ColletArrow

Hello all! It's been a *very* long time since I posted here, let alone presented my own models. But here I am again, with a fresh (if somewhat hurried) model too! It has become a tradition over the past several years that the family Christmas tree is adorned with a LEGO train at it's base. And it's a slightly-less-formal tradition that, each year, I rebuild the train into something new! The past few years I've had my Ivatt 2MT, the GWR "Collet Goods", and last year a very dubious GWR Mogul - a bodge of the Collett Goods with an extra axle. But all these ran using my custom 9V battery connector in the tender, which never gave great performance with our very old rechargeable batteries, so I wanted to build a fresh engine using the good ol' AAA battery box. Gears started turning. What could I build? It would have to be black, have a short wheelbase for the R40 curves, but be a large enough engine to conceal the battery box. I also wanted to use outside valvegear for visual interest. And at this point I'm undoubtedly a Great Westerner... so the 15xx was the only choice! Oh, and my decision may have been influenced by my recent purchase of one of Rapido's lovely models... If you're curious for the history of these distinctly... different Great Western engines, Rapido have you covered: https://rapidotrains.co.uk/br-15xx-pannier-tank/ As you will see, my attempt to recreate this Raging Bull in bricks has resulted in more of a Wobbly Calf! But in order for it to be completed for the Christmas tree, I had just 1.5 days in which to build it, from the ground up. I started logically, from the ground up. I wanted it to be a reliable runner, so built the most simple chassis possible - a basic Technic frame, with a PF M-Motor mounted vertically, driving the rear axle via bevel gears. Above the frames, the battery box sits directly over the front two axles; it is topped with brackets for mounting the side tanks, and then curved slopes to represent the boiler. The safety valve cover provides the on-off switch. In front of the battery is the cylinder and valvegear assembly, and behind is the IR receiver. Unfortunately, the PF plugs and motor are actually slightly too close, and push eachother slightly out of square - meaning the model isn't particularly stable, or indeed legal. But it works well enough. I'm very pleased with the whistles, which are mounted on a bracket attached to the underside of the motor! Everything else is, of course, purely cosmetic. The bunker and rear of the cab is built entirely sideways, and mounted on technic pins inserted in the holes on the front of the IR Receiver. The cab roof is then mounted on top of the bunker, and the front windows and walls suspended from the roof. As you can tell, this loco is far more "evolved" than "designed"! The tanks are simple assemblies of the curved slopes I had to hand, and the smokebox is of course 4x4 round bricks. A closeup of the bunker and cab assemblies (mostly for my own future reference). The front of the cab walls feature 1x2 panels, mounted upside down, in order to clear the rear drivers. When it's all assembled it fits snugly enough, despite the fact the cab is hanging entirely on the IR receiver, which is pushing away from the motor! The receiver is hidden away down in the bunker, but it's open enough to get a reasonable signal sighting, even when it's away behind the tree. The cables mean there isn't a lot of space for the engine crew though! Finally, a heavy freight engine needs a heavy freight train... this is the best I could manage! We have a basic bogie flat, a short-wheelbase Open, and a standard Guards van. And, mission accomplished, at home around the tree. Thank you for reading my nonsense! If you want some more photos, the whole album is shared on BrickSafe: https://bricksafe.com/pages/Collet22/gwr-15xx.

Thank you, all! The clue to the speed lies in the haste - a rugged, reliable loco it is not! This was built with minimal testing, minimal prototype references, and using my existing collection of parts. No opportunity for thinking "would those parts look better" or "how do I reinforce the cab" - hence the slight wonkiness. If I had the time, I would love to dig into it - make it a reliable runner, a sturdier model, and accurate to the real 15xx. But as a quick project for the Christmas tree, hasty construction is acceptable, and it does it's job admirably.

Fantastic work - you can't go wrong with an Inglenook shunting puzzle, and you've translated it into LEGO very nicely, with plenty of wonderful little cameos. I'm intrigued by the mechanics of this: have you built it on a "traditional" baseboard of some form? How does the fiddle yard work? This is certainly making some gears start turning in my head! I'm a bit too deep into a OO layout to start a LEGO one right now, but one day...

For such a simple wagon, these are incredibly beautiful! The parts usage is excellent, and the overall effect is of a scale model from a distance. Fantastic work! Given their similarity to British designs I might have to steal this...

That somehow looks better in 12v-style than if it was built in modern style! It's a very unique-looking loco, especially with the wheel arrangement, but you've pulled it off expertly. Fantastic work, well done!

