Edmonton Transit Siemens-Duewag U2 LRT Car

[_citizen_dane_]

Hey everyone! Despite having an account on here for the better part of a year-and-a-half, I’ve yet to actually post anything I’ve designed. After finishing this model I figured I may as well do something about that...

Like the title says, my model’s based upon a Siemens-Duewag U2 Light Rail Vehicle, particularly those employed by the transit system of Edmonton, Canada — my home. Historically, Edmonton became the first North American city with a population of less than one million to implement a light rail transit system. When it did so in 1978 no North American companies were producing cars to meet the line’s requirements. So, Edmonton Transit turned to West Germany and ordered fourteen U2 Light Rail Vehicles. Over the following decade-and-a-half another twenty-three would be purchased. As the system’s continued to grow over the last forty years the older U2’s have been supplemented by newer SD-160’s, yet they still make up a sizeable portion of ETS’ LRT fleet.

Thanks to both my love for the real things and my city’s history, I’ve always wanted to try designing a brick-built version. While the U2 is pretty much the pinnacle of boxy ‘70s Late Modernist design, there’s some subtle curves to their cab sections, and particularly the windshields, that I challenged myself to translate into plastic. 

Here’s a picture of one of the real cars, courtesy of barp.ca. Unfortunately I was unable to recreate the sweet livery (sadly since replaced by something way more boring) at this scale. When I build one in real life I’ll have to resort to some decal work.

I’m hoping to eventually construct two separate cars to couple together. For much of our LRT system’s early existence that was standard set-up along the line. I should say, I hope to construct two barring any unforeseen challenges of converting a perfect 3D model into the real-deal. The articulating section at the centre of the vehicle may be a cause for worry given how I’ve designed it, but here’s hoping it works.

To be perfectly honest, when it comes to Lego my area of expertise is architecture — I love to design and build buildings based on those from my city. This is one of my few forays into attempting to design a train from the ground up, so as a result it’s not really built to a particular scale, just more so what looks right next to some other vehicles and structures I’ve built. So please, by all means, let me know what you think!

Don’t hold me to it, but I’m hoping to add some real life photos to this thread once I get my pieces in…

[zephyr1934]

That is a great rendition in Lego of the real deal. That is a clever solution for the rear view mirrors, but the whole windshield construction is very complex.  Great work!

 

With the shrouding around the wheels you might want to build that bit up (in random bricks/colors if necessary) to test the clearance on curves to make sure it works. That's the sort of thing that you just have to try to find out. But even if you do have problems it looks like there is enough room to make it work. If you build another car you will also probably want to test the coupling the same way.

[SteamSewnEmpire]

Awesome.

[lego9vtrainfan]

Very nice work! Always enjoy seeing builds of trains seen in Canada too. 

Look forward to seeing photos of it in the brick when you have the chance to test it!

[Shiva]

Looks nice :)

[Ts__]

I like it very much and the role model is already great. I like the windows in the front, nice solution.

A suggestion from me: The doors could perhaps be moved slightly inwards, then they would stand out better and it would fit the real model even better. I have no idea whether this is feasible in terms of the construction technology inside. But it may be worth a try. I am thinking of the smallest possible offset, e.g. 1/2 plate.

Example:

Thomas

[zephyr1934]

29 minutes ago, Ts__ said:

I am thinking of the smallest possible offset, e.g. 1/2 plate.

I thought the same thing, a 1/2 plate inset would look great on the doors, but I didn't say anything because that has got to be really hard to do with a studs forward build as used and is necessary for the window design.

[_citizen_dane_]

Thanks for the comments and suggestions everyone, I genuinely appreciate them! As for the ½ plate inset doors, I actually contemplated trying to do something like that. The doors are my only major contention with my design from a purely “real-life-to-model” translation, because they lack the clear definition that the real deals have. Unfortunately, the big problem comes with the way the cab itself is designed: 

The whole thing is mostly snot. As you can see, between the curves of the cab and where the body would be (beginning with the grey bricks), there’s a plate’s-width, used to extend the cab slightly beyond the furthest reach of the roof — this was done to try and approximate the subtle slope the front of the vehicles have. Those plates are the 2x2’s that only feature two sets of studs on them. I chose them because it allowed for both something to build on and a place for the sloping plates to abut against, whilst providing the strongest connection. From there the doors are directly connected, which themselves are connected directly to the body.

Like zephyr1934 correctly alludes to, I couldn’t really find a replacement or solution that was sufficiently stable enough for my liking, that also achieved the inset. I am going to toy around once I get the bricks in hand though and see if there’s any other connection points I missed out on that could act as a substitute so I could focus on the doors. As I said, I do hope to build a second car at some point, so if I can come up with some kind of solution, I’ll be sure to add them to that and go back and add it to this one.

Edited September 13, 2020 by _citizen_dane_

[zephyr1934]

Okay, seeing the construction of the cab, it might be possible to inset the doors if you don't mind making major alterations. For this idea you would have to add some internal strength to support the nose/cab (which might already be there). So here's my idea, put 1x6 plates behind what is in the above photo, then go with 4 wide doors (and thus, 10 plates tall when snotted). On the bottom a pair of 2x3 white tiles over a plate, and configure this assembly with studs outward, then on the backside (inside of the car) of the plate use 1x2x1x2 brackets (with the half plate bracket stuck into the plate) to convert to studs forward/backwards to tie into the windows in the top of the door. The windows could be a stack of: 2x white plate 1x trans brick, 2x white plate 1x white plate 1x trans brick, 1x or 2x white tile. The 2x plates would then be used to tie into the brackets on the bottom. Unfortunately brickshelf is down or I would post an image. I'm not sure what this would do the proportions though.

[LEGO Train 12 Volts]

What a great work!

I like the livery of this light rail vehicle!

[rday1982]

This is a wonderful model. I think I might have a solution to the door inset problem. Attaching using a jumper plate at the roof and hanging the whole thing on brackets should allow the weight and clutch strength of the roof, along with the geometry of the model, to hold it all together. You'd sacrifice the 1x1 round stud plates that serve as the door opening buttons, but I'm sure that experimentation will yield a way to get something in there to replace them which will not interfere with the offset of the door.

Hopefully you can see how this (I think) will translate to the offset in your model. If it's not helpful for any reason, I'm sorry. I tried.