Wild West - Trains, Town, Military and mini-figures

[The Brick Boss]

@Murdoch17 I've heard of Garrats. Those were some weird looking engines. The Southern Pacific 4294 was another weird one. That's the one most known for the fact that it was a cab first locomotive. 

Edited August 24, 2020 by Brandon Pea

[JintaiZ]

Amazing build!!!

[Murdoch17]

On 8/24/2020 at 10:26 AM, Brandon Pea said:

@Murdoch17 I've heard of Garrats. Those were some weird looking engines. The Southern Pacific 4294 was another weird one. That's the one most known for the fact that it was a cab first locomotive. 

@Brandon Pea yes, indeed they were, and I agree about SP 4294 looking odd, but in both cases they were a necessity for the railroad. Intense track curvature could be achieved with Garratt's, and with the cab forward it prevented asphyxiation of the crew in tunnels and snow sheds. In other places, (The "Rat Hole line" in the American southeast, forget the RR) would cause crews to lie down with wet rags on their faces so they could get through a lot of tunnels in a short distance without dying!

On 8/24/2020 at 10:33 AM, JintaiZ said:

Amazing build!!!

Thanks @JintaiZ!

I just updated the main post with new trains (I am currently rebuilding them 8-wide as now shown in screenshots), and a couple all-over pictures.

Here is the Railroad I invented for the Western layout's history:

The Wichita Xenia Yazoo & Zephyrus Rail-Road (Stock market trade name WXYZRR) was a mid-19th / early 20th century enterprise also known as the Wasted, eXausted, Y bother & Z*. (*No one could figure out an insult to the railroad that started with the letter "Z") The railroad started in Wichita, Kansas in 1868, then went straight through Xenia, Oklahoma, while then meandering into Yazoo, Colorado and barely making it into Zephyrus, New Mexico by 1875. Other stations included several army forts dotted along the route through Oklahoma and Colorado, along with scattered mining camps and agricultural towns across the maps of New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Kansas. The railroad is hardly mentioned anywhere in writings of journalists, except in scathing "letters to the editor" of various newspapers about lack of the promised service on the line in the early years. 

Also, the much derided company slogan "last railroad you'll ever need" did not work out well for the new railroad, but it did vastly increase questions fielded to the main office about coffin, headstone, and various other memorial shipments from all over the area from which the railroad served. It is therefore shocking the railroad lasted as long as it did, a substantial fifty-six years from incorporation in 1867, to it's sale at auction in 1923!

The old WXY&Z railroad had about 35 locomotives on the books at the maximum, but most of these were already very old when purchased and broke down frequently so they were chronically in the workshop for some reason or another. In fact, the seven additional 4-4-0 locomotives purchased third-hand from engine dealers were of the long-obsolete inside-piston variety of the mid-1850's, yet were bought in the early 1870's! However, what the railroad lacked in regular service motive power, it made up for in the snow plow-train department. A single prototype of what would later be called a "Garratt" (a doubled-power-unit steam loco with a single boiler not normally found in North America) was first run on the "High Line" between Fort Legoredo, Colorado and Glencoe, New Mexico in the steep Rocky Mountains. This is where the railroad really shined, in keeping the trains running through steep mountain passes with a single experimental train with a rotary snowplow at the head end... of course, there were other plow trains, but only two rotary trains. (One would work from either end of the Glacier Gulch Pass, and meet in the middle on a passing siding. The Garrett would be on one train, and two regular locomotives pushing the other.)

After 1923's closing of the railroad, it was bought wholesale by a consortium of stock brokers from Denver, with plans to redo the line with less sharp grades and more snow sheds. However, during this reconstruction, the 1929 Great Depression began, leaving half the line with old grades though most of Colorado mountains, but new grades on New Mexico were finished in time. The passenger car fleet was upgraded, but the freight engines (downgraded passenger power, really) and rotary plows remained vintage as far back as 1878 for motive power. The older inside-piston locomotives went for sale once the Depression really started up, and one was snapped up for a potential history museum in Glencoe, while the rest were scrapped. Then, a miracle happened: the movie industry intervened, and several production houses bought some of the oldest rolling stock, engines, and the line was given enough cash to stave off it's dismantlement until 1941, when trains of heavy munitions from companies on the line came rolling through for the War effort, making the line the busiest it had ever been. The profits from this, and the later 1950 / '60's movie companies use of the stunningly scenic "High Line" line for motion pictures saved the line. When the good times started to dim in the early 1970's, the railroad was jointly bought by the states of Kansas, Oklahoma, Colorado, & New Mexico for tourists, occasional movie trains, and the freight that still used the line, as the original stock broker consortium had by then been dissolved. The "new" WXYZ railroad, (the town names were shortened to just the initials for simplicity's sake) was thus founded in March 1st, 1971. It has been running, mostly non-stop and is closed during the three winter months of December, January, and February for running of the single remaining rotary snowplow to get the line ready for opening day on March 1st of every year since the early 1970's.

