Boiler Designs?

[Electricsteam]

I don't know of too many boiler designs other then the standard 45 slope boiler and the EN boiler.

And this wedge boiler design. Do you folks have any other ways of making a nice boiler.

[Murdoch17]

I use the boiler from the Lone Ranger train on most of my builds... it works fine for my Roaring Twenties-era (that's the 1920's in case you didn't know) layout.

[jtlan]

Depends on what size you want. I use the following SNOT design for my Single Fairlie and Lombard Log Hauler:

Also, pretty sure that the cheese-wedge boiler you posted is the same as the Emerald Night boiler, but with cheese wedges instead of curved slopes.

Edited January 17, 2016 by jtlan

[Dutchiedoughnut]

I use a boiler design close to the EN boiler, but with a smaller diameter.

[Redimus]

Also, pretty sure that the cheese-wedge boiler you posted is the same as the Emerald Night boiler, but with cheese wedges instead of curved slopes.

EN's is larger (mostly through extra plates under the curves) and considerably more hollow.

How big a boiler do you need? There's a *lot* of techniques, all with their advantages and disadvantages, but one just because idea may be perfect for one loco doesn't mean it fits at all on another.

[Sven J]

Here's another one:

For one of my projects, I needed a boiler with exactly 17 plates diameter. But I'm not quite happy with the use of hinge plates to get a more rounded shape, so I abandoned the project for the moment.

Edited January 17, 2016 by Tenderlok

[Dutchiedoughnut]

Could you do the top and bottom in the same way as the bottom? Or even use 3-wide slopes?

[Electricsteam]

I'm not looking for anything in particular I thought it might be a help to have a post about most boiler designs we can think of. I just really dislike the EN boiler.... It gives up a lot of potential for detail unlike a cheese wedge boiler.

[jrathfon]

I don't think this violates any rules, and pretty sure Tony posted these for general use and education, but I used this boiler on a narrow gauge design. e.g. it's small and would fit on an american or narrow gauge early loco. Set of 2 pics:

https://www.flickr.c...57600866166389/

SNOT Boiler Side by Tony Sava, on Flickr

SNOT Boiler Front by Tony Sava, on Flickr

This allows for a modified plate with clip light to be added to attach a dish to the front of the boiler. All props to Tony!

Edited January 17, 2016 by jrathfon

[ALCO]

I really like the EN boiler design...though I have modified it a bit for my builds. I mostly build North American Steam and need something a little more like an oval.

Boiler 1 by Lego American Locomotive Company, on Flickr

I like this design because I can put a lot of detail on it like the hand rail and walk way and even steps on the side or clip extra pipes along the side and it still looks nice and round.

boiler 2 by Lego American Locomotive Company, on Flickr

Exploded view.

boiler 3 by Lego American Locomotive Company, on Flickr

[James Mathis]

Super clever work, all! Love seeing these studies and solutions. Very cool stuff.

-James

[Duq]

For my BR70 I needed a narrow boiler, only 4 studs wide. The obvious choice at that size is macaronis but I still needed to attach sand boxes and stuff at the top.

After trying a number of options I ended up putting tiles around core made of wheels. The tiles are just held in place with (original Lego) rubber bands.

BR70 three quarters by Duq, on Flickr

[Redimus]

For my BR70 I needed a narrow boiler, only 4 studs wide. The obvious choice at that size is macaronis but I still needed to attach sand boxes and stuff at the top.

After trying a number of options I ended up putting tiles around core made of wheels. The tiles are just held in place with (original Lego) rubber bands.

BR70 three quarters by Duq, on Flickr

What did you use for the smokebox?

[Electricsteam]

What did you use for the smokebox?

From my untrained eye it looks like one of those submarine propeller hub.... things....

[jtlan]

For my BR70 I needed a narrow boiler, only 4 studs wide. The obvious choice at that size is macaronis but I still needed to attach sand boxes and stuff at the top.

After trying a number of options I ended up putting tiles around core made of wheels. The tiles are just held in place with (original Lego) rubber bands.

BR70 three quarters by Duq, on Flickr

A similar technique was used for the water tank on 10246 Detective's Office, using the old wide technic chain links wrapped around a 24-tooth gear, and the tiles plugged into that.

[Duq]

From my untrained eye it looks like one of those submarine propeller hub.... things....

Yup, absolutely correct:

http://alpha.bricklink.com/pages/clone/catalogitem.page?P=41531#T=C

[James Mathis]

Very nice use of the submarine propeller hub.

[SteveB]

The Dino neck piece can work too. It's tough to get it all to hang together.

In the old days I used castle corner walls similar to this tanker MOC.

[Electricsteam]

There.... I made this using 2 different types of boiler designs for this smaller locomotive. I got this built during a stream on twitch if anyone is interested.

[Rijkvv]

For my BR70 I needed a narrow boiler, only 4 studs wide. The obvious choice at that size is macaronis but I still needed to attach sand boxes and stuff at the top.

I started a (digital) design of the NBDS 118/119, later known as NS 4500. For this I needed a 4 stud wide boiler as well. I usedthis and this. In addition I used a few of these to connect a dome and pipes.

Macaroni bricks can be used in place of the round brick without holes, but because the round plate doesn't exist in green I can't build a NS version yet.

[Sven J]

Hi all,

sorry for bumping this topic, but I thought it might be of general interest.
For an upcoming new steam locomotive, I needed a boiler with exactly 5 studs diameter. So I invented a rather weird design I'd like to share with you.
Characteristic elements of this design are: the "backbone" made of Modified Bricks 4733 with Rigid Hoses (cut to 4.5L) running through; the relatively new oval 1x3 plates whose open stud holes are used to attach them to the ends of the Rigid Hose pieces; and finally the inversion of stud orientation in the sides, using the old hinge plates.
The result is surprisingly sturdy.

Best regards,
Sven

Edited Monday at 08:50 PM by Sven J

[Shiva]

That is interesting.

Could the old hinge plates be substituted with the oval plates and more of the rigid hose pieces?

Plate, Round 1 x 2 with Open Studs, the  Plate, Round 1 x 3 with Open Studs you mentioned and  Plate, Round 1 x 4 with 2 Open Studs.

[Sven J]

@Shiva That should work, but I don't think it would be as sturdy. It's actually the sides that stabilize the design.

[zephyr1934]

That's cool... and now you've got me thinking about it <several minutes of quiet contemplation later> a couple of alternate approaches come to mind, but hard to explain with words alone. If I remember, next time I'm near my CAD I'll put them together.

 

... I went and played. So "5 studs wide" = "12.5 plates tall" on its side. One needs to get a core of 8.5 plates, where a pair of cheese bricks to bring it to 12.5. I came up with the idea to use a 3x3x1.67 core with brackets on all four sides (use "up" brackets for one pair of opposing sides and "down" brackets for the other pair of sides). The 3x3 + two brackets = 7.5 plates from the core + 2*0.5 plates from the brackets = 8.5 plates. However, this design results in a larger void in the corners due to the height of the bracket and height of the lip on the cheese brick (each 1/2 plate tall).

In contrast, your build provides a smoother curve. By using the neck brackets, your design fills this void in, only leaving the 1/2 plate of the cheese brick lip.

 

 

[Sven J]

@zephyr1934 The solution you describe above is exactly what I had in mind first. But that 1/2-plate "steps" in the corners looked ugly. Then I had the idea to fill those gaps with neck bracktes and had to find some way to attach them...

Btw: Here's the first real-life build that uses the proposed design.

Edited Wednesday at 06:12 AM by Sven J