Dutchiedoughnut

Thats the one :)

Well, if you use your own electronics on the 9V track, you can design the system to work with the power consumption. What will you use the motors for? That'll play a big role in the solution

Maybe you can use 9V tracks and use your own electronics to power the track and the L motors? I think nearly all portable batteries would drain really quickly.

I guess you can tell I'm an engineer ;). Right now I can get an L motor to fit in LDD (like a glove!). Next is getting the tender to fit the IR receiver and the battery box. And I want to reduce the gap between engine and tender to one half stud.

Oops, missed that! Did someone mention this beauty?

I think we're looking at the drive train for a Crocodile locomotive, commonly used in Switzerland. Or at least something similar ;). Its wheel arrangement is a little different (2-6+6-2 rather than 4-4+4-4), but it's the same sort of drive system for an electric locomotive.

Food for thought. If I swap out the motor for an L motor - and the battery box and IR receiver to the tender - I would have to place the motor higher up in the boiler to account for the bigger size. As it is, the M motor is a snug fit for the lower firebox. It should fit inside the boiler just fine (the boiler is mostly empy). It sounds like a better alternative than the XL motor, which would use up space in the cab...

I have a bunch of parts meant for a class 4mt, but I dont like it very much in real bricks. So I might try another 2-8-0 and use an L motor in one and a XL motor in the other. And thanks! I love how she looks. I should get round to doing some proper pictures with a good background and lighting :)

While I'd love to use ME tracks, I don't have any yet. Swapping the wheels over might be a good idea, at the moment the front axle isn't driven and I have traction issues. I'm sure there is binding going on in the curves as well. By the way, I've added pictures to the first post (and I now have an avatar, yay)

I do have an idea where to fit the XL motor - I have a couple of LDD models to get ideas. It will help move the battery box to the tender. At the moment I've rebuilt the engine with a battery box in the front of the boiler, but that ruins the looks and structural integrity of the model.

Well, the M is geared down. I'd be able to use different gears on an XL motor. I think. (I need to play around with the motors ;) )

I got the Hill Valley reference ;). There should be native Americans nearby though... and a gorge! Great looking train and scenery :).

Cute! Its a shame it's in black... it's hard to make out the curves and details.

We have an active topic about 2016 LEGO train sets. But what are your plans for MOCs next year? I think I should start. I am building a 2-6-4 tank engine - the one I've posted in a topic here. I would love to build Tornado and more steam engines, but I am also thinking about a Crocodile. And rolling stock to make the engines less lonely.

I feel that a load of projects is just showing off, or a rather undetailed model posted on LEGO Ideas for some reason. It's difficult to get to the really good models.

I think that exact same question has already been answered. If you scroll up just a little you'll be able to see the answer.

Well the first post was probably fine, but the second one may be regarded as trying to push attention for your project.

I came across this project on Lego Ideas: https://ideas.lego.com/projects/102108 It doesn't look like it'll make it, but it seems like a pretty nice build and it's all well thought out.

That BR 52 does look amazing. And there's the history behind it. Too bad I'm building all-British locomotives. I might want to change all that...

Front and rear are 36 studs (front to rear buffer) and the middle car is 28 studs across the buffers.

Ooooooh banana!!! Those are great, dr_spock!

He did say "as soon as they are online". I guess we're waiting for Brickshelf to sort this out

I'm not an economic builder (a single engine can easily do 1000 parts...) so I am curious to see what results come of this contest ;). If I'm inspired I might try and make something of my own, hmmm... (I do fear that the design constraints will lead to a generic Lego train set much like the ones already in stores. Lego is rather good at those, so it is wise to go for that?) Edit: I do have a thought that has been in the back of my mind for a while. I'm not sure it'll be within 1000 parts, but lets give it a go.

Hi everyone, This time i'm sticking to Lego only ;). I have had the idea to build a Fairburn tank (similar to UK's 4mt tank) and yesterday, I've put those ideas into LDD, and now I can show you what I'm thinking of. It's 7-wide at the front and 7 1/3 wide at the cab. The overall length is going to be nearly the same as standard Lego loco's... well maybe a little longer. My freight loco's are 32 studs long and the Fairburn is looking to be around 36. I have been playing with the boiler size. It's either 5 1/3 in diameter, or 4 studs. I'm going with the 5 1/3 as you see here, because I can stick a lot of details on and around the boiler where I can't with a 4-wide boiler. I've moved the front so that it's in the center of the boiler (it's out of center in the screenshot) and I added a hinge. It looks like I'm not going to end up with a model that's a true representation of a Fairburn locomotive... but I don't mind as it's my first stab at it. Any comments are appreciated, I'll go work on the drive train and the power functions later today.

It might be very unreliable ;).In any case it's not as easy to couple or uncouple cars. Then again, there is no danger of pulling more cars than a magnet can handle.