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I remember when the original BNSF Lego set was delivered back in 2004 to my dad's house. (for him - not me, sadly!) That set, along with the complete Super Chief he already owned from two years prior, got me even more psyched for LEGO trains. Granted, I couldn't afford the set at the time, but now I'm 20 years older and have money! Thus, I decided one day late last month to redesign the 9v Train set 10133 - Burlington Northern Santa Fe (BNSF) GP-38 Locomotive - into the modern paint scheme of the BNSF railroad. In short: I took the dark green and made it black, as that's the way the railroad has painted their engines since 2005. As I couldn't possibly get the yellow train baseplate, I used Dark Bluish Grey, and since I HATE dealing with flex-tubes, I used premade fence parts for the walkway railings. I also revised the rooftop fans, the bogies, and the fuel tank. The front of the loco. The rear of the loco. The three 2x2 DBG donut tiles on the roof are missing fan printing here in LDD. The cab roof is still removable, just like in the original set. This area seats one mini figure at the controls. Only 126 bricks remain to be found or bought for this diesel locomotive in the real world at this time. (NOTE: Some differences exist between the digital model and the WIP.) Thoughts? -
This loco was originally from the 2010 CITY set 7939 - Cargo Train and first designed in red for my brother. (who ended up not building it in real life after all) I removed the rear cab and replaced it with a personnel door for access to the train and recolored it to yellow for use by me. I then looked back on what I made, and realized it actually resembled a real engine completely on accident! It appears I made a General Electric 'Genesis' series loco, specifically a P42DC as those were the most common of the sub-types. The Genesis types weren't used by freight railroads - just passenger-only carriers like Amtrak or VIA - but this is my railroad and what I say goes! Here we see the front of the locomotive. The rear side of the loco with the crew access door at the very back. The cab front flips up to put a figure at the controls. (I removed the cab roof here to make taking the picture easier.) To read more about the Genesis locomotive types, check out this Wikipedia link. Thoughts?
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This Blacktron 1 colored passenger train is modeled after the General Motors Aerotrain concept of 1955. I modified the engine to have two bogies (one of which can be replaced with a 9V motor to power the train) instead of the one bogie and one fixed axle of the original. The passenger cars were lengthened from 16 to 24 studs and Jacob's bogies placed in two spots to lessen the part count. (Yes, it bears more than a passing resemblance to a certain other space train of mine... let's just say some espionage was involved concerning the CS design plans for that train!) The train will be used on my Blacktron space base, shuttling VIP's around on tours of my base. Alternatively, it could be used to get personnel to / from the base and the off-site living quarters. (you can read more about my Blacktron fleet in it's own thread in the Sci-Fi forum.) The windows in the train were difficult to get right, but I managed to attach them. Inverted trans-yellow 2x2 slopes that would make this way easier are coming in a set releasing in March, but I'm not waiting that long! (The tail car is currently missing a few parts for the roof.) The cab roof is removable and a driver can be placed at the controls, but the coaches are totally impossible to get into due to the construction techniques used. (Also, two control panel double-cheese slopes, two 1x1 number tiles, and two radiator donut tiles are missing from the model, among a few other parts.) As for when this will be built in the real world, it will be soon. The last few parts for the train were ordered 1/14/25. Update 1/15/25! This space train station (named 'Base Terminus') is to be used with my retro-futuristic Blacktron passenger train to get staff and VIP's to and from the space base. (Some printed parts are not in the picture, but they will be when it's built in real life.) Thoughts?
