When it's midnight, and the LEGO Trains are out...

[doodon2whls]

...it must be Christmas time...

This past weekend, Mr. and Mrs. Doodon2whls got motivated out of their COVID-Hangover-Funk and got their Christmas on !

The house is tastefully decorated inside and out. Sunday, we procured, transported, erected, lit, and decorated a Christmas Tree.... Then, La Piece de la resistance; LEGO Trains !

She pulls good for a 13 year old drive unit on 9V.

I have a small LEGO train collection that I drag out each year to put under the tree. The Christmas train (10173) is always good for a laugh. And I have the Hobby Train (10183) which was - until Sunday night - configured as the main model: The Crocodile. Since I am anticipating Santa bringing me the newly released Crocodile (10277) for Christmas, I reconfigured the Hobby Train into a modified #5 MOC: A EuroTrain Locomotive.

I had enough LEGO remaining to build a passenger car and a freight container low-boy car as well. Fun Times ! I also realized that I have the dreaded crumbling 9v Track power wire which I was able to salvage for this season, but need to address sooner than later.

Getting the House and Tree decorated this past weekend was a great boost to our morale and outlook...

I sincerely hope that you all have a wonderful Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, Festivus, or __________ this coming month.

OK... Enough chitchat... I've got more track to lay !

Just another joyous day at Lego City Train Station...

What's this? A Train heist ?

Oymygosh! Lookout Mr. Engineer Man! It's JAWS !

This guy sitting back in 2nd class looks a little unsavory. Possibly an accomplice !?

[CB]

@doodon2whls Man, I never got lego trains, but I always wish I had. Looks awesome.

[doodon2whls]

@cb said in When it's midnight, and the LEGO Trains are out...:

@doodon2whls Man, I never got lego trains, but I always wish I had. Looks awesome.

I was pulled into LEGO from a young age. I never had anything crazy in the way of a LEGO collection until I became an adult (ironically) and could afford nice things. The LEGO Trains are not cheap, but they are sturdy and a joy to build and run. A childhood friend of mine had a HUGE collection of trains (this is back in the 1980's). Whenever we'd visit, he and I would disappear for hours building track layouts and inventing new rollingstock. Ahhhhh, the memories.

[jminer]

Lego trains have been on my wish list for a very long time. Never got them as a kid and couldn't ever justify shelling out for them as an adult but very much regret this.

Color me very jealous of your awesome setup there!

[Shop-Teacher]

@doodon2whls This is awesome! I'm a Lego nut, but have never had one of the trains.

[Tripper]

Man I always wanted that train set as a kid! I just promised my kiddo that we could bust out my trains this weekend.

[facw]

@doodon2whls My photography skills circa the late 1980s were somewhat lackluster, but I had this set as a kid:

I still have a bunch of those track pieces clogging up a box of Lego parts in my closet, but I know at least a few were broken, and it seems likely some were lost, so I highly doubt I could make a full circle today. I have doubts about being able to build much a train (especially a powered one) as well, but I'm sure I could at least find enough train wheels for one car.

[doodon2whls]

@facw
Brings back memories! The 12V trains were great for their time, but the tracks were very labor intensive to build with individual rails, ties, and power contact strips...

[facw]

@doodon2whls No power contacts here IIRC. Pretty sure this guy was battery powered. Batteries in the red car? And then a big motor block in the engine?

[doodon2whls]

@facw There were battery pack drive units, but 8 AA's in the 80's was a wad of cash to spend to make the trains go round and round.

Let's face it: nothing about LEGO is necessarily cheap, but that's basically fixed cost for the sets. Dropping batteries into the loco's every couple of hours was a significant variable cost.

My friend's parents spring for the transformer power kit and contact rails.

Personally, the 9V electrified rails is my fave. I grew up on HO trains and slot cars, so having the rails powered seems 'right' to me. However, I wholeheatedly agree that the Bluetooth/remote controlled trains give you a ton more flexibility w.r.t. multi train operation, but I only have two locomotive right now... Soon to be a third which will be powered by battery and bluetooth controlled...

[facw]

@doodon2whls Looked it up, this is set 7722, which was a 4.5V set with the battery car taking 3 C batteries. Apparently very little assembly required on that car as well:

[doodon2whls]

@facw

Holy crap ! Yeah, that is the battery car! My friend had this, but we never ran batteries in it AFAICR. But yeah- 3C batteries.. Damn, my memory sucks.