Steam Locomotive with Smoke

[bogieman]

Warning - Purists look away, some drilling and modifying of Lego parts was required.

 

Rather than hi-jack the Mould King thread which now discusses smoke generators:

I thought I would show my locomotive with a smoke generator. I started by purchasing Tony Sava's plans for the Southern Pacific Daylight 4-84 locomotive and coaches and heavily modified it. I had a lot of trouble negotiating the grades on my layout, which have not particularly smooth transitions, using just train motors in the tender so I motorized the locomotive with a PF L motor. I don't recall my inspiration to add pulsed smoke, I saw it somewhere though, so I added a 8-14V Seuthe smoke generator and a Lego air pump driven off the drive motor. Some milling and drilling was required to mount the smoke generator and the air tubing. I tied the spring on the air pump so it doesn't add much resistance. The whole thing is controlled with an MRC Loco Genie that is a wireless DCC system and powered it with 3 18650 LI-ion batteries nominally providing 11.1V. The Loco Genie has sound and directional and effects lighting and is powering the two PF train motors in the tender and the L motor in the loco. The batteries, an amplifier and 40mm speaker and the Loco Genie are all in the tender.You can see it in operation here;

Note the coaches have a provision that allows the diaphragms to touch on straight track but separate for curves. The curves on the outer loop in the video are R56 and greater; the grade is 4%. To deal with the grade and rough transitions, there is a sprung suspension allowing the trailing bogie on the loco +1/-2 plates vertical travel. while the pilot bogie is weighted with titanium putty to keep it on the rails.

This video has a not so great narration but during the last minute shows the internals for the tender:

Finally, here is a video of the internals of the locomotive showing the air pump in action:

 

Now I'm really intrigued by the use of an ultrasonic mister and might try that out while keeping the air pump.

Dave

[Toastie]

Dave,

your whole setup is beyond belief - so many nice and clean arrangements - structure wise; so many wonderful models - it is all an art piece. Wow.

But the "smoke" really does it for me. So close; I can really hear her - knowing from my youth how that sound goes. Depending on load and incline.

This is so cool. I don't mind drilling and doing things that purists will never do (which is 100% OK!) - but this is so much more!

Thanks for sharing!

All the best
Thorsten 

[JintaiZ]

A motorized train would already be cool, but this is beyond amazing!

[JWBDolphins]

Just Wow!  Sound, Lights, Smoke - it just doesn't get any better than that!  And what an incredible layout too!  Wonderful job and Thanks for sharing!!!

 

[emm]

Love this. Well done mate.

[zephyr1934]

That is an amazing layout, its as if it were a pure model railroad layout only realized in Lego (if that makes any sense). The locomotive is over the top. I never thought the Daylight could surmount such grades. Then all of the customization you've done is incredible. My favorite part is the pump for the smoke.

[bogieman]

Thanks everyone for the comments. I grew up with Lionel and then HO train layouts so that's my mindset. My wife likes to build the modular buildings so they're all hers. The layout is a mess as our 7 and 5 year old grandsons like to play with the minifigs and vehicles while I run the trains. Someday I need to start on scenery although I have no intention of ballasting track. I have a 6990 Futuron monorail set I plan to remake as a tram serving the amusement park next.

[legoboy3998]

I love to see someone else (besides myself) using the MRC Loco Genie.  I have only used the diesel version, I have not yet played with the steam versions.  I am guessing you used the "Heavy Steam Sounds" version?  Did you need to do any matching to get the "chuff" sounds to line up with the movement of the drive rods?  The MRC Loco Genie system really makes it easy to add a lot of extra sound and light effects.

Very nicely done with the Smoke generator.

Sal
WFB, WI

[bogieman]

14 hours ago, legoboy3998 said:

I love to see someone else (besides myself) using the MRC Loco Genie.  I have only used the diesel version, I have not yet played with the steam versions.  I am guessing you used the "Heavy Steam Sounds" version?  Did you need to do any matching to get the "chuff" sounds to line up with the movement of the drive rods?  The MRC Loco Genie system really makes it easy to add a lot of extra sound and light effects.

Very nicely done with the Smoke generator.

Sal
WFB, WI

Yes, it is the heavy steam sounds version. I didn't do anything to synchronize the chuff, it just worked. It's rated at 1.5 amps, I did do a test on the Daylight, which has two train motors plus the L motor in the locomotive to see how long the batteries would last. I would have been okay if I stayed on the flat layout loop, but at 20 minutes, the genie went up in smoke on the near the top of the grade on my outer loop. Total current on the flat was only about 1 amp but climbing the grade it went to near 1.5 amps so the rating might be a bit optimistic, especially buried in the loco with no air circulation.

I also have four diesels with the diesel loco genie, I think it's the best solution to get the features of track based DCC without having to use track power, and the price is cheaper than a PUP hub. They seem to be discontinued by MRC, but XL Systems, who apparently designed it for MRC, has a web store and sells them direct. I just ordered 3 more diesel units and have a few steam in inventory for future projects. They show up on ebay often too. I've been moving from 6 wide to 8 wide and will eventually sell all my PUP units. I'll sometime have to post my MP15AC MOC using the loco genie powered by just 2 18350 Li-ion cells, which seems to work just fine powering two train motors. 

Dave

[legoboy3998]

Thanks @bogieman for the info on XL systems, I will keep them in mind when I need more.  This past summer I picked up some extra diesel Loco Genies when MRC had them 40% off and free shipping.  I haven't had any issues with mine running 2 PF train motors off the PF rechargeable battery  I seem to only have the usual PF 3 hour time out sometimes when running at shows.  

Sal
WFB, WI