ZANTHERA

I've recently decided to do a complete overhaul on the quite frankly tired design of my Hogwarts Express MOC that I started building in it's current form in 2010, with the most recent structural update back in 2015. Only minor cosmetic updates such as the boiler being changed from 1 x 1 cheese slopes to 1 x 2 cheese slopes occurred recently. A while ago I converted this version to 8 wide in LDD which did strengthen it a great deal and I left it at that, but recently I thought to myself that with this new width and structural improvement that the design could be vastly improved to allow for more detail and a much stronger PF chassis block. These renders were done in Stud.io and I somehow managed to get the BBB wheels to show up by putting the .dat files in every part folder in the few parts folders. LEGO Hogwarts Express 8 Wide Refine Update 4 by -ZANTHERA-, on Flickr LEGO Hogwarts Express 8 Wide Refine Update 3a by -ZANTHERA-, on Flickr So here it is right now, it's not quite done yet and is still being refined for maximum strength and detail. I have also decided to gamble on the hope that LEGO will make adapter cables for PF to PU as I made the decision to abandon the IR receiver hidden in the coal load to allow for much more room in the tender. This is to make sure the height is set correctly as the loco body was lowered by half a plate to give a more accurate position for the connecting rods to line up with the cylinder blocks. The connecting rods were completely redesigned as I switched back to the much easier to work with even spacing on the drive wheels. The front wheel was half a stud closer to the middle drive wheel on the 7 wide design but had very weak connecting rods due to one of the axles only being slid in half way into the rod end. This new design is also going to be so much more reliable as it can only be broken apart sideways and not pulled apart lengthways like the old design, this two way interlocked stud arrangement makes for a very solid rod that will be able to pull the middle and rear drive wheels with ease. LEGO Hogwarts Express 8 Wide Refine Update 3b by -ZANTHERA-, on Flickr Also the reason for all flanged wheels is that I like this look so much that I have decided to only use 3rd party track which will allow for a solid 13 studs apart wheel setup with the middle driver also flanged, I am fairly sure there is a radius available in which this would be possible. This also means that I can improve the axle guard detail on the tender since it too could be fixed solid since it is also has 13 stud wheelbase. At the current time the only new element that is not in produced in red is the 1 x 1 plate with bar used as the safety valve surround but since this is a relatively new element it'll hopefully be available in red by the time I build the loco in real bricks. The tender and cab controls are currently being redesigned due to too many structural changes caused by altering the frame of the loco, what really started this is the fact that since this was last updated so many useful elements have become available plus the release of the new official Hogwarts Express set gives me the opportunity to finally have nameboards on the loco and better still the ones included in the new set are printed which means I won't have to worry about peeling stickers in the future. Here it is now as it sits on my shelf, and while many were impressed with this design and the implementation of the L motor in between the drive wheels it just honestly doesn't work as well as it could and is incredibly flimsy, so the much needed rebuild was in order. LEGO 5972 Olton Hall Hogwarts Express by -ZANTHERA-, on Flickr LEGO 5972 Olton Hall Hogwarts Express by -ZANTHERA-, on Flickr LEGO 5972 Olton Hall Hogwarts Express by -ZANTHERA-, on Flickr LEGO 5972 Olton Hall Hogwarts Express by -ZANTHERA-, on Flickr LEGO 5972 Olton Hall Hogwarts Express by -ZANTHERA-, on Flickr This was built with the unofficial size classification of British loco builders, that being 7 wide. At first this seemed to be quite a good scale as it would fit in with other builders locos, but over time I felt that this was alright for smaller locos but for medium to large locos it was simply too narrow for a practical build.

I have got a GTX 970 OC which handles the renders like a champ, it just gets it warm for a good 20-30 minutes depending on how complex the render is but manages quite well, thanks for the offer though. I've just seen what must be the new M motor as used on the Batmobile PU set, I hope the new L motor shares its main design with the old one so I don't have to do any major rebuilding on the chassis. Seeing that this new M motor is quite similar to the old one makes me hopeful that the new L motor won't be too different causing a total rebuild of the chassis.

LEGO Hogwarts Express Stud.io 2.0 Photo Realistic Render Test by -ZANTHERA-, on Flickr There is a Beta open for Stud.io 2.0 which features a new photo realistic render add on, but do be careful as it is extremely resource intensive. It does however produce amazing renders as you can see.

