[MOC] Virtual - 4561 upgrade to locomotive and Club Car

[Szubi]

Hi!

My friend and I have been debating for years now on the design of late 1990s LEGO and trains in particular.

The debate usually touched upon the 4560/4561, how akward it was in the engine department and how it was never going to be on our collector radars.

One day though, I got a decent deal on a couple of trains, including 4561 so I pulled the trigger and a few missing pieces later I started putting the train together and started appreciating the design that went into it.

It isn't half bad!

What still irks me despite my new affection for it is

1. how short the locomotive is and

2. how it 'jitters' down the track under the load of two rather heavy cars.

So I thought to myself, why not modify the engine to look a little more decent? Of course, I had the following assumptions:

1. Make it like LEGO would (even though I'm no designer after 25 years of dark ages).

2. Use only period available pieces.

3. Make it more realistic.

4. Maintain the entire engine as original as possible and add only behind the two columns/rows of 1x2 Fluted bricks.

This is what I have come up with so far:

I apologize for the crudeness of the pictures and the design.

I know it is akward whatever I do to it, but I'm wondering, what are YOUR thoughts?

What would YOU do to make it better, more like something that LEGO would release that year after a little more design effort?

 

As a bonus, I had a go at creating a Club Car, inspired by the famous 4547.
Same question: How would YOU modify it?

Roast me :D

[Murdoch17]

These both look good to me! My stepdad bought two of the original set back in the late nineties, and much of my childhood was spent trying to make them better to no avail. You have succeeded at a very difficult task indeed, and wonderfully so.

I tip my hat to you for a job well done! 

[Szubi]

@Murdoch17 Thank you for your kind words! Your stepdad must have splurged getting you not one, but two sets!   My parents always thought of LEGO as a purely educational toy forcing me into Technic early on so I never got any trains as a kid... Now I'm revenge buying 

I'm still curious what changes you and other forum users would make... 

If only a LEGO designer could give pointers or insight on the way these were designed back in the day and chip in, I'd be over the moon! 

Not looking for company secrets, just criteria etc.

 

[Murdoch17]

5 hours ago, Szubi said:

@Murdoch17 Thank you for your kind words! Your stepdad must have splurged getting you not one, but two sets!   My parents always thought of LEGO as a purely educational toy forcing me into Technic early on so I never got any trains as a kid... Now I'm revenge buying 

I'm still curious what changes you and other forum users would make... 

If only a LEGO designer could give pointers or insight on the way these were designed back in the day and chip in, I'd be over the moon! 

Not looking for company secrets, just criteria etc.

 

They were actually for him, not me. I just took them apart when he wasn't looking to see how to make them "better".  

As for what I did, I wanted to recreate the St. Louis Metrolink using those front parts, and failed rather miserably. I eventually recreated (and expanded upon) my early multi-colored poor attempt in LDD, with those parts removed back in 2016. You can see it on Flickr here. I also took the original engine and made it in yellow instead of blue at one point.

[Szubi]

As happy as I am with how the engine came out, I did come across some issues that stem from the fact that LEGO used that unusual 6x16 train plate with an incorporated inverted wedge; 

It is very difficult to have a swiveling front bogie and a functioning light - the 9v 2x2 connector brick pushes the bogie back so far that there is a gap just behind the inverted wedge of the plate, which is hard to mask with period correct pieces. I'd have to use more modern pieces, and they still wouldn't sit flush.

So I started thinking, what if this locomotive was a little more 'loco'?  (sorry)

I mean the design is crazy enough originally as it was by LEGO... Perhaps it could have been a super high speed type of train? 2 Motors? A bendy loco! A Loco loco! 

I used 2x 2x4 hinge plates top and bottom to fix the engine and 'tender', so it is sturdy enough and can pivot nicely around a track, but still have to come up with a way to colse up the space.

It could remain open though.

The nice thing here is that I'm really maintaining the original front, with the bogie fixed to the 6x16 train plate as in the original, as well as without the need to raise the whole thing by a plate so the bogies swivel freely. The only alteration is the buffer+magnet, which is moved from the back of the engine to the back of the tender.

Oh, and since I've learned to render, here are the original ideas from the top of the thread, in a more pleasing form. Enjoy :)

 

 

 

@Murdoch17 I did enjoy your attempt so much that I actually researched the Metrolink on wikipedia. Suggestion: make the top half of the cars black?

Edited January 14, 2023 by Szubi

[Paperinik77pk]

Really nice job , finally this train gets some love!

You kept the original feel of the real Lego train, making it less "cheap".

I'd only try to fit the locomotive with a front bogie as big as the motor, making  the body 4 or 5 studs longer overall.

Good job!!!

[Pelzer117]

Nice to see another point of view for this set. I dont know why, but the original design still impress me.

Here you can find my try to „Mod“ it.