That's a fantastic idea, and executed very well! I'm assuming the parts are 3D printed? Could you fill it with normal-size LEGO bricks for cargo? I've only recently started in the hobby of model engineering but I'm now wondering how I'd go about making my own I'd love to see a full 7 1/4" train if you pull it off!

Congratulations winners! I'm really happy to see that the top three fill all three core categories, at least in my eyes - great functions, great looks, and great WIP stories! Well done to all contestants who entered as well as those who didn't quite make it, I've really enjoyed logging on and watching everyone's projects come together and it's the participation that makes a competition. I hope to be able to join in one day when I regain my collection! And of course massive thanks to Jim and Milan for organising as efficiently as always! I'm glad these contests exist, they're one of the main reasons I regularly check this forum, so long may they continue.

What a locomotive! The middle picture is taken from enough of a distance it's barely detectable as LEGO, just a fantastic model! Of course the rods and decals help a lot with that, they prefectly enhance the model - and the lighting is the icing on the cake, it stands out beautifully. I'm already looking forward to your pictures and video!

9: 10 7: 6 19: 4 16: 3 11: 2 24: 1 I only really lurk in the Technic forum, but I have very much enjoyed this contest and loved watching everyon'e entries progress. I kept in mind which WIP threads I'd enjoyed following and would regularly check up on the most when I was casting my votes. That said, everyone has produced fantastic models, as usual!

That's very smart! It's neat to see a whole train presented, rather than just a loco or wagon. I think the tankers are my favourite of the set, they look simple but have a beautifully clean shape. The barrier wagons and loco both have a good level of detail for their size. The loco especially stands out in it's livery, I always quite like that scheme! Good work overall, I can't wait to see them running through whatever space you build for them.

I love both the concept and the execution! I think that this sort of amusing, small build is exactly what Circuit Cubes should be used for! I don't know, the French tried it too; two to be exact, only they drove in a straight line and had a big barrier between them to push boats up a hill... Source and details: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Montech_water_slope

She's another beauty, stunning work! I do enjoy pretty much anything GWR though so I might be biased The sliding coupling is ingenious, I've seen similar systems on OO gauge models but your implemenation here looks neat. The cylinder shaping is fantastic too. Have you built a cab interior? I am surprised that you chose to use CircuitCubes for power, and by the sounds of it just one motor, for such a large loco. How much pulling power does she have?

What an introduction! All of the lines look so clean, I especially love the angles on the face. Excellent work!

Very nice redesign @JayCal! The only thing it's missing is space to include the functional headlights I think one of the reasons I like it is it isn't the high-speed angled-front design we've seen for the past three trains now - it's about time we got a more flat-fronted commuter design...

Looks good! The only thing that came to my mind is replacing the 1x2 brackets with the older 1x4 variant - that would halve the number of studs visible on the outside since you could fill the gap between them with tiles. I'd also suggest that for strength you offset as many joints as possible, although with the 3-stud windows you'll be continuosuly slipping in and out of sync so it shouldn't matter too much. Overall it's a nifty idea I might have to try on a coach I've got built currently. I'm looking forward to seeing what you do with it!

Fantastic work! The valvegear in motion just looks mesmerising, and there's so much intricate, fascinating detail to take in even when it's static... I wouldn't know where to start with a build like this! You're building some beautiful engines here - I'm looking forward to seeing more!

As others have said, there's quite a lot to like here. If I remember correctly it's the first cargo set (at least for a long while) to come with no significant trackside structure, other than the end-loading ramp which is pretty minimal. The large amount of straight track is welcome too. The reach-stacker looks fantastic, one of the most realistic ones we've seen and with good real-world colour scheme. Regarding the train itself, as a European I think the loco is great although I'd use a more muted colour scheme myself. The wagons each look great on their own, but together none of them seem to be in scale with the others which makes it feel a bit off overall. Overall I'm looking forward to seeing more of this set!

Looks great! I love what I can see of the boiler backhead, the red 8T gears for valves are fantastic. The headlamp looks good too; I usually put a yellow lens on them to represent the warm-white light of an oil lamp. Of my two locos I think I preferred the effect on the Ivatt 2MT - the enclosed cab makes it much more pronounced. I did find though that putting a trans-red plate behind the trans-orange "fire" creates a much better flame colour, although also somewhat reduces the brightness.