It was kind of fast but this old method wasn't very reliable due to the way it was built so it would have probably performed better if it was built better as there would be less friction. The whole block in front of the L motor has been redone since I now have a 4 stud wide area to work with, although this means that the gear seen on the wheel axle is now the same as where the large gear was on this old design. I have a video coming out soon showing details of the new build better than I can describe here.

I recommend you go for paint rather than dye, that looks quite rough in the fine details due to the thickness of the spray and I can see areas where it's not covered it properly. Not to mention that the red doesn't at all match LEGO red, I've been trying to find a good red to match Bright Red as perfectly as possible but haven't got around to testing yet.

That method was unfortunately out of the question for me as it would mean making the boiler bigger and it's already the perfect size for the class. I've actually just now finished the improved design for the drive, I somehow forgot the only reason that mess with the lift arm was needed was because I only had a 3 stud wide space to work with, but now that it's 4 studs it gives me much better and stronger options, not only for the drive but for its attachment to the running board.

I did some testing for a vertically mounted motor and it just simply doesn't fit, it would have to be set lower than where the gears in the wheels are set so would not make for a strong drive. So it looks like I'll be sticking with my older design.

You know I never actually thought to try and mount the motor vertically inside the firebox, that could open up the possibility for a completely fixed frame holding the wheels and have all the wheels geared to turn together. My design was based on how an old Tri-Ang Hall Class had its motor set which was above the wheels but with a worm gear driving the front wheel set. Since I found that the middle and rear drive wheels were the same 7 studs apart as the two ends of the L motor, I had the idea to set it in between the wheels. As for the height of the running board, I have now made it as low as it can go since the design of the running boards connecting the wheel arches depends on the layer of black and without it there would be nothing to hold the arches on because they are in by half a stud as they appear on the real loco. The XL wheels when set at a height of normal plates are 3/4 of a plate lower than what is above them, so by moving the whole chassis block up by half a plate the flanges are now 1/4 of a plate below the black tile layer. So unfortunately in this case no it is not possible to set the body down a whole plate lower or even the other half a plate to make it a studs on top design again. I'll definitely look into the possibility of mounting the motor vertically but it may interfere with some of the structure of the firebox. This could be worked around as the inside of the firebox is yet another area which is a solid block of bricks and I have so far used every stud of space to better the design in areas which were exactly like this, such as the tender and original mounting method for the drive wheels which were once both solid masses of bricks and plates. The tender now housing the Power Functions and the drive wheels block now holding the L motor.

It's a bit misleading though, to have 10 separate trains would require two receivers on the same channel but with a single motor plugged in on port A on the first box then port B plugged in on the second box in the second train. You'd have to buy twice as many receivers for it to actually do 10 trains with one remote, they make it sound like you can run 10 trains with 5 receivers which isn't possible because the two plugs would be occupying the same receiver which can only mean they're connected to the same train.

They say you can run 10 separate trains at once with one remote, or I suppose 10 different powered items, but then that doesn't seem to make sense as theygo on to say as long as one train in in port A and the other in port B of the same battery box, that seems impossible as it would have to be connected to the train in port A. Is it possible they mean that two receivers, one with only port A plugged in and one with only port B plugged in, could be run at the same time thus creating the "10 trains with one remote"

LEGO Hogwarts Express 8 Wide Refine Update 5 by -ZANTHERA-, on Flickr New funnel design I thought up today, as with the connecting rods it's old elements to the rescue again with the use of a 12V train wheel that is the perfect size and gives that signature flare to the top much better than the old boring design.

Oh blimey yea, why the hell did he do that, that totally exists as two separate elements and could have been done without ruining an element forever. He did that because there were no hollow stud variants on Bricklink in red, which is because it only came in red in the solid stud version! What kind of plonker mutilates an element because they don't look for a suitable version properly.

I couldn't see any modified elements, where in the video is this?

I personally think that they will end up giving us adapter cables for the two systems since so many are still using PF and they did when it went from 9V to PF. It's just a case of PU being so new that it doesn't really have other uses for now. If I had to guess LEGO will probably start doing more with PU items by the end of the year or early next year. I'd be very surprised if they did all the motors with the exact same design but new cable and plug, but then again they might have the components for these motors in bulk with a need to use them up so could use them for identical motors but with the new cable and Bluetooth system. This would actually make it so old models could be updated without rebuilding and especially good for the builders who rely on these motors to drive their locos.

