(MOC) Tiny PF switcher shunter

[sed6]

I've always desired a small engine to run on my small door layout. Lots of looking here and elsewhere online provided plenty of inspiration. My three main goals were a) make it powered by PF b) make it similar to something that exists IRL and c) make it tiny!

I've seen some small switchers but mine might be the shortest at just 14 studs long and 6 studs wide. I even managed to squeeze in a minifig (well, 1/2 a minifig). The gray plate on top serves as an on/off switch, though a curved side piece needs to be removed to see the light. Designing it was a bit of a challenge, and ultimately I took two potentially controversial shortcuts.

This one took only about 5-6 hours to design in LDD. It contains about 175 pieces and cost about $80 US to build with pieces from BL including the PF parts. 

Below I've included lots of pics and a link to a quick video of it running. It looks right at home on my layout and does a good job moving cars around, especially considering it's very light weight

EDIT: Here's a link to my LDD file so you can make, modify, copy or inspect my design. 

https://bricksafe.com/pages/sed6/switcher-shunter-engine

Hope you like!

 

 

Edited October 6, 2018 by sed6
cnat spele

[zephyr1934]

Nice little goat you have there, creative use of the battery box to get it to be so small. Definitely has the look of a British shunter. Is the green battery box is tape of some sort? What about the 1x2 grill tiles on the front, how are those staying on?

[LEGO Train 12 Volts]

Lovely little shunter

The green sticker perfectly match the lego colour

[Trekkie99]

Love me a little shunter model.  Nicely done!  

I'm curious how you got the 1x2 grated tiles to fit on the assumed flat sides and front of the battery box. Also, how did you make the battery box green?

[JopieK]

Very nice job sed. I like all those details you put into this very small loc and also how you used different parts including that bar in such a nice way! Even though you cheated a little bit (the yellow and black grill pieces), I find myself also find it hard not to cheat on shunters and did the same :)

[sed6]

Thanks all! This was a fun little build. 

The green battery box is wrapped in a large vinyl sticker from my local sign/printing shop. I took with me a rainbow of colors to see how many colors they could match well. They were able to match just four colors; green, red, blue and black. I modeled all four colors in LDD and then asked my wife to pick her favorite color engine. She picked green. I wrapped three sides of the box and trimmed it carefully with a sharp x-acto knife. 

The grills are held on with double sided clear, or Scotch, tape. While the engine looks okay without them, I really like their look. Once I decided to add the black and yellow stripes on the back it really demanded some yellow on the front. That black bar with the chains looks great in yellow in LDD but is only available in black or DBG.

I'm going to edit my first post with a link to the LDD file and here's a pic of the various colors my wife had to choose from. Perhaps you'll have a different favorite!

Thanks for looking. 

[zephyr1934]

Excellent and resourceful solutions

[Hod Carrier]

That’s a fantastic solution. Hiding the battery in plain sight like that is so obvious and yet so very well executed. Congratulations  

[Paperinik77pk]

It is a very cute little locomotive!!! And it works really fine!

The Idea of wrapping the battery box is a really good solution to make things smaller!!!

 

[Asper]

Wonderful little locomotive! (I would also have picked the green one...)

[ColletArrow]

Good going, I think this is about as small as possible without switching to a 9V battery. I like that it's similar-but-different to a BR 08, and that it has enough presence to not be dwarfed by your rolling stock. The railings and chain at each end work well too. A neat little job!

[Roadmonkeytj]

Nice little shunter ... Now it it were only steam lol  all joking aside I think you did a clever Job at hiding the components all in one unit.   Even if you had to use tape lol

[CSW652]

Like the idea of wrapping the battery box in green.  That green seems like a very good match.  Would you be interested in sharing the brand / type of vinyl you used? 

[sed6]

13 hours ago, CSW652 said:

Like the idea of wrapping the battery box in green.  That green seems like a very good match.  Would you be interested in sharing the brand / type of vinyl you used? 

Thank you. I honestly have no idea the brand or type. I just took a large assortment of lego colors to my local sign shop and they helped me match up as many colors as we could. The lady behind the counter was happy to help and gave me a free sample of each color instead of charging me for a full square foot of each. 

[pirzyk]

8 hours ago, sed6 said:

Thank you. I honestly have no idea the brand or type. I just took a large assortment of lego colors to my local sign shop and they helped me match up as many colors as we could. The lady behind the counter was happy to help and gave me a free sample of each color instead of charging me for a full square foot of each. 

You may look at the backing paper of the Vinyl if you have any left.  One large brand is Oracal and may have a number like 631 or such.  Getting the specific color will be harder unless someone specifically printed the number on the back.