[MOC] German Regional-Express with doubledeck coaches and Vectron engi

[HoMa]

Regional-Express with Bombardier doubledeck coaches and a Siemens Vectron engine

Today I am presenting my new train set which is a typical German Regional-Express with doubledeck coaches and a modern electric loco. These trains can be found all over the place in Germany and some years ago I used one of the to comute to work. Since then I had the idea in mind to build a LEGO model of this train.

The train consists of 3 Bombardier doubledeck coaches (one with the streamlined end cap) and a modern Siemens Vectron electric engine (you can find the original at https://www.flickr.c...oto/13558726015). The train is build in 7-wide and is powered by Power Functions and two train motors in the bogies of the engine. The Deutsche Bahn company does not use the Vectron engine to push or pull regional trains like this one but I felt that the "grill" structure on the head of the Vectron engine is a nice challenge to be captured in LEGO bricks.

The most challenging part was in fact the end cap of one of the doubledeck coaches.

Using various curved slopes I ended up in a result which is not perfect, but close to the original shape (see it at https://www.flickr.c...6man/9465049170). At least I've avoided the non-curved 75° slope bricks which would have been to square-edged for the latest version of the end cap.

The design phase started with the windows of the upper deck. They have a very iconic bend in the lower half of the window. And I also wanted to have a complete brick-build red-colored frame around the window.

The lower part of the window are transparent cheese-corners with the higher side facing outside. The bended part of the window is a SNOT transprent panel which is attached to a Technic hole somewhere inside the coach. The upper red window frame is build using the thin part of a 1x2 - 2x4 bracket element. Unfortunatelly the 1x2 plate of this bracket is facing right inside the interior so I had to modify the minifigs a little bit.

The display on each side of the coaches between the lower and upper deck has an offset of 1/2 a plate height and again the thin part of a bracket was used to cover the small gap which is left over when a 1-stud-wide subgroup is build in SNOT wise.

Videos

I took two short, bad videos just to prove that this train is running. At the end of the "push"-video the power of the batteries died.

Pictures

You can find more pictures in my Flickr album https://www.flickr.com/photos/holgermatthes/albums/72157662500969610

Enjoy and happy new year to all of you in the Train forum!

Holger

[michaelozzie]

Lovely build overall and the locomotive is my favourite part.

[Sven J]

What a great MOC!

Instantly recognizable, and some very inspiring building techniques.

Thanks for sharing!

[WholeWheatLego]

How on earth did you get the grill design on the front of the locomotive?

Awesome Job!

Edited January 3, 2016 by WholeWheatLego

[dr_spock]

Great job and building techniques. Interesting to see a Vectron instead of Traxx locomotive. Nice work on the Vectron grille.

[Selander]

Great job, I too like the engine most.

[LEGO Train 12 Volts]

What a great building technic for a fantastic result! :wub:

I love the whole train ...but the front of the train in the first picture is something really special!

Amazing work ...as usual!

[THERIZE]

They look great! Great job and the vectron!!

The only thing that could be improved would be the front of the control car. The 2x4 bow just looks so wrong. But so funny on the other side. The thing is that the front windscreen sits lower than the top windows in the original pictures and thus has a higher roof. But the top of the windscreen of your model is higher then the low part of the top windows so it looks kinda strange. I would suggest to remove the 2x4 bow under the window and put one or maybe two normal plates there and put 2 plates above the windscreen. I think that would definitely improve the looks.

[Man with a hat]

Wonderful. lovely curves.

And I like the solution for the upper deck windows. Brilliant.

[connyx]

Very nice idea indeed.

Like the most the locomotive. Really well designed!

[baard]

Very nice train. I too like the locomotive most.

[Sebastian59]

HoMa,

This build is what inspired me to pursue the project in building the German DB N Wagen with BR111! I love your attention to detail in your builds!

Sebastian59