[MOC] Chilean "Gondola Carril T-1024" in 1:22.5 scale

[Paperinik77pk]

Hi all,

today I'd like to show you something I'm after since a few months.

During the first days of lockdown I saw a documentary on Chile and its people, towns, traditions and lifestyle. One of the main points of the documentary was focusing on the railway running from Los Andes to Rio Blanco valley , a spectacular run between mountains, aside the Rio Blanco river. Originally it connected Chile to Argentina.

And this "thing" was presented as the main attraction of the current line - its name is "Gondola Carril T-1024". I sincerely do not know why it is called "T-1024" .

The "Gondola Carril" is a railmotor, based on an American built bus, the Yellow Coach Z-26. This time I understood that the letter Z is identifying the chassis type and 26 the number of passengers it could carry .

The bus was normally used in Los Andes town, until it was converted into this very nice railcar. Originally used as a cheap inspection vehicle,  It is now fully restored and used for touristic travels. And I can say it is an experience I would like to do once in my life.

The "Ferrocarril Transandino de Chile" is a narrow gauge (metric) railway, therefore I based the whole project on 1:22.5 scale (good for running in the garden!). It is designed to run on G-Scale track (45mm), but with some modifications it could easily be converted to run also on standard Lego gauge (on large curves, since it is quite long).

Since there are no specific technical specifications for the Gondola, I searched for the ones of the Z26 Bus - and  tried to adapt the design according to the pictures and videos of the real railcar.

The original motor used by Yellow Coaches Bus was replaced by a more modern Cummins Diesel, as nicely "declared" above the radiator.

Despite the original railcar is based on a chassis, this one is basically a unibody build with some underside reinforcing (let's say - like the Jeep Cherokee XJ). It's quite light, so a medium motor is sufficient to move it. In the design, I used a PuP motor, placed in the front, under the hood. Then a pair of gears in cascade, cardanic joints and a transmission axle bring the power to the rear wheels.  The "gears" I mentioned can be changed easily to have a lower or higher gear ratio, as needed. This railcar not meant to pull anything, so a lower gear ratio could save some batteries.

Battery box is placed in the rear part, immediately beyond the rear axle. The small red axle you can see near the T-1024 sticker is used to turn the PuP battery/receiver on and off.

 

The next picture shows the powertrain - it's taken from an alternative blue version of the railcar I prepared , with some freelance solutions which make it more "generic".

 

I hope you like this one, and (more important) take a look to the original one, because it's really nice piece of history.

https://www.ferrocarril-trasandino.com.ar/historia/

Ciao!

Davide

Edited October 30, 2020 by Paperinik77pk

[SteamSewnEmpire]

Nice. Gigantic, too.

Gas-powered rail vehicles like this were actually pretty common on U.S. narrow gauge railroads:

Edited October 29, 2020 by SteamSewnEmpire

[Pdaitabird]

What a charming model! I like the detailing around the front and the overall shaping. Thanks for sharing!

[JintaiZ]

Nice build! Though I'd prefer the studs covered.

[Berger]

Nice build! I did not know that stuff like this existed.

[Paperinik77pk]

9 hours ago, SteamSewnEmpire said:

Nice. Gigantic, too.

Gas-powered rail vehicles like this were actually pretty common on U.S. narrow gauge railroads:

Thanks!

I absolutely agree -  it probably is the easiest solution to have an affordable ready to run rail vehicle - I'm always very curious about this kind of vehicles, because they're sometimes very ingenious (I'm thinking about, as an example, to all those railcars built around the FORD Model T).

The main example of this kind of approach is always the adorable Rio Grande "Galloping Goose" railmotors family , but it's widely known, so I wanted to design something more "exotic"  (even if it is made for the 99% of U.S. made parts)

Ciao!

Davide

 

 

[Paperinik77pk]

9 hours ago, Pdaitabird said:

What a charming model! I like the detailing around the front and the overall shaping. Thanks for sharing!

Thanks for your always kind and positive comments!

 

8 hours ago, JintaiZ said:

Nice build! Though I'd prefer the studs covered.

Thanks! It could be a nice improvement!

 

5 hours ago, Berger said:

Nice build! I did not know that stuff like this existed.

Thank you!!!

The railcar/railmotor approach is currently a whole world apart in the rail history -  it's very interesting (and you'll find a lot of even more strange "railthings")

Plus, these things are normally quite small and cute - so are the perfect subject for a rail MOC, even in normal or narrow Lego Gauge.

 

[WesternOutlaw]

What a unique train car, and one that I am not familiar with.  Visually appealing with a clever gear system.  Nicely done.  

[zephyr1934]

Another great build!

[Asper]

Interesting prototype and great MOC!

[Phil B]

Congrats on the front page and very interesting prototype and story!

[LEGO Train 12 Volts]

When I saw this model on the mobile I thought it was a model eight studs wide, and I wondered if you had changed genre.

Now that I see it on the PC screen (on the front page also ) I see that you have not changed scale.
Very nice model! 

[tomclair]

Great build! A perfect rendition of the real one. It's cool to discover unusual types of trains in Lego 

[Sir E Fullner]

All of a sudden, I'm reminded of the opening to Secret of the Andes, and Charlton Heston trying to shoo some alpacas away from his Gondola Carril.

[Paperinik77pk]

On 10/30/2020 at 2:33 PM, WesternOutlaw said:

What a unique train car, and one that I am not familiar with.  Visually appealing with a clever gear system.  Nicely done.  

Thank you very much!

On 10/30/2020 at 5:02 PM, Asper said:

Interesting prototype and great MOC!

Thanks thanks thanks!

On 10/30/2020 at 5:59 PM, Phil B said:

Congrats on the front page and very interesting prototype and story!

Hi Phil! Thank you very much for your appreciation!

On 10/30/2020 at 3:20 PM, zephyr1934 said:

Another great build!

Thanks, I always appreciate your feedbacks!

On 10/31/2020 at 10:39 AM, LEGO Train 12 Volts said:

When I saw this model on the mobile I thought it was a model eight studs wide, and I wondered if you had changed genre.

Now that I see it on the PC screen (on the front page also ) I see that you have not changed scale.
Very nice model! 

Ehehe it seems smaller, but it is 13 studs wide - so very very near to the LGB  garden trains (14 studs without counting external accessories).

To be sincere, I also thought a bus could be smaller than a metric narrow gauge train, but this one was an American bus, so dimensions are a bit bigger than usual!

Thank you , Emanuele!

On 10/31/2020 at 4:03 PM, tomclair said:

Great build! A perfect rendition of the real one. It's cool to discover unusual types of trains in Lego 

Thanks! I find always interesting to dig this kind of "strange" vehicles. I personally find the need to keep things affordable one of the best ways to create genial solutions!

On 10/31/2020 at 5:36 PM, Sir E Fullner said:

All of a sudden, I'm reminded of the opening to Secret of the Andes, and Charlton Heston trying to shoo some alpacas away from his Gondola Carril.

I just saw the beginning of the movie in youtube - what a small thing he's using. I'm currently searching for it! Thanks for the very interesting suggestion!

p.s.

Harrison Ford seems to dress the same way of Charlton Heston...

[harnbak]

Very nice model, love ancient industrial look and feel