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So, this mod started with me wanting to rebrick the 7760 Diesel Shunter. The plan was to replace the expensive parts with similar cheaper ones. After doing so i wasn´t really happy with the frankenstein-like 9V - 12V mix i had created, so I decided to redo it and mod the Engine with modern parts. This is the result: 7760 - Diesel Shunter 9V Mod by Henrik S, auf Flickr 7760 - Diesel Shunter 9V Mod by Henrik S, auf Flickr 7760 - Diesel Shunter 9V Mod by Henrik S, auf Flickr 7760 - Diesel Shunter 9V Mod by Henrik S, auf Flickr 7760 - Diesel Shunter 9V Mod by Henrik S, auf Flickr 7760 - Diesel Shunter 9V Mod by Henrik S, auf Flickr Feel free to comment and critize, i hope you enjoy the pictures
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So this is gonna be like my default thread for posting lego trains. Anyways, lemme start off by posting this double pacific Garratt, complete with railings, fully modeled valve gear, number plates, and full articulation Here's a side view with light effects
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Hello, The DB class V60 was built more than 900 times in the 1950/60s and still can be seen on German rails.It's not the first LEGO model of this shunter, and I know many of them, so maybe some things look familiar. I wanted a smaller locomotive for the limited size of the average LEGO train layouts, and in Germany this engine is very popular so I decided to build my own. 3D printed coupling rod are from bricks-on-rails.de and there are some stickers - everything else is LEGO. It's powered by a "WeDo 2.0 Medium" (bricklink name) motor. It took me a while to work out the small offset for the "sliding hood" (?) - it coveres a PU hub, so there is not much space for snotting. Puling a small train:
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Does you track need to be repaired after a major storm? Want to connect Point A to Point B with a brand new rail-line? Did the Flying Kipper have another accident on the main line? Or maybe you want to upgrade the signaling and double track the line at the same time? Call out the Maintenance Of Way (MOW) train to fix all these problems and more! This train consists of a late-1950's diesel locomotive, or a mid-1930's large eight-driving wheel steam engine and six specialty cars: - a (working!) crane car - depressed-center rail wagon - a (working!) ballast hopper - a tanker car - workman's tool car - caboose The 4-8-4 steam loco is new-to-me, and began life as a 2-8-4 Berkshire type built by Plastic_Goth and purchased from Rebrickable a seen here. To make this steamer, I upped the wheel count of @Plastic_Goth's locomotive by another leading axle, making it into a 4-8-4 Northern-type from the original 2-8-4 as built in the instructions. The new piston / wheel assembly is entirely my own work, as is the completely new 7-wide tender. The inside of the cab features two gauges and the firebox door. This model was originally a ALCO MRS-1 built by @SavaTheAggie, but has been so severely modified that it no longer looks like the prototype loco. So I went searching And found another ALCO locomotive, a RSD-12 that looks like my loco. Both my model and the prototype have the six wheels, and the same basic hood and cab design. The long hood of the loco has been designated the rear with a double red light. This car carries liquid weed killer for use after the track has been laid. This stream crane model was heavily inspired by Whoward69's instructions for a set of crane and match truck train cars. I modified the original model seen here. (sadly, it seems his Flickr profile and pictures has been deleted) I originally meant for the crane to have ropes to move the boom, but it got confusing on which rope went where so for now it's moved by the H.O.G. (Hand Of God) method. The crane can spin around in 360 degrees and lift anywhere up to 90 degrees straight up. (Their is a double set of pins keeping the boom from going too low, as well.) The heavy-duty depressed-center wagon has brick-built arms to secure the cargo of prefabricated railroad track in place. This model was inspired by a coal hopper on an older website called LGauge .com. I turned the old finger hinges into new pin-orientated ones and colored the car yellow to match the MOW paint scheme. The hopper's bottom doors open and can dump 1 x 1 round plates / bricks onto the tracks for ballast. This old passenger car carries the workmen and their tools. The caboose features two ladders (one per side) and more of those fancy printed 2 x 4 tiles. If you like what you see in this topic, check out the home base of the train and assorted other vehicles in this thread here! Thoughts? Comments, Suggestions, & Complaints always welcome!
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The Interstellar Zephyr transports Nexus Force personnel as a very high-speed, high-security ground transport between the northern-most city of St. Nicklaus and north-pole-hugging outpost of Ice Station Odyssey, around 500 miles away. (this all takes places on the ice-bound planet of Beta Polaris, which orbits what we here call the North Star, far away from Earth.) Unlike the slower Earth trains, this Zephyr type of space-train is super-streamlined, and can go up to speeds of up to 110 MPH (135 is the loco's top possible speed) on it's special track, with super-elevated curves and long straight-a-way's over hundreds of miles, all while using Positive Train Control (PTC) on the the mostly double-track mainline, where all vehicle crossings are flyovers and switches virtually non-existent once out of St. Nicklaus city limits. This train runs along with nine other identical versions of this train (10 total trains in all) on the route with up to seven in running order on the route and at least two in the maintenance shed / in emergency backup storage at any one time. You may have noticed the train model is NOT in the original light gray "stainless steel" of the original Pioneer Zephyr on which is was (kind-of) based. The orange and white color scheme is because it's for my Nexus Force theme... to be honest, it's not even really a Zephyr that much anymore. It's more of a mix of the Pioneer Zephyr and several other concepts that began in the 1930's - '50's era, like the dome car. (To call it a hodgepodge would be accurate!) This model features three joined cars, with the power car up front, a coach, diner-dome in the middle, another coach, then the observation lounge at the rear. None of the car's roof sections come off, and their is no interior, to save on costs when this model is built in real life. The repurposed 2014 CITY Arctic logo slope on the rear of the lounge car is a missing print, as are the three dark bluish gray "donut" tiles on the loco unit. (these parts should have a engine fan / rotor print) The train uses only a few magnets to sperate the train in the middle, as having Jacobs bogies throughout with my current storage setup would have been unwise. This also leaves open the possibility for future expansion of a car or two... maybe a dome car could be in the cards somewhere down the line? (Yes, I know no shovel-nose Zephyr ever had domes... but this isn't a normal Zephyr, now is it?) You can see more details on the arctic / space base shown above in this thread in the Sci-Fi forum. Be warned, it needs to be updated with some newer pictures of stuff I designed! Thoughts on this model? EDIT 5/10/22: model completely revised and updated. EDIT #2 5/11/22 Three hundred parts found, 737 left to go on my space Zephyr. (the wrong colored window glass will be popped out an replaced when it's needed) The dome car, is not included in the totals either way as I'm still not sure it would work out to build it... even if I did make it work, I would be buying almost every single part on it. So, basically, it won't even be attempted for a while. Also, I got the shovel-nose built except for two orange slope parts.
