaked so they’re not so tight. The bridge will be 2" above the track below which will result in a 2% grade on the left side of the bridge and a 3% on the right. The crossover at the upper left will be a hill/tunnel.
So fire away gents, where are the problems?
Show me: Loco cab interiors
I tried to google these to see if there were any kits and came up with very little. Show me your scratchbuilt or otherwise loco interiors. Era doesn’t matter! How to’s are a bonus!
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