[MOC] Daylight to Brickworld

[Toastie]

44 minutes ago, bogieman said:

But I'm reluctant to post them on this forum as I expect they will be controversial.

Hi Dave,

I'd say why not posting it here? This is TrainTech and you added something you made to your train MOC that is not well doable in bricks. As far as I am concerned, there is absolutely nothing wrong with posting that here. In contrast. Let it be controversial to those who want to take it there. I am always very much interested in learning from others. Adding your very own parts to your very own MOC is that: Learning from others what one can achieve by doing that.

Benn's daylight would not look that nice without his rods. They make a huge difference! On each LEGO steamer I have seen so far. I bet this will be the same with your own parts.

Best,
Thorsten

[zephyr1934]

Today I present the vestibules on the cars. Probably the trickiest parts on the cars was the end doors on the vestibules. I believe the FRA considers the vestibule on the end of the car to be outside of the car, at least for safety standards (which I suspect is part of the reason why many railroads will not let you stand in the vestibules). Anyway, as was common on pre-Amtrak carriers, the end doors would lead to a platform that was separated from the interior of the car by a door (visible in the left frame below). The diaphragm side typically would have a retractable gate to close it off when the car was not coupled to another car, but there was no door to fully close the vestibule from the diaphragm (many model train cars ignore this fact since it would make the models a lot more complicated to manufacture and some modern cars actually do have a door on the diaphragm side, e.g., Amfleet cars).

The vestibules are deceptively tricky on this build, like the real cars, I have a 2 stud platform between the car interior, the actual end of the car with the diaphragm, and the pair of exterior doors. The structure for the offset diaphragm conflicts with the structure for the half plate inset doors. It is also hard to photograph, taking me three shots to both show the interior two stud platform that makes up the vestibule + the diaphragm on the end + the inset doors on the side.

 

 

 

On 5/25/2022 at 2:10 AM, Critta said:

Great looking train, I really like the small details in the cab.

Thanks for sharing.

Thank you thank you!

 

On 5/25/2022 at 2:17 AM, Ropefish said:

Are the sidings 3d printed or molded? the matte finish is nice!

Yes, I made the truck sides myself. As noted in the previous post, it took many iterations to get them to work to my satisfaction, they are good enough that I feel comfortable offering them for sale. Well... mostly to my satisfaction, they are still stupid expensive for me to make, so I do not anticipate they will be big sellers.

 

23 hours ago, bogieman said:

You're truck sideframes look really good. I'm a big proponent of adding custom 3D printed parts to Lego models where I feel there is not a good brick-built solution. I've recently made my own windshield frames for an 8-wide EMD F7 and a GE 4500HP 1st gen gas turbine loco. But I'm reluctant to post them on this forum as I expect they will be controversial.

Dave

Please do post your custom work (in a new thread of course). The train tech forum understands the limitations of the Lego parts palette for critical features and the lack of attention from Lego for our niche hobby. So if a custom part does something Lego does not, then it is usually well received in the forum. I think everyone here recognizes there is a spectrum of builders- from purists (with a few extremists who only build with parts manufactured prior to 1990) to fairly liberal builders who do not realize that glue is a four letter word. I think if you wander beyond pure Lego make sure your post is about something that augments Lego builds rather than something that is strictly (or mostly) non-Lego.

 

22 hours ago, Toastie said:

Hi Dave,

I'd say why not posting it here? This is TrainTech and you added something you made to your train MOC that is not well doable in bricks. As far as I am concerned, there is absolutely nothing wrong with posting that here. In contrast. Let it be controversial to those who want to take it there. I am always very much interested in learning from others. Adding your very own parts to your very own MOC is that: Learning from others what one can achieve by doing that.

Benn's daylight would not look that nice without his rods. They make a huge difference! On each LEGO steamer I have seen so far. I bet this will be the same with your own parts.

Best,
Thorsten

Exactly that

[bogieman]

Thanks for your encouragement Benn and Thorsten, will do.

