[MOC] Double decker commuter train. Lego renfe cercanías S-450 "El Buque"

[Ferro-Friki]

Hey everyone! I’m happy to share with you a little something I’ve been working on.

It’s one of the commuter (cercanías) trains we have here in Spain. I’m the most familiar with the units in Madrid, so that’s what I’ve tried to recreate. They’re nicknamed “El Buque” (The Ship). I can’t seem to get a reason why they’re called this, my theory is that they wobble like a boat does, and the single round window on the coaches reminds me of a ship as well.

The 450s are some of the oldest trains in this service still around, and unfortunately, they will probably be retired relatively soon. There aren’t that many left running around Madrid, so they’re the least common ones you’ll find pulling into the station.

As you can see they're double decker trains, and if I’m not mistaken, they were the only units with two floors in the country until the arrival of Ouigo’s Euroduplex. And to be honest, employing double decker trains for commuter services wasn’t that good of an idea, since each car only has a couple of doors on each side but twice as many seats, getting off and boarding at rush hour at a crowded station is a pain, so it’s probably for the better that they retire these units.

Funnily enough, despite being old and a bit clunky, these trains are the fastest in the cercanías services, reaching 140km/h. Although they have a terrible acceleration, so they take a long time until they get there. And since they’re stopping and leaving constantly their average speed might be the lowest in the cercanías fleet.

To be fair, in my opinion, these trains are perfectly good and reliable, the thing is that they just aren’t suited for the services they got designated to. In the outskirts of Madrid, where the distances between stops are much longer and there aren’t as many passengers to clog up the doorways, they really get their chance to shine.

These trains used to be pulled by a regular locomotive, and on the tail end coach they had another cabin from which to control remotely the locomotive at the other end when traveling in the opposite direction. That way, there was no need to uncouple the locomotive and shunt it to the other side or employ two engines on either end. Later, in an effort to modernize the fleet, they got rid of the locomotive altogether and fitted the coaches on either end with all the necessary components to make the train run by itself as a single unit. The transformation wasn’t all the way though, and in a way, the unit still behaves like a conventional train being pulled and pushed at the same time by two locomotives that happen to be able to carry passengers too. You can tell at simple glance by the fact that both motor-cars carry their pantographs up when running, since there isn’t a high voltage line connecting them like modern units have.

All in all, I find this train with all its quirks very interesting and loveable in a way, even if it’s begging to be put out of its misery… Which is why I tried to recreate it in lego! :)

[Darkkostas25]

Spectacular! I like a large number of SNOT techniques all over the body of the train!
And those bogies *_*

[_TLG_]

Nice and clean build!

[Ferro-Friki]

4 hours ago, Darkkostas25 said:

Spectacular! I like a large number of SNOT techniques all over the body of the train!
And those bogies *_*

Thank you! I really had to think outside the box to make the bricks behave the way I wanted instead of the other way around. One of the details I'm the most proud of are the doors, which have a half a plate thick frame on the sides made with brackets that makes them pop without standing out too much.

The bogies were one of the first things I built, since I wanted to avoid lego's prefab RC motor covers at all costs, which pretty much forced me to build the whole train in 8-wide instead of the 7-wide I'm more used to.

[Feuer Zug]

Well done. The flat face and sides makes this easy to translate into LEGO. The details you managed to add make it shine.

[Nikonissen]

There are just so many amazing things about this train...

The curved roof, the bogies, the front, the doors. All in all a great model. You really need to start ordering some parts!

I got surprised when I looked up the age of the train. 1988 is not that old... The most important and reliable train in Denmark is the IC3 train from 1989. But ofc, it's been rennovated a couple of times since, and a replacement is being designed and built. So pretty cool to learn that Renfe's fleet is pretty modern :))

[ivanlan9]

A real charmer.  Very nice job!

[Darkkostas25]

3 hours ago, Ferro-Friki said:

Thank you! I really had to think outside the box to make the bricks behave the way I wanted instead of the other way around. One of the details I'm the most proud of are the doors, which have a half a plate thick frame on the sides made with brackets that makes them pop without standing out too much.

The bogies were one of the first things I built, since I wanted to avoid lego's prefab RC motor covers at all costs, which pretty much forced me to build the whole train in 8-wide instead of the 7-wide I'm more used to.

yeah, the doors look neat! And that handle/hole is made with snot half-round tile! great! even creases look great

[LEGO Train 12 Volts]

What a majestic train with great technical details!
The wagons are just perfect!

[Ferro-Friki]

On 3/23/2023 at 6:59 PM, Nikonissen said:

There are just so many amazing things about this train...

The curved roof, the bogies, the front, the doors. All in all a great model. You really need to start ordering some parts!

I got surprised when I looked up the age of the train. 1988 is not that old... The most important and reliable train in Denmark is the IC3 train from 1989. But ofc, it's been rennovated a couple of times since, and a replacement is being designed and built. So pretty cool to learn that Renfe's fleet is pretty modern :))

Thank you! Unfortunately, as much as I'd like to have it in my hands, this train would be absurdly big and expensive... It would measure almost 3m long! Luckily for me the series 450 has a smaller sibling, the series 451, which is basically the same train but cut in half. It should be very easy to design, since I would just have to add a cabin on the end of one of the middle coaches. If I end up building this train it would be the 451 version.

Okay, I’ve just looked the IC3 train up and I did not expect to see a familiar face. We have those units here in Spain too! (I’m pretty sure they’re the same) They’re labeled as the series 594. They weren’t as loved when they got here though… Apparently their AC systems were not suited to the Spanish weather at all, and its passengers were basically cooked alive! But I’m pretty sure they have that fixed now.

[Redrado]

Oh my GOD! What a wonderful recreation of the lovely 450. Everything is simply on point. The details are outstanding, the shape is perfect, simply great! 

[Ferro-Friki]

20 hours ago, Redrado said:

Oh my GOD! What a wonderful recreation of the lovely 450. Everything is simply on point. The details are outstanding, the shape is perfect, simply great! 

Thanks man! I tried to give it my all and see what came out, I'm glad you like it!

Now I'm tinkering with the original color scheme and the alternative Rodalies livery. With that and the 451 version I'll have an update soon.

[Dr Snotson]

Great work!

[Aitoruco]

great job, my congrats, Sergio batista made it a couple of years before from the portuguese CP

 

[Ferro-Friki]

20 hours ago, Dr Snotson said:

Great work!

Thank you! I may or may not have borrowed the minifigure skis for the pantographs from your DB E9…

16 hours ago, Aitoruco said:

great job, my congrats, Sergio batista made it a couple of years before from the portuguese CP

 

Thanks! I had no idea that there were similar units in Portugal, or that anyone else had recreated it in lego before. After looking his CP 3500 up (great as always), it’s fascinating seeing the differences and similarities as well as similar design choices and parts usage.

[Sérgio]

Great design! the middle cars are similar to the Portuguese ones indeed, If I rebuild my in 1:45 scale I might borrow some ideas from your model!

[Crazy bricks]

The whole thing looks great, but I especially love the coupling mechanism design. Lego's own ones tend to be rather unrealistic, but that looks really nicely detailed.

[PedroJ]

This is a fabulous MOC. Congratulations! What an impressive detail and care with the finished look. What is the scale? 1:50?