13 replies to this topic

[Daedalus304]

Hello all! Lately I've been really getting into LEGO train, and after purchasing the Emerald Night I decided to start designing and building my own engines and put together a layout. For my first engine I wanted to build something that would be relatively simple, I've never used PF and certainly not in an engine before. It probably took about 30 or so hours to design. Thankfully Google and Wikipedia were both very generous with pictures of 5700s.

I designed this train entirely in Lego Digital Designer, and as I do not yet have the parts to build it, all my pictures are from LDD. Each picture is also a link to a bigger version of said picture.



A couple things of note. The clips on the sides and from of the water tanks are meant for flex tubing - which isn't in LDD. As well, the wheels of the engine are supposed to be the Large Train Wheels that come in the Emerald Night set, which are also absent in LDD. And finally, each end of the coupling rod is meant to be the "half" version of what it is (To allow clearance with the rear steps into the cabin).



This photo I think really highlights the shapes of the 5700. I did my best to incorporate all the cab's sloping and unique angles, and you can see the gap between the boiler and the "floor" of the engine. The tool box and the few greebles behind it are a little hard to make out with the blackness of the engine, but they're there. I would have loved to do a GWR green version but sadly, a lot of these parts don't come in Earth Green.

The front and rear bumper are both a little low for the train to be accurate in that regard, and this I blame solely on my desire to keep this engine compatible with all standard LEGO trains.



This rear view shows off more of the engine's curves, and likely gives a bit of a glimpse as to how I built the cab. There are controls are a door for a firebox (Which, while the firebox DOES open there is nothing of note behind it. That space was eaten by mechanics). The train was designed to be powered by the new PF Train Motor with Emerald Night wheels on the axle, and that gap in the rear is actually a tunnel for the cord. Unfortunately this model would require both the battery box and IR receiver to be in whichever car it's pulling - I juts couldn't figure out how to fit either of them.

Oh, and that lamp is sitting funky because LDD wouldn't let me hang it how I wanted.  



Here's a head on shot. It's hard to see the little metal steps on the front of the tanks/boiler, but they're there in the appropriate areas. The front and rear windows are not as far to the sides OR as round as I wanted them to be - but the thickness of the slope brick made it necessary. Call it a modified 5700.  



Sorry about that gap there to the sides of the windows - I couldn't find any parts that filled it appropriately. On a positive note, the anti-studs match up pretty well with all the welded bolts on the real engine. You can see there that the sideways SNOT sort of wraps around the back of the cab, and the bottom of the coal box is filled in by some hidden angle bricks.



And here's an overhead shot. One of the nice things about LDD, for the observers, is that with the brick outlines it's a lot easier to see how things are situated. The boiler makes heavy use of SNOT and many bricks on the train are sideways, upside-down, or even raised a half a plate. I did my best to make sure it was all securely attached so theoretically this engine should be fairly sturdy.

If/when I ever build it I'm also going to add those struts that go alongside the wheels near the track, but having them empty on LDD looked goofy so I kept them off.

That's all the pictures that I have, and hopefully later tonight I'll have an LXF for anybody interested. For as much criticism as I've levied against my own engine in this post I am actually really proud of it, especially since it's the most difficult engine I've ever designed. (My previous engines were all very simplistic 6-wides). Hopefully I can figure out how Bricklink works and actually buy all the parts for it.

I've added the LXF!!
Actually, there are TWO LXF files. One of them is exactly how you see it in the pictures, with the substitute wheels and the brick-built replacement for the PF motor. The second one has neither of those.
Normal Version
Minus the Substitute Parts


Any comments, criticisms, suggestions or questions are all very much welcome! I would love to hear your feedback.

On that note, I would like to ask the more experienced Train fans a question: This engine is 8 studs wide (Ten with the steps, I guess). Do you think it would look silly or out of place running on the same layout as the Emerald Night?

Edited by Daedalus304, 08 March 2011 - 09:08 AM.
Oversized Image Removed. 800x600 is max size per site guidelines.

[Andy Glascott]

That is absolutely superb Daedelus304! The detail is fantastic, it looks just like the real thing. I've wanted to build something like this for a while, but I work in 6-wide and it's quite a challenge, but there are ideas in here I might well "borrow"....

Andy

[escortmad79]

That is fantastic! Any chance of a copy of the instructions?

[Gareth]

Great, that's a good Moc of a 'Pannier'  tank engine.

As for your question compared to the Emerald night, size wise in real life it would of been a bit smaller (cause it's a tank engine so it would of been used on branch lines and shunting duties).  It might not seem to out of place tough when you construct it.

Maybe if it was too large you could scale it down to 7 wide?. This is a really good rendition though.

[Daedalus304]

Andy Glascott, on 07 March 2011 - 11:23 PM, said:

That is absolutely superb Daedelus304! The detail is fantastic, it looks just like the real thing. I've wanted to build something like this for a while, but I work in 6-wide and it's quite a challenge, but there are ideas in here I might well "borrow"....

