Need help building train chassis

[Memo5378]

Hello all, I realise that this may have been dicussed before, but I did not find anything. I need help going around the lack of black 6x28 chassis for freight cars. I would like to use the same wheelsets with the bogie plate. Is there a way to build it with regular or technic plates?

Any ideas/mocs to show?

Thank you!

[zephyr1934]

You certainly can bypass using the train base plate, and just use normal plates. The pin for the bogie plate will fit a hole in a technic plate, just be sure to leave two plates of space above the hole.

The main benefits of the train base is that it is strong (for pulling through), is stable from the start (most alternatives require some additional structure), and it is simple. The limited colors is certainly one big minus, if you are bypassing the train baseplate, you might want to also change colors and have your baseplate match the rest of the car. Another problem is that the bogie plates are getting expensive, especially in black. When you use the train baseplate the bogie plate is pretty much completely hidden because the train base is two plates high (unless it is a flatcar where you might see the pin), so it doesn't matter if it is yellow (apparently the new lego standard), but if you use standard plates to build up the bottom of the car, you will see the bogie plate from the side. The bogie plates in black are now several bucks. So you might want to consider turntables instead. The simple 2x2 is good for most applications, as is the 4x4.

 

 

[Duq]

You will find many Lego Train MOCs and building techniques on Flickr:

https://www.flickr.com/groups/legotrains/pool

https://www.flickr.com/groups/legotrainideas/pool

[BrickMusher]

Hei,

I started a year ago or so to build coaches and freight cars with normal plates instead of train-plates. It was just the same as it is with you. I found the trainplates become ridiculouse expensive and sometimes even not available.

If you dont build in 6-wide, you have to moc your chassis anyway.

So actually I am very satisfied with my solutions. For my flatbed-cars, e.g. I use a snotted chassis with a "upside-down" bogieplate and ball-bearings for the wheelsets. That makes the cars very flat but rigid at the same time. For boxcars and passenger coaches I normally use the standard Lego-wheelsets with a modified bogieplate (because of pin lenght).

What kind of freight car do you have in mind?

[sed6]

Skip that boogie plate solution. Between their cost and the limited selection of train base colors you're much better building your own color matching chassis, as mentioned already. I find the bogie plate with pin to be way too limiting in my design options. Instead ALL of my rolling stock uses a 2x2 turntable to swivel the trucks. 

 

[Memo5378]

The turntable option seems interesting. I was just wondering if it is sturdy enough. I would imagine so.

For now, I’m only working on simple platforms.

[supertruper1988]

11 hours ago, Memo5378 said:

The turntable option seems interesting. I was just wondering if it is sturdy enough. I would imagine so.

For now, I’m only working on simple platforms.

I have built a few dozen train cars myself and sold instructions in the hundreds all using the turn table and no issues at all. 

[Memo5378]

So I tried the standard plates and 2x2 turntables option. I am quite satisfied with the outcome. However, it does turn a 15 USD$ car into a 20$ one (give or take), if built with new parts straight from TLG. The standard train chassis is sold 2.29$, and the plates I used total 7.96$ (6x14 are 2.24 each, I used three, 6x6 are .62, I used 2). So it’s a lot more expensive to build in black, but then again cheaper than buying the chassis on Bricklink, the cheapest I saw being sold 42$!!!!

I usually don’t buy from BL as I find that people’s price for used parts plus shipping is generally more expensive than buying new....

Anyways, thanks to all who answered. 

 

 

 

[sed6]

On 7/29/2019 at 1:46 PM, Memo5378 said:

So I tried the standard plates and 2x2 turntables option. I am quite satisfied with the outcome. However, it does turn a 15 USD$ car into a 20$ one (give or take), if built with new parts straight from TLG. The standard train chassis is sold 2.29$, and the plates I used total 7.96$ (6x14 are 2.24 each, I used three, 6x6 are .62, I used 2). So it’s a lot more expensive to build in black, but then again cheaper than buying the chassis on Bricklink, the cheapest I saw being sold 42$!!!!

I usually don’t buy from BL as I find that people’s price for used parts plus shipping is generally more expensive than buying new....

Anyways, thanks to all who answered. 

You've fallen into the same trap that I did (and probably everyone else) when first building a chassis. You don't have to limit yourself to such large, expensive plates. You could achieve the same thing by using 7 of the 4x6 black plates which are only $.10 each. Multiply that by two layers and you're at $1.40 for the whole chassis. As your chassis designs becomes more complicated you will find large plates become less suitable anyway, or at least I did. 

You might also consider downloading Lego Digital Designer, LDD, and using that software to examine different train cars that other people have built, to get an idea of some additional building techniques. You can find examples of other peoples work on sites like this or on Bricklink (in the MOC section) or on Bricksafe. Here's a link to my Bricksafe folder, where I share all of my rolling stock and locomotive designs, complete with the LDD file, for other people to examine, modify or copy my designs. 

https://bricksafe.com/pages/sed6

[zephyr1934]

That is another crazy thing about lego, a part in a common color might be a few cents, but in a never-appeared-in-a-set color could be many dollars. It has been many years since the train baseplate was in black, but in blue it can be had from US sellers on bricklink for $2. I find that I am always checking part availability and price whenever I build. But yes, often you can bypass an expensive part buy building the same structure out of cheaper parts.