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Hello fellow builders! I felt that it was finally time to share with you all something that I've been working on/ playing with for a while now: My L-Motor Frame. L-Motor Block Types by Nick Jackson, on Flickr The concept for this project was to create a stable platform on which (primarily) steam engines could be produced with less motor& cable obstructions. L-Motor Block Types by Nick Jackson, on Flickr This would then allow the engine's body to be built relatively free of electrical components, or crammed with them in the case of tank engines. L-Motor Block Variants by Nick Jackson, on Flickr I think that the most interesting part of the frame is the fact that it is easily modifiable, and can essentially go from 2 to 7 axles! At the time of writing this however, I've only dared to go up to 4 axles for a related project. L-Motor Block Variants (2) by Nick Jackson, on Flickr Hopefully these frames and their different gear ratios will inspire you to make a steam engine! Although, there are a great many European engines that are not steam, but employ connecting rods for their drive wheels. L-Frame with Medium-Large wheels by Nick Jackson, on Flickr Lastly, here are some alternative wheel sizes that you may be interested in. These are made possible by the work of BigBen Bricks and @Shupp. The smallest feasible size would be the Medium-Large drivers by Shupp. These would need a bit of reworking from a standard L-Frame in order to clear switches and such. New Wheels!!! (2) by Nick Jackson, on Flickr Here, a set of XL wheels from BigBen fit nicely on a standard frame. L-Frame with XXL wheels by Nick Jackson, on Flickr And, by upgrading to the longer frame size, you could even accommodate 6 of Shupp's XXL wheels! Hopefully this post will benefit everyone, but moreso people who've had a difficult time getting into trains, and especially steam! Please, let me know your thoughts, and definitely share your ideas for a potential future build that might benefit from this design! Oh, and here's the link to the files: https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B9xAgBdzDImZaFFsM2lGVkdmcEk Thanks for reading, ~M_Slug357~
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This engine is modeled after the GE 44 ton switcher locomotive. Why 44 tons, you may ask? I give you the answer from the Wikipedia article on this loco type: This locomotive's specific 44-short ton weight was directly related to one of the efficiencies the new diesel locomotives offered compared to their steam counterparts: reduced labor intensity. In the 1940s, the steam to diesel transition was in its infancy in North America, and railroad unions were trying to protect the locomotive fireman jobs that were redundant with diesel units. One measure taken to this end was the 1937 so-called "90,000 Pound Rule" :[citation needed] a stipulation that locomotives weighing 90,000 pounds (41,000 kg) – 45 short tons – or more required a fireman in addition to an engineer on common carrier railroads. Industrial and military railroads had no such stipulation. The 44-ton locomotive was born to skirt this requirement. The loco is bi-directional, and doesn't have much to differentiate between the "front" or "rear" expect for the air horn and exhaust stack on one end in real life. My LEGO model lacks these, so it's only way to tell which is front is by the headlights: clear for front, red for rear. I am going to name this loco WFP number 7007. (WFP stands for Wabash Frisco & Pacific, which is the name of a 12 inch gauge ride-on railway in St. Louis, MO.) They don't have a real 44 toner there, but do have a Fairbanks Morse H10-44 (number 704) in the same color scheme, so I made this engine as a companion to the H10-44. In the spoiler tag below, you will find a real life picture of a 44-toner loco. (I got the picture from railpictures.net, It is NOT mine!) Just for comparison purposes, here is the H10-44 I was talking about. NOTE: The H10-44 is NOT included in the GE 44-ton's LDD file! The (updated) LDD file for the GE loco is available here. Build updated 3-14-17 with a better 44 ton GE unit, courtesy of Henry Durand over on Facebook's LEGO Train Fan Club. Thanks Henry! Comments, Questions, suggestions and complaints are always welcome!