 

1 hour ago, zephyr1934 said:

Today I present the vestibules on the cars. Probably the trickiest parts on the cars was the end doors on the vestibules. I believe the FRA considers the vestibule on the end of the car to be outside of the car, at least for safety standards (which I suspect is part of the reason why many railroads will not let you stand in the vestibules). Anyway, as was common on pre-Amtrak carriers, the end doors would lead to a platform that was separated from the interior of the car by a door (visible in the left frame below). The diaphragm side typically would have a retractable gate to close it off when the car was not coupled to another car, but there was no door to fully close the vestibule from the diaphragm (many model train cars ignore this fact since it would make the models a lot more complicated to manufacture and some modern cars actually do have a door on the diaphragm side, e.g., Amfleet cars).

The vestibules are deceptively tricky on this build, like the real cars, I have a 2 stud platform between the car interior, the actual end of the car with the diaphragm, and the pair of exterior doors. The structure for the offset diaphragm conflicts with the structure for the half plate inset doors. It is also hard to photograph, taking me three shots to both show the interior two stud platform that makes up the vestibule + the diaphragm on the end + the inset doors on the side.

 

 

The half-plate offset on the side doors looks great, I'd love to see the detail on how you achieved that. I assume that's a red sticker on the top of the door to match the sidewall color, a nice touch.

Dave

Edited May 26, 2022 by bogieman

[zephyr1934]

Here's my last bit of special detailing on the cars, I like to make my models so they can close couple when on static display. I just use a spare magnet and pop it out for a parked display (top) or pop it in to run (bottom). This picture also is a good example as to why I need to get rid of the black gaskets. I'm hoping I still have time to redo those stickers before brickworld.

On 5/26/2022 at 11:50 AM, bogieman said:

The half-plate offset on the side doors looks great, I'd love to see the detail on how you achieved that. I assume that's a red sticker on the top of the door to match the sidewall color, a nice touch.

The half plate offset is done with brackets. In the picture above, for the car on the right, there is a row of red plates below the windows and above the profile bricks. To the right of the door is a 1x1 plate and then what looks like a 1x2 plate. That supposed 1x2 plate is actually a 1x2 x 1x4 bracket. On the other side I believe I have a 1x4 tile, meanwhile what looks like a 1x2 red brick in the door, below the window, is really a 1x2 brick with studs on one side (the far side). And that brick is attached to the same tile that is on the bracket, thereby giving the 1/2 plate offset. Meanwhile, above that I have a normal 1x2x2 train window, which should be all one color. The red sticker (with the black gasket) is there to make the top bit of the window consistent with the corresponding "paint" on the adjacent walls.

[High_Admiral]

Interesting set up. I can't remember but did the San Joaquin ever have the classic Daylight Full Width diaphragms/gangways? Also, I just saw this now, but interesting choice with the frames. SP ran friction bearings on all their stock, besides the two GS-5s, until sometime after they retired steam. I assume the roller bearing boxes are because of the modern day condition of the coaches that tend to accompany 2472 whenever she decides to take a stroll?

(Also, SP Pacifics are quite gorgeous machines in their own right so props to you for making a few of them)

[zephyr1934]

14 hours ago, High_Admiral said:

Interesting set up. I can't remember but did the San Joaquin ever have the classic Daylight Full Width diaphragms/gangways? Also, I just saw this now, but interesting choice with the frames. SP ran friction bearings on all their stock, besides the two GS-5s, until sometime after they retired steam. I assume the roller bearing boxes are because of the modern day condition of the coaches that tend to accompany 2472 whenever she decides to take a stroll?

As mentioned in an earlier post, with so little information on the SJD cars, I decided to model the original 1937 consist. But the headend cars on the SJD are reported to be streamlined heavyweights (the one photo I saw looked more like a Harriman roof, but older stock nonetheless). So I suspect the full diaphragms were removed before the 1937 cars reached the SJD.

In terms of the 1937 Daylight, I did take a few liberties. First of all, when new, the cars did have full diaphragms. That would be impossible to do at 6 wide using anything resembling pure lego. Also, from what I can tell, the tail sign on the observation car was a painted sign that was illuminated from behind (the red neon was added maybe 5 years later) but the red neon is just so "Daylight" that I had to go with it.

