Random part of the day: Train Buffer, No. 1

@ohrmazd:
This one’s not so bad. If anything is loading in front of it, it can just push it out of the way. The other style has to sit and wait.

The first time I built 60198, I had no idea that there were two types of buffers! I put this buffer plot on one of the cars. It did not look quite right.

@PurpleDave There are indeed several different variants but, being No. 1, this is the one that won the train buffing competition.

@MeisterDad:
I don’t know that you can really “win” a train buffing competition. They’re huge and tend to get very filthy. Not worth it unless you can Tom Sawyer the actual work off on some suckers and pocket half of the money yourself.

@PurpleDave said:
" @tomthepirate :
Technically there are five. Well, five that I know of, at least. Sealed magnets with and without the plow, old style magnets with and without the plow, and “US-style” bufferless buffers, or basically just using a 3x2 plate w/ hole in one end to plug the old-style magnet yoke into. I guess there’s at least six, if you count the Technic beam style used for the most recent Hogwarts train, and really old trains probably used one of those parts with a pair of 2x2 plates linked by a thin piece of plastic (all molded as one part). Wow, these things are as bad as the Inquisition, aren’t they?"

Thanks for the insights. I have not seen the US-style "bufferless" buffers. Which trains did use those? I think I have all the PF and PU sets but this might be an older style.

The 6th method with the 3-hole Technic beam ( 75955 ) works out quite nicely for push-along operation but it tended to wobble (but not derail) my locomotive when I motorized that set. I replaced the beam with a buffer on both the tender and the locomotive and the trains seems to behave much nicer.

@tomthepirate:
I don’t know that any actually did, but I see it all the time on LEGO trains in the US. Some are official models, so they’re either modified or this was used in those sets.

The problem with the 3L beam is that the magnet couplings are one stud longer, so the buffers bump on the Hogwarts train. This can cause the inside wheels to lift off the rail a bit, encouraging derailment.

For buffing trains.

Golly gee mister that's one buff train right there. So strong. So swol. What an absolute unit.

Super Chief, 10020 did, @PurpleDave.

Train buffer than what? We need bodybuilding contest, find which vehicle buffets of all!

So, any idea how to stick this one in front of that 2018 Hogwarts Express locomotive?

Never used 'em, never will. Any slight incline ands it scrapes the track - same with the old 9v-era ones. It needs to be a couple mm shorter in height. This part is a bad design that nobody seems to want to fix at LEGO.

@Modeltrainman:
Someone in my LUG who’s more into trains than I am told me the Santa Fe engine was designed by someone outside the company, like Market Street. If that’s true, then it’s kind of along the lines of that stunt that was pulled with the Bricklink/Ideas locking safe set, designing it with a part that doesn’t work, and then immediately telling you to switch to a part that does…but uses an illegal connection. If that’s false, and the Santa Fe was designed entirely in-house, then it’s a little weird that they’d do that for one train only, considering there are at least a few other engines that are clearly of American design (BNSF, Toy Story, and Lone Ranger immediately come to mind).

@Jack_Sassy:
Tape? I’m partial to gaffer’s tape from my theatre days, but any adhesive tape will do. And you’ll get tons of comments on it at shows, I’m sure!

Seriously, though, you’d need to heavily rebuild the front bogey and the chunk of engine immediately above it. There’s a hinged locking system that pins the articulated bogey in line with the engine, since the set doesn’t even include any track (this allows you to use HOG power on any flat surface, like a floor or table, where this would normally cause that articulated bogey to twist sideways and start dragging instead of rolling). Just, if you do this, it’s probably best to heed the advice of @Murdoch17 and make sure it’s sitting a plate higher than normal.