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Awesome Trains

How to Stop a LEGO Train

How to Stop a LEGO Train

Gnuk Animations has an obsession with LEGO trains, and likes to see what it will take to stop one from rolling down the tracks. On their TikTok channel, you’ll find videos of a LEGO train taking on spaghetti, Q-tips, Pokémon cards, paper straws, tin foil, and more.

200-Wheel LEGO Car

200-Wheel LEGO Car

After building a crazy LEGO car with 100 wheels, the Brick Experiment Channel doubled down on the vehicular madness. Their latest build has twice as many wheels, and a simplified design which allows it to drive more smoothly and make tighter turns than the original. Measuring 21 feet long, it could easily drive into itself like players in the Snake game.

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Pulling a Real Train with Miniature Trains

Pulling a Real Train with Miniature Trains

A couple of years back, Miniatur Wunderland set a world record by playing Christmas music on a model railroad. Now, they’ve set another world record by pulling a full-size train engine with 198 miniature train engines. They only went about 40 feet, but it’s still astounding that they pulled 84 tons.

Swiss Alps Train Ride

Swiss Alps Train Ride

Come along for a ride on a cogwheel train that takes passengers to the top of Switzerland’s Mount Pilatus. The first-person footage from Switzerland is Life will make you feel like you’re riding along with the conductor as you ascend to the alpine summit. Watch it in 4K full-screen with headphones for maximum effect.

Backyard Fence Model Railroad

Backyard Fence Model Railroad

Woodworker Matt Thompson has a pretty awesome backyard setup that includes his own private bar. He also built a model railroad along his wooden fence. The O-gauge train rolls along the L-shaped privacy fence and loops back and forth at each end, providing some extra entertainment for his visitors. As others have suggested, he should extend it into the bar.

Building a Mini Hyperloop Train

Building a Mini Hyperloop Train

While a full-scale version of the Hyperloop is a long way off, engineering teams have created costly scaled-down prototypes of Elon Musk’s envisioned high-speed railway. James from ProjectAir did things on an smaller scale, using off-the-shelf and 3D-printed parts with a shop vac to pull a model train along the outside and inside of an acrylic tube.

Taking a Ride on the World’s Longest Model Railroad

Taking a Ride on the World’s Longest Model Railroad

Oregon’s Train Mountain is home to the longest model railroad in the world. It has a 1/8th-scale electric-powered train that rolls on 37 miles of track, including multiple pathways controlled by switches, tiny towns, railyards, bridges, and a turntable. DownieLive managed to score a ride on the miniature train to experience its many wonders.

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Train Speed Comparison

Train Speed Comparison

We’ve seen how fast aircraft fly relative to each other, now find out how various trains compare. Red Side is back with another great comparison video, which looks at the speeds of every kind of train they could think of. They start with vintage steam locomotives and work their way up to today’s bullet trains, then imagine what a 5000 kph train ride might look like.

Home Office Railroad Car

Home Office Railroad Car

After working from home for more than a decade, we love the idea of a standalone space to get away from distractions. Lou Maxon worked with architect Olson Kundig to create a home office on wheels that be rolled from the house into the woods of the Pacific Northwest. Nelsontreehouse, treehousepete, and dash.arc got up close with the steel structure.

Infinite LEGO Domino Circle

Infinite LEGO Domino Circle

We’ve seen a LEGO machine that keeps knocking down and standing up a row of dominoes, but this version by JK Brickworks is even more satisfying. After its 64 dominoes start falling, a motorized train runs around its circular track and stands them back up. If it weren’t for its power needs, it could run forever.

Making a Sawzall Locomotive

Making a Sawzall Locomotive

Maker and tinkerer Peter Sripol noticed a similarity between the reciprocating motion of a Sawzall and the drivetrain of a steam-powered locomotive. Perhaps jealous of William Osman’s power tool races, he got to work rigging up a reciprocating saw to drive a G Scale locomotive. It works surprisingly well.

