MOC: 1/33 Swedish 0-8-2T with three (!) working cylinders

[Sven J]

Dear fellow AFOLs,

it’s been quite a long time since my last MOC, but finally, I am proud to present another one. And I dare say that the waiting was quite worth it…
But let’s take one thing at a time:

I’ve always loved Swedish steam locomotives for their clean, elegant lines, their beautiful colour scheme and those massive snowploughs  ; so when the Mallet project I announced a few months ago had failed, I thought it was time for an old Scandinavian lady in 1/33 scale – the TGOJ M3a No. 104.
The prototype is a three-cylinder 0-8-2 tank engine (did I mention that I love tank engines, too?). Four of these locomotives were built between 1928 and 1930 by Nydqvist & Holm AB (NOHAB) in Trollhättan, Sweden, and delivered to Frövi-Ludvika railway, where they were classified as Litt. M3a, nos. 101–104. From 1931 on, the engines were operated by TGOJ (Trafikaktiebolaget Grängesberg–Oxelösunds Järnvägar). They were used primarily in freight service, e.g. for hauling ore trains to the harbours on the Baltic Sea.
While engines 102–104 were scrapped in 1975, no. 101 is preserved at the railway museum in Grängesberg.

The model consists of ca. 2100 parts and weighs about 1.4 kg. It features a working reproduction of the inner cylinder and a realistic frame with prototypic cutouts, inside-mounted equalizing beams, and brakes. The cab interior is as detailed as possible, given that the battery box is placed inside the cab.
Two L-motors, controlled via one IR receiver (V2), are working directly on the fourth axle; the first to third axles are driven by the side rods. All the rods were made to measure by zephyr1934 (and I really want to thank him for this great job!), while the wheels are BBB XL and Medium ones.

Enough said, here are the pictures:










The frame during construction, showing the prototypical inclination (approx. 6,7°) of the middle cylinder, which allows the connecting rod to clear the first axle:


Two more views of the frame. You can see the equalizing beam between the first and second axle as well as the one between the third and fourth:



The motors are situated in the side tanks and in the lower half of the boiler:


A longitudinal section (render). The red boat weight brick improves weight distribution:


Some cab side detail. Note the small windshield glass between the windows:



Self-made stickers:



The rear windows are barred, to prevent them from being damaged while taking coal:



The roof is detachable for easy access to the on/off switch and the charging socket. You can also see the rudimentary cab interior:



Finally, here’s a video, showing the locomotive in action. Despite its long wheelbase, the model is able to negotiate LGB R3 curves and switches, as the trailing axle (Bissell type) swings out both radially and laterally (Note: The brakes between third and fourth axle are for display only. In operation, they have to be removed; otherwise, they rub against the fourth axle’s flange and make a terrible noise).

As usual, you will find larger versions of the pictures in my Bricksafe folder.
You can also download the LXF there.

Thanks for your kind interest!

Best wishes,
Sven

Edit: New videos here!

Edited December 7, 2016 by Tenderlok

[HoMa]

Hi Sven,

thanks for sharing another great 1:33 train MOC from your building workshop! Very well build, great details. The snow ploughs in red are really eyecatching. And the dark blue makes it all look very noble. I love the combination of a great design and functionality done with LEGO bricks (and some necessary custom parts like the wheels and the rods. The locomotive seems to be heavy enough that the dirven axle has enough grip on the metal LGB rails? Have you tested the locomotive pulling some of your waggons?

These LGB rails and switches are amazing. Would be really nice if ME-Model or anyone else will come up with something like that in L-Gauge scale.

Best regards,

Holger

[Redimus]

Goddamn.

Stop making such awesome locos, you're making the rest of us look bad! lol

[McBuddha]

Underbart! Wonderful!

[Nemo57]

Very beautiful and smooth lines and curves of the forms. Style transferred just fine.

[garethjellis]

This is a work of ART!!!!

[ScotNick]

*joining the praise of the others*

This is simply stunning! So many great details, It's hard to believe that this is really Lego.

