60154 + 4564 = 37?

[JEB314 (James)]

First off, I would like to say that, no, I am not terrible at maths! All shall be explained! (Sorry, this may be quite a lot of reading!)

 

The Back Story:

 

First aspect: Some weeks ago, I was having a general look for sets that might be of interest to me. I stumbled upon a very good deal on the Lego City Bus Station (Set no. 60154). I decided in a spur of the moment purchase to pick up 2 sets, with no real plan…

That’s what sowed the seed!

 

 

Second aspect: In the not so distant past, I had purchased a huge Lego haul from eBay containing many train set items and accessories. In amongst this, was an incomplete copy of the Lego Freight Rail Runner (Set no. 4564) – (maybe 80% complete) – at the time I didn’t really know what to do with it.

Over time I harvested the 9V motor, wheels, couplings, bogie plates, wagon parts and straight track – basically all the good stuff!

 

 

Now, I’m a big fan of seeing people doing set combining! I have never seen anyone attempt something like this! (Correct me if I’m wrong!)

 

The Hypothesis:

 

“Is it feasible to make a decent looking locomotive of any kind, combining Sets 60154 and 4564? – Using minimal significant other parts, but in cases where necessary only using parts I currently have, and not resorting to ordering things. The locomotive should ideally use Power Functions with 2 motors, lights are not necessary. Also, the finished model should be sturdy, strong, and able to be played with by children.”

 

Answer, Was It Possible?

 

Yes, and in my opinion, it turned out rather well.

What I attempted to build was a massively simplified Class 37, with much artistic licence!

Here is the finished product:

 

 

Thus, the idea for “60154 + 4564 = 37?” was born!

 

What do you think?

 

Any questions, thoughts, or criticism will be much appreciated.

 

Regards,

 

James :)

 

Edited May 27, 2018 by JEB314 (James)
(Photos hopefully fixed!)

[Frank STENGEL]

Nice! Captures the spirit of a class 37. One could try for a wasp livery by replacing the lowermost (or highest) bricks with a 3 plate yellow-black-yellow sandwich. 

[Sven J]

Remarkable approach, cool result! Reminds me of my childhood days, when I built all kinds of locomotives from a very limited stock of parts.

Now you have to use the remaining parts to build some carriages!

[Bartosz]

This is what I miss here from time to time - a "Lego way" (combine what you have) with an attempt to answer a question "what would an X engine look if designed not in "model" scale, but in a standard more "toyish" scale.

So bring it on!

 

And this one turn out pretty great. Of course it's now tempting to fix some bits by adding pieces that were not in original sets, but it's a great base for experiments!

[ColletArrow]

Excellent work, you've pretty much got a network-rail liveried "tractor" there. My only issue really is the headlights on the nose, but they given the parts you've done fantastically well. The windscreen wipers are a good touch.

[JEB314 (James)]

28 minutes ago, Frank STENGEL said:

Nice! Captures the spirit of a class 37. One could try for a wasp livery by replacing the lowermost (or highest) bricks with a 3 plate yellow-black-yellow sandwich. 

"The spirit of a class 37" is a brilliant way to sum up what I was trying to achieve!

I did try the wasp livery approach in the building phase, but I found it wasn't possible to get it to look quite right preportionally!

16 minutes ago, Tenderlok said:

Remarkable approach, cool result! Reminds me of my childhood days, when I built all kinds of locomotives from a very limited stock of parts.

Now you have to use the remaining parts to build some carriages!

That was what I was attempting! Trying the approach I had to take years ago when I had a smaller collection, and big plans!

(Even though in my case as an afol, I now have far too many parts! It is at the stage where a large room in my home has become devoted to it!)

On the subject of carriages, I have tried and failed multiple times to build something vaguely decent with the remaining pieces! I only have a certain amount of time free - as I have multiple large time-consuming projects I'm trying to make progress on! (That may appear on Eurobricks in the future!)

32 minutes ago, Bartosz said:

This is what I miss here from time to time - a "Lego way" (combine what you have) with an attempt to answer a question "what would an X engine look if designed not in "model" scale, but in a standard more "toyish" scale.

So bring it on!

 

And this one turn out pretty great. Of course it's now tempting to fix some bits by adding pieces that were not in original sets, but it's a great base for experiments!

The "Lego Way" has such nostalgia! I highly recommend trying it and sharing your results! I found it a lot of fun!

I am very tempted to fix a number of bits, but I have decided to stick to the hypothesis, and for the time being am going to stop myself from doing so, although I may in the future!

11 minutes ago, ColletArrow said:

Excellent work, you've pretty much got a network-rail liveried "tractor" there. My only issue really is the headlights on the nose, but they given the parts you've done fantastically well. The windscreen wipers are a good touch.

Network Rail was the only livery that I could choose from in the circumstances!

The headlights were the "artistic licence"! It looked too bare without!

 

Thank you to all of you for your kind words!

[3797]

Do you have pictures of the remaining parts?