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"I've been working on the railroad, all the live-long day!" This train consists of a ALCO diesel locomotive (specifically a RSD-12 type) and six cars: - a (working!) crane car - depressed-center rail wagon - a (working!) ballast hopper - tool / worker bunk car - weed killer tanker - wide-vision bay-window caboose. The train model features several neat printed pieces found in several Juniors sets and and seven generic track workers. (as seen below) ...while the roadbed crew consists of: -Bucket-lift truck from set 3179 (Repair truck) -Dump Truck from set 7789 (Lotso's dump truck) Drill vehicle MOD from 7936 (level crossing) Front end-loader from set 7630 (front end-loader) ...and a official's inspection car MOC - not yet built This model was originally a ALCO MRS-1 built by Anthony Sava, but has been so severely modified that it no longer looks like the prototype loco. So I went searching And found another ALCO locomotive, a RSD-12 that looks like my loco. Both my model and the prototype have the six wheels, and the same basic hood and cab design. The long hood of the loco has been designated the rear with a double red light. (no picture taken yet of this car) This car is not your ordinary tanker car - it contains weed killer for use on the ballast the train lays down. This stream crane model was heavily inspired by Whoward69's instructions for a set of crane and match truck train cars. I modified the original model seen here. I originally meant for the crane to have ropes to move the boom, but it got confusing on which rope went where so for now it's moved by the H.O.G. (Hand Of God) method. The crane can spin around in 360 degrees and lift anywhere up to 90 degrees straight up. (Their is a double set of pins keeping the boom from going too low, as well.) Here we see how the crane is hooked up to the depressed center flatcar most of the time. The heavy-duty depressed-center wagon has brick-built arms to secure the cargo of railroad track in place. This model was inspired by a coal hopper on an older website called LGauge .com. I tunrned the old finger hinges into new pin-orientated ones and colored the car yellow to match the MOW paint scheme. The hopper's bottom door open and can dump 1 x 1 round plates / bricks onto the tracks for ballast. (no picture taken yet of this car) This is the workers tool car. In reality it's empty, but it's supposed to have rows of racks for tools, and a special box for broken tools to be fixed when they get back to the division HQ. The caboose features two ladders (one per side) and more of those fancy printed 2 x 4 tiles. This is where the job site foreman has a little office. The med kit is also located here. This is the headquarters for my Maintenance of Way operations for Brick Railway Systems. I was inspired by set 60009 (Helicopter Arrest) from 2013 for most of the building, while most of the inside details came from set 10027 (Train Engine Shed) in 2003 a whole ten years before the other set was even produced. As for the billboard on the roof, I borrowed the letter's design from my brother's model (with his permission), and put them on a billboard to spell out OCTAN. The tracks on the side of the building are for my ALCO RSD-12 and it's accompanying six car work train to sit and await their next task. The inside on the lower floor is furnished with a lathe, drill press, fire extinguisher, oil drum, and a vise. The upper floor (the break room) has a table, a few chairs, coffee machine (with paper cups!), fireplace, and a recycle bin. I will be updating this with the two missing pictures soon. As for the digital items, I will built them as funding allows. As usual, Comments, Questions and Complaints are always welcome!!
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This model was originally a ALCO MRS-1 built by Anthony Sava, but has been so severely modified that it no longer looks like the prototype loco. So I went searching And found another ALCO locomotive, a RSD-12 that looks like my loco. Both my model and the prototype have the six wheels, and the same basic hood and cab design, plus the curved ends match the RSD-12 better than the sharp-ended MRS-1. ..and here is my Lego model of it, as Brick Railway Systems loco number 7924. I even thought about putting two of this part under the headlights at both ends, but I think the model looks better the way it is now. NOTE: The printed letter tiles with the railroad's initials "BRS" will go on the long hood. I misplaced the two letter "R" tiles, and need to order some more, but the rest of the letters are on my desk. (They are hard to keep from rotating without the middle letters to hold the others in place, so they are not on the model yet.) The center axles on these six-wheel bogies slide left and right to allow for tight turns on switches and flex-track. I took Anthony Sava's original design and beefed it up, making it a lot stronger and a little taller. Here is the picture (not mine) I found that matched my model. I also believe this is the last ALCO RSD-12 left. (I could be wrong, though.) The photo is originally from here. Here is the LDD file for the diesel loco as shown above. Comments, Questions, Suggestions, and Complaints are always welcome!