As for the truck sides, like the SD truck sides used on the tender, I am using a pre-existing design. There is so much work that goes in to these custom parts that if I start tweaking them to be specific to a given piece of rollingstock all I will do is spend my time tweaking the the designs of the custom parts. They look better than the standard lego train wheels while still tucking discretely within a 6 wide profile.

[High_Admiral]

Oh, totally. I just figured you’d have some better insight into the San Joaquin than I have. The thing looks great. And yeah, the neon sign is original to (at least) the ‘41 set if not the original ‘37 set. That much I do know. SP didn’t skimp out when it came to the original train and service. There is one of the neon signs actually still around, saved by a worker whenever SP was stripping them off the obs. cars as a cost savings in the late 40s-ish. As far as I’m aware, its still at the Original Whistle Stop hobby shop in Pasadena. Of course, I’m in the Midwest so I’ve never seen the thing to even know for sure.

[zephyr1934]

The 1937 Railway Age article linked in one of my previous posts includes a photo the original painted Daylight obsv tail sign, here's another photo of the tail sign. Meanwhile, according to Modeling the SP, the SJD had a neon tail sign from the start in 1941, while the Coast Daylight got them in 1939.

 

[zephyr1934]

[full album on flickr]

Today I come to the end of the build and present all of the cars. The 1937 Daylight consist was led by a baggage-coach combine.

Followed by a standard coach

Then three sets of articulated paired coaches (I built two sets, but am only showing one here). Like the original, each half is shorter than a normal coach. I tried many ideas for the articulation but nothing was perfect and ultimately I fell back to a similar design as I used on my Pioneer Zephyr. Here too I got lucky with the just in time introduction of new parts I needed. I believe it was both the orange 2x2 macaroni and 4x4 round plates had just appeared in sets as I was starting to design these cars. Operationally this car is one of the limiting factors on the train due to the articulation point and length of the cars. Although it can take R40 switches, it will not take R40 curves. I know it runs fine through R72 curves, but I think it can take R56 too (I have not tried yet).

Next up is the coffee shop/tavern car: 1/2 counter service eatery, 1/2 bar. Who could ask for more? Given the large differences of the two sides of the car I am showing both in this picture. You can really spot the early days of streamlining in this car by the fact that it only has a service door on one side. This picture does not do full justice to the door, which like the vestibule doors is set in 1/2 plate. But the inset is much easier to do when you do not have to worry about the diaphragms.

Remember when earlier I said this train has three domes on it? Well this car is the first dome in the train, rebuilt to a dome in 1955.

The tavern car was followed by the dining car. Like the coffee shop/tavern car ahead of it, this car has two very different sides, and also only had a service door on one side... even more brilliantly, when the train was assembled, the access door for the diner was on the opposite side of the train then the access door from the tavern. Ah well, not my problem. This car is a good example where you can see the interior walls around the kitchen area.

The next car in the 1937 consist was a parlor car. Outside it looks very similar to the coach, but inside it was only two seats across instead of the usual four. Remember that as a "Daylight" train, it did not need any sleeper accommodations. This car had the only state room (private compartment) on the train. I forgot where I read about it, but one of the sources said that the state room was not mentioned in public time tables until some time in the 1950's. It was used for movie stars and other VIP's who did not want to mingle with the other travelers in "first class". The furthest left window in this photograph is the men's toilt, while the next two windows show the walls of the state room.

This car is the second dome in the train, rebuilt to a dome in 1955.

And bringing the rear of train is the parlor-observation car. The interior was similar to the parlor car except the very end which had a lounge area. For the actual build, the snotted panels and windshields dictated the height of the orange stripe throughout the entire train.

This car is the third dome in the train, rebuilt to a dome in 1954.

The rear windows are held in with 6 wide plates spanning the width of the car, which doesn't look great when viewing the car at eye level, but they are not that bad when viewed from a more typical model train viewing angle. The rounded rear of the car has a TON of snot at different angles and a ton of 1/2 plate offsets.