(NOTES from the writer: Only Wichita (Kansas) and Xenia (Illinois) are real-world towns, with them being based in name ONLY on real places. Yazoo, for example, is really a river in the state of Mississippi, while Zehyrus was simply because I needed a "Z" name that sounded plausible, and the Colorado Zephyr train was on my mind at the time. The rest of the story is also fiction, as no Garratt ever rode the rails of North America.... ever. Also, the WXYZ logo is an old Union Pacific logo from the early 1910's, while the railroad name's initials have never been used ANYWHERE on a railroad.)

Edited February 16, 2021 by Murdoch17

[Murdoch17]

Been sitting on this model for about a year or two, waiting to upload it. It is off a Frontier church for my Wild West town. I based it partially off set 309 and 1309 (both called "Church") from 1957 / 58's Town Plan theme.. the only official Lego church ever made, as far as I know. The words "Church of the Unmodified Brick" go on some 2 x 4 tiles with custom stickers I'll probably get from my dad's label maker. (I don't own one)

The model features a "golden" bell in the tower, and seven seats for parishioners, while the Reverend Mallory has to stand to deliver his fire-and-brimstone sermon on the "evils" of cutting baseplates, third party bricks, and gluing parts together.

The lattice work for the windows is supposed to continue into the square versions using 22 of this part.

The rear window has a trans blue / trans orange stained glass window with a cross outline in front of it.

This church will go along with the gothic graveyard I assembled from both 70420 (Graveyard Mystery from Hidden Side) and 75965 (Rise of Voldemort from Harry Potter.) Also, please ignore the older 4-2-4 steam loco in the back of this photo, it's not important and has been disassembled for a 2-8-0 as seen in the Train Tech sub-forum.

Father Tom Mallory has seen many reddish-brown bricks shattered, models glued together, and old gray baseplates cut down by the blade of Exact Zero in The First Purism War*. His service during that conflict has not exactly helped his intense fire-and-brimstone sermons on "Purity of the Brick".

*DO NOT mention the war!

Edited March 8, 2021 by Murdoch17

[The_Creator]

7 hours ago, Murdoch17 said:

 

What set is that stone dress statue from?

[Svendp]

8 hours ago, The_Creator said:

What set is that stone dress statue from?

Ideas dr Who set 21304 (if I'm not mistaken)

[The_Creator]

1 hour ago, Svendp said:

Ideas dr Who set 21304 (if I'm not mistaken)

Yup! Thanks! Wow, expensive minifigure.

[Murdoch17]

(Singing)  They gave him his orders in Monroe, Virginia, they said: Steve, you're way behind time! This is not Thirty-eight this is...

...old Ninety-Seven Number 5, get her into Spencer on time! 

If Steve Brody (R.I.P.) took this yard goat instead of 97, I don't think he would've gotten anywhere near 90MPH (as in the song and near his supposed actual speed), but he probably would've reached Spencer in one piece though! (unlike old 97)

Wild Western loco number 5 is an eight wide model of a generic 0-6-0 saddle tank steam engine switcher (or yard goat) from the 1870's, and was inspired by a @ScotNick build of Stanley from Thomas and Friends for the stripe work, and this build of Percy (also from Thomas but by the L Gauge site owner) for the front of the boiler front / piston assembly.

NOTE: The color scheme is red and yellow, though sadly here red looks pink / magenta... stupid phone camera.

@The_Creator: the minifig is a Weeping Angel from Dr Who. Be sure not to blink when looking at that photo! 

Edited March 13, 2021 by Murdoch17

[Murdoch17]

This (revised) Armstrong turntable, with it's eight outlet tracks, is two 10 inch base plates across, with a little extra for the slightly larger circle of plates. I have bought 24 pieces of straight RC track (three of set 60205 from Amazon put me back about $48 US in that respect) for this, with 11 tracks being on the turntable itself, and the rest being used as the outlet tracks.

NOTE:  (Purists look away!) I will need a half track, with 1/4 of track at each end (a taken-apart flex track will do nicely for this) for this table to work "right". Also, the wild western Garratt loco fits on the table, but only just barely, so I'll have to be really careful in turning it.

The turntable model is on the list to be bought, as are the 4-4-0 + freight cars and 2-8-0 w/ military cars. (in no particular order) Here we see the remaining parts to be bought for the turntable...

...the military train and 2-8-0 steamer...

...and finally the inside-connected 4-4-0 loco and it's freight train.

Edited March 15, 2021 by Murdoch17

[chill9394]

A great Wild West set is amongst those in the bricklink desginer program! Brickwest Studios

https://www.bricklink.com/v3/designer-program/designer-sets-for-adult-fans-of-lego/215718/Brickwest-Studios

Show your support in the crowd funding phase on 1/6 if you want this set made.