I just had a look at the bricklink inventory but there really aren't all that many usefull pieces included with this set. 

[JEB314 (James)]

4 minutes ago, 3797 said:

Do you have pictures of the remaining parts?

Unfortunately not, since my last building session on this I have parted out the remainder of the sets into the correct bins/containers! I feel it wouldn't be the best use of time to go back and collect up all the parts again!

Probably should've thought someone might ask about that, and planned ahead! :)

[LEGO Train 12 Volts]

Wow it seem a plenty yellow class 23

Nice work!

[andythenorth]

Nice.

Can you work the green in though? For bonus points. 

I have been drawing 37s in pixel art for games (OpenTTD), similar 'inspired by' approach due to size of pixels  http://bundles.openttdcoop.org/iron-horse/push/LATEST/docs/html/trains.html#phoenix

Edited May 28, 2018 by andythenorth

[JEB314 (James)]

3 hours ago, LEGO Train 12 Volts said:

Wow it seem a plenty yellow class 23

Nice work!

I see the similarities with a Class 23 now you mention it!

Nowhere near as good as yours, for comparison! They really are in different leagues!

(Although we had very different design philosophies, so they aren't really comparable in that sense, but you get what I mean! Beautiful build! )

On 19/05/2018 at 3:20 PM, LEGO Train 12 Volts said:

I really must build some suitable wagons to go with it! I loved your VGA's based on @Hod Carrier's design! May have to look into building some of them!

I'm thinking of doing something along the lines of a mixed freight to go with my diesel! (Although it may have to wait a bit, as I'm building something for my next Eurobricks post!)

All I'll give away at this stage is:

"It's not set combining, but it involves asking and answering another question!" 

And:

"It also involves the point made by @Bartosz about the "Lego Way", which has actually inspired the idea for the upcoming post!"

 

1 hour ago, andythenorth said:

Nice.

Can you work the green in though? For bonus points. 

I tried that early on, and realised if I included the green you end up with a very different locomotive! 

Now I really don't want to take apart my work to show you what I was able to make with majority yellow and minimal green (wasn't great anyway), and unfortunately I wasn't sensible enough to photograph/film my progress to show the process I went through!

1 hour ago, andythenorth said:

I have been drawing 37s in pixel art for games (OpenTTD), similar 'inspired by' approach due to size of pixels  http://bundles.openttdcoop.org/iron-horse/push/LATEST/docs/html/trains.html#phoenix

Ah sounds interesting! I'll take a look, I've always been interested by people successfully converting real world things into pixel art! 

[andythenorth]

Can't put the green (or the grey)  from the bus in as a cantrail stripe?  (where the orange OHL safety line would be in real life)

Edited May 29, 2018 by andythenorth

[LEGO Train 12 Volts]

20 hours ago, JEB314 (James) said:

I see the similarities with a Class 23 now you mention it!

It doesn't matter the different constructive philosophy ... the result is that the shape and the proportions are exactly the right ones! 

 

[Paperinik77pk]

Very good attempt!!! It is nice and well proportioned - starting from these two sets it was quite impossible to do better than this!

[JEB314 (James)]

1 hour ago, andythenorth said:

Can't put the green (or the grey)  from the bus in as a cantrail stripe?  (where the orange OHL safety line would be in real life)

I've looked at the pieces available from the Bricklink inventory:

https://www.bricklink.com/catalogItemInv.asp?S=60154-1

There just aren't enough of the right sorts of plates I would need to do so, while still being able to have an IR receiver and Battery Box, if however I converted the locomotive to 9V, then it is possible! 

31 minutes ago, LEGO Train 12 Volts said:

It doesn't matter the different constructive philosophy ... the result is that the shape and the proportions are exactly the right ones! 

 

I see what you mean, wasn't my intention, but it works!

I'm very pleased with the shape and proportions, given what I had at hand! More pleased by how positively it has been received!

17 minutes ago, Paperinik77pk said:

Very good attempt!!! It is nice and well proportioned - starting from these two sets it was quite impossible to do better than this!

Thank you for your kind words, I thought it was going to be quite a task to get close to what I achieved in the end! Perseverance was key! 

[GJBricks]

@JEB314 (James) Finally got my blog piece done. It's scheduled to go up on the gjbricks.com site at 8pm tomorrow (Sydney time). Was checking out some of your other MOCs. Maybe I should start an interesting MOC'ers interview section. What do you reckon?

[GJBricks]

@JEB314 (James) and it's live :) 

https://gjbricks.com/lego-moc/what-happens-when-you-combine-two-lego-city-buses-and-a-train/

[JEB314 (James)]

Thank you very much @GJBricks, really like the article, very well written! I feel honoured you thought my project was good enough for a post!

I really think the idea of

On 6/24/2018 at 2:56 PM, GJBricks said:

an interesting MOC'ers interview section.

is a great one, I'm sure there would be a number of people interested!

Thanks again! Regards, James