I do like the look of the panels a lot better than the brick + 2 plates used for the other windows, but structurally it just wasn't viable unless I wanted to build the cars with double walls. Below the roof of transverse mounted 1x3 curved slopes, the 1x2 profile bricks and headlight bricks for the letter-board do not offer much strength. Also, the studs up windows were better proportioned, if I had used snotted panels throughout, I would have had to have had a panel + 2 plates to get the right dimensions, which then loses the seamlessness of the panels.

That's the entire train, I hope you enjoyed this extended tour of the San Joaquin Daylight.

 

[full album on flickr]

[Ropefish]

On 5/29/2022 at 11:38 AM, zephyr1934 said:

[full album on flickrAnd bringing the rear of train is the parlor-observation car. The interior was similar to the parlor car except the very end which had a lounge area. For the actual build, the snotted panels and windshields dictated the height of the orange stripe throughout the entire train.

This car is the third dome in the train, rebuilt to a dome in 1954.

The rear windows are held in with 6 wide plates spanning the width of the car, which doesn't look great when viewing the car at eye level, but they are not that bad when viewed from a more typical model train viewing angle. The rounded rear of the car has a TON of snot at different angles and a ton of 1/2 plate offsets.

I do like the look of the panels a lot better than the brick + 2 plates used for the other windows, but structurally it just wasn't viable unless I wanted to build the cars with double walls. Below the roof of transverse mounted 1x3 curved slopes, the 1x2 profile bricks and headlight bricks for the letter-board do not offer much strength. Also, the studs up windows were better proportioned, if I had used snotted panels throughout, I would have had to have had a panel + 2 plates to get the right dimensions, which then loses the seamlessness of the panels.

That's the entire train, I hope you enjoyed this extended tour of the San Joaquin Daylight.

 

[full album on flickr]

The part usage in this brings a smile to my face, makes me almost regret building my locomotive around 9 wide!

[zephyr1934]

Although I'm probably done uploading photos on the SJD until I have shots from brickworld, I did upload a few variants that are similar to existing shots

 

I've also got another video. Not the greatest camera work, but a neat view of the SJD running through a fun layout (this shows about half of the layout, the other half is a mirrored reflection). I really enjoy the TrixBrix double slip switches, BrickTracks R104 switches, and the compact TrixBrix R40 yard

10 hours ago, Ropefish said:

The part usage in this brings a smile to my face, makes me almost regret building my locomotive around 9 wide!

Yeah, the first many times I saw that windshield piece I asked, "what the heck do you do with this stupid thing?" Well, turns out it is handy for some tough compound curves. It is not a perfect match for the real geometry, but it is so smooth that I think it beats the alternatives. I've used this trick a few times before, e.g., on my North Coast Limited and my PCC car.

However, you might be interested to know that there is a variant that is two halves of this same geometry, namely parts 41749-41750

 

[Paperinik77pk]

Well, seeing the video I immediately thought about a magnificent snake going around a railway track - perfect speed, the cars are long, but work perfectly all together...it's the third time I watch it! 

Great stuff, as always!!! 

Ciao,

Davide

[zephyr1934]

The Daylight has arrived at Brickworld 2022!

[full album on flickr]

 

[Selander]

Oh, it looks stunning 👍

[XG BC]

looks very nice!

[Vilhelm22]

Great to see it there!  Unfortunately I can't get there myself, but one day.....

Will you be running it on the LGMS layout?  I'll probably be seeing quite a lot of photos of that considering the various things that I follow outside of EB as well as on here. 

[HoMa]

Wow, looks amazing and the full length is stunning. The Daylight colors matches so nice with the brick colors.

Enjoy the show and say Hi to all the train folks I might have met back in 2019.

Holger

[Murdoch17]

Love the first picture of the latest post... it looks so realistic, like it's running along at top track speed and leaning into the curve a bit.

Great work @zephyr1934!

[bogieman]

Looks terrific! I'll be attending on Saturday so will be sure to stop by.

Dave

[Feuer Zug]

Looks great on display. The full consist is incredible. I like how you've got Katy there too. That's a gem for sure.

[Toastie]

Absolutely wonderful. I love the colors - although I am a bit underexposed in that regard (well and maybe in many others as well ) - but knowing what they are ... the appearance is so different from the steamers I know of; this is a colorful, yet very powerful and at the same time very elegantly looking (and of course very nicely done) train.