Andy

Thank you! I'd love to see a six-wide rendition (And perhaps I'll try one myself!).

escortmad79, on 08 March 2011 - 01:07 AM, said:

That is fantastic! Any chance of a copy of the instructions?

Thanks! I don't yet have any sort of instructions, but very soon I will have the LXF available and that should make it quite easy to reverse engineer. If/when I actually get the parts to build it for real I'll make sure to take pictures along the way for instructions.

Gareth, on 08 March 2011 - 06:15 AM, said:

Great, that's a good Moc of a 'Pannier'  tank engine.

As for your question compared to the Emerald night, size wise in real life it would of been a bit smaller (cause it's a tank engine so it would of been used on branch lines and shunting duties).  It might not seem to out of place tough when you construct it.

Maybe if it was too large you could scale it down to 7 wide?. This is a really good rendition though.

I think the scale between this and the Emerald Night is definitely a bit off... but hopefully it won't look too weird. To be honest, I'm not at all sure how I could scale this down to a 7 wide. Not to say it's impossible, simply beyond my capability. Thanks for your kind words!

Also, I've resized and replaced the two pictures that got removed.   I didn't realize they were still so big!

[AndyC]

Daedalus304, on 08 March 2011 - 09:03 AM, said:

I think the scale between this and the Emerald Night is definitely a bit off... but hopefully it won't look too weird. To be honest, I'm not at all sure how I could scale this down to a 7 wide. Not to say it's impossible, simply beyond my capability. Thanks for your kind words!

You could always try the other way round - bulk up the Emerald Night to fit better to an 8 wide layout. Yours is a great. little engine, might have a go at building it myself.

[Maf]

Grats, great loco. How did you get parts like PALM TRUNK? I can't find it in my brick panel (lates version of LDD 4).

[Daedalus304]

AndyC, on 08 March 2011 - 09:57 AM, said:

You could always try the other way round - bulk up the Emerald Night to fit better to an 8 wide layout. Yours is a great. little engine, might have a go at building it myself.

Thanks for the kind words. I would love to see any pictures if you do decide to build it, I haven't yet got the parts to realize a physical version so that would be really neat. As for bulking up the EM, I may just give that a go if I think the engines look too funny together.

Maf, on 08 March 2011 - 10:37 AM, said:

Grats, great loco. How did you get parts like PALM TRUNK? I can't find it in my brick panel (lates version of LDD 4).

You can unlock the Palm Trunk (As well as hundreds of other parts) by following the directions in this thread.. They're all in a special theme called "Universe Mode".

[escortmad79]

Daedalus304, on 08 March 2011 - 09:03 AM, said:

Thanks! I don't yet have any sort of instructions, but very soon I will have the LXF available and that should make it quite easy to reverse engineer. If/when I actually get the parts to build it for real I'll make sure to take pictures along the way for instructions.

LXF files could be useful

[Maf]

Can you tell me, why did you use such weird parts for wheels? Are normal train wheels not available?

[talltim]

Maf, on 08 March 2011 - 12:18 PM, said:

Can you tell me, why did you use such weird parts for wheels? Are normal train wheels not available?

Daedalus304, on 07 March 2011 - 11:00 PM, said:

As well, the wheels of the engine are supposed to be the Large Train Wheels that come in the Emerald Night set, which are also absent in LDD. And finally, each end of the coupling rod is meant to be the "half" version of what it is (To allow clearance with the rear steps into the cabin).

I have to say, the wheel placeholder parts do throw the proportions off a bit, but apart from that its a great model. I realy like the cabside cutout shape, whats the part you've used for the lower curve?
Edit: just worked it out, its the new PoP half arch upside down

Edited by talltim, 08 March 2011 - 02:01 PM.

[LEGO Train 12 Volts]

Great model!
I'm not a fan of "8 studs wide" but this model has very nice details!   

[vgsprites]

Wow what a lovely looking steam switcher!
I think I would look nice on the same track as EN.
Switching freight cars or being a station pliot for passenger service.   
Bricklink is easy to work with. Just create an account then make a wanted list of all the keys pieces you need.
Then when your in stores you can click the link 'show all items on my wanted list' to see what pieces on your list they have in stock.
Bricklink is nice for hard to find pieces but remeber shipping costs add up especially overseas and over a kilogram!
Can not wait to see it brick built  

[peterab]

Daedalus304, on 07 March 2011 - 11:00 PM, said:

On that note, I would like to ask the more experienced Train fans a question: This engine is 8 studs wide (Ten with the steps, I guess). Do you think it would look silly or out of place running on the same layout as the Emerald Night?

The main problem scale wise will be the size of the wheels if you have designed it to use the drivers from EN. This appears to be a shunter, which would have much smaller driving wheels than the EN which is based on an express passenger train. You could use small drivers from Big Ben Bricks to correct that but it may mean other changes to your design.

Since Lego trainheads use many different scales it's not unusual at shows to see different scales running on the same layout, but my club at least tries to run only similar scales at the same time. We will be running 6,7,8 and 12 wide stuff this coming weekend as far as I know. Home layouts tend to be more consistent, for example most of my Mocs are 7 wide, and my official sets 6 wide.