TF Twitch

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Posts posted by TF Twitch

  4. Posted · Edited by TF Twitch

    True; What about a mix and match? Say, have the front truck use BBB wheels, and then have the rear truck use the 9v wheels, but cover them on the sides?

    Pic of what I try to say:BLI-2512-2.jpg

    That's actually exactly what I did when I built a class of engine based on the very picture you posted!

    http://www.eurobrick...topic=96781&hl=

    It's a good technique and looks and runs well. Having the spokes on your visible wheels looks really nice, especially in the designs which let light through them as you can see it when the wheels are spinning.

    As for covering the back wheels, it does make your locomotive a little wider. Looking at the frame/springs on the rear axle of the Flying Scotsman, the default wheelsets actually may be best as they've got similar details on them and don't go out to 8 wide like custom sides would.

    I do appreciate the feedback! I think that the wheel setup that I will go for my current 4-6-2 Emerald Night and the future 4-8-4 Emerald Northern (no plans yet to build the 4-6-4 Emerald Baltic) are to use BBB wheels on the pilot and trailing trucks and use the LEGO wheels with rubber bands for the driving wheels. Using the rubber bands for the 4-8-4 makes sense since they will be powered by the L-Motors and need the extra traction. I think that I will continue to use rubber bands on the Emerald Night's driving wheels because I have found them to sometimes slip, not rotate properly, and not grip the rails without the rubber bands. Does anyone know how reliable the BBB Large wheels are? Perhaps the issue is that the LEGO wheels are made to be used with the rubber bands (hence the groove in the flanged wheels) whereas the BBB wheels are made without said grove.

    Also, I do like the idea of covering the trailing truck wheels since it would appear more "North American" influenced (since I like to mix North American and European styles together), however I am hesitant to do so since I feel that it will not mesh well with the rest of the locomotive. The locomotives of the Emerald Night "class" are meant to pay homage to their origin and resemble the original set. I feel that changing the style of the trailing truck will detract from that. Unless anyone has a viable solution that looks good and meshes well with the locomotive(s)?

  5. Posted

    For the least amount of friction, maybe you can use 9v wheelsets minus the housing? I'm pretty sure you can fit the metal axle through a technic pin?

    The 9V wheelsets are used on the tender of all three locomotives (in conjunction with the PF Train Motor on two of them, no Train Motor with the Northern). I think using that technique for the two trucks on the locomotive will take away from the overall look. The spoked wheel look of the LEGO and BBB wheels adds that small level of detail to the locomotive.

  9. Posted

    I like the work on the Emerald Baltic!

    Great project! :wub:

    Thank you!

    If you have drive rods from zephyr, there's nothing wrong with coloring them a bit; Might look nice if the middle of the rods are colored black with the edges kept grey?

    I thought about that, but how accurate would that be to real locomotives? I personally have not seen any driving rods that are like that.

  10. Posted · Edited by TF Twitch

    My Emerald Night currently uses zephyr's driving rods, and if I ever build the Emerald Baltic it will have them as well. I like the black driving rods on the Emerald Northern since gray clashes too much, but I know that gray rods are the correct color. Any thoughts on this?

  11. Posted

    You are working on a nice roundhouse full of locos. I like your L-Motor gearing, clean, simple, and clever.

    Thank you. Keeping it simple and able to actually work has been the culmination of lots of trial and error.

    Something that I forgot to mention in the initial post concerns the 4-8-4 Emerald Northern. I have thought about using Big Ben Bricks small wheels for the pilot and trailing trucks of the locomotive since they would have less friction than the LEGO small train wheels that have the o-rings. I figured that less friction would be ideal and is less that the L-Motors have to work against. Does anyone have any thoughts on this?

  12. Posted

    I have a bunch of locomotive's that each have 2 L motors and AA battery packs. Even with custom steel wheels that have less traction than Lego's stock wheels, each locomotive can pull 16' of 7/8W rolling stock without bogging down. My loco with 2 PF train motors goes too fast through straights and almost stops through curves.

    Thank you for that information, that really does make a difference.

    If you have room, I'd suggest replacing the red part with it's 180 degree cousin,

    32034.gif

    Depending on what the hidden parts are, instead of the bushing shown in a later rendering, you might be able to use a technic plate (2x4?) to hold the lower bevel gear in place... oh, wait, it looks like you are half a stud off for that... stinkin physics.

    I also considered the technic plate option, but yes the vertical drive shaft is offset thanks to the "C" bracket. I also considered using the piece that you have shown, but that requires some extensive modification underneath the front L-Motor. It could be done, but it may compromise the original integrity of the frame. The red parts are connected together with an axle, not a pin, so they are not going to rotate at all.

  14. Posted

    As I've said before, I love your models, though I think the 4-8-4 Northern is probably the best of this bunch. However, you could rename it the Indigo Northern, as Emerald is a green, as you probably already know. You could continue that thought towards the Baltic, calling it the Diamond Baltic. (as it's a grayish - color, like a dirty white) The problem becomes when you build a brown or obscure colored engine... like what would reddish brown be, Topaz? Or lime green, as some one else built a couple years back...

    Anyway, Keep on steaming!

    EDIT: Typo

    I always appreciate your feedback, Murdoch. I have thought about changing the "Emerald" in the names, but I decided to keep it to relate it to the original Emerald Night and show that they come from the Emerald Night class of locomotives. I do realize that being of the same locomotive class means that they are the same wheel arrangement, style, etc., but I took artistic liberties. Renaming them has crossed my mind, but I have called them Emerald [whatever] for so long that is has stuck and grown on me.

