MOC: Victorian Railways AE Passenger Car

[scruffulous]

I know I've had a bit of a hiatus from building, but I can't believe it's four years since I posted anything on Eurobricks! I'm trying to slowly ramp up my building again.

Here's my latest model: a Victorian Railways AE passenger car. 

There are more photos in my Flickr album.

These passenger cars were found mainly on longer distance intrastate passes. AE 51 was air conditioned around 1962, was recoded to BE 51, and then in 1983 was recoded back to AE. 

This model was built for BMR's OcTRAINber competition. It's built in O-scale (1:45), which ends up being 8 studs wide and 63 studs long (coupler to coupler).

The model contains 120 yellow flags. I have a love-hate relationship with flags - I love the thin line they produce and the building challenges they introduce (getting them into the doors was particularly challenging), but I hate the extra weight due to the extra parts needed to incorporate them in a build. Same goes for the modified plate with handles (this model uses 60 of those in rare dark blue). 

Purity Declaration: This is a pure LEGO build apart from the use of bearings for the wheels, vinyl for the yellow lettering and printed labels for the white lettering. The integrity of the model does not rely on any of these non-LEGO elements.

[zephyr1934]

Wow, that is a beauty. The thin pinstripes are really sharp and I can believe that they were a serious pain. With all of the microdetail and clip snot is this MOC fragile? As for the dark blue plate with handles, would there be other options (in case you wanted to build more), like a 2x2 dark blue plate with a black plate with handles inside the car? The flickr album would benefit from a few more detail shots (the trucks, the underside, and any other features you want to show off). Looking great!

[Younge]

What a peach!!! I am sure that I remember seeing these out and about when I was a child.

Your attention to detail knows no bounds! Keep up the great work and fly the VicRail flag!

[Commander Wolf]

Nice. The greebles on the bogies are quite interesting. Clever use of that telephone piece.

[Man with a hat]

Wow, what a beauty. I can understand the love-hate relation with the yellow flags, but it does pay off. Couldn't have been better!