[LDD MOC] Stephenson's Rocket

[StarWars8Spoiler]

Railway travel was the most common form of transportation for most of the 19th century. Not only was it sufficient for passenger trains, but it was convenient for goods trains as well. It helped to spread the power of many countries and greatly boost their economies. 

The winner of the Rainhill Trials, and one of the earliest steam locomotives ever built, Stephenson's Rocket, also simply known as Rocket, was built in 1829 by Robert Stephenson. It innovated steam locomotive design by only having a single pair of driving wheels, multiple boiler fire-tubes, a blastpipe, pistons directly connected to the driving wheels, a separate firebox, and more. 

Stephenson's Rocket beat out Novelty and Sans Pareil by achieveing the balance of power, speed, and reliability that the Liverpool and Manchester Railway was seeking. It served on the railway for a period of four years before working on the Brampton Railway. It was retired from service in 1862, and is today preserved at the Science Museum in London. A working replica was built in 1979 for the 150th anniversary of Rocket's construction. It is based currently in the National Railway Museum at York.

The character of Stephen from Thomas & Friends is based off of this locomotive.

This LEGO model is built as a mix of the original locomotive and the replica. It features the following

• 237 pieces
• Robert Stephenson & Driver minifigures
• Free-rolling wheels
• Working pistons
• Detachable tender
• Compatibility with standard LEGO track design

I had a lot of dun designing this model and rendering it. Please comment and suggest ways I could improve the model! PM me if you're interested in obtaining the digital file so you can make changes for yourself and possible build this model in real life! Thank you.

[ColletArrow]

That's a nice rendition of the first successful steam locomotive, well done! Perhaps you could add a coupling to the rear, and build some matching coaches? That is the only way I can think of improving this excellent model.
How about putting it on Ideas? I think it should do really well.

[NathanR]

That's beautiful! It looks so simple, so elegant, and utterly perfect. I especially like the faded black-and-white photo, that render is superb.

Any chance of any instructions, or an LDD file?

As @ColletArrow said, the only real improvement possible would be to add a few matching coaches, or perhaps some trucks (if I remember right, people could get cheaper tickets if they were willing to sit on top of loaded coal trucks...)

[ColletArrow]

Just now, NathanR said:

if I remember right, people could get cheaper tickets if they were willing to sit on top of loaded coal trucks...

I don't think they would have been loaded trucks, as the people would have filled their pockets with the stuff... . A book I have says that they were developed from these 'chaldron wagons' (which might make for a nice train, with a handful of these in tow), as the first railways were designed for carrying coal, and passengers only rode in empty wagons on occasions such as the opening of the line. 
When passenger trains were developed, 3rd class carriages were these blue wagons, and 1st class carriages looked like this; similar to the stagecoaches of the day. Each one had a guard sitting on the little step at the end of the roof; his original purpose, as on the stagecoaches, was to guard against luggage falling off. This lasted until they realised storing luggage on the roof was a silly idea as sparks could get caught and cause fires. Ooh, that turned into a history lesson - sorry!

@ChristopherLee Why not try building some coaches with PF in them? Receiver in one and Battery Box in another, with the motor underneath it? A challenge, but it might work.

[Legoloco1737]

Any chance we can have ldd file i would like to build

 

[StarWars8Spoiler]

3 hours ago, Legoloco1737 said:

Any chance we can have ldd file i would like to build

 

4 hours ago, NathanR said:

Any chance of any instructions, or an LDD file?

PM if you'd like the .lxf file 

7 hours ago, ColletArrow said:

How about putting it on Ideas? I think it should do really well.

It's already awaiting approval 

[Duq]

That's a nice model. Simple but very effective.

Small detail: from what I can see your wheels are not quartered.

[StarWars8Spoiler]

1 hour ago, Duq said:

That's a nice model. Simple but very effective.

Small detail: from what I can see your wheels are not quartered.

i'm aware of that. I was just being lazy and didn't bother to set the far side wheels properly because I hate using LDD's angle tools.

[StarWars8Spoiler]

Sorry for the double post. This project was just approved and is now on the IDEAS platform!

Project Link

[Legoloco1737]

I pm you thanks ben 

[LEGO Train 12 Volts]

I had already seen one in lego but every time I see this model I like it!

Beautiful MOC!

Great pictures!

[LegoDadof2]

is the LDD file available?

[Redimus]

The guy has clearly been banned, so it's rather unlikely he's gonna be able to respond to this...

 ->Click Me!<- Here's a google image search of Lego Rockets. It's a small enough loco that you should be able to easily reverse engineer it from the photos. 

Edited February 1, 2019 by Redimus