greenmtvince

Just discovered this software today and it's fantastic for sharing digital designs! I have one small issue I could use some help with: This is the resultant output of one of my steam locomotives using the default scene settings. I was wondering if anyone had some suggestions for scene file settings I could use to perhaps bring out more of the details in this all black locomotive.

Maybe combine rare earth magnets with http://www.altbricks...-gray-10-count/ and http://www.amazon.co...n/dp/B000CPIN9S to get something that looks like the original train magnets but at a far greater strength. I'm sure if you email Steve at altBricks, he can give you the exact inner diameter of his magnet holders to source the appropriate size magnets. He is holding a caliper on the front page of the site after all. I've used Amazon in the past to get the exact REMs I was looking for, but it wasn't for this application. Alternately, I've seen a few builders just placing a REM (I'm guessing about 3/8") between the two train magnets to boost the strength of the connection without modifying the Lego elements. @Duq, In the US, they're marketed as "Rare Earth Magnets" because Neodymium is from "Rare Earth Elements" https://en.wikipedia...e_earth_element

What Tony said, plus the XL, L, and M with gears is preferred over the train motor if: -the spacing between wheels on the train motor is too large for the scale of your model. You can get a shorter wheelbase by building your own -you want to add a simulated 3rd axle between the two powered axles (Might want to consider this for an SD70) See Example -you want to build to a gauge other than the standard Lego gauge

Check with Bill Dummond (Bill2Build on Flickr.) I'm pretty sure his GATX GP38 has fixed steps and details and it ran well with full scale modern rolling stock. Otherwise, I'm totally with Tony on this one.

-I use 1/8" KS brass tubing. -Tube cutter (see my Flickr stream) to cut the tubes to 32mm (4 studs.) -Needle file to ream out the hole and deburr the edges. -I place #2 brass washers on the axle at either end, these reduce friction of plastic wheel on imperfectly cut tube, protect the plastic, and provide the spacing to keep the wheel off the bogie. -Finally, I put a tiny tiny drop of Kragle in the axle hole and then place the wheel on the axle. At some point I'll go a step farther and provide a lubricant compatible with ABS. Not particularly pure, but I can run several pounds of train that way.

Coming along nicely thus far. I'm super stoked to see someone else working on a Consolidation. While the big boys and articulated locomotives get a lot of attention on this forum (and in model railroading in general) the smaller locomotives are the technically more difficulty to build and get right. Here's a few thoughts after looking at some other images of the prototype: -The bottom tip of the firebox should be between the 3rd and 4th driver, rather than the 2nd and 3rd as you have it now. You could also stand to make the profile of the firebox a bit smaller. -The entire cab should come down 2-3 plates. That will close the gap over the rear driver and bring the roof closer to the top of the boiler. -Consider an open or brickbuilt window for the cab to get it closer to the size and shape you want. A 1x6 black arch brick might really do the trick. -At 8-wide, #11's 51" drivers are halfway between Big Ben Bricks' Medium Drivers (~45") and the standard Lego or Large Drivers (~57") so you could go either way. The M's might look more "right." Also, if you take this to brick, get the chassis and drive mechanisms working with the train you intend to pull before you move on to the rest of the design. Especially if you intend to build valve gear. Looking forward to seeing the progress on this!

Thanks for the review. This is certainly an impressive piece of kit that can overcome a lot of the limitations of the IR recievers, including the form factor. The extra few millimeters of height will make this easier to stash in small switchers. You tested the top-end of the performance envelope, testing speed and pulling power for continuous running. I'm curious about the bottom end and getting really slow deliberate throttle movements for switching trains.

I've heard this will hold those windows frames onto a train: http://tinyurl.com/pb5g7mj

This is roughly the pilot truck arrangement on my Mountain and the Pacific that I had at one point. Hopefully it will give you some ideas about how to make it work for your model. You can see in the photo below that some modifications were made for aesthetics and clearances in R-40 turns. Glory Days 2015: D-18 by Vinnie Fusca, on Flickr I also attached the 1x3 technic liftarm to the lead axle of the main drivers using one of these technic connectors now so the bogie can float up and down across uneven track. Works great!

I almost exclusively use 2x8 and 2x4 plates to ballast my straight sections and provide the underside support. While using some larger or longer plates my prove slightly more economical, going to just two parts really simplifies my ordering and inventory management.

This one has delivered. You can go on their site and purchase exactly what the kickstarter funded development of. I have not received my backer kit yet, but I did purchase R104s and R88s from their website. They make a huge difference. I hope someday ME achieves ROI and can ship the backer kits, but this was by no means a kickstarter that didn't deliver.

