Subject:
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Re: Acela ver2: Magnetic nose coupler
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.trains
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Date:
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Tue, 31 Oct 2000 23:34:31 GMT
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Viewed:
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733 times
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In lugnet.trains, Christopher Masi writes:
<snip 8-wide discussion>
<Masi points out 8-wide good for interiors>
I have really enjoyed seeing all the 8-wide creations. Agreed, the interior
space available in an 8-wide creation is very cool. What I've seen done in
interiors quite a "playability" increase to me.
> Anyway, James I love all your stuff! Build what ever size you want, just keep
> building. Maybe someday I'll try a passenger train, and I know what ever I
> come
> up with will have been inspired by your creations. By the way, is there really
> a
> need to have two Acela engines running nose to nose?
I'll keep building as long as I can. :-) And, as long as the pieces don't run
out. ;-)
Addressing the Acelas running nose-to-nose, I must say that I doubt I would
ever be able to run two Acela trainsets nose-to-nose, for I'm not sure I have
enough of the same pieces to build four Acela locomotives! (maybe I do.
Haven't checked quantities of certain "special" pieces.)
Why a magnetic coupler in the nose of my Acela in general:
1) The point is more that the real Acela has a coupler on its nose, so I
thought to try and put a coupler on the nose of my Acela model. Just trying to
imitate the function.
2) Also, more generally, some "high speed" trainsets, like the French TGV and
some (all?) German ICE trainsets, couple two trainsets nose-to-nose for higher
capacity or longer routes (that's a guess). I thought that this coupler design
could be incorporated into future versions of other "high speed" LEGO train
models. The nose-to-nose trainsets I've seen in real life have four "nose"
units. I'm not sure all the "nose" units are actually locomotives, or if one
is just for aerodynamics and a control cab for the engineer.
3) My (limited) vision might be that someone else in a train club might like
the model enough to build their own Acela. Maybe two people in a train club
would like the idea of each building their own Acela trainset. Then, at group
events they could couple them together for a longer combined trainset.
4) Perhaps the real-life Acela's nose-mounted coupler exists only to couple to
other rolling stock for repair service or emergencies? I gather there are
requirements in place by railroads that major rolling stock in service be able
to be coupled at either end of the unit. To this end, I am trying now to build
a magnetic adaptor linkage to interface the nose of my LEGO Acela to the
standard LEGO magnet coupler with buffers. As you may have noticed, the height
of the magnet in the nose of my Acela is higher than the standard LEGO train
magnet on a standard rolling stock. I imagine just needing an "L" shaped
linkage to match the height close enough.
later,
James Mathis
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Message is in Reply To:
 | | Re: Acela ver2: Magnetic nose coupler
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| Jumping in to add my voice to the 6 vs 8-wide thing. 8-wide has been fun. I think the biggest advantage is the extra interior room. Big cars look cool, but when you can open them up and have great interiors the coolness factor goes WAY up. The three (...) (24 years ago, 31-Oct-00, to lugnet.trains)
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