  15. Posted

    Ever since I purchased the Emerald Night set back in 2011, I have fallen in love with it. One of the first modifications that I made was powering the locomotive without the XL Motor taking up the cab and detracting from the overall play value. Finding alternate power sources led to the creating of other locomotives of the Emerald Night class. My style of locomotives is a mix of North American and European designs, and is greatly reflected in my 4-8-4 Emerald Northern (shown further down).

    4-6-2 Emerald Night

    16717833521_97322dd2f4_z.jpg

    This is the original Emerald Night, which has undergone some slight cosmetic modifications to improve the overall look. I was very impressed with this set and as such I wanted to change as little as possible. Perhaps the largest change was installing a Power Functions Train Motor under the tender.

    4-6-4 Emerald Baltic

    13566795715_debacdbd7d_z.jpg

    16511640127_20d62de223_z.jpg

    16098968013_d8eb37f5f9_z.jpg

    16718915155_495b44d437_z.jpg

    16531344938_a6fee15eef_z.jpg

    16511639687_a05ba81e18_z.jpg

    16717649921_824735a126_z.jpg

    The Emerald Baltic came about after the second version of my Emerald Northern. I pretty much took the firebox, cab, and trailing truck from the Northern and stuck it onto the original Emerald Night. Then I used the tender from my improved Emerald Night and changed the front cowls. I named this one "Emerald Baltic" since it sounded better than "Emerald Hudson". North American influence is shown through the wheel arrangement since the 4-6-4 was more widely used in North America compared to the rest of the world (at least to my understanding).

    4-8-4 Emerald Northern

    16531590050_1c8423376e_z.jpg

    16719013035_ce4af3ce1b_z.jpg

    16717745711_d719c40170_z.jpg

    16532889129_08ff2b220d_z.jpg

    16672466725_01776477d9_z.jpg

    16485050220_77e637fd7c_z.jpg

    The 4-8-4 Emerald Northern would have to be my pride and joy locomotive. I have been working for a few years to perfect this locomotive. Once I think that I have it right, I find something new to improve it. It features Power Functions Lights above the smoke box and the tender (which is an improvement over the original Emerald Night since I have a larger tender to work with), two L-Motors in the boiler, and lots of other small details to help the locomotive just pop. The 4-8-4 wheel arrangement was not that popular nor widely used outside of North America. The external sand and steam domes and streamlined nose are also of North American influence.

    Any comments, critiques, and constructive criticism is welcome!

  17. Posted

    Unless you have something that keeps the lower bevel gear on the vertical shaft from moving, with this setup it looks like that gear will just skip upwards and stop driving the wheels. I would suggest using some of the older Technic beams, frames, and plates, if you can spare the room, as that often with give better support. Alternatively, insert a spacer between the lower bevel gear and the red supports -- it looks like it might be a bit too small for a half-bushing though.

    I appreciate the feedback! I was able to move the lower bevel gear downward on the vertical drive shaft and insert a half-bushing. Thank you for the idea, that makes it more snug!

  18. Posted · Edited by TF Twitch

    To those that answered, thank you. So from what I gather that the twin L-Motor setup is superior unless I want to go crazy fast? But at moderate to semi-fast the L-Motors are the way to go, and crazy fast go for the Train Motors?

    Here is my proposal for a twin L-Motor configuration:

    16699790692_f953119ddd_z.jpg

    By learning from a previous failed attempt at putting an M-Motor inside the Emerald Night, I realized that I need to stabilize the vertical drive shaft. In an earlier attempt, the vertical drive shaft slipped off of the singular horizontal drive shaft (which then drove the driving wheels). The earlier design only had the single M-Motor with the "C" bracket. Here I added a drive shaft stabilizer of sorts. The pieces that are highlighted in red are connected by an axle peg ( + the entire length) to prevent the stabilizing piece from shifting. I hope that this surgically inserted assembly solves any issues that I have with the vertical drive shaft slip.

  19. Posted

    I currently use one PF Train Motor with my Emerald Night locomotive, and it pulls a rake of five coaches just fine. Based on that I know that two motors will be okay, even with the additional weight of a larger locomotive. I bring up using L-Motors inside the boiler since it would power the driving wheels and be more realistic. With the Train Motor setup all of the Power Function elements are in the tender to add weight for traction.

  20. Posted

    I am working on a 4-8-4 steam locomotive and have been wondering how to power it. Through some simple modifications it can either use two 88002 Train Motors under the tender or two 88003 L-Motors inside the boiler. It will use a 1:1 ratio using 12-tooth bevel gears. My question is which setup would be ideal? I personally like the L-Motor setup since it drives the actual driving wheels and I can use more realistic looking trucks for the tender. Using tender power would be more reliable since I do not have to worry about gears slipping or becoming unaligned.

    Any information and advice is welcome.

  21. Posted

    A great job capturing the intersection of train and space (kind of like the blacktron train on steroids, grin). Though the nose of the locomotive is a little too rounded to be pure classic space. If you are going for a pure classic space look I'd suggest a brick built design with slopes rather than curved bricks, e.g., like 9738.

    I appreciate the feedback. In the locomotive's description it states that it is aerodynamic so that it can easily pass through the space atmosphere. So it is based on Classic Space logic.

  23. Posted

    Both of the trains sets, in my opinion, look too much like older sets, especially the passenger train. The locomotive of the cargo train looks too much like the Maersk locomotive. I am disappointed with this year's release.

    My idea is to have both the freight and passenger trains be steam locomotives with at least two train cars each (TLG needs to learn from the mistake made with the Emerald Night). Additional train cars could be purchased separately, just like how they did it in years past. The passenger steam locomotive could resemble something European since they were always more sleek in design, and the freight locomotive would be more American to give the rugged feel.