I don't have much to say as I'm not a train guy. But I like the timing considering I now own 70424 Ghost Train Express, which contains my first non-blue era style tracks. So I kind of partially own this one, technically. And it's those darned straight tracks too.

Oh, and the Orient Express release makes this topical too of course!

@legodachi said:
"https://brickset.com/article/59887/random-set-of-the-day-mt-201-ultra-drill-walker

I thought this set was rather boring"

No, that one's ultra boring. This one isn't all that boring in comparison.

@MeisterDad said:
"One of the few 4-digit set numbers to have survived long into the 5-digit era."

You're thinking of 7895 the Points which kept going long after this set was out of production. Though, I don't doubt you could probably have found 7896 on plenty of toy shop shelves a decade after introduction, and somewhere, you maybe still can.

Replaced by the Flex tracks of course.

I read the name as "straight and cursed tracks" it got me intrigued!

Hey, I own this one! Got it for Christmas together with 7895 along the one and only 7938. I didn't question it at the time, but nowadays I wonder why LEGO seemingly based that train on the "Regionalexpress" from the Deutsche Bahn...
This was one of those gifts were I was absolutely flabbergasted upon getting it, because 7938 was (at least box-wise) bigger than anything I'd gotten before, and getting the extra track on top of that was icing on the cake!

@HuskyDynamics said:
"Still wishing they made a version of 4519 for the all-plastic track, or at least that it wasn't 46 dollars on BrickLink.

Might just try and 3d print myself a few of them one of these days."

at the moment, a loose one it's 20-25€ on ebay...

eg: https://www.ebay.it/itm/325652052395?hash=item4bd25ff9ab:g:LL8AAOSw73JkXSq-&amdata=enc%3AAQAIAAAAwHJ2cfMo6rGildtK5%2B5BZEQmnl2BF646AnVpApR9efvASzKFUMSXP29Qr1HMSuR7%2FlAFwuyrD1LFXYCIY8DNtsG89sROMGLER7PtYIHa9U56c1VrMGUwaPc0Da%2F22vCqKbDa3%2FwFzUmEQLKo9by%2FMPnvQGeUYBFWA9YaJDJqP6t3scisAj08R7qxJ%2Fjk%2FaAKIrXNrTkTq9g%2BznrY%2B7yz5HbIJs8eCtggYbMmlMGU3t9ZVIGz8%2B%2BKFuAkdfQhywTOSQ%3D%3D%7Ctkp%3ABk9SR9qpt86CYw

@Maxbricks14 said:
"Possibly the most boring set ever on RSOTD!"

I dunno I think this one might take that:
https://brickset.com/article/41389

Also, are there anti-studs on the bottom of this to go with the studs on top? Just wondering exactly how much NPU you could get out of this

Always found it odd that there this is not a complete 16 curved track loop, as the main buyers would be those wanting to add to their trackless train sets, like 75955.

@SDlgo9 said:
" @DualBoot said:
"The loop can be done with straight too without bending. You will need approx 40.000 kilometers of it."
It'd be annoying if, having built all 40000km of the loop, you tried to join the ends and found they were a couple of studs too far apart."
Considering you're 75 km shy of a complete loop, I'd say you're gonna be a few studs short.

They got at least half of the set right. The other half took a turn for the worse though.

I would never run a train on these cause i am a proud owner of the 9v system and i would never ever cange that. Rather i would change my display diorama to no trains.
Battery boxes inside trains? What a waste of space.

@SDlgo9 said:
" @DualBoot said:
"The loop can be done with straight too without bending. You will need approx 40.000 kilometers of it.
"

It'd be annoying if, having built all 40000km of the loop, you tried to join the ends and found they were a couple of studs too far apart."

That's where the flex tracks come in play. :P

Imagine if LEGO would sell sorted rail packs in 4 or 8 packs, with different radii or length. Reality slap - never gonna happen!

@8lackmagic said:
"To this day I can't understand why they just couldn't sell the straights and curves as 2 separate sets (like they used to do)."

Money. From the Knudstop administration onwards, LEGO has become profit focused, to the extent of anticonsumer things like this. They have the Freudian excuse of almost going bankrupt, but that does not justify extreme measures like this.