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The BR class 38 seen here is a one-off prototype. Engine number 7939 was made in 1989 to compare a Metro-Cammell made class 38 to a Brush Traction built class 60. The class 60 won the contract, and subsequently Metro-Cammell was sold and closed. The single class 38 soldiered on until 1997, when British Railways was fully privatized. The engine was then sold with a number of spare parts to Lego Rail Transportation Society, which has kept the engine running ever since as unit 7940. In the real world, the class 38 was never built. It was proposed and then dropped in favor of the class 60, which is what I based the story on. Metro Cammell really existed and was dismantled in 1989 sometime after loosing out to Brush Traction for the class 60 contract, and everyone knows that British Railways was taken apart in the mid-1990's. This LEGO model is a mash-up of a William Howard's diesel locomotives and the official Lego sets 7939 and 60098, with a set of Anthony Sava-derived three wheel sliding bogies. The rear of the bidirectional loco. The numbers "7940" go on printed 1 x 1 tiles on the sides while "LRTS" goes on the front and rear ends. The color scheme for this model was inspired by the British Rail Class D16/1 (also known as LMS engines 10000 and 10001), the first two mainline diesel locomotives in Great Britain. (see here for more on them.) Both ends of the locomotive have a engineer's cab that opens up to seat a figure at the controls, just like sets 7939 and 60098. (I just noticed there is one letter spot too few on the ends of the loco for the railways name as seen in the pictures, as there should be four studs, not the three shown) Bricksafe LDD file link: BR class 38 file Comments, Questions, and Complaints are always welcome!
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This 7-stud wide diesel is modeled after the General Electric (GE) 44 ton switcher locomotive made between 1940 and 1956. The little diesel is bi-directional, and doesn't have much to differentiate between the "front" or "rear" expect for the air horn on one end in real life. My LEGO model lacks these, so it is totally symmetrical. You may be asking yourself: 'Why 44 tons, what's so special about that number?' I give you the answer from the Wikipedia article on this loco type: "This locomotive's specific 44-short ton weight was directly related to one of the efficiencies the new diesel locomotives offered compared to their steam counterparts: reduced labor intensity. In the late 1930s, the steam to diesel transition was in its infancy in North America, and railroad unions were trying to protect the locomotive fireman jobs that were redundant with diesel units. One measure taken to this end was the 1937 so-called '90,000 Pound Rule' : a stipulation that locomotives weighing 90,000 pounds (41,000 kg) – 45 short tons – or more required a fireman in addition to an engineer on common carrier railroads. (Industrial and military railroads had no such stipulation.) The 44-ton locomotive was born to skirt this requirement. The 45-ton rule was eventually repealed in 1963." Side view of the loco showcasing the symmetry of the model. In-universe, This diesel is painted as Brick Railway Systems loco 97 in a throwback black / red paint scheme to celebrate the railroad's 130th anniversary in 2024. (In reality, it's my fictional railroad I made up when I was a fourth grader, which is having it's 20th anniversary this year, so I've been feeling a bit nostalgic recently.) Thoughts?
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My LEGO model of Sabine River and Northern 408 is below the short handrail, just behind the access ladder. This MOC is based on a real loco, one of five NC class switchers built by Electro-Motive Corporation. (which later became EMD when it was bought by General Motors) Some of these five locomotives had General Electric electrical equipment, while others had Westinghouse, since EMC's own designs were not yet ready. Wikipedia doesn't have a lot to say on the NC class (it doesn't even have it own page!), but it does give us the history of this specific loco which is the last of it's class (as far as I know): 'EMC S/N 651 (built May 1937): Youngstown and Northern Railroad 202, to Elgin, Joliet and Eastern Railroad 408 in April 1946, to Marinette, Tomahawk & Western Railroad 408, then finally to the Sabine River and Northern Railroad as 408 before being preserved in the National Museum of Transportation in St. Louis, Missouri.' In addition, the engine's plaque at the museum says it cost $91,500 when new, and arrived at the museum in 1974. During the summer months, you can climb into the cab... although it is a very steep climb. The Lego model was heavily inspired by a SW1500 (which is a later cousin to the NC type) model I saw here. You can also read more about the Sabine River and Northern here on Wikipedia. I couldn't possibly get Sabine River and Northern to fit on the long hood, so just initials were placed instead. I also used a new printed 1x6 tile from set 60401 (Construction Steamroller) near the cab door. Thoughts?
