(moc) British 5AT Advanced Technology Steam Locomotive

[SteamSewnEmpire]

Original:

Model:

[Pdaitabird]

Beautiful! I like how you've replicated the partial streamlining and the angled cab. 

[M_slug357]

@SteamSewnEmpire Niceee!

Is there a part for the front of the boiler that is more bullet-shaped...?

Personally, I don’t like the red/black color scheme... I think a lt. bley/dk. red or azure/red could be really striking.

Are you planning to do a matching coach or two?

[SteamSewnEmpire]

10 minutes ago, M_slug357 said:

@SteamSewnEmpire Niceee!

Is there a part for the front of the boiler that is more bullet-shaped...?

Personally, I don’t like the red/black color scheme... I think a lt. bley/dk. red or azure/red could be really striking.

Are you planning to do a matching coach or two?

I wasn't really planning on building it at all - I was just bored, and swiped a weird looking engine out of my grab-bag to fidget with for a few hours :P. 

And, as far as I know, no, there is no nose cone that is more bullet shaped than that in that particular size. 

[LEGO Train 12 Volts]

Simply lovely!

I hope to see this beauty in real bricks!

[M_slug357]

@SteamSewnEmpire A “grab-bag” you say? What else is in there?

[SteamSewnEmpire]

1 hour ago, M_slug357 said:

@SteamSewnEmpire A “grab-bag” you say? What else is in there?

I just snag photos of interesting looking locomotives when I see them on the web - I have hundreds of pictures. I'm actually working on another British engine right now.

[zephyr1934]

What an odd prototype, I had to google it, an interesting story with a sad ending. Great job on the reproduction though.

[SteamSewnEmpire]

4 hours ago, zephyr1934 said:

What an odd prototype, I had to google it, an interesting story with a sad ending. Great job on the reproduction though.

Yeah, I think they were going about it the wrong way. New-built steam locomotives cost about 5-6 million without labor (the construction is typically majority-volunteer). Skilled craftsmen are often willing to donate valuable time to such a project because the want to see a long-scrapped engine live again.

With the 5AT, you have a design that - while it looks awesome - nobody is nostalgic for. So you'd have to not only raise funding for the engine itself, but to hire people to assemble it.

Honestly, the best way to experiment with modern steam is to take a project such as the T1 - that people want to see; dream of seeing - and then utilize technology to make small changes to vastly improve performance (which is precisely what the T1 trust is doing).

Even then, though, a lot of people aren't going to be interested. I'm vaguely intrigued by the duplexes, but would much rather see a NYC J3A, or a Milwaukee Road F-7 Hudson. Sadly, despite having way more financial resources than Britain, the U.S. is downright terrible at fundraising for these projects. Oh well - at least we preserved our battleships. I cannot believe Britain didn't save a single dreadnought. It's a disgrace.

[Commander Wolf]

Another 5AT! I built one of these (slightly smaller scale) way back before they canceled the project... so sad that it never got anywhere. Definitely looks a lot sleeker with all the new(er) curve slopes though.

[Roadmonkeytj]

Oh lala 

[zephyr1934]

19 hours ago, SteamSewnEmpire said:

Even then, though, a lot of people aren't going to be interested. I'm vaguely intrigued by the duplexes, but would much rather see a NYC J3A, or a Milwaukee Road F-7 Hudson. Sadly, despite having way more financial resources than Britain, the U.S. is downright terrible at fundraising for these projects. Oh well - at least we preserved our battleships. I cannot believe Britain didn't save a single dreadnought. It's a disgrace.

The UK has a couple of advantages- they ran steam another 10-20 years longer than the US, so the cultural memory is a generation fresher. Also, their rail system is the opposite- mostly passenger with some freight. So the public is interacting with trains all of the time. They also seem to run mainline steam just about every weekend up the west cost secondary line without diseasels, whereas the US railroads largely do not want to have anything to do with steam beyond company sponsored excursions and even then, they have to have a backup diseasel. In that vein, the UP steam program (and NS to a lesser degree) are preserving their direct steam heritage. Amazingly though, I believe I saw something that said the Flying Scotsman only survived the cutting torch because it was on tour in the US when the owners went bankrupt in the early 1970's. That said, a NYC Hudson would be amazing.

[Kalahari134]

On 2/7/2020 at 5:12 AM, zephyr1934 said:

The UK has a couple of advantages- they ran steam another 10-20 years longer than the US, so the cultural memory is a generation fresher. Also, their rail system is the opposite- mostly passenger with some freight. So the public is interacting with trains all of the time. They also seem to run mainline steam just about every weekend up the west cost secondary line without diseasels, whereas the US railroads largely do not want to have anything to do with steam beyond company sponsored excursions and even then, they have to have a backup diseasel. In that vein, the UP steam program (and NS to a lesser degree) are preserving their direct steam heritage.

You vastly underestimate just how much steam there is in the UK. On average, there is one tour running every day somewhere in the UK, with several on weekends. Then add in the Jacobite which runs twice a day during the summer and the countless heritage and commercial tourist railways again running daily services. One near me has at least five locos in steam every day during the summer.