sed6 Posted March 11, 2018 (edited) Update - she's built and pics added! These 4-4-0's were so popular in the US from the mid-1800's to the mid-1900's that they are referred to as a 4-4-0 American. They were a mainline work horse until the early 1900's when larger engines replaced them but they continued service on shortlines and spurs until the 1950's. My particular engine was inspired by #185 of the St.Louis-San Francisco Railway, nicknamed Frisco. It has 1050 bricks between the engine and tender and took me over 50 hours to make in LDD. It's 8 bricks wide and I tried hard to capture many of the important details without making it too super detailed. I focused mainly on scale and proportions. I did add good detail to the boiler in the cab and gave the tender good detail behind the cab to include the coal shoot and working coal doors. It's powered by a PF train motor under the engine with the battery and receiver housed in the tender. The very top of the coal heap serves as the button for the battery and you can look straight down and see the battery light glowing green. The cable for the motor runs under the floor of the engine and tender, but just above the coupler, keeping it out of sight. The .lxf file is quite detailed with over a dozen different groups making it easy to take the engine and tender apart allowing you to make modifications, change colors or just to examine my building technique. I have not run it through Bricklink yet, so there could be some parts in certain colors that are not available, like all the metallic gold in the cab for example. Here's a link to more history about the Frisco Railway... https://www.american-rails.com/the-frisco.html Here's a link to the .lxf file... https://bricksafe.com/pages/sed6/4-4-0-american-locomotive And here's some pics (click on each for bigger)...Hope you like! Edited March 26, 2018 by sed6 Added pics and video Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
supertruper1988 Posted March 12, 2018 It seems your LXF is not a public link. I recommend a bricksafe.com account for sharing LXFs. this way your personal Google drive is not vulnerable or exposed. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
sed6 Posted March 12, 2018 2 hours ago, supertruper1988 said: It seems your LXF is not a public link. I recommend a bricksafe.com account for sharing LXFs. this way your personal Google drive is not vulnerable or exposed. Thank you very much! Account created! Try this link... https://bricksafe.com/pages/sed6/4-4-0-american-locomotive Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
ecmo47 Posted March 12, 2018 You did a great job of capturing the essence of the proto-type! I will say that old #185 looks like it's missing a set of drivers up front and it should have been a 4-6-0. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
sed6 Posted March 26, 2018 Update! I finally have her built! Took about 10 hours to get it all just right. I have some fine tuning to do but she runs! See my first post for all the new pics! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
M_slug357 Posted March 26, 2018 @sed6 I absolutely love this build! I only have two minor suggestions: 1) Needs decals to finish the look! 2) Have you considered a brick-built cowcatcher? The official piece (imho) is better suited to the 4-4-0's and 4-6-0's from the mid 1800's. Other than my nitpicking, this is fantastic work! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
sed6 Posted March 26, 2018 1 hour ago, M_slug357 said: @sed6 I absolutely love this build! I only have two minor suggestions: 1) Needs decals to finish the look! 2) Have you considered a brick-built cowcatcher? The official piece (imho) is better suited to the 4-4-0's and 4-6-0's from the mid 1800's. Other than my nitpicking, this is fantastic work! Thanks! Indeed I need decals, any suggestions on where to get them? No I didn't consider a brick built cow catcher, but I will now! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
supertruper1988 Posted March 26, 2018 Looks great! Love the style. I know that Andy (@legoman666) can do nice decals. Did you change the front truck from the LDD to real brick? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
sed6 Posted March 26, 2018 Thanks! I did change it, I need to update the LDD soon. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Murdoch17 Posted March 26, 2018 (edited) You said it binds up in your personal message. I may have solution or two. Does your bogie slide side to side as shown above? it should either be connected like the Emerald Night is (which is the best option, IMHO), or, from what you've shown, it should stay behind on the track when the engine is lifted away like in @SavaTheAggie's 4-6-0 loco from 2007. Edited March 26, 2018 by Murdoch17 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
sed6 Posted March 27, 2018 Thanks Murdoch. Those are both good ideas. I'm just now discovering some of Tony's fantastic creations! Currently I'm using a dual pivot design pictured below. I 'think' the binding is caused by the friction of everything sliding back and forth. Maybe some plates need to be squeezed tighter, or lubed with graphite powder. All that said, it still runs pretty great (see vid). Designing in LDD is great and all but a complicated design like this needs real world revisions to be reliable. I'll probably work to fine tune the design and experiment with some other options for the front wheels. I have updated the above linked LDD file to reflect the changes I made during the build process, so if someone builds it as shown, it'll run! Overall I'm super pleased with how my first steam loco has turned out. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
zephyr1934 Posted March 30, 2018 That is a great steamer, the prototype must have been one of the last of the 4-4-0's built, looks like it is ca. 1900 (ha, googled it and it was built in 1899). Great job capturing the prototype in brick form. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