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Portuguese Diesel Nez Cassé From the 80's 1:45 scale Circa 2000 parts Powered by 2 Powerfunctions train Motors and Buwizz Custom Lights Custom Magnet Couplers from HA Bricks 49cm long 1kg The CP1906(from the 1900 series) is a shorter cousin of the CC72000. Initially, they were exclusively used for cargo service by CP Comboios de Portugal. Nowadays, they also serve in Medway. Please do not mistake this for its older electric cousin, the CP2600 With his Yellow Medway Version
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SOMAFEL is today a leading company in the construction of railway tracks and overhead lines in Portugal. This locomotive is used to maneuver some Rail work materials. It used to belong to CP Comboios de Portugal. It had several different liveries, this one is the current one. This was a commissioned job for a Somafel employee, unlike my other 1400 English Electric Series, this one is not motorized, It was requested as an exhibition model only, however, it is ready to be motorized, I did leave the room, for wires and battery.
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Hi this is the same model as CP1401 but with the classic blue color scheme It has 2 PF train motors Buwizz 2.0 Ludricous (But I don't use the Ludricous mode, this is not a High-speed train :P) DYI Lights It can run alone or synchronize with the CP1401. This is part of my Consist "CP Miradouro Phase 2" which has 2 Locomotives and 5 Coaches Now, some " CP Miradouro" consists The funny thing about the real-life train is the inconsistency of the rolling stock, it's almost impossible to see the same train twice, sometimes it's just two coaches, sometimes it has two locomotives, sometimes are fully colourful with several different coaches, sometimes are the same colors, etc Now the full train has 3,60meters long, but unfortunately I don't have enough room or backdrop to take a nice photo.
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I'm happy to present my most recent build, a midwestern grain train from the late 1970's in the US. I've been working on it for most of this year, though the inspiration and some parts purchases date back to 2006. Towards the end of last winter I had been train watching and after about a half dozen trains, each led by a couple of black locomotives pulling a mile long monochromatic string of cars, it got me thinking about an underappreciated heyday. Between 1960 and 1990 American freight cars were a burst of color, and even had a few hints of the old school railroad pride shining through, e.g., Milwaukee Road spending the extra dollar to weld a plate on the side of their covered hoppers declaring themselves "America's Resourceful Railroad." The freight cars were 100% utilitarian in design, but in the bright colors they went a little further and said, "look at me," with each car taking a different hue. Since then, freight cars have drifted back to browns and grays only flashing a random graffiti tag for flare after a night of hanging around with the wrong crowds. I wanted to capture that era in the days just after KarTrak Automatic Car Identification's failure showed how dirty railroading in America can be. But how and what? I've always had a soft spot for covered hopper cars, in particular those based on the Pullman Standard 3 bay design. I had a go at these cars in 2006 Shortly thereafter, I started collecting 1x2 door rail plates and double convex inverted slopes in yellow to build a Milwaukee Road version. Those parts sat in a box and I hadn't returned to that prototype until now. On the flip side, I had most of the parts in hand that I needed to start testing this build. Happy with the prototype, I expanded to 5 different liveries. These covered hoppers are 6 wide, featuring custom decals. With their weight they need roller bearing trucks, to ensure the trucks match the width of the car they use custom truck sides from TrainedBricks.com. At this scale it is impossible to get all of the details, so in this design I focused on capturing the essence, e.g., a continuous slope for the bins from the end of the car to the bottom of the chute, using thin vertical and horizontal members on the ends of the cars. Several of the cars have prototypical placards 1/2 plate out from the ribbing. A couple of the cars consumed almost all of the double convex inverted slopes available on bricklink in the given color. As with most of my designs, these cars are designed to negotiate R40 curves, and in turn, replicating the form of the prototype gave me a true appreciation of the design of the actual cars. Of course, once you start down the rabbit hole of looking at covered hopper cars, you wind up seeing lots of other cool cars... and the potential to build in colors that do not have door rails (dark green). Well, next thing I knew, I also had a design for the ACF center flow covered hopper cars. Once more the covered hoppers are 6 wide. These cars were designed as a complement to the Pullman Standard cars to fill out the fleet and bring in a few more colors/liveries. Why stop at 8 cars? Good question, of course you need a Canadian cylindrical covered hopper, who doesn't need a cylindrical hopper car? So I built one too. Now I know you've all been there, you build a MOC and then discover you need a second MOC to support the first MOC (or in this case, a 10th MOC to support the first 9). When I started out I did not worry too much about what would pull these cars. I have a few period appropriate 9v locomotives, most recent of which are from 2014, a pair of SW1200's. While there was one major solution (FX Track) two problems remained, (1) my old 9v locomotives were