@Al_S said:
"still, at least with plastic track there's 3rd party suppliers who will, as well as just selling you straight or curved track, sell you different lengths of straights and different geometry curves."

I know there’s one 3rd Party who does all-plastic, and I know there’s one who does conductive 9v rails. Both offer a range of wide radius track, but I don’t know what other non-standard options they have available.

@HuskyDynamics:
I’ve heard the crossing was notoriously finicky, and derailments were almost a given. If true, I doubt they will ever bring it back. Be glad you got a double crossover, which 9v never did.

@DualBoot:
Even if you could afford that much track, consider how much you’d have to pay for right-of-way. And you know it’s not going to make it half a block before some kid derails it.

@SDlgo9:
Just shim it until you’ve spread the ends far enough apart to fit one section of straight track.

Kids just absolutely COULD NOT harness their excitement upon receiving this set.

Legodachi said:
"I thought this set was rather boring"
[MT-201 Ultra Drill Walker]

Wow really? It's one of my grails.

Ah yes, my favorite set, railroad tracks!

@Rgelking said:
"Legodachi said:
"I thought this set was rather boring"
[MT-201 Ultra Drill Walker]

Wow really? It's one of my grails.
"

If that’s the case maybe you auger do something about it

It's atually called a caesura.

@DualBoot said:
" @PurpleDave said:
" @Maxbricks14 said:
"Possibly the most boring set ever on RSOTD!"

Nope. We've had a pack of straight track make RSotD before. This can at least complete a loop, if you get two of them."

The loop can be done with straight too without bending. You will need approx 40.000 kilometers of it.

"

Haven't you heard? The Earth is flat, it'll never work.

@MCLegoboy said:
" @SDlgo9 said:
" @DualBoot said:
"The loop can be done with straight too without bending. You will need approx 40.000 kilometers of it."
It'd be annoying if, having built all 40000km of the loop, you tried to join the ends and found they were a couple of studs too far apart."
Considering you're 75 km shy of a complete loop, I'd say you're gonna be a few studs short."

Shhhh, you're not supposed to tell people that metric base units are at least as arbitrary and irrational as those of another measurement system. Maybe even more so—my shoes are 1 foot long, which is a useful feature.

@Graw said:
"Where is the Bionicle lore guy when you need him"

Early railways descended from mining plateways which were horse drawn or gravity powered. The invention of steam locomotives was a process that began the development of the modern railroad. French engineer Nicolas-Joseph Cugnot made one of the earliest steam powered vehicles, a steam car; in 1769. A steam powered model train was made by John Fitch in America and legend suggests it was demonstrated on a small piece of track to George Washington himself.

However the UK was where the main significant advances in steam locomotive technology occurred, first with the Scottish Richard Trevithick who invented several early steam locomotives in the early 1800s. The opening of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway in 1830 was the first public steam railway, and with it the modern standard rail gauge of four feet 8 and a half inches. George Stephenson's locomotive The Rocket won the Rainhill Trials on the railway, proving the power of steam trains over horse drawn services, and establishing the Stephenson's with George and his son Robert as pioneers in steam locomotive design.

Despite common belief that the standard gauge was based on Roman chariots tracks found in ruins in the UK, many scholars argue that is apocryphal. Likely the result of the strange choice of standard gauge gauge comes from various measuring errors to get five feet, such as different points of measurement on the railhead before it was settled that the concept of gauge represented the space between the inner rails.

Various rail head shapes were also experimented with from... Okay fine that is enough lore. :P

@xboxtravis7992:
Sorry, what were you saying? My eyes glazed over suddenly.

I have a bad track record for derailing topics, but I just want to say I actually think this set is a sleeper hit. To the untrained eye it might seem a bit boring but I really hope we see more sets like this down the line.

@PurpleDave said:
" @xboxtravis7992:
Sorry, what were you saying? My eyes glazed over suddenly."

They did ask for a Bionicle guy to explain the LORE... somebody had to deliver.

@xboxtravis7992:
Yeah, but I don’t really see how Tahu factors into this.

Hey they asked for a Bionicle lore guy to explain not for the Bionicle lore to be explained. :P