The small sign on the remote controller and the gray railway wheel are ingenious, well done!

Now what I wonder is how fast are the batteries empty for such a huge model?

What I wanted to know as well is the gauge - is that 5 bricks wide, right?

How is traction with the wheels?

Hope to see more builds from you soon, lovely what you already got there

Cheers, Nick

[Rotundus]

Beautiful locomotive. Well executed with a lot of detail work. Nice "cutaway" shot. Lots of knowledge revealed there. Well done!

[Q3671]

wow, just fantastic

[dr_spock]

Beautiful work. It would look amazing running in a garden railway.

[Hod Carrier]

Stop it. Just stop it. Your MOCs are so full of amazing details and great engineering touches as well as being incredibly faithful to the prototypes. I can't speak for anyone else, but I'm getting serious brick envy.

[monai]

Another masterpiece, you are on the verge to change the way lego trains AFOL community will think about scale modelling. As I've already said, producing exact scale models is possible in LEGO (at least for some specific models) but one have to leave the purism and accept some compromises. Eventually you didi it, accepting the zephyr rods, the fact that lego tracks are thought as a toy for kids and not for scale models. Your results open new perspectives that deserve attention. I love the third cylinder solution and the brake design, by the way I love the lokotenders too and I'm making some thoughs about the bulgarische br46 and the Eisenerz obb br97..(but perhaps they are too demanding).

Ok these are my sincere compliments but.. why have you not make use of your indubitable skillness for details and functions to produce a real walve mechanism and opening doors? you should have enough room at 1:33 scale (gauge 1).

with my best regards

Sergio and Eros

[Sven J]

A thousand thanks to all of you for these tons of praise!

On 23.7.2016 at 2:02 PM, HoMa said:

Very well build, great details. [...]

The locomotive seems to be heavy enough that the dirven axle has enough grip on the metal LGB rails? Have you tested the locomotive pulling some of your waggons?

Special thanks to an expert builder like you, Holger! Well, I haven't tested it yet; but my Hohenzollern 0-6-0T has about 60% of the weight and pulls two Lego waggons plus three LGB ones with ease, so it should be no problem for the M3a either.

On 23.7.2016 at 7:23 PM, ScotNick said:

Now what I wonder is how fast are the batteries empty for such a huge model?

What I wanted to know as well is the gauge - is that 5 bricks wide, right?

How is traction with the wheels?

The rechargeable battery box lasts for about one hour. Traction is fairly good even without traction tires, due to an adhesive weight of approx. 1.2 kg.

The gauge is 45 mm (gauge 1).

On 23.7.2016 at 8:31 PM, dr_spock said:

Beautiful work. It would look amazing running in a garden railway.

Unfortunately, living in an apartment on the third and fourth floor, I don't have a garden...

On 23.7.2016 at 10:22 PM, monai said:

why have you not make use of your indubitable skillness for details and functions to produce a real walve mechanism and opening doors?

Well, a functional valve gear would have required more customized parts - and you know I'm a bit reluctant about that...

As for openable doors, they would make no sense for this model: to be prototypical, they would have to open inwards, which is impossible due to the position of the battery box.

But I promise I will make an engine with opening doors some day...

On 23.7.2016 at 10:22 PM, monai said:

I'm making some thoughs about the bulgarische br46

One of my all-time favourites! Build it, please!!!

Edited October 29, 2016 by Tenderlok
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[LEGO Train 12 Volts]

Finally it's your turn, and here is another masterpiece!

Let me say that the colors are wonderful: the dark blue is perfect paired with black.

The windows with wooden frames are the icing on the cake!

Every time you present a new MOC it doesn't seem Lego at first glance!

The complex rods mechanism complete this new excellent creation!