not powerful enough to pull the full train, and (2) it has been over a decade since I've run 9v trains in public. I originally thought that I would eventually address #2 at some later point in time, but #1 escalated the need. So off I went to build a period appropriate PF locomotive. I returned to MNS, the same road as the SW1200's. Minneapolis Northfield and Southern was a spunky shortline with a long history and a large fan club for a railroad with just over 80 miles of track. They had a history of unusual locomotives starting with their predecessor, the never electrified Dan Patch Electric Lines and the first successful gas-electric locomotive that was the predecessor to diesel electric locomotives, to a fleet of massive Baldwin center cab locomotives built in the late 40's (nicknamed the "blue dragons"), and their last purchased locomotives the SD39's in 1968. These were essentially SD40's with smaller prime movers (and thus, lower horsepower). They were painted in a distinct dark blue with a single white stripe running the length of the locomotive. The SD39's served until the MNS was purchased by Soo Line in 1982 and one has returned to the shortline (Progressive Rail) that now operates a portion of the old MNS route. My 6 wide SD39 has a lot packed inside, including 2 PF train motors, 1 rechargeable PF battery pack, an IR receiver, a pole reverser, and four weight bricks. Fitting it all in required some compromises, like filling the cab with the IR receiver, and my desire to make the white stripe brick built as much as possible made fitting the battery a lot more complicated. One obvious tradeoff is that the long hood is 5 studs wide to hide the battery, I would have preferred to keep it 4 studs wide. But also a little ingenuity to plow through some of the challenges. If you look closely at the side views, just above the fuel tank you can seek a small patch of dark gray from the battery. I used an old school 4.5v motor plate with 4x8 cutout to drop the battery down below the white stripe and snotted studs to hold the tiles on that cover the side of the battery. The build uses custom stickers, 3-axle motor covers and fan housings from trainedbricks.com, and custom railings to keep them closer to proportional than the brick built alternatives. But I did have to use the classic train wagon ends as a nod to the fact that this is a Lego train after all. Okay... just one more problem, I didn't have a respectable MNS caboose. So now I needed an 11th MOC to support the 10th. The MNS purchased 3 new bay window cabooses in 1972 and like the SD39's, these served until the MNS was purchased by Soo Line in 1982 and one has returned to the shortline (Progressive Rail) that now operates a portion of the old MNS route. The caboose is 6 wide (8 at the bays), featuring custom decals, roller bearing trucks to match the hopper cars. The net result is my all new MNS grain train, with 5 Pullman Standard 3 bay covered hopper cars, 3 ACF 3 bay covered hopper cars, 1 Canadian cylindrical covered hopper car, an MNS SD39 and MNS bay window caboose. All in liveries that would have been seen in the late 1970's or early 1980's. The total length is about 11 ft. All of the cars are 6 wide. Click here for a mediocre video of the train in action I hope you enjoy the train. Questions, comments and constructive suggestions are always welcome The full album is here
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One of the biggest issues I find with building in 6 wide is hiding PF/PUP elements, especially when I want to have walkways down the side of the locomotive. A few years back, I started on a locomotive design to put the battery pack partially below the base, between the two sets of wheels. I never finished this design, so when I wanted to create a switcher a few days back, I thought of this old design (as I didn't want the loco to end up being huge to conceal the battery box and end up looking bloated). This is what I came up with. The engine is essentially symmetrical front to back, so it is meant for going in and out of sidings all day in a yard. The cab comes off in one assembly below the 1x1 cheese slopes. Inside, there is a seat that is directly on top of the PUP box, so easy access for power/linking. Unlike some of my other models, I did not make space for a PF receiver so it can only be powered by PUP or 9V. I felt this was ok though, as I really wanted the electrical components to not dictate the shape of the engine too much. I have never tried putting the battery box in this location and since it is not above the powered wheels, traction may be a problem? There should be enough open space to put a ballast brick in above the wheels, should there be any issues. Overall, I'm pretty happy with this MOC. I feel the cab looks off in the side view, but other than that, I think it turned out nicely. As usual, there is a download for the Studio file. From now on though, I will just be putting all of my files into one folder so any links on my posts will grant you access to all my models. Thanks for reading! File Download: https://bricksafe.com/pages/Legownz/legownzs-train-mocs
