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ER0L

A loco, a caboose, and some thoughts about containers and scale (9w, 8w & Monorail trains)

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Hi all,

hopefully it's okay to put all the train stuff together in one thread - I don't have that many train MOCs yet, plus all things belong together somehow. A few of you might know me as a car builder mainly, however, from the beginning I was interested in the different elements of Lego layouts - cars don't mean that much to me without a proper surrounding. That's why I've also built some other stuff over the years - which leads to the question of a proper scale.

Scale

When dealing with several types of vehicles and buildings, scale becomes an important aspect, that's why I've tried to find a proper graduation of widths for vehicles (like others did, too, but a bit larger since I'm developing things with the cars in mind):

17226930364_d042dfb55c_n.jpg

Some more info about this subject you may find in this EB thread: http://www.eurobricks.com/forum/index.php?/forums/topic/97314-citytown-vehicles-range-of-possible-widths/

The Monorail

Regarding trains, I started in 2013 with a PF-driven Monorail train: 

8710255722_9d6296fe17_n.jpg

The EB thread you may find here: http://www.eurobricks.com/forum/index.php?/forums/topic/82147-moc-monorail-train-7w-with-powerfunctions/. There are some developments going on regarding the Monorail, too, but that will be shown later.

The GP38-2

The GP38-2 you can see in the photo above was a first step into the "real" Lego Train world in 2015. I'm a huge fan of those great US Lego train layouts plus I wanted to see what trains and especially locos would have to look like to match the other stuff I’m building, especially the cars. I soon found out that even 8w might be too small for one of those gigantic American locomotives I wanted to build, that’s why I opted for 9w (plus railings), which furthermore looks quite good on the Lego rails with their large scale. 
 
When looking for a proper livery I soon found out that the St. Louis - San Francisco Railway (“Frisco”) would be a good choice since the rather simple logo could be built completely out of Lego quite easily. There don’t seem to be too many of them in Lego, I’ve seen 2 or 3 of them since, I guess, but maybe that’s rather due to my lack of knowledge in this field. The GP38-2 has gone through some changes recently to make it more fit for its duties (see below) - it originally had body-mounted couplers which didn't work out - and to improve its handling so that it might be more or less finished right now. This is what it looks like today:

34723436800_a0d6aeb8c3_z.jpg

Some more pics on Flickr. 

The loco has moving radiators, propelled by an M-motor, connected with the front lighting and operated via the IR receiver so that you have a bit of a startup procedure and the possibility to let it idle properly which is otherwise rather difficult when mimicking diesel-electric locos with Lego. Some specs:
 
Scale: 1/43
Length (platform): 50 studs
Length over couplers: 42 cm
Width (platform): 9w
Weight (with 4 batteries and two aluminum dummies): 1,130 kg

The Hump Yard

Originally meant to pull a (probably rather short) cargo train within a collaborative layout I recently thought about having a hump yard in order to get some more action on the layout. The GP38-2 had to be modified for that purpose (especially regarding the trucks), plus there had to be a second loco (a GP15-1, still a WIP) to push the cars uphill with 2 locos combined (which also proves to be a big improvement when pulling rather heavy cargo trains through curves). I also built some cars (also WIPs, except the caboose below). On a meeting with fellow builder Steffen Kasteleiner (see https://www.flickr.com/photos/29666619@N04) I was able to use two of his magnificent tanker cars so that there were already 5 cars to be humped, as is documented in this video:

The main point here is the decoupler for which I used the great and well-known decoupler design by CamelBoy68: http://www.eurobricks.com/forum/index.php?/forums/topic/80286-decoupler/

However, I added a spring so that you don't have to operate it any time you want to decouple a car. The downside of this is that you have to take off the decoupler part when pulling the train out of the yard. Still thinking about a solution to set down the whole spring unit for that purpose. Another possibility would be to pull out the sorted trains at the opposite side of the yard so that the hump is omitted completely. But that would require even more room. Of course the switches are operated by hand at the moment, I just edited that in the video. I'd love to enlarge the whole thing - however already a baby hump yard like this requires a lot of room.

