[MOC] DM&IR M4 Yellowstone #237

[SavaTheAggie]

Duluth, Missabe, & Iron Range M4 Yellowstone #237 by Tony Sava, on Flickr

  Duluth, Missabe, & Iron Range M4 "Yellowstone" class steam locomotive #237

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Of "Yellowstone" class locomotives, the DM&IR Yellowstones were the strongest built.  #237 was the only locomotive retired prior to dieselization, sold for scrap after a wreck. 

DM&IR-237_008 by Tony Sava, on Flickr

This locomotive has been built in 9-wide, and is my first successful driver-driven steam locomotive.  The locomotive is powered by two Power Functions L-Motors in the boiler, and a AA battery box in the tender. 

 DM&IR-237_015 by Tony Sava, on Flickr

The cab overhangs more than I'd like, but hopefully I can keep it on ME Model curves and Grand Curves.

 DM&IR-237_023 by Tony Sava, on Flickr

A huge, enormous thank-you to Terry Akuna for the excellent work on designing and printing the decals on the tender, cab, and road numbers on the headlights.

DM&IR-237_012 by Tony Sava, on Flickr

 

--Tony

 

Edited May 17, 2017 by SavaTheAggie

[xboxtravis7992]

Driver driven? As in the motors fire the drivers instead of turning the wheels directly? I need to see an explanation of how it was done!

[SavaTheAggie]

I'm not entirely sure what you mean by "fire the drivers".  By "Driver Driven" I mean the locomotive is powered directly through the drivers, rather than the motors in the tender pushing a dead-head locomotive. 

--Tony

[Mesabi]

Nice build! The detailing is great, the front of the locomotive is very realistic.

I'm just curious, have you been to the train museum in Duluth? Since you built a Duluth and Missabe locomotive, I was wondering if you drew any inspiration from the area.

[Barduck]

I reaaly hope you'll put the plans for this beauty up for sale in your bricklink, she's simply amazing

[LEGO Train 12 Volts]

Another top notch work Tony! 

...and 9 studs wide is crazy!

Nice to see that you've finally put motors in the boiler. Is this solution better (and faster) than your locomotives with motorized tender?

[peedeejay]

Looks massive and absolutely wonderful!

[SavaTheAggie]

Thanks all!

 

On 5/18/2017 at 0:49 PM, Mesabi said:

Nice build! The detailing is great, the front of the locomotive is very realistic.

I'm just curious, have you been to the train museum in Duluth? Since you built a Duluth and Missabe locomotive, I was wondering if you drew any inspiration from the area.

No, I'm afraid I've never been up that way.  I tend to gravitate towards models that are unique in some way ("Best of" their class, unique streamlining, etc) and models that have not been built in LEGO before, or are under-represented in some way.

On 5/19/2017 at 4:42 AM, Barduck said:

I reaaly hope you'll put the plans for this beauty up for sale in your bricklink, she's simply amazing

I will be working on getting instructions made for the Yellowstone in the next few weeks to help pay for my trip to Brickworld.

On 5/21/2017 at 0:34 AM, LEGO Train 12 Volts said:

Another top notch work Tony! 

...and 9 studs wide is crazy!

Nice to see that you've finally put motors in the boiler. Is this solution better (and faster) than your locomotives with motorized tender?

It's the second slowest (at top speed) of all my locomotives (faster than XL motor driven tender wheels of the Allegheny), and second strongest (the XL motors in the Allegheny can still pull more).  So it's "Better" in that it can pull more than standard LEGO PF train motors, but its the design that suffers the most from uneven track.  If I ever build another giant articulated, it'll be tender driven.

--Tony

[rahziel]

Amazing, what a beast excellent work !

[LEGO Train 12 Volts]

On 6/5/2017 at 7:27 PM, SavaTheAggie said:

If I ever build another giant articulated, it'll be tender driven.

--Tony

Thanks for the information 

[Commander Wolf]

Watched the videos in the gallery and curious about the performance of something so big... is that the top speed of the locomotive, and at that speed with that load how much run time are you typically getting?

[SavaTheAggie]

On 7/6/2017 at 1:32 AM, Commander Wolf said:

Watched the videos in the gallery and curious about the performance of something so big... is that the top speed of the locomotive, and at that speed with that load how much run time are you typically getting?

I believe the videos you watched were from Bricks Cascade - since then I've slowed the locomotive down, changing the gear ratio to increase torque.  She's now less than half the speed she was.

But on those videos - I can probably get about 4 hours, maybe 5.  She's running L motors, which eat batteries worse that most motors, but I'm running the AA battery pack instead of the AAA just for that reason. 

--Tony