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The whole Merrimac River Runner passenger train, headed up by Baldwin RF-16 "shark-nose" A +B diesels number 3701 with assistance provided by 4-8-4 "Northern" steam engine number 2980. The name of this train is a play off the Missouri River Runner, a real train that Amtrak runs from Kansas City to St. Louis. The Meramec River is a body of water that runs next to the real world 12-inch gauge Wabash Frisco & Pacific, so I switched the name to the Meramec River Runner. Never mind the fact the Missouri Pacific used to run on the roadbed the WFP now uses up from the 1850's until about the 1940's, when it was rerouted to it's current alignment and abandoned the old one to the eventual WFP use from the late '50's to today. These Baldwin diesel RF-16-like locos were inspired by set 10020, (Santa Fe Super Chief) for most of the basic body work and and fellow Eurobricks user @Legownz for the knife-like Sharknose front end. (Thank you for that ingenious design!) The cab and booster units feature no interior details because I have no need for such items on my layout.. that and retrofitting all my trains with inside details would be quite costly. The rear of each of the locos feature doorways to the next engine compartment, and / or the passenger train itself. This 7-wide steam loco began life as a 2-8-4 Berkshire type built by @Plastic_Goth and purchased from Rebrickable a seen here. I upped the wheel count by another leading axle, making it into a 4-8-4 Northern-type from the original 2-8-4 Berkshire. The pistons are entirely my own work, as is the complete tender. The coal tender will have the letters WFP on the side, standing for Wabash Frisco & Pacific, while the cab will feature the number 2980 on both sides. This is a scrambled homage to real world WFP 4-8-2 engine 928, which is so strong, it's pulled every piece of rolling stock the railroad owns -at one time- with ease! The inside of the cab features two gauges and the firebox door. This is all the interior the whole train features. Combination baggage and passenger car three identical passenger coaches for the train The observation car of the Meramec River Runner. (This car is to become fully enclosed soon, with a wraparound rear window provided by two of this piece.) Any thoughts, comments, or complaints? EDIT 5/11/21: Added 4-8-4 steam loco to this post. Real life pictures coming soon.
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Hi all, today I'd like to show you something I'm after since a few months. During the first days of lockdown I saw a documentary on Chile and its people, towns, traditions and lifestyle. One of the main points of the documentary was focusing on the railway running from Los Andes to Rio Blanco valley , a spectacular run between mountains, aside the Rio Blanco river. Originally it connected Chile to Argentina. And this "thing" was presented as the main attraction of the current line - its name is "Gondola Carril T-1024". I sincerely do not know why it is called "T-1024" . The "Gondola Carril" is a railmotor, based on an American built bus, the Yellow Coach Z-26. This time I understood that the letter Z is identifying the chassis type and 26 the number of passengers it could carry . The bus was normally used in Los Andes town, until it was converted into this very nice railcar. Originally used as a cheap inspection vehicle, It is now fully restored and used for touristic travels. And I can say it is an experience I would like to do once in my life. The "Ferrocarril Transandino de Chile" is a narrow gauge (metric) railway, therefore I based the whole project on 1:22.5 scale (good for running in the garden!). It is designed to run on G-Scale track (45mm), but with some modifications it could easily be converted to run also on standard Lego gauge (on large curves, since it is quite long). Since there are no specific technical specifications for the Gondola, I searched for the ones of the Z26 Bus - and tried to adapt the design according to the pictures and videos of the real railcar. The original motor used by Yellow Coaches Bus was replaced by a more modern Cummins Diesel, as nicely "declared" above the radiator. Despite the original railcar is based on a chassis, this one is basically a unibody build with some underside reinforcing (let's say - like the Jeep Cherokee XJ). It's quite light, so a medium motor is sufficient to move it. In the design, I used a PuP motor, placed in the front, under the hood. Then a pair of gears in cascade, cardanic joints and a transmission axle bring the power to the rear wheels. The "gears" I mentioned can be changed easily to have a lower or higher gear ratio, as needed. This railcar not meant to pull anything, so a lower gear ratio could save some batteries. Battery box is placed in the rear part, immediately beyond the rear axle. The small red axle you can see near the T-1024 sticker is used to turn the PuP battery/receiver on and off. The next picture shows the powertrain - it's taken from an alternative blue version of the railcar I prepared , with some freelance solutions which make it more "generic". I hope you like this one, and (more important) take a look to the original one, because it's really nice piece of history. https://www.ferrocarril-trasandino.com.ar/historia/ Ciao! Davide -
Here is my first go at building a 10 wide locomotive with full interior.
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Hello! Motorized with L Motor (PF)
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Using the LEGO standard gauge I built the same diesel engine as shown in a previous post with a different scale. It's the V-52 of the Deutsche Bundesbahn - running in the 1960s between Mosbach and Mudau. LEGO standard gauge is almost 40mm (5studs). The real train ran on 1000m, so I chose a scale of 1/25 - one stud is 20cm, 5 studs is 1m. The engine is 12wide and approx 50 studs long. It's powered by 2 XL Power Functions motors and remote controlled by a BuWizz. It's designed for standard LEGO gauge, but can only handle R72 (and greater) curves. To run smoothly additional weight is needed (metal spare parts from shelves) - it weighs 1.7kg. (It was my entry for the Brick Train Awards - "Best Other Locomotive" in Europe)