The Caboose

Now for the caboose: 

34318619165_ecae6d1885_z.jpg

 

Some more pics on Flickr. The caboose is also 9 studs wide, of course, the cupola even 11 studs. I would have loved to build the cupola in 10w, however, I wouldn't have been able to build the roof in the style I've wanted. I've already been told on Flickr that there should be done more regarding the trucks, however, I haven't found a proper solution for that purpose yet - in fact you don't see much of the trucks from above at this width, but that might not be a proper excuse for you train guys! :wink:

One aspect in the title is still missing: containers. You may spot the 9w yellow well car with a 7w container in the video which is still in the making. Containers are an important aspect regarding scale since you can't use the usual 6w containers in such a surrounding. Plus containers are quite important to me because they are some kind of interface between road and track vehicles. There's already a proper container truck, there's a 7w container design with a special stacking lock, and there's a (hand-operated) reach stacker in the making. Hopefully this can all be presented together in the near future. 

100% Lego. Thanks for reading all this stuff, more to come!

Edited by ER0L

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Hi ER0L,

I'm glad you like the decoupler.  Are you using Version 3, as that one lets you select to decouple or not.  The first version of this had the drawback of only being useful in a one way situation.

cheers

CB

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Nice Geep. I like the looks, details, and especially the lettering without stickers. Have you considered trying an L motor for more pulling power?

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On 5.6.2017 at 10:33 PM, CamelBoy68 said:

Hi ER0L,

I'm glad you like the decoupler.  Are you using Version 3, as that one lets you select to decouple or not.  The first version of this had the drawback of only being useful in a one way situation.

cheers

CB

It's rather a combination of the two, I guess - a one way solution, but with the longer decoupler part of your last version. I was thinking about a different way to separate the cars from each other (with Technic liftarms coming from below - at least there's some room beneath the tracks due to the hump), but your concept proved to be so reliable and easy to handle that I didn't waste my time any longer. I'm very grateful for your invention!  

On 6.6.2017 at 6:38 PM, Feuer Zug said:

Nice Geep. I like the looks, details, and especially the lettering without stickers. Have you considered trying an L motor for more pulling power?

Thank you! At the beginning I was indeed thinking about that. However with this concept there wasn't any room for an L motor in spite of the loco's size. Plus I'm not sure if one L motor is better than 2 train motors, regarding the purpose of the loco, but maybe that's because my lack of knowledge.

I'd like to add 2 photos and a video. The photos show the pivoting of the trucks on the hump:

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An impression of the working radiators:

Many thanks all for viewing and commenting. There are quite a few train related MOCs in the pipeline, so I'll be back! 

 

Edited by ER0L

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Hi all,

in the meantime the "little sister" (in fact, she's not that little ...) of the GP38-2, the GP15-1, has been finished:

34428204653_ebcd3a0424_z.jpg

You may think she’s just a shrinked version of her bigger sister, but that’s not the case - a lot of details were tried on this one first (like the truck-mounted couplers or the removable cabin roof). The most important reason to choose this model was that I didn’t want to build moving radiators again like on the GP38-2. Plus I was thinking that maybe a shorter loco would be more suitable for shunting purposes, especially regarding the hump. However, I was proven wrong - the GP38-2 is actually working nicely on the hump, too, as you may spot in the video.
 
Main point here is the lighting - I wanted to have full front and back lighting (8 lights overall) on this one so that the loco may move in “long hood forward” mode, too. As I’ve been told, some people think that’s the proper direction of such a diesel anyway. I must admit that I don’t know exactly if the lights on an American loco are on all the time regardless of the loco’s direction - however, switching them would probably be too complicated. Some specs:
 
Scale: 1/43
Length (platform): 46 studs
Length over couplers: 39 cm
Width (platform): 9 studs
Weight (with 4 batteries and 2 aluminum dummies): 972 g

Here you can see both of them together:

35181102450_9fb93c46b1_z.jpg
 
100% Lego. Thanks for looking, more to come!
 

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2 hours ago, ER0L said:

Hi all,

in the meantime the "little sister" (in fact, she's not that little ...) of the GP38-2, the GP15-1, has been finished:

34428204653_ebcd3a0424_z.jpg

You may think she’s just a shrinked version of her bigger sister, but that’s not the case - a lot of details were tried on this one first (like the truck-mounted couplers or the removable cabin roof). The most important reason to choose this model was that I didn’t want to build moving radiators again like on the GP38-2. Plus I was thinking that maybe a shorter loco would be more suitable for shunting purposes, especially regarding the hump. However, I was proven wrong - the GP38-2 is actually working nicely on the hump, too, as you may spot in the video.
 
