***September 2, 2004***      Always run out of the LEGO train track 9v connectors so I made a few of my own. Never one to shed a tear at the 'sacrifice' of a 9v LEGO curve train track piece, I decided to use 'em for experimentation.      Surprisingly easy--Take a short length of 9v wire, and cut it as shown. Solder each end to the outsides of the metal rails.      Done!

***May 11, 2004***      Not really a track modification, but a LEGO train motor modification, so I'll put it here.      The first (and last) time I get a LEGO train motor from eBay. It was quite beat up. The top pin was busted and I had to do something about that.      What I did was drill a hole using my #8 countersinking bit the the point where the countersink was started in the plastic. In that way, the ridge from the grey peg can recess itself.      I also had to trim down the grey peg just a hair so it wouldn't interfere with the motor inside the casing.      After glueing, it works quite well.

***May 3, 2004***      First time for everything--I received two new sets of switches and one of the switches was faulty.      Didn't realize the switch was faulty until after I did some modifications to the switch.      So I took the bottom off to see exactly why the switch couldn't, well, switch properly.      Turned out that there's a bad piece of metal--almost looks as if the metal portion was fused with something else, but there's nothing else inside the switch that looked damaged.
		Eh, doesn't matter much to me 'cause I basically solder a wire to join the two rails anyway(see pic)--I dremelled off the offending piece of metal and glued the switch back together. Works fine.

***April 5, 2004***      A modified way for a modified switch! It's much more difficult than the other way, but the results, I believe, are worth it!      For this modification, you need 1 switch and two (2) curved track pieces.      The concept--You take your basic switch.

The curved part of the switch almost follows the same lines as the curved tracks as shown left.      That gap between the two curved sections can almost be filled in by a very small straight piece. Almost but not quite--we'll get to that a bit later.

I like starting with the easy stuff first--take a curved section of track--any section will do.      Cut it as shown. The final outcome, you want a curved section of track that's half the length as the standard curved section.

Trim down the cut sections until the two ends line up smoothly.      Use another curved section to verify the spacing and position.

Solder the metal rails at the cut and grind/sand smooth. I use the Dremel drum sander first, to remove excess solder, then 400 grit sandpaper to smooth things out.      I reinforce the joint using bits of LEGO (cut from broken pieces) and hot glue.

The parts, all glued and reinforced! Yes you trim the excess glue off later--Make it look all pretty-like!

Now the scarier modification--the actual switch!      I photoedited the picture to the right to show where I made the cuts. You'll see why as we go on.

Egads!! Check out the crappy cutting!! Eh, clean it up later...      Lop off an end of the remaining intact curved piece. Make sure you cut the proper end--it should follow the same curve as the main curve left on the switch.

Trim the switch and the end piece so they fit properly--Use a curved section of track as a template if needed.      Solder and reinforce with hot glue and you're done with the switch portion.

Take the half curved section and put it on the modified switch--et voila! Looks just like my other modified switches, except this one can be reconfigured.      This is why you need to cut the 'steps' into the plastic tie on the switch--the joining track pieces need the empty slot to fit properly.

But wait! There's more! For those of you that left the show already, you're going to miss 'the good bit' (and it may or may not have Marvin in it...)

After all the cuts and glueing, you should have two good ends on scrap track pieces--one on a curve piece, one from the cut arm of the switch.      Lop off the good ends as shown.      Verify fit and position using an original switch.

Note that the remaining ends are identical--they're not mirrored images of one another. This is very important--they both curve in the same direction.      Putting these identical pieces together end to end will give us the parallelogram that's on the original switch in that specific location as shown--that's why the straight piece just doesn't quite work in this instance (and who wants to cut up a straight piece anyway?)

Here are all the pieces shown, including the leftovers.      And now we see why we made the three pieces as we did--the switch, plus the 'parallelogram' plus the half curved piece equals the original switch! It's the best of both worlds!

This was the most difficult modification yet. It turned out surprisingly well for the first attempt and only two curved pieces had to suffer. I don't think I'm going to be making too many of these, but I may attempt another at sometime in the near future--must have balance!      The official camera for the 'Best of Both Worlds' switch is the Kodak DC120 Digital Science camera--just went above 10700 pictures. Nice.      These modifications were made easier by the soothing sounds of Jazz FM, Toronto.

***March 25, 2004***      Another modified switch, this time two wye's joined together on the offshoot yet having the straight sections remain 8 studs apart.      This was a scarier modification because if I screwed up, it would be two ruined switches.      Yet it turned out pretty well. Just remind me to go find some fine sandpaper to smooth out the rough edges.

***March 24, 2004***      The LEGO switching tracks you can buy right from the company are very nice, but every so often having different track geometry would make a layout better.      With this in mind, I took a Dremel to two of my LEGO track switches.

I wanted to make my LEGO Wye work as the beginning of one continuous curve track radius.      I used two curve tracks to verify the fit of the cut pieces.

After hot glueing the pieces together, and then soldering the metal track rails.      Eh, don't worry about the mess--that's what vacuum cleaners are for!      The wye switch on the layout. Look how good that looks.

Here's a TrackDesigner screen shot showing the difference between an unmodified track switch and a modified one to make a 90 degree turn.      Note that you save 2 track lengths on the horizontal rail line, and 1 track length on the vertical rail line. These switches also make it possible to put a loop of track with switches on one standard module.      Oh the possibilities! I think I'm gonna have fun with this one.