[zephyr1934]

Wo... wo... wow!!! Those photos do NOT look like lego, this looks like a fine HO or G gauge model that was used for inspiration. Have you shown your work to conventional modelers and gotten any feedback? You truly make a compelling argument for 11-12 wide builds. This model is just SOOO perfect. You even modeled the underframe, insane! I have to look VERY hard to find any compromise from the prototype (aside from the necessary cab full of electronics). Are those trans clear jumper plates on the cab window? This MOC is definitely one of the best lego steam engines I have ever seen! You are quite welcome for the small part that the rods made to help you pull off this masterpiece.

[Captain Green Hair]

Another work of art, well done! I love he colours on it and the level of detail is amazing at this scale!

I have two questions; why did you not use the reddish brown 2x2 window frames and why are the buffers different?

[Sven J]

Thank you too, LEGO Train 12 Volts, zephyr1934 and Captain Green Hair !

I am very happy about receiving all these compliments, especially by such experienced builders.

On 24.7.2016 at 4:12 PM, zephyr1934 said:

Have you shown your work to conventional modelers and gotten any feedback?

I have shown it to a few friends and family members who do conventional scale modeling. Most of them couldn't believe that adult persons spend their time and money building scale models from LEGO...  But feedback was entirely positive.

On 24.7.2016 at 4:12 PM, zephyr1934 said:

Are those trans clear jumper plates on the cab window?

Do you mean the windshields? Yes, I used clear jumper plates to build them.

On 24.7.2016 at 5:22 PM, Captain Green Hair said:

I have two questions; why did you not use the reddish brown 2x2 window frames and why are the buffers different?

The 2x2 window frames are a bit too small, both regarding height and width...

As for the buffers: It used to be a feature of most German and Scandinavian railway vehicles that the right buffer (in the direction af travel) is convex, the left one flat (if you look very closely, you can see it in the prototype drawing, too). By means of this, when two vehicles are coupled, there is always a flat buffer opposing a convex one. This reduces the tendency of opposing buffers to slide off each other, especially when going through curves, as the convex buffer can „roll“ over the surface of the flat one.

Edited October 29, 2016 by Tenderlok
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[Rail Co]

As I am picking my jaw off the floor and cleaning up my drool haha this model is AMAZING I really like that you make trains for a bigger scale track (I am guessing G scale?)! Really shows what you can do with Lego. I am really impressed with another great model. I wish I had such wonderful skills to design such a great locomotive!

Keep on Brickin'

-RailCo

[LEGO Train 12 Volts]

I have shown it to a few friends and family members who do conventional scale modeling. Most of them couldn't believe that adult persons spend their time and money building scale models from LEGO... But feedback was entirely positive.

This is the story of my life too

[GI_Jack]

Beautifully built, beautifully presented. At first when I was quickly going through the pictures I did not realize which one is Lego. That truly is a piece of locomotive art.

[marbleman]

Amazing, that look more like model than Lego. And thank you for sharing the LDD file, that is a big help for my furture work.

Edited July 25, 2016 by marbleman

[Mesabi]

This.... Why is this not on the front page!?!

[xboxtravis7992]

This is great, need I say more? It's wonderful!

[Selander]

Stunning !!! Very nice that you choose to build a Swedish engine, that's rather uncommon.

[Sven J]

Thank you very much, Rail Co, GI_Jack, marbleman, Mesabi, xboxtravis7992 and Selander !

On 25.7.2016 at 5:39 AM, marbleman said:

And thank you for sharing the LDD file, that is a big help for my furture work.

You're welcome. But please keep in mind that some parts are missing in the LXF (e.g. the small pieces of rigid hose that hold the headlight and the snowploughs). Besides, the file does not represent the final state of the model, for I had to make some changes to the drivetrain during construction.

On 25.7.2016 at 7:34 AM, Selander said:

Very nice that you choose to build a Swedish engine, that's rather uncommon.

It's a pity that Swedish engines are widely ignored by modellers, there are so many handsome locomotives up there...

My absolute number one among all steam engines is the *** beautiful 2-6-4 tank engine litt. S1.

But unfortunately, even BBB XL drivers are too small to build it in 1/33 scale.

Edited October 29, 2016 by Tenderlok
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