Clutch & Studs

I built a loop long enough I can run both my trains with very little speed adjustments to keep them evenly spaced.

A work progress. I'm not happy with the studs on the siding, but LEGO hasn't made a tile version of this wedge plate... yet.

In 1978, the first Space-themed LEGO sets landed on store shelves. In the first year, the minifigures came in white and red.

I started creating step-by-step instructions for custom LEGO train cars a few years ago, but never put too much work into cover art until now.

Anticipating a quieter-than-normal Pride season here in the Castro District this summer, I made a little something to celebrate.

I used grille pieces to recreate our neighborhood's unique pin-stripe pride rainbow crosswalk design, printed custom vinyl stickers for the road signs, and a minifig waving a rainbow flag.

An 8-year-old would be wise to question my sanity and suggest I check in with my psychiatrist for saying this, but... Despite all the time at home, alone in lockdown without all that much to do, my large collection of LEGO® bricks has largely just sat in the cabinet unused.

It hasn't just been a lack of interest in LEGO, we all know this year has been a struggle, and I just haven't had much energy to put into any of my creative interests.

Nobody likes stepping on bricks, obviously, and he hates the sound of train motors, but my dog Disco has been otherwise indifferent to LEGO.

Until I put together the mighty Saturn V.

I've nearly finished my new locomotive.

I pushed the smokestack forward into the gray (silver) section at the front of the boiler tank and the made the cab a full 8-studs-wide.

Eureka

As I've been struggling to recover from foot surgery and infection, made more complicated by old sports injuries, I've been in a creative lull. As a professional designer, creativity is kind-of my raison d'etre.

But things are looking up. In the last couple of weeks, I've been able to walk more than I have since February and I've started a few new projects.

Everything is a work-in-progress I'm not ready to share yet, but more eight-by-eight vignettes are coming.

I'm also finally making good progress on a locomotive to go with my passenger train set. I was painting myself into corners by trying too hard to avoid copying LEGO's own Emerald Night.

So, coming back to it fresh, I started with the Emerald Night as a baseline to build something more akin to the Coast Daylight than a British locomotive.