Transformers Masterpiece G Trainbots

Transformers Masterpiece G Trainbots
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Takara Tomy’s Masterpiece G figures are based on the 1980s anime Transformers: The Headmasters. There are figures of Trainbot Getsuei, Seizan, Shouki, Yukikake, Suikan, and Kaen – each capable of transforming from a heavily-armed robot into an inconspicuous choo-choo train. Combine all six figures to build Raiden.

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The Trash Train

The Trash Train

Sometimes we forget to put our trash cans out until the garbage truck is already outside. What we need is Max Maker’s Trash Train running on a schedule. Max built this automated railway for his cans when he had to start storing them on the other side of his house. Engineering and fabricating it was more complicated than it looks.

Bullet Trains in the Snow

Bullet Trains in the Snow

You’d think that a bullet train whooshing by you at 200 mph might be jarring, but this video of Japan’s Shinkansen high-speed railway zooming by in the snow is oddly soothing. YouTube channel It’s railway! shared this compilation of footage captured on snowy days at the empty Kurikoma-Kōgen Station.

How Train Wheels Are Made

How Train Wheels Are Made

This sped-up video shows how workers produce those big steel wheels for trains. They start with a rod of molten-hot metal, flatten it with a mechanical hammer, work it into a clean round disc, press grooves in the wheel, then punch a hole into its center for an axle. Here’s how a more automated factory does it.

LEGO Train Close Call

LEGO Train Close Call

We’ve seen some pretty epic LEGO railroad builds over the years. This simple figure eight track won’t win any awards for complexity, but it’s the precise length of its train that makes it noteworthy. Every time it passes through the intersection, it comes within millimeters of ramming into itself. Ramp up the anxiety at 10x speed.

Photorealistic CG Train Station

Photorealistic CG Train Station

Artist Lorenzo Drago created this life-like environment using Unreal Engine 5 and Lumen for the lighting. The location is based on Etchū-Daimon Station and is a dead ringer for the real deal. In order to capture the greatest detail, he rendered it at 7fps then sped it up, but it can be rendered in real time with less detail.

Transforming Train Table

Transforming Train Table

Woodworker Peter Waldraff built this unique piece of custom furniture that conceals a working model railroad beneath its surface. The circular side table has a pop-up center section that houses an N-scale train that chugs along the rails through a scale scenic backdrop inspired by Close Encounters of the Third Kind.

An Hour in Wunderland

An Hour in Wunderland

Germany’s Miniatur Wunderland is home to the most amazing miniature scenery on the planet. This video lets viewers ride along every section of its model railway, offering a 360º view of the tiny world, including the insides of its tunnels. The mounting position of the camera makes the train partially disappear though.

Train Changes Gauges

Train Changes Gauges

You might not know it, but depending on the location, trains might roll on different gauges of tracks. That normally means railroad engines and cars can only roll on compatible width tracks. But this ingenious rail car has an undercarriage that automatically adjusts its width to adapt between 1-meter-wide and 1.43-meter-wide tracks in Switzerland.

LEGO Propeller Car Tug of War

LEGO Propeller Car Tug of War

GazR’s Extreme Brick Machines! continues to entertain with their LEGO Technic prowess. In this video, they pitted a powerful propeller-driven car against a train engine and a 4×4. Which vehicle will reign supreme in the LEGO tug-of-war?

LEGO Winter Train Ride

LEGO Winter Train Ride

Half-Asleep Chris created this wonderful LEGO railroad which winds through a snowy winter scene. The indoor-outdoor ride takes the tiny train through a gingerbread village, an ice cave, a spinning storybook tunnel, and a giant snow globe made from a geodesic dome. The journey starts around the 7-minute mark.

World’s Steepest Funicular

World’s Steepest Funicular

Take a ride on what is now the steepest funicular railway, a marvel of engineering that carries passengers up a mountain in Stoos, Switzerland at a crazy 110º gradient. It lifts more than 89,000 pounds, nearly 2500 feet in altitude along its 1.07-mile route.

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