All the best and have fun,
Thorsten 

[zephyr1934]

Selander & XG BC, Thank you for the kind words!

 

On 6/16/2022 at 4:26 AM, Vilhelm22 said:

Great to see it there!  Unfortunately I can't get there myself, but one day.....

Will you be running it on the LGMS layout?  I'll probably be seeing quite a lot of photos of that considering the various things that I follow outside of EB as well as on here. 

Oh my, that would be quite the trip from the UK, but might be worth it. If you like trains in general there are a lot of great railroad sites around the Chicago area too.

 

Yes, I will be running some on the LGMS layout, I'm right across the isle from them. After I finish this reply I hope to go down and do a bit of running on their layout.

So far I've run my old superliners on the CincyLUG  layout and my steam elephant on the LGMS layout. The prize site looks to be on the Empire LUG layout though. As of last night they did not have a complete loop, but I'm definitely getting a shot of my train on their layout along the "Colorado River" (that will make sense once you see photos).

 

On 6/16/2022 at 7:12 AM, HoMa said:

Wow, looks amazing and the full length is stunning. The Daylight colors matches so nice with the brick colors.

Enjoy the show and say Hi to all the train folks I might have met back in 2019.

Indeed, 95% of the reason why this model looks so good is because the prototype looked that good. I will definitely pass your regards on to folks!

 

 

On 6/16/2022 at 9:23 AM, Murdoch17 said:

Love the first picture of the latest post... it looks so realistic, like it's running along at top track speed and leaning into the curve a bit.

Indeed, I saw that too, The curve was deliberate, long trains look kind of boring if they are perfectly straight. I wanted the Daylight raised above the rest of my trains but also having room for the shorter trains, so I had the risers bend to bring the engine to the edge while most of the cars are in back. There was also a bridge in the original design, but it just did not work out with the fabric so the bridge is in a box under the display. At any rate, the fact that the engine us leaning like it is slamming into a curve was just a happy coincidence. I'm not sure if it was my camera or the box that was leaning so fortuitously, but I do know that the secret to taking good photos is to take 100's and only show the one that turned out well (grin).

 

On 6/16/2022 at 9:58 AM, bogieman said:

Looks terrific! I'll be attending on Saturday so will be sure to stop by.

Excellent. I might be milling about any one of the train layouts but I should be around on Sat. I'll probably skip out on Sun to go to Illinois Railway Museum during the public hours. The same is true for anyone else who might stop by and say hi (apologies in advance- I am horrible with names)

 

 

23 hours ago, Feuer Zug said:

Looks great on display. The full consist is incredible. I like how you've got Katy there too. That's a gem for sure.

Than you, and that turned out to be another bit of luck the way Katy seems to almost be coming out of the book in that shot.

 

 

19 hours ago, Toastie said:

Absolutely wonderful. I love the colors - although I am a bit underexposed in that regard (well and maybe in many others as well ) - but knowing what they are ... the appearance is so different from the steamers I know of; this is a colorful, yet very powerful and at the same time very elegantly looking (and of course very nicely done) train.

I'm telling you, SP missed big time, the orange should have been gold (grin). They did an amazing job stylizing the prototype, and unlike many of the other streamliners, most of the essential components were not under a lot of shrouding, so these engines were a lot easier to maintain compared to a lot of the other railroads streamliners. Functional and pretty.
 

[zephyr1934]

Just a quick post, I'll pull over some of the best shots later, but here's the Colorado River from Empire Lug's layout,

 

 

A couple of shots on the LGMS layout,

 

And a very nice video.

 

 

Many more show pictures in the album...

 

[full album on flickr]

 

[HoMa]

Oh, oh, oh ... that Colorado River layout is so great. This is the landscape train like your Daylight should travel through. 

To make it perfect, take all this out at a spot which allows real blue sky as background.

Enjoy Brickworld! 

Edited June 18, 2022 by HoMa
Typo

[Vilhelm22]

Now THAT'S what I calla proper train layout!  And yes, like @HoMa says, it looks perfect running through it as the landscape is just what's needed.  Fantastic work - every picture of this train I see you seem to have outdone yourself further.