SavaTheAggie

LDD MOC: Sava Built Vanderbilt

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I've begun working on building one of the Texas State Railroad's locomotives, #400. Since I've already built one of her sisters, #300, which looks very similar, I found myself very fortunate that #400 has one design challenge I had yet to attempt in LEGO: her Vanderbilt tender.

What is a Vanderbilt tender? From Wikipedia:

In 1901, Cornelius Vanderbilt III, whose great-grandfather founded the New York Central Railroad, invented a cylindrical tender which was soon adopted by a number of American railroads with oil-burning and coal-burning locomotives.[1]

Compared to rectangular tenders, cylindrical Vanderbilt tenders were stronger, lighter, and held more fuel in relation to surface area.

While I have not built her in bricks, I have built her in LDraw and I am 100% certain that she is buildable, and usable, here in the real world.

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Sava Built Vanderbilt by SavaTheAggie, on Flickr

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Vanderbilt by SavaTheAggie, on Flickr

She will most likely get changed and tweaked before all is said and done to better match the prototype (see the notes on the flickr pages), but as is it makes for a great average Vanderbilt tender suitable for any medium class of steam engine.

--Tony

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Interesting design Tony. I esp. like the large boiler assembly. I'm trying to figure out what you used on top; are those whip pieces?

I also like the sloped back sides. The light grey side pieces add a simple yet effective accent color. Nice and very different from your traditional steam locomotives. :thumbup:

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Interesting design Tony. I esp. like the large boiler assembly. I'm trying to figure out what you used on top; are those whip pieces?

I also like the sloped back sides. The light grey side pieces add a simple yet effective accent color. Nice and very different from your traditional steam locomotives. :thumbup:

This isn't actually a steam engine, it's just the tender. It's an oil tender, specifically, since all of the TSRR steam engines burn oil as opposed to coal or wood, which is why the coal bunker is enclosed.

The pieces on top are just bent flex tubing.

--Tony

Edited by SavaTheAggie

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She will most likely get changed and tweaked before all is said and done ...

--Tony

I really need to see a pic or two of the prototype... I don't see how it could be tweaked or improved. :classic:

Very nice tender. I'm loving it.

Bel

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