Recreating a scene with the Big Boy & a GE EMD

[legoman666]

IMGP2198

IMGP2196

IMGP2197



Only difference is that in my version, the EMD is being pushed by the Big Boy ;) Edited June 24, 2015 by legoman666

[Feuer Zug]

Nice set of locomotives. Any Big Boy in LEGO is impressive and did a cracking good job on yours. That you back it up with a well executed GE ES44AC makes it only that much better. You've got a good layout too. I see a crossover switch there. You are fortunate to have one. The rolling stock looks to be well done too. The only thing missing is all the minifigs along the way taking pictures of the Big Boy as it rolls through

One note, your diesel locomotive looks to be a GE ES44AC, while the one in the real picture is an EMD SD-70M. I noticed a mismatch in the engine number. If you care, a list of engine numbers can be found here: https://en.wikipedia...volution_Series If you don't, it's your world and it looks fabulous. Brick on!

Edited June 24, 2015 by Feuer Zug

[LEGO Train 12 Volts]

Amazing pictures!

[Commander Wolf]

You're missing another loco behind the Big Boy

This is actually a pretty unique train to model though; I doubt we'll see anything like it soon.

That being said, I can't wait to see the real thing back in action, though I've also read ominous things about UP's steam program imploding...

[legoman666]

Nice set of locomotives. Any Big Boy in LEGO is impressive and did a cracking good job on yours. That you back it up with a well executed GE ES44AC makes it only that much better. You've got a good layout too. I see a crossover switch there. You are fortunate to have one. The rolling stock looks to be well done too. The only thing missing is all the minifigs along the way taking pictures of the Big Boy as it rolls through

One note, your diesel locomotive looks to be a GE ES44AC, while the one in the real picture is an EMD SD-70M. I noticed a mismatch in the engine number. If you care, a list of engine numbers can be found here: https://en.wikipedia...volution_Series If you don't, it's your world and it looks fabulous. Brick on!

You have a sharp eye! I've had my eye set on a crossover for about a year but they were always too expensive. Finally found one on eBay for $65, so I snatched it up. And of course you're right about the diesel being the wrong model, but I had to make do with what I had available ;) I followed the instructions on Flickr for the big boy, but ended up modifying parts of it quite a bit to improve reliability and accuracy.

[bogdanmn]

they look absolutely fantastic. Amazing job !

B

[zephyr1934]

That is a fantastic looking consist you have there. The big boy looks like it is track powered with metal drivers, no? How did you power it? Do you have more photos of the big steamer? While poking through your photo stream, the blue CSX locomotive is very sharp too. It also looks like you've been metal taping ME tracks, is that working well?

[THERIZE]

You're missing another loco behind the Big Boy

This is actually a pretty unique train to model though; I doubt we'll see anything like it soon.

That being said, I can't wait to see the real thing back in action, though I've also read ominous things about UP's steam program imploding...

also cant wait for it! I don't know if an big boy is really the best locomotive to bring back in action. Would be pretty sick!

[legoman666]

That is a fantastic looking consist you have there. The big boy looks like it is track powered with metal drivers, no? How did you power it? Do you have more photos of the big steamer? While poking through your photo stream, the blue CSX locomotive is very sharp too. It also looks like you've been metal taping ME tracks, is that working well?

Thanks! You have very sharp eyes too. It is indeed track powered. I had the wheels 3D printed in stainless steel. I only had 4 made, still need to order the other 4, but they're $20 each so I've been holding off. The power pickup is similar to the rest of my locomotives; track power is run through a bridge rectifier and then fed to a DC-DC converter, which powers a bluetooth motor controller. Motor controller powers 4 large PF motors. There are also 6 14500 lithium batteries to provide power seamlessly when track power is lost. (I normally use NiMh cells, but they were not equal to the task of 4 large PF motors). The batteries also feed the DC-DC converter, so the motor controller is always supplied with a constant voltage regardless of power source.

No other photos yet. It's not my original design, so I didn't feel like it was right for me to do so. It also needs a little work; more greebling, fix the plow, and redo the gearing on the second set of drive wheels to reduce derailments.

As for metal taping the track, I only did 2 pieces. It was too much work, doesn't look good, and curls up at the edges. I does work reasonably well though... I've been thinking about trying conductive paint, but I have a feeling that it will not be durable enough. A little jar of it is almost $30, so its not even worth it to me to try.

Edited June 27, 2015 by legoman666