Subject:
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Re: 9V Train Motor Being Discontinued?
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.trains
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Date:
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Tue, 4 Apr 2006 18:11:08 GMT
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Viewed:
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4112 times
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Eric Kingsley wrote:
> Sure post anything that you feel would be helpful.
Ok, I'll add my $0.02 to the pile.
Summary: Lego trains are the reason there are now 100,000 Lego bricks in
my Lego room upstairs.
Details: When I was a little kid in Wisconsin in the 1970s, we had HO
trains in the basement (didn't everybody?). We had a big layout and did
lots of electrical stuff. I learned most of what I know about motors
and electricity and such via the trains. I built some little balsawood
buildings and a covered bridge that kept getting broken when my brothers
weren't careful. And the trains would sometimes tumble to the floor and
break and that was really, really, really bad because they were
expensive. And they couldn't be fixed except poorly with plastic
cement. We also had some Brix Blox (Sears Lego knock-off) for building
what today might be called great ball contraptions, but just a small bucket.
Then we moved to a new house and then I went to college and grad school
and then got married and had some kids and ended up in Raleigh, NC.
(While in Kansas I had done some N gauge railroading but nothing in a
big way. My N gauge stuff currently is in a box in the garage. Of
course, because the kids would break the trains just by touching them,
this was something I did on my own.) In about 1999, my second son's
preschool teach recommended "Legos" as a way for him to improve his fine
motor skills. So we got a bucket. And some other stuff.
And then one day the Great American Train Show came to Raleigh. We had
an open Saturday and some time and a dollar-off coupon. So we went.
And we saw the train clubs and the N gauge layouts and HO layouts and
such. Fun layouts, saw mills and trestles, brocolli trees, plaster
landscaping. Dirty and gritty, just like real railroads. Serious
people with serious toys. Oh, and don't touch! No! No! No!
Grumpy-looking guys keeping the kids away with threatening stares.
Then I saw the NCLTC display. Wow. Pretty colors. Fun goofy things on
the layout like a Santa parade and a monorail in a spiral and Thomas the
Tank Engine in LEGO! And a play table for the kids. And trains zipping
around and Mike Walsh and Cary Clark (and the others) talking to
zillions of people about the hobby and the trains and collecting canned
goods in exchange for a ticket to win a Lego set.
Wow. Wow. Wow.
And I kept thinking as I watched a train tumble to the edge of the table
and fall to the ground and break and hear the Lego train guys *laugh*:
"Wait a minute, if it breaks, you ... just ... put ... it ... back ...
together!" Whoa, dude. NOW I CAN GET BACK INTO TRAINS!
So I happen to see the blue train in the next catalog and get one for
Zach for Christmas and Harry gets that red one and I get them a ton of
track and we set them up and build them and I get one of the MOT sets
for Olivia and a Metroliner for me and soon we have trains and we build
tunnels and buildings and all sorts of things!
And then I find out about Mindstorms and get me one of those and find
out the train controller plugs into the RCX so I don't need batteries
and then the kids build a combination Star Wars Police Johnny Thunder
Fort Legorado Train and we run it with the RCX and IT ALL WORKS
TOGETHER! And if it breaks, we just put is back together!
And I'm buying Lego train stuff and other Lego stuff and finding stuff
on the internet and I find Lugnet and NCLUG and NCLTC and am having more
fun as an adult than I ever had with HO trains as a kid and I play with
the kids together. And the neighbor kid wanders in one day when my wife
and I and the kids are playing and says "Wow! You guys have Family Lego
Night?!?! That is so cool! I wish we had that at our house. My dad
won't let me play with his radio control cars. I broke his helicopter
and I got grounded."
And the Lego Trains 1981-2003 poster hangs on the wall in the lego room.
And last summer Harry and I went to Brickfest and had a ball and all the
kids in the neighborhood think the Great Ball Contraption is the
greatest thing in the world.
Ok, so they changed the greys and brown. I'll survive. I think it was
unbelievably stupid, but I'll survive.
But now they are going to get rid of the 9V train line? What, are they
nuts? "Say it isn't so, Joe."
The way I see it, there's not much that really needs to be kept: train
motors, track with metal rails, the controller, the wires, and the
wheels. If we never get new sets, I'd be fine with that; please,
please, please don't make regret playing with my trains because I'll
risk wearing out the motors. And please let me still buy more track (in
a color that will match what I have!).
Look at how people still love the monorail years after it is gone.
Don't make that mistake again.
Ok, that's that.
Rafe
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Message has 4 Replies:
 | | Re: 9V Train Motor Being Discontinued?
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| (...) Here's a reality check. The way LEGO makes train track is realy just wrong. It's way more expensive than it needs to be. Result - LEGO really can't afford to keep producing the existing 9v track and hope to remain profitable. The way I see it, (...) (18 years ago, 4-Apr-06, to lugnet.trains)
| | | Re: 9V Train Motor Being Discontinued?
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| (...) Dear Rafe, thanks for your story here. It was more worth than just 2 cent for me! I only hope some people at LEGO see, that metal track trains attract lots of people and that these often enough end with a 100.000 ++ collection of bricks. And (...) (18 years ago, 4-Apr-06, to lugnet.trains)
| | | Re: 9V Train Motor Being Discontinued?
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| (...) Hey, I have $0.02 here is my take. (...) I’m with you here. In 2002 I went to my first Brickfest. At that point I had just about no bricks and no Lego room. After that I started with castle but still did not have much in the way of bricks or a (...) (18 years ago, 5-Apr-06, to lugnet.trains)
| | | Re: 9V Train Motor Being Discontinued?
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| (...) . . . . (...) I wish to add my $0.02 worth also I think this story can be told by many Rafe, just change the names and ages and you have summed up my history with Lego Trains as well. (which has now made me a bit paranoid, is someone watching (...) (18 years ago, 6-Apr-06, to lugnet.trains, lugnet.loc.au)
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Message is in Reply To:
| | Re: 9V Train Motor Being Discontinued?
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| (...) Sure post anything that you feel would be helpful. The reason I wanted to focus on clubs is that they are essentially providing free advertising for LEGO which can be quantified and have a value attached. Any time you can say that LEGO will (...) (18 years ago, 28-Mar-06, to lugnet.trains)
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