Vintage set of the week: Train Set with Motor, Signals and Shunting Switch
Posted by Huwbot,
This week's vintage set is 181 Train Set with Motor, Signals and Shunting Switch, released during 1972. It's one of 9 Trains sets produced that year. It contains 148 pieces.
It's owned by 319 Brickset members. If you want to add it to your collection you might find it for sale at BrickLink or eBay.
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23 comments on this article
International transport right off the edge of a cliff!
Where are they supposed to be going?
Nice to see that putting the set number somewhere on the actual model goes back at least that far. This set was released the year my parents were married!
@MCLegoboy said:
"International transport right off the edge of a cliff!
Where are they supposed to be going?"
The rails curve back to the left and down, so there's no indication that there's a cliff anywhere in the area. But being out of frame, there's no indication that there's _NOT_ a cliff, either...
@MCLegoboy said:
"International transport right off the edge of a cliff!
Where are they supposed to be going?"
According to the sign on the signal, the town of Nicht Vergessen is at a distance of 3 Batterien and 15 Volts.
The inventories page is empty, even though Brickset do have the inventory for it in the tab "Parts"
https://brickset.com/inventories/181-1/rebrickable
@MCLegoboy said:
"International transport right off the edge of a cliff!
Where are they supposed to be going?"
Perhaps this is an early version of Doc Brown’s time travelling train. Where he’s going he doesn’t need rails…
International Transport? Hope it doesn't run out of steam before reaching the border
Just watched the BrickTsar video, and only then realized the "shunting switch" is not a switch for some side track (the set only has a circle of track), but just the little pole you'd attach to the track that interacts with the switch on the battery car. All kinda confusing.....
DON'T FORGET
3 Batteries 1.5 Volts
Nine train sets that year, will we ever see such numbers again?
Don't know how easy it would be to actually get them these days, but I bet those stickers would look just as good on a train today.
@WizardOfOss said:
"International Transport? Hope it doesn't run out of steam before reaching the border
Just watched the BrickTsar video, and only then realized the "shunting switch" is not a switch for some side track (the set only has a circle of track), but just the little pole you'd attach to the track that interacts with the switch on the battery car. All kinda confusing....."
So, something akin to the switch they produced for monorail? That had three positions. Leave it in one, and the train would continue to pass by without any changes. Throw it all the way to the other side and it would reverse direction. Put it in the middle position, and the train would stop when it reached the switch.
@PurpleDave said:
" @WizardOfOss said:
So, something akin to the switch they produced for monorail? That had three positions. Leave it in one, and the train would continue to pass by without any changes. Throw it all the way to the other side and it would reverse direction. Put it in the middle position, and the train would stop when it reached the switch."
It only has one action - the loco reverses when the switch on the battery van hits the pole.
What a nice suprise! This was my first LEGO set! Love it!
Trains had peaked with this set. It was all downhill from here. 12V... 9V... battery-powered. No power...
Just kidding of course, but this is seriously a fun train from the blue rails era.
@SDlgo9 said:
" @PurpleDave said:
"So, something akin to the switch they produced for monorail? That had three positions. Leave it in one, and the train would continue to pass by without any changes. Throw it all the way to the other side and it would reverse direction. Put it in the middle position, and the train would stop when it reached the switch."
It only has one action - the loco reverses when the switch on the battery van hits the pole."
That indeed.......well, at least if it still has enough juice to actually do so, and not stop in the middle position :-)
Apparently the signal should stop the train, but that didn't seem to work in BrickTsar's video.
@WizardOfOss said:
" @SDlgo9 said:
" @PurpleDave said:
"So, something akin to the switch they produced for monorail? That had three positions. Leave it in one, and the train would continue to pass by without any changes. Throw it all the way to the other side and it would reverse direction. Put it in the middle position, and the train would stop when it reached the switch."
It only has one action - the loco reverses when the switch on the battery van hits the pole."
That indeed.......well, at least if it still has enough juice to actually do so, and not stop in the middle position :-)
Apparently the signal should stop the train, but that didn't seem to work in BrickTsar's video."
No. The signal stop only lets the train pass by or stop the train. If you go to BL the inventory is part number 3218. That part is the reverse switch that could also be placed anywhere next to the tracks to change directions using the switch on the side of the battery car.
