SteamSewnEmpire

This is not a redo, but a completely new Razee, based on the real 44-gun ship. It's not quite right (the hull is too narrow; it's missing a few cannons), but this is about as close as I can come using the stock hull pieces without it looking absurd via over-lengthening.

Thanks. As an aside, I actually am going to be able to build it in purple, strangely enough. I never expected there to be this level of piece availability in such a bright and seemingly obscure color, but my guess is that I have Friends™ to thanks for that.

I spent longer on this than I should have. Indefatigable was used as a reference, but I wasn't quite trying to copy it.

I'm just curious. I rarely use these wheels in designs (I'm not a snob - I just mostly build passenger steamers), but after creating my Reading 2-8-0 and lining it up next to diesels, I realized that it looks kind of short (rail head to stack-tip). This is generally not a problem for either my steam locomotives, or for RL late-generation (say, post 1910 or so) steamers - as you can see here, this 2-10-0 is basically the same height as a GE Genesis locomotive. That engine's drivers are 56" IRL - so the proportions of the 2-10-0 should be relatively similar to my 2-8-0 with its 57" drivers. But... they aren't. My engine is a good brick lower than most of the diesels I have done (all of which are consistently scaled against each other). So... does anyone know approximately what the diameter in inches (in minifig scales) the Lego wheels are? Typically, I go by the rough estimate that <60" diameter wheels are stock Lego; 60"-70" are Big Ben XL, and 70"+ are Big Ben XXL... but that seems to have broken down in this instance. I have a feeling that, given how a lot of people here build their engines based on blueprints, someone is running around with this answer already :). I'm just not a strong math guy, and would rather leave it to the experts.

Does anyone sell XLL drivers at the present time? I'm tinkering with a design, but don't want to move forward if I can't start with the right wheels. Thanks. *Edit* Whoops, never mind. Found 'em. They're inexpensive, too! https://www.bricktraindepot.com/product/3d-printed-xll-spoked-lego-compatible-wheel/

Pretty sure the only way to get the doors 1 stud wide would be using the newer 1x1 brackets. Unfortunately, they don't come in dark green.

I was never particularly happy with this project, so I decided to completely redo it. And that's not 'rework the boiler,' or 'rebuild up from the frame' redo, but completely starting over. Still, it's not really enough to justify a new thread, so here's the rebuild hidden away where few will see it :P. The engine is now designed around LL-sized drivers (which is why the wheels look a bit small - they're