ALCO

My Rise from the Dark Ages

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Hello all - new to Eurobricks and Lego Trains,

I just wanted to share with you my rise from the Dark Ages and what I have been building. Last Christmas time I went to my first ever Lego Train Show hosted by the Northern Illinois Lego Train Club. I had been slowly getting back into Legos at that time since my sister introduced me to LDD. After the show I was hooked. I did not ask for, but was given the Emerald Night for Christmas and was so struck by how awesome it is and how it connected my love for trains to my love for Lego's. Then later in the year I got the Maersk Train for my birthday then the Blue Cargo train. I have been building in a fury!! I am most interested in North American Steam but have built some diesels as well. The flickr link is to a gallery of my steam collection I have a whole bunch of rail cars and some buildings and MOW vehicles as well. I am hoping one day to build these with real bricks and have a layout (really a big yard, engine shed, and round-house) and be a part of a train club. But until I have the space and funds, these LDD creations are the only way I can express my passion at this time. Anyway, enjoy the North American Steam!

I did build a Class C Shay truck but since I borrowed so much from the original creator Stephen Pakbaz I decided not to share it.

https://flic.kr/s/aHsknDng5z

ALCO

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Wow, amazing job. I really like American Steam and yours are very realistic.

By the way, i hope your birthday gift habit will continue forever and ever.

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Glad you are on Eurobricks as well as Flickr! I love your model of the cog railway engine, among others. It just not something you usually see out of Lego.

Keep up the good work!

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Rise from the dark ages? You must be riding an ICBM. You've got a lot of fantastic builds. The John Bull is instantly recognizable (you need to build that section of iron bridge that it is displayed on in the Smithsonian). My only criticism is that Big Boy is just screaming for ME curves (grin... but that is true of almost any lego steam engine with more than 4 wheels). In all seriousness there are some clever tricks in those builds, e.g., the steps on the side of the boiler of the K4, the dumbbell as part of the dynamo, etc. Keep up the great work and can't wait to see some of these in the brick.

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Holy-moly!!! Have you been trapped in your basement with nothing but a laptop? That's one prodigious outpouring of excellence!! I can only assume that you have no need for either paid employment or sleep.

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Welcome aboard. You have some very nice engines. Have you considered joining NILTC?

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All, thanks for the great comments and feedback!

Stash, PM sent.

Zephyr, haha, yes! I must be! I had the John Bull at the Pennsylvania Railway museum in mind when I built it. I needed a way to hide the battery and IR receiver and the fully enclosed tender in this display was the best way to do it. My rules for building are that the locomotives I build need to be just that...locomotives. They must provide their own motive power to their driver wheels and carry their own fuel supply (battery) in a tender/on board and NOT in a tender disguised as a freight/passenger/other manifest type car. I agree with you that steamers with more than 6 drivers do best on ME curves but since at this time the only switches are the tight small ones, then I have to build with the tightest radius in mind. Hopefully, when I brick the Big Boy it will do just fine on the tight curves. I build all my trains with hope of one day bricking them so I try to adhere to the size standards set forth by the Northern Illinois Lego Train Club (the club closest to me) as stated on their website as well as keeping practical things like curved track, power, wires, and details. I'll post some of my rolling stock soon.

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Looking forward to seeing the rolling stock too. Nice engines!

Zephyr we had our first show with the R104 and R88 curves, it was awesome! :P

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That is quite an introduction! Did you figure out how to add a third truck on the Shay? I built Stephen's excellent shay and wanted to do that but the way he's got the pivot point situated makes it rather impossible. Will you post LDD's anyplace, particularly the Mallet?

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Ecmo47 I did figure it out! The link to the tender/third truck is not as pretty as I would like it to be but it doesn't stick out too bad. I'll upload some screenshots of the Shay, and my rolling stock to my Flickr tomorrow.

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Hello! I like your creations!!

I too, just emerged my dark ages recently.. i never completely stopped building, but for a few years i toned it down, but now i'm back full swing, and it is so exciting!

I missed the niltc show in Cantigny this year, but plan on going next year, I went when i was younger and it was amazing!

I myself am finally ready to get into trains, I always wanted them when I was younger but never had the funds. I just ordered cargo railway (4559) off bricklink to get started. My first train moc will probably be a steam engine, the Adventurers sets are some of my favorites and i'd love to have a train from that era to go along with them!

Anyways, was just saying hi!

Kyle

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Ecmo47 I did figure it out! The link to the tender/third truck is not as pretty as I would like it to be but it doesn't stick out too bad. I'll upload some screenshots of the Shay, and my rolling stock to my Flickr tomorrow.

Still hoping to see some of those pictures if you have time to post them!

