Narrow gauge goodnes

[Murdoch17]

3 hours ago, zephyr1934 said:

When you are done with this adventure you should compile all of this into a single manuscript (including the lego builds), edit it bit, and then go to the likes of a rail magazine for a feature article based on the best parts and possibly Amazon to turn it into a print-on-demand book. I think the quirky combination of the history of Russian railroads (which do not get much attention outside of Russia), narrow gauge (which gets little attention outside of railfans) and Lego builds makes for an unexpected read.

Agreed 100%! It would also make a good BrickJournal or Brick Model Railroad article...or maybe both!

[KvadratGnezdo]

NGG and no obscurity at least for now

And now it would seem that I've finally made it! Arriving at an important milestone is always fun so let's get to it. Until now most of the electric engines covered here (apart from EL and ChS) were really not that important in the grand scheme of things, being basically a bunch of experimentals and local level oddities, but not this time! Today's victim of my destructive attention will be the PEU series of vehicles, basically, PEU-1 and PEU-2. Again this one will be a two-parter. So what was the reason for the series to exist as a whole? Well, it was the end product of all previous tests and corresponding wierdness - true universal mainline electrics both well suited for hauling loads, shunting and sometimes even carrying around passengers. At least it would seem so. In reality their true purpose was purely as industrial freighters to be used on just two narrow gauge lines (both being located in Kazakhstan). The reason was simple - the two lines  servicing the two huge mining comlexes were having a bit of a shortage in terms of minig vehicles: most of the rolling stock present was made up of really old (1950 manufactored actually)   II-KP-2A electric locomotives which were still fine for the time (the last one broke down in 2016) but were showing their age  as well as the fact that their components were not really manufactored anymore, so the unit pool kept shrinking.

As a result the task was not that hard - increase the pulling power while adhering to the modern (at the time) body design principle - make a regular single unit electric loco, but smaller.

PEU1

In terms of the vehicle itself there is not much to say about - it's a green or sometimes dark red box that did it's job and was kinda large (10 meters in length is very roomy for such a loco). They did not revolutionize the industry, nor were some engineering marvels - they just did their job and were mostly goof at it. Although some complaints rarely listed really anywhere were that the body design was not that great actually and I dont think that I should explain why having a single risen cab was a bit better for shunting over small distances, but that is as hard as one can critique these apart from the usual copper wiring shortage and/or price. But what's funny about them is the fact that PEU1s were pre-built to be used as a multiunit vehicle (which will come up sooner or later). But that's kind of it apart from the naming coincedence (again) where PEU1 the loco has the same index as PEU-1 amphibious recovery vehicle.

The first out of 24 PEU1s made. Also this is the most numerous narrow gauge electric locomotive built by USSR.

And PEU-1 with the crane module

So here are some PEU1s, interesting detail - early versions have to Y-shaped pantographs but the older ones can be seen using the standard romboid. It is not really known how many of these are actually factory refits, probably, not much:

Also despite my models depicting these with standard chain couplings, sooner or later the all were refitted with standard gauge autocouplers which is a bit odd.

Part 2 - PEU2

[Paperinik77pk]

This thread is beginning to get HUGE! You are designing some very nice models that I really love (like the TY2) and I always look for on Youtube!

Keep up this great work! 

Ciao!

Davide

[KvadratGnezdo]

NGG and that one memed about engine of an unknown quantity

Ahem, to my great delight it would seem as if I am running out of electrics to build which would probably mean a little break once I am done with all the major post war ones. Afterwards there will be a post about the charming information black hole that is PV900 cars with a throwback to the times I've talked about ChS11. In terms of whats left on the electrified side - two engines from the 50s, a german accumulator thingy that gave birth to the K series and some other mining scrap nobody has heard about ever. And for full disclosure, yes, there will come a time when I will build the monorails and they will probably be shuffled back to the end of part 1 ( aka post ww2 era) which may or may not finish in a next couple of years. Finishing with that tangent and moving on to the subject of talk:

Section 1 forever parked in Proletarsk (Tadjikistan)

PEU 2 and a problem of overengineering a local issue

PEU 2 is what happens when the planning office gets creative and the engineers have no real understanding why they are doing what they are doing. The task itself was pretty normal - create a narrow gauge vehicle with more pulling power than previous models and the standard stuff about reliability, easy maintenance and other stuff crucial to the soviet heavy machinery identity. And some wise (not really) guy came up with an idea - why not just copy the grownup trains and not make the whole thing a two-section engine which at the time did not seem as that much crazy of an idea - broad gauge mainlines were dominated with multisection monsters ( search up VL85 multiunits aka "points-killers"). What's next? Visibility! How to solve it? Use that one highly controversial cab design used on the TE series for maximum downward field of view, which actually was a good idea considering that a lot more people could be standing on or crossing the track right next to the moving train. Not wierd enough? Not a problem! Let's also mount SA-3 autocouplers on it to make it seem like the world smallest 2TE116. How much of these things were really made is a bit of a mistery because everyone knows about unit 1 which was supplied to Proletarsk and split in two with the second half being transported to Tekeli, but factory journals mention mysterious units 2 and 3 also finishing construction. Most probably a mistake, but a lot of people hoped it wasn't.

So why was it split up? Easy answer - too long for shunting operations, a single section was enough considering that with economy on the decline the amount of work also declined, Tekeli yet again had loco shortages so the second part of PEU2 was sent there to work with PEU1's and other older vehicles. Nowadays both sections are in a pretty rough shape: the Proletarsk one broke down in 2010 and the second one followed soon in 2016, leaving this unjust world together with the last operating II-KP-2A ( more on that later). Further fate currently unknown.