FMC Boxcar Ideas by Vinnie Fusca, on Flickr So this was an old attempt at messing around with FMC 50' externally braced boxcars. I used the standard door rails like I do on my single-sheathed wood boxcars. The roof as you can see is made up of 1x4 and 2x4 tiles. I was going to simulate the ribbing by having the inner most end of the 1x4 tiles sit half a plate higher than the ends of the 2x4s. I think the effect would have been nice even if the ribbing was a foot wider than prototype. I was going to do this by running a length of flextube down either side of the car and using: http://alpha.brickli...page?P=6019#T=C under the tiles to angle them as needed. Then creating some sort of plate scaffolding to hold the tiles together relative to each other so the roof wasn't so explodey.

Even with the ME models curves, the switch tracks are still the limiting factor. So even if you can run on R104s, it's best to build models that can negotiate an R40 anyway. That is, unless you plan to build your own large radius turnout.

NMRA has some recommended practices if you want to get close to prototypical. http://nmra.org/sites/default/files/standards/sandrp/pdf/rp-11.pdf If you want a point of comparison, R40 curves are: 12.5" radius and ME R104s are 32.5". I forget what PennLUG Grand Curves are. LEGO turnouts are roughly #2. O-scale is 8-wide for North American Prototypes, 7-wide for European. S Scale is about 6-wide.

Here's a few videos to give you some ideas about performance with 8-wide trains. I think each test has more details in the comments. Dual XLs at 5:3 T-3-a Tender WIP by Vinnie Fusca, on Flickr Single XL at 5:3 -Powered locomotive drivers M-3-a Haul Test by Vinnie Fusca, on Flickr Dual Train motors Glory Days 2015: D-28 by Vinnie Fusca, on Flickr

I'm usually not into 6-wide builds, but yours are always fantastic. I think it's because you always manage to keep the designs very prototypical despite the smaller canvas to work upon. Love the cattle car especially! I think I may have to do one of my own because of that.

Are you staying purely Lego? There's a lot of good options if you use Zephyr's custom valve gear and drive rods.

For north american trains in 8-wide, an approximate rule of thumb is that 8-studs equals 10 feet. A 40' boxcar then becomes 32 studs long, a 56' long locomotive would be 44 studs and so forth. One plate then becomes 6" in height, and you can do your math from there. I tend to build a plate or two taller than scale to compensate for the flanges on LEGO wheels. Tony Sava sells instructions for his 8-wide locomotives and rolling stock based on examples at the Texas State Railroad. Much of the equipment saw service in the Texas and Pacific and Southern Pacific railroads.

My word! Those are hideous! As with all odd ducks of railroading, I love it! I may have to do one of the few B&M ones at some point in the (distant) future.

This is the basic design I'm using on the trucks for the tender of my 2-10-4: IMG_7301 by Cale Leiphart, on Flickr Works really well in all the testing I've done so far.

Hmmm, same issue. I was wondering what was new myself.

http://www.altbricks.com/product/train-coupler-clip-cylinder-gray-10-count/ Black vinyl dye and some off the shelf magnets (or up the clutch and use rare earth magnets) and it's almost as good as the real thing. Maybe if we purchase enough of them, Steve will do a run in black and save us a step. Though, I keep toying with the idea of using Kadee #806 couplers like Dan-147.

If you want to reduce friction but use a purely Lego solution, you could try this from SavaTheAggie: TSRR Coach #44 WiP 02 by SavaTheAggie, on Flickr Though Tony posted earlier in the thread and didn't recommend it, so I'm not sure if it has some design flaws or won't work for your application. Basically it uses the RC wheels and holds them in place with 1x2 plates with rail. I built a set to test out the design, and it seemed pretty low friction, comparable to the brass tube method I normally use (See Railbricks #1) I didn't try it on any rolling stock to know how it worked under real world operating conditions, but might be worth a try.

I loved that video and so did my 19 month old daughter. Tank! by Yoko Kanno and the Seatbelts (awesome choice of song BTW) got her dancing and then she wanted to see what the music was all about, so I showed her and she was pointing out the trains and counting cars and saying colors. We had to watch it two more times (fine by me!,) then go see Daddy's trains, and then go build some of her own with her junior megablocks. First time she really took an interest in the LEGO trains. Though I may have to re-gear my 2-8-0 for more speed and less torque to be like some of the locomotives in the video that really caught her attention.

Are you sure you don't want to hold out for the ME models large radius curves and straights due out this fall?