Very smart little engine, I love the eye-catching colours and neat lining out of engines from this era - much more exciting than plain black! You mention it's got lights in it - any chance of some after-dark photos? On both of my recent engines, the 0-6-0 Collett Goods and it's predecessor the LMS Ivatt 2MT 2-6-0 I cheated - there's a train motor under the tender, and that's it. I've found this method far easier and more reliable than powering the drivers, and allows the loco itself to be entirely cosmetic with no compromises for motors and gearboxes. Prior to that I've build an 0-6-0 Pannier Tank with an m-motor in it, although that had a worm gear in the drivetrain so crawled along barely faster than a snail... I've seen it written before that you don't want O-rings on both sides of the engine, since on the tight R40 curves one side will need to slip over the rails. (This is because the curve is sever enough that the wheels have a significantly different distance to travel in the same amount of time, meaning they effectively need different speeds). Only having O-rings on either the left or the right could improve performance in curves, although may introduce a slight tilt to the engine depending on how thick your O-rings are. Overall it's a beatiful looking loco and the station and carriage are excellent too - good luck with the Ideas project!

I've always enjoyed the off-centre-cab shape of the classic 7760, so no sooner had I bodged my own PF-9V battery connector then I started to build one. There ended up being very little in common with the original set other than the overall body/cab shape, but anyway. The colour scheme was dictated by A: my existing parts collection, because I'm a student and don't like buying things, and B: an attempt at what this loco would look like if the British Rail Civil Engineers had used one. I quite like using this grey-yellow-black livery on locomotives, because the black around the windows and doors make them stand out against the bodywork. The handrails either side of the cab don't really make sense, but the only LBG 1x1s I had available are either horizontal clips or headlight bricks, so I put them there anyway. The cab is actually fairly open inside, but there isn't really an interior unless you count lots of wires... The front bonnet ended up held in place by gravity and friction rather than stud connections; this makes it very easy to open in order to detach the battery from the connector, which is the only way to turn the model off! With the cab removed as well, we can see there really is just a big bundle of cables in there. The receiver is only half poking out into the rear bonnet, but signal reception is still fine. In building this model I stole plenty of parts from my 20T Brake Van (and yet still didn't have enough LBG 1x1 & 1x2 bricks, hence why the cab sides are so messy). This meant it needed rebuilding, and I'm actually happier with it now - it's lost the handrails, but the yellow banding is a lot more consistent around the ends. Finally, the loco with its short works train of a bogie flat, a general purpose crane and the brake van. And, as ever, the Bricksafe folder containing the photos and LDD file can be found here: https://bricksafe.com/pages/Collet22/7760-inspired-shunter. Thank you for reading; what do you think?

I too have no knowledge of the book series (although the character set-up sounds almost identical to Swallows & Amazons...), but this is a beautifully presented model. The end view of the wagon makes it feel a tad too tall and/or narrow for me, but the overall diorama and little additional scenes work well together. Excellent job!

Hmm, weird. This shunter used a regular train motor, V1 receiver and a standard supermarket 9V battery, and had no notable issues as far as I can remember (. I've gone on to use this same power system for a couple of steam locos, although with older rechargeable batteries. In those locos, which I've probably run for longer overall, I noticed generally poorer performance. I put this down to 1. rechargeable batteries have a lower max voltage, and my ones are quite old so they're probably worse, and 2. the steam drivers have a much higher rolling resistance than the standard train axle assemblies. I will defer to the greater experience of others when it comes to battery types, and determining whether those you used are particularly good or particularly bad. However I might suggest swapping your technic-axle wheels for the standard axle assemblies (the slighlty older type with metal axles) - they have significantly lower rolling resistance which can make a surprising difference even on short trains, especially with weaker power sources.

I can only echo what's been said above - this "simple" layout is an excellent demonstration of just what can be achieved with the system, and how much more involved and enjoyable it can be to operate - a full bank of switches and an intricate control procedure is far more exciting than a single remote controller or even a smartphone. Finally I'd like to add that the video itself is also produced excellently - it was a pleasure to watch, so good I went back and watched it again. Great work!

And it looks excellent! With the coupling system it looks like lots of fun to operate - and the Railfreight livery works perfectly on the micro-scale Class 20, it's instantly recognisable. Now we just need to see that loader in operation!

@Sunil766 that looks like a fantastic layout, watching the City Passenger Train speed around those generous curves was mesmerising and I love your station set up. If there isn't one already, maybe we could start a dedicated "casual layouts" thread?