MOC: Baltimore & Ohio EM-1 Steam Locomotive

[Cale]

After a few WamaLTC members gave me a friendly ribbing for not having a B&O engine to display while doing train shows at the B&O Railroad Museum I decided it was time to build one. What better tribute to B&O steam than one of the greatest engines to grace Baltimore rails. And it's about time I started posting stuff again

The EM-1s were the last articulated steam locomotives built for the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad. The EM-1s were delivered from Baldwin Locomotive in 1944 (engines #7620 - 7619) and 1945 (engines #7620 - 7629). The B&O was in the midst of dieselization at the time and would have prefered to order new diesel locomotives but war material restrictions (namely the copper used for the electricals in a diesel) dictated that the B&O had to order new steam instead. For a locomotive of the 2-8-8-4 wheel arrangement (the B&O never refered to them by the common name for this type "Yellowstone"), they were relatively modest in size, but very successful. Originally, they worked on the Cumberland Division, a very physically difficult stretch of the B&O, with numerous heavy coal trains, as well as fast freights. The main district served by the EM-1 was the line from Cumberland towards Grafton, WV. Later, as diesels took over this assignment, the class was shifted to the Pittsburgh Division, where they primarily handled Lake Mineral traffic, plus trains between Wheeling and Pittsburgh. The class was renumbered 650-679. Well liked by the crews that ran them the EM-1s were up for any task from lugging long coal drags to the ocasional passenger duty. The EM-1s couldn't escape being replaced by deisels though. The B&O started to be scrapping them in 1957, and all were off the roster by 1960. Unfrtunately no EM-1s were saved.

This engine is powered by LEGO Power Functions and can out pull any 9v locomotive.

The full Flickr Gallery can be found here. B&O EM-1 Gallery

Cale

[Robbie]

WOW!!!

[WesternOutlaw]

Cale: this is awesome! I really think you outdid yourself with this locomotive - and comparing it to some of your previous LEGO trains, that says a lot. You're definitely among my favorite train builders. You've done a fine job at designing a 2-8-8-4 locomotive - that certainly takes a lot of wheels. How does it handle curves? The boiler looks great and I like the front-end design. Overall, a very impressive engine. Thanks for sharing here at Train Tech.

Well deserving of a front-page.

[lightningtiger]

OMG !

Congrat's on being front paged 'Cale' with such an AWESOME PF steam train - fine example of SNOT work - cool boiler's - pitty there are none left in the real world !

Beautiful detailing - I'm a conformist! 'Cale' really I'm a conformist! !

[fred67]

It really is impressive; I'd also like to know how it handles curves, and how does the remote work with the receiver buried in the tender like that.

Congratulations on an outstanding MOC, Cale.

[Carefree_Dude]

It is a beautiful engine. Is it more for just display, or does it handle well on track? I know the Emerald Night has issues handling lots of curves and such. How does yours fare?

[amity498]

amazing

[L@go]

I'm lost for words. Making such intricate models out of Lego is just an astonishing feat. Congratulations on a truly outstanding MOC!

[gondortoast]

That truley is beautiful.

I can just tell that alot of time and effot have gone into all those detail's and its quiet cool that youve managed to cram all the power unit into the tender

thanks for sharing

[Ogre]

That is soooooooooooo sweet!

Nice job!

[indyman09]

So beautiful! Best brick-build train ever.

[Odyssey]

Wow, this is really in a league of it's own! I think there aren't many who could do the same (I for my part surely couldn't)...

[dhc6twinotter]

This is great! I remember seeing it at brickfair, and I wish I had spent more time checking it out. Great detail!

[Cale]

Thanks Guys.

This locomotive will handle tight LEGO curves just fine though it may look a little silly doing it. It will even traverse switch tracks. The only point where it will run into problems is on a tight S curve. It looks most at home though on the super wide curves like CILTC have done and hopefully my club will be doing in the future.

Having the I.R. Receiver hidden like that doesn't cause to much of a problem. It can block the signal occasionally but not enough to worry about.

This engine has proved to be one of my most reliable runners and got quite a work out at BrickFair recently. You can see it breifly running at the 45 second mark in this video. CNN BrickFair

Cale

[Burf2000]

Very nice but the main thing I notice is the custom track,

[rday1982]

An amazing loco. I like the dual powered six-wheel trucks under the tender. They're similar to a design I'm trying to put together in LDD, which gives me confidence that the thing will work. :D

Trying to get my head around the various ways to integrate PF into a nice big steam loco so I can buy the bits and build something to be proud of. Looking at what other people are doing is always a help.

[Fistach]

Great design but it's pretty useless cause it can't run on a curved tracks. But still it has great design.

[Carefree_Dude]

Great design but it's pretty useless cause it can't run on a curved tracks. But still it has great design.

He not only said it could, but also gave us a video of it doing so. What more do you want?

[Cale]

Great design but it's pretty useless cause it can't run on a curved tracks. But still it has great design.

Cale