Lego models then:

As was intended and pretty amazingly engineered

With cars

As promised - twin PEU1 with SA-3

 

Edited September 27, 2021 by KvadratGnezdo

[ivanlan9]

You continue to amaze.  Keep it up.

Metta,

Ivan

PS: Where's your design for the PEU-1 with the crane module? 

[XG BC]

On 9/24/2021 at 10:26 PM, KvadratGnezdo said:

And for full disclosure, yes, there will come a time when I will build the monorails

wait are we talking about the same thing here like an actual monorail (like the one at disneyland) or is this like a nickname for a locomotive?

[KvadratGnezdo]

We are talking about actual monorail. The one in Moscow actually. Nobody likes it and it's basically just a tourist trap/ money laundering project built in the 2000s.

The so called "Luzhkov's disaster"

[XG BC]

aaah ok now i understand i think i have seen this monorail before! for inspiriation you can take a look at our CRS thread to maybe do a motorized one if you are so inclined. as for your already build models my favourite as of now is the peu 2 as it looks like someone took a big russian broad gauge electric and washed it to warm so it shrunk but the other ones are awesome aswell ofcourse!

[KvadratGnezdo]

On 9/27/2021 at 8:59 PM, XG BC said:

aaah ok now i understand i think i have seen this monorail before! for inspiriation you can take a look at our CRS thread to maybe do a motorized one if you are so inclined. as for your already build models my favourite as of now is the peu 2 as it looks like someone took a big russian broad gauge electric and washed it to warm so it shrunk but the other ones are awesome aswell ofcourse!

Thx.

[KvadratGnezdo]

NGG and the veterans of the industry

Narrow gauge electrics are not as uncommomn as one would think. Even before the 1950s when the mass electrification initiatives took their place, lightweight electric engines were already operated, but rarely seen by the broad audience. Of course, I'm talking about industrial shunters. Before the centralization initiatives many factories across the USSR were already operating an unknown amount of vastly different vehicles. Said arrangement of engines was made up from imports, scratch-builts and field conversions. An average example of such vehicles were usually two-axled with wooden cabs and motors taken from mass-produced equipment, these were not fast, nor really powerfull, so when the post war planners finally looked at what was going on it was decided that something had to change. So, discussed upon in the late 40s and put to work in the 50s was the KP lineup of electric industrial vehicles. The basic idea of the line was to introduce cheap, but reliable arrangement of locomotives to fill the gaps and improve working conditions wherever possible. An interesting detail of the whole thing was that the initiative was not intended just for narrow gauge - wide gauge locos were designed in parallel with the smaller ones and as a result. To be more precise KP is not a serial codename, rather it indicated the weight class of the vehicle to differentiate between mining locos, narrow gauge and broad gauge, but seeing as these were developed under the orders from the same team and at roughly the same time many people just list them as a group.

IV-KP broad gauge engine

Today's subject will be the II-KP-2A class  (second weght class industrial engine with 2A sometimes indicating it's gauge being 750mm). These were primarily commisioned to replace earlier mentioned factory frankensteins and also be refitted for tram gauge and used in cities as service and towing vehicles. Many modifications exist, most notably 3A but they are basically the same in terms of visuals so I didn't bother with changing how cab controls look (as if they are really visible on the rendered images). Last of these were seen at the Tekeli quarry together with previously mentioned PEU2:

And now for the models:

 

[KvadratGnezdo]

NGG and something about critters

Honestly, I was really afraid of passing this milestone in terms of my MOCs because it was honestly a chore, but a fun one at least. So. Mining equipment, the underground one. This was probably the least amount of fun in this entire project. Why? Because there is a literal ton of these things, they are constantly modified, reconfigured, renamed just because they are built in a different factory, some of them are virtually identical but are still considered different models just because of a gauge diference or the pattern of contact sockets for the battery. So, I will cheat a little: I didn't make every single possible one, just limited myself to the most common archetypes and body layouts for these things. There probably should be a small history lesson, but there is nothing to talk about. Human make slab with battery that power motor. Slab pull minecart. Done. This is essentialy part 1 of this madness, where only mass produced vehicles from CIS or ex CIS country will be included, while the various one-offs, earthmovers and imported ELs will be left for part 2. Part 3 is just minecarts. Most of the models present usually are pretty basic, but include Multiple Unit System plugs, can be made both blast and spark-proof (in case you don't want an entire coal mine to combust, melting both people and the equipment in the process) and also can feature a variety of different cab designs or none at all.

So, on the pic below are: AK, ARP, ARV, ADS, AM, ARV and ERA series locos. In a later post I will connect a different picture with model names added.

For the Octrainber people: probably counts as micro critters *jiggles*

P.S. render dump for these comig soon.

[KvadratGnezdo]

Spoiler

NGG and tangential non-depressive comeback

So yeah, as usual I have disappeared leaving nothing in my wake and now returning as if nothing happened. This way, while probably mimicking someone else's dad, I've had a chance to vent and get more inspiration to do the stuff that I do even though now I probably have diverted a lot from the stupid chart I drew a couple of years ago. I'm not saying that I'm leaving or anything - far from that, but the release schedule will be way less thematically consistent. As such, having finished my little rambling, I present this thing as a teaser of a probably extensive article about the class 24 steam engines and their very special place both in history and in hearts of people who care about them.

Edited June 9, 2022 by KvadratGnezdo

[XG BC]

for the east german bba mining locomotives you can visit:

and then scroll down a bit. there where many variants of them each one produced by modifying the last one.