Main point here is the lighting - I wanted to have full front and back lighting (8 lights overall) on this one so that the loco may move in “long hood forward” mode, too. As I’ve been told, some people think that’s the proper direction of such a diesel anyway. I must admit that I don’t know exactly if the lights on an American loco are on all the time regardless of the loco’s direction - however, switching them would probably be too complicated. Some specs:
 
Scale: 1/43
Length (platform): 46 studs
Length over couplers: 39 cm
Width (platform): 9 studs
Weight (with 4 batteries and 2 aluminum dummies): 972 g

Here you can see both of them together:

35181102450_9fb93c46b1_z.jpg
 
100% Lego. Thanks for looking, more to come!
 

In regards to running directions and lights. Most railroads run short hood forward, that is standard except in a few famous cases (Southern and the Norfolk & Western being famous "long hood forward" lines). However most diesels do run fine long hood forward, and in rare cases some "short hood" lines will run them long hood due to the lack of a wye or turntable on route to change the direction (I once saw a Union Pacific SD40N running long hood forward up the mainline and then the branchline it was serving for this very reason). Lights turn on in the direction of travel. Although lights are required, there are a few regional railroads, industrial jobs, or branchlines, were engineers run the train without the lights on at all, or with a few bulbs burned out. Ditch lights are common on most modern locomotives too, and will blink depending on the situation. Some other lines used other lights such as Mars Lights or Gyralights instead of ditch lights, but that would be hard to properly recreate in Lego. Tail ends of trains usually have at least one red light, either on the FRED, trailing caboose, or trailing locomotive. Lights are only on when the engine is on, and are dimmed when the engine is not in motion.

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On 2.7.2017 at 2:34 AM, xboxtravis7992 said:

In regards to running directions and lights. Most railroads run short hood forward, that is standard except in a few famous cases (Southern and the Norfolk & Western being famous "long hood forward" lines). However most diesels do run fine long hood forward, and in rare cases some "short hood" lines will run them long hood due to the lack of a wye or turntable on route to change the direction (I once saw a Union Pacific SD40N running long hood forward up the mainline and then the branchline it was serving for this very reason). Lights turn on in the direction of travel. Although lights are required, there are a few regional railroads, industrial jobs, or branchlines, were engineers run the train without the lights on at all, or with a few bulbs burned out. Ditch lights are common on most modern locomotives too, and will blink depending on the situation. Some other lines used other lights such as Mars Lights or Gyralights instead of ditch lights, but that would be hard to properly recreate in Lego. Tail ends of trains usually have at least one red light, either on the FRED, trailing caboose, or trailing locomotive. Lights are only on when the engine is on, and are dimmed when the engine is not in motion.

Thank you very much for these hints which are very helpful! Didn't know that there are special "long hood forward lines", that sounds great.

Lights in the direction of travel might be a bit complicated with Lego locos but it's okay for me to have all the lights on. Of course working ditch lights would be great but I have no idea how to accomplish that with Lego. At least you'd need a lot of room for a motorized crank drive with two PF switches ... :wink: 

However, on the GP38-2 lights are switched on when the radiators start to move, plus the caboose does have a red light at the rear (still need to show that).

Thanks all for viewing and commenting, more to come soon!  

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Hi all,

there hasn't been much activity regarding the larger cargo trains over the last year, however I just finished another monorail train which was built for a special purpose:

31112205788_593f16c7f5_z.jpg

Two monorail trains (7-wide, PF-controlled) 

The new one (above) is supposed to join the already existing Monorail train on a portion of the joint Route 66 layout (see https://www.flickr.com/groups/route66brickproject/pool/, consisting of builds by Gábor Horváth, Steffen Kasteleiner and myself). The idea is to be able to combine several modules to get a large and interesting setup for conventions, but at the same time have a smaller "home layout" which is working on its own. Being a big fan of the abilities of the good old Monorail it was clear that I wanted to do something with it. Regarding the fact that a monorail loop fits nicely into a train loop, I came up with the following track layout for the section:

44264058554_efdc34e02a_z.jpg

R66 Downtown Section - track layout 

Here you can see both trains in action, together with a dummy of an elevated train (8w), the whole setup still being a WIP, but technically already working quite well:

One of the features here is a motorized switch that allows the monorail trains to change between the two loops. Since everything must be done by hand, the play factor is quite high, I guess. Together with the larger cargo trains and the other moving vehicles there'll be a lot going on on the layout which is what I have in mind. The idea to use 12 Volt tracks for the elevated train stems from Steffen Kasteleiner which I think is great because it clearly indicates that it's electrified, even if the center rail isn't being used. Thus different types of tracks are put to good use on one layout.

100% Lego. Thanks for looking, comments welcome as usual!

 

Edited by ER0L

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