sed6 Posted February 25, 2018 Posted February 25, 2018 I'm working on a locomotive, an ES44. In LDD it's 50 studs long, but the scale is just a little off. I need to lengthen it to 58 studs to get the large fuel tank between the three axle bogies to scale properly. Is 58 studs too long? Quote
CrispyBassist Posted February 25, 2018 Posted February 25, 2018 Depends, too long for what? My longest loco is ~68 studs long (and properly scaled), and I know others who have longer. The longer it is, the more it will overhang going through curves (especially Lego r40's) but with the right amount of rotational freedom in the trucks it'll run just fine. Quote
peterab Posted February 26, 2018 Posted February 26, 2018 58 stud will mean you have to be careful with the yellow switches on turnout/points. The overhang of the middle of the loco is likely to cause you to hit the yellow switches. We mostly take them off for our club layouts anyway to stop little fingers shunting our trains into each other. Quote
dr_spock Posted February 26, 2018 Posted February 26, 2018 My longest loco is 60 studs long. If it is for display only, 58 studs is no problem. If you plan to run it on a layout, you have to be mindful of the clearance around curves and switches and your amount of overhang. It could be fun for the kids to see a train knocking over structures, trees, etc. along trackside. Quote
Murdoch17 Posted February 26, 2018 Posted February 26, 2018 (edited) My longest (as yet un-built, this is soon to change) loco is 68 studs long, and is body-jointed in two spots, plus having the wheels connected to the body only by two pins at the middle of both ends. (the rest of the wheels connect via Mixel joints to each other) It should work, but to answer your question, I think 58 studs sound reasonable. Got any pics of the WIP so far as to help us judge? Edited February 26, 2018 by Murdoch17 Quote
CrispyBassist Posted February 26, 2018 Posted February 26, 2018 (edited) On 2/25/2018 at 7:32 PM, peterab said: 58 stud will mean you have to be careful with the yellow switches on turnout/points. The overhang of the middle of the loco is likely to cause you to hit the yellow switches. We mostly take them off for our club layouts anyway to stop little fingers shunting our trains into each other. THAT is a great point that I completely forgot about. My Budd RDC is log and low enough that it still hits the switch stands without the levers. If that becomes an issue, one of the aftermarket track manufacturers (can't remember which one) makes switches with the throws on the other side. Edited February 28, 2018 by CrispyBassist Spelling Quote
sed6 Posted February 26, 2018 Author Posted February 26, 2018 (edited) 1 hour ago, Murdoch17 said: Got any pics of the WIP so far as to help us judge? Sure do. Thanks for all the replies so far. The tank in the middle needs to be 20 studs long (12 studs currently as pictured) to scale perfectly with the 3 axle bogies. But mostly I just want to avoid the inevitable 'your fuel tanks too short' comments on this 50 stud version. Comments welcome! (But be nice, this is my first loco moc and only my 4th LDD model) Edited February 26, 2018 by sed6 Quote
sed6 Posted March 1, 2018 Author Posted March 1, 2018 Ugh, well I stretched it to 58 studs and it looks great in profile, but now I think it's too skinny! It's 6+ studs wide (handrails stick out a bit) and now I'm thinking it needs to be 7 or 8 studs wide to look more proportional. This started as a simple, let's make a BNSF version of the 60052 locomotive, and has grown into a 1300 brick behemoth... Quote
Murdoch17 Posted March 1, 2018 Posted March 1, 2018 49 minutes ago, sed6 said: Ugh, well I stretched it to 58 studs and it looks great in profile, but now I think it's too skinny! It's 6+ studs wide (handrails stick out a bit) and now I'm thinking it needs to be 7 or 8 studs wide to look more proportional. This started as a simple, let's make a BNSF version of the 60052 locomotive, and has grown into a 1300 brick behemoth... Personally, I think it looked fine in the post you made from Sunday... no further modifications needed. Quote
sed6 Posted March 1, 2018 Author Posted March 1, 2018 6 minutes ago, Murdoch17 said: Personally, I think it looked fine in the post you made from Sunday... no further modifications needed. Kind words. Thank you Murdoch! Quote
Hod Carrier Posted March 1, 2018 Posted March 1, 2018 What options do you have to re-scale the bogies? If you could make them shorter it would give you more space for a larger fuel tank. Sometimes the answer is not to scale things correctly but to apply correct proportions. Quote
sed6 Posted March 2, 2018 Author Posted March 2, 2018 Agreed. The standard 3 axle bogies driven by a PF motor in the body would only be 2 studs shorter each, so save 4 studs total. Problem is there's no room for a motor or motors in the body. Quote
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