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In lugnet.general, David Koudys wrote:
> But, more importantly for shows, invariably someone will throw a switch or
> two during the show. Since we usually have 5-6 monorail trains moving
> around, this has led to some spectacular derailments (as much of our
> monorail is well above the baseplate level)
Yeah, we've had that happen for both monorail and 9v rail-- never a pretty
sight!
> Having completely separate loops offers lots more flexibility and takes up
> less space.
Yeah, we debated whether or not the "world's longest monorail" should mean that
it's a single loop, or merely CONNECTED track that ought to count. So if we had
(say) 3 loops connected by some switches, should we count the switches and
separate loops as one big number? Or just count the distance that a single train
would travel? We ended up playing it safe and counting only the loop that the
train traveled.
BUT, I have to say the temptation to make it take up less space is huge. The
amount of square footage necessary to make a layout that's on par with
world-record sizes is daunting, unless you do things like lots of little loops
and have vertical climbs!
> I've watched many families try to figure out where a monorail train will go
> in the layout, and the kids have fun following the many trains around.
Hmmm... I hadn't thought much about that, but it sounds like a great challenge
for kids, actually. I wonder if you could set up a REALLY long loop, and then
put different color "stations" on it, and have the kids determine the order of
the stations visited. Could be rather difficult depending on how complex you
made the loop!
> In the future, I may add a switch or two back into the layout, but for now,
> I'm good that they're not there.
Yeah, it definitely makes sense. The switches are fun to fiddle with, but they
do cause a lot of issues as you point out.
Oh, and from the "Learn Something New Every Day" department, I learned from
Abner at the recent BrickFair that apparently LEGO once took out a patent on a
monorail *CROSS* track. Dunno what the details are, but now I'll have to make it
a mission to find out more about it...
DaveE
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In lugnet.general, David Eaton wrote:
snip
>
> Oh, and from the "Learn Something New Every Day" department, I learned from
> Abner at the recent BrickFair that apparently LEGO once took out a patent on a
> monorail *CROSS* track. Dunno what the details are, but now I'll have to make it
> a mission to find out more about it...
>
> DaveE
I heard that as well! I've sketched out a design as to what I think could
potentially work, using the 'guts' of an existing switch track, but, alas, since
I don't own a 3d printer, I won't be prototyping anytime soon...
There was those .jpgs of the patents of the monorail track and train I 'copied'
from old web pages, but there was no monorail cross track.
Dave K
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