Thanks for that, got them all fixed now. I was using Imgur as I didn't know there was an option to embed them from Flickr since I've never posted anything from Flickr to another site.

No the battery box is the same size as the tender so cannot fit in it, this new set was absolutely not designed to be powered. The boiler design is quite old and is known as "cheese boiler" so all you have to do is search that and you'll find out how it's made.

Done, I'll make sure to remember the 1024 rule for next time. Thanks, I have been thinking of either getting some of the connecting rods you offer or making some for my own, as much as I'd like to keep the loco as original LEGO as possible I kinda had to throw that out the window using BBB wheels. I have brick built rods for now made of the old technic plates which many tend to use. I'd love to be able to have my design be made into a UCS type of set and have LEGO make XL drivers themselves in the same design as their smaller wheels.

Ah I see, makes sense. I can go and edit those other posts with smaller images if you'd like.

Yea sure I can do, as you can see I don't post here often. Could I ask why though? any particular reason for 1024 wide?

I've been asked for the design before and honestly I'm not too sure if I want to share it before it's fully finished or at all as I've spent many tens of hours designing it, plus I honestly wouldn't know what to ask in terms of selling instructions to it. One of my other recent builds is this minifig scale 1969 Dodge Charger which has had a lot of interest in instructions too, the thing is it's only an LDD model for now and I haven't even made it in bricks myself yet, so don't want to give the instructions out so people get to build it before I as the designer get to. It's not quite able to be built in red yet due to the front brackets at the wheel arch not being available in red but LEGO have recently introduced a 1 x 1 version of this bracket which will hopefully be made in red.

Thanks, I always wanted to improve on their design. I knew it was designed for kids but it's a shame they never did a more accurate version. My version actually has the firebox curved bricks seen at the top from the original Hogwarts Express set I had new back in 2001, in fact there are quite a few pieces from that set in my MOC. I've discovered that Bright Red actually varies depending on the year, the red seen in the '90s and early '00s is a slight more pinkish red than todays red which is much closer to orangey red, now that I've seen how much of difference it can make I want to try and make my rebuild out of the newer red rather than a mix of old and new red, plus this current MOC has some very new looking elements and old scratched up ones which I also want to avoid. The majority of elements are from 2010 when I ordered many of the elements directly from LEGO through their Design By Me service so are quite new.

The one you posted my LDD picture of has been brick built since 2010 and improved over the years, this refinement of the design is due to new elements being made available and I think it's just time I updated it since I've not touched the model for a few years now. Plus the new nameboard piece is great since I can finally add one. More pictures here if you want to see a few different angles https://www.flickr.com/photos/53208525@N06/page2

I'm happy to see people still talking about my Hogwarts Express after having built it so long ago, that is actually quite an old version and due to many new elements and some parts from this new Hogwarts Express set I took to refining my design. So here is the loco as of today, the tender isn't quite finished yet and there may be some places yet to refine on the loco such as the cab interior and inside of the firebox which is big enough to hold a 2 x 3 red light brick for a lit fire. I will be using the nameplate piece from this new set which is something I have never been able to include due to brick built solutions being much too blocky. Also my old design was 7 wide as that is the unofficial agreement within British loco builders for the max build width, but I did a test a while ago to convert it to 8 wide which was a huge upgrade in terms of structural stability. The footplate of my 7 wide version is made from 2 x 3 plates and 1 wide plates so it is very fragile and has to be picked up from certain points in order to not fall apart, but with it being 8 wide I can now use whole plates which are a huge step up. Converting to 8 wide has also allowed me to make the connection of the L motor in between the middle and rear drive wheels much more solid to a point where it's gone from the weakest point to the strongest point of the loco. I hope to have this updated design brick built by the end of the year but it depends on what happens and how much I need to buy compared to how much I already own. Just to be clear with the odd wheel size in that old screenshot, they were the LEGO train wheels which were placeholder wheels for Big Ben Bricks XL drivers but I have since been able to use the 3D models he provides on his site to almost fully visualise my design, there are a few parts that LDCad doesn't place quite right such as the pipe for the side of the boiler.