@oldtodd33 said:
" @WizardOfOss said:
" @SDlgo9 said:
" @PurpleDave said:
"So, something akin to the switch they produced for monorail? That had three positions. Leave it in one, and the train would continue to pass by without any changes. Throw it all the way to the other side and it would reverse direction. Put it in the middle position, and the train would stop when it reached the switch."
It only has one action - the loco reverses when the switch on the battery van hits the pole."
That indeed.......well, at least if it still has enough juice to actually do so, and not stop in the middle position :-)
Apparently the signal should stop the train, but that didn't seem to work in BrickTsar's video."
No. The signal stop only lets the train pass by or stop the train. If you go to BL the inventory is part number 3218. That part is the reverse switch that could also be placed anywhere next to the tracks to change directions using the switch on the side of the battery car."
That was clear, but looking at the BrickTsar video, the reverse switch didn't quite work because the train stopped before it could trigger the switch all the way into reverse. It does need enough momentum to actually work.
As for the signal, it lifts up a part between the tracks, seems like that should interact in some way with the train, but that didn't work either in the video.
@WizardOfOss said:
" That was clear, but looking at the BrickTsar video, the reverse switch didn't quite work because the train stopped before it could trigger the switch all the way into reverse. It does need enough momentum to actually work.
As for the signal, it lifts up a part between the tracks, seems like that should interact in some way with the train, but that didn't work either in the video."
There should be a plunger on the underside of the battery van that gets pushed up by the signal ramp and disconnects the power.
My personal experience with the 4.5v battery vans is that by now, a lot of them will be unusable, either due to battery leakage, or tarnishing or metal fatigue of the copper strips inside. Fortunately this is Lego, so there's nothing to stop you substituting any of the other designs of train motor they've made.
@SDlgo9 said:
"My personal experience with the 4.5v battery vans is that by now, a lot of them will be unusable, either due to battery leakage, or tarnishing or metal fatigue of the copper strips inside. Fortunately this is Lego, so there's nothing to stop you substituting any of the other designs of train motor they've made."
Ah yes, there's also a Tipper Truck TV video that does indee show that.
It's funny, I never had one of those battery cars myself but one of my friends had, and I always wondered what that thing on the bottom was for. He didn't have a signal though, and I guess I just never tried what happened while the thing was running....
And yes, his one also died because of leaking batteries....
@WizardOfOss said:
" @oldtodd33 said:
" @WizardOfOss said:
" @SDlgo9 said:
" @PurpleDave said:
"So, something akin to the switch they produced for monorail? That had three positions. Leave it in one, and the train would continue to pass by without any changes. Throw it all the way to the other side and it would reverse direction. Put it in the middle position, and the train would stop when it reached the switch."
It only has one action - the loco reverses when the switch on the battery van hits the pole."
That indeed.......well, at least if it still has enough juice to actually do so, and not stop in the middle position :-)
Apparently the signal should stop the train, but that didn't seem to work in BrickTsar's video."
No. The signal stop only lets the train pass by or stop the train. If you go to BL the inventory is part number 3218. That part is the reverse switch that could also be placed anywhere next to the tracks to change directions using the switch on the side of the battery car."
That was clear, but looking at the BrickTsar video, the reverse switch didn't quite work because the train stopped before it could trigger the switch all the way into reverse. It does need enough momentum to actually work.
As for the signal, it lifts up a part between the tracks, seems like that should interact in some way with the train, but that didn't work either in the video."
Yeah, I went back and found the video. A review of a 7720 battery train. Typical BrickTsar video, he's sloppy and unprepared. Constantly breaking the set apart while doing the video and can't get it back together and just skips that part. Doesn't know what he's doing while filming and tells you he forgot to do something and says screw it and skips that part too. That's why I don't watch him much, he's a total amatuer and never seems to improve his video quality. If I'm going to waste my time watching a review I'll watch Jang, he's light years better than BrickTsar. I think the actual reason the train wasn't going fast enough is because he had the stop switch activated and it slowed the train enough so it wouldn't reverse. Again because he was sloppy and unprepared.
Strange camera angle before imminent collision. Maybe to confuse buyer as there an identical locomotive set 180 in 1972 but with two extra wagons, which was the RSoD https://brickset.com/article/112357 last August.
@ambr said:
"Strange camera angle before imminent collision. Maybe to confuse buyer as there an identical locomotive set 180 in 1972 but with two extra wagons, which was the RSoD https://brickset.com/article/112357 last August."
If you close your eyes just before the train hits, your brain imagines that you're made of plastic bricks. Some people find comfort in this.
The set that started it all for me…