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Still hoping to see some of those pictures if you have time to post them!

https://www.flickr.c...128636628@N08/? - Posted. Sorry, I got busy severely modding an Emerald Night into the GWR 4900 Olton Hall that is the Hogwarts Express. As well as starting a 4-8-4 Northern that will be UP 844. UP 3985 challenger is done - very easy since it's just a shorter Big Boy which I already had done. Photos to come when I'm done with the Olton Hall and Northern.

That Big Boy is amazing!

Is that really only in LDD? It looks so real...

I have some LDD screenshots but I also created some photos in Bluerender. This version of the Big Boy is about the 4th major rebuild I've done. It started as a 12-wide, then rebuilt as a 10-wide. Then rebuilt as an 8-wide. Then rebuilt to have an XL motor power each set of drivers... I still have some revisions I need to do. The u-joints in the steam pipes from the 2nd drivers do not come in black. I either need to create my own livery colors or figure out a different way of doing that part of the build. I'm definitely open to other ideas too!

Hello! I like your creations!!

I too, just emerged my dark ages recently.. i never completely stopped building, but for a few years i toned it down, but now i'm back full swing, and it is so exciting!

I missed the niltc show in Cantigny this year, but plan on going next year, I went when i was younger and it was amazing!

I myself am finally ready to get into trains, I always wanted them when I was younger but never had the funds. I just ordered cargo railway (4559) off bricklink to get started. My first train moc will probably be a steam engine, the Adventurers sets are some of my favorites and i'd love to have a train from that era to go along with them!

Anyways, was just saying hi!

Kyle

Thanks Kyle! I'd love to see some of your creations!

Edited by ALCO

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<p>Well a rise from the Dark Ages would not be complete without bricking out a MOC. Behold!! I bring you an America 4-4-0!! My first MOC to brick out since emerging in the light. I learned a lot from this project. Small and simple...best to start there. Next one should be easier because I have a better understanding of the process and everything Anyway, there is a first road test video in the album here:https://flic.kr/s/aHskv4Z2yT

25170871532_100de51f3e.jpg

24921503039_a9b65b089d.jpg

Enjoy!!

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<p>Well a rise from the Dark Ages would not be complete without bricking out a MOC. Behold!! I bring you an America 4-4-0!! My first MOC to brick out since emerging in the light. I learned a lot from this project. Small and simple...best to start there. Next one should be easier because I have a better understanding of the process and everything Anyway, there is a first road test video in the album here:https://flic.kr/s/aHskv4Z2yT

++SNIP++

Enjoy!!

That looks awesome ALCO! It really blows my 4-4-0 locomotive off the tracks... and the cow skull is a nice touch too.

Keep up the awesome work!

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ALCO,

Your models are suburb. I agree that the two-tone grey with yellow stripe looks good on the challenger. "Hey, UPRR: you know that challenger you have! It would look great you..."

Regarding your 4-4-0, in all the old pictures that I have seen, most often they would take the antlers/horns and mount them to the top of the headlight. I do not think I recall having seen a full skull. But maybe you have. Then again it is your creation and it adds a nice finishing touch.

But one thing I just realized while looking at your pictures again is that I have seen that Shay model of yours in brick-built forum. And it indeed does work. (I forget who it was but one of the SEALUG members brought it to the last meeting.) One thing the person explained to me is that it can have issues going in reverse. That and it seems to catch a little on the underside so maybe it there is a way to increase the tiled surface/adjustments to bottom side of plates to help alleviate that would be in order.

3D LEGO

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3D LEGO,

Thank you for your compliments! I am really enjoying the fact that I can now begin to brick out my creations. The Challenger: has already undergone a major revision since that rendering and I agree with you, I have a 3977 in the two-tone gray and I like that better than 3985 which is the normal black. When I brick out a Challenger it will be 3977 in two-tone gray. Thank you!

Thank you for your comments on the 4-4-0. I don't recall ever seeing one with horn or antlers by the headlight...but antlers up there would look pretty cool. I can't remember where/how/when I saw the cow skull on the cow-catcher but I really like it there and it looks cool.

The Class C Shay locomotive is just a MOD of someone else's creation. I want to say the original creator is Steven Pakbaz? Either way, his Class A Shay was my base. I wanted to have the batter be in a tender and not pretending to be a log so I could only do a Class C or Class D. I did think of the moving trucks under the platform and I think I have it solved. I won't know for sure until I brick it out. Unfortunately I won't be doing any more bricking out until the fall. At least, that is when I anticipate available funds for such projects.

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Bumping this old topic.  ALCO joined NILTC this past weekend at the Geneva (IL) Library show and he ran a couple of his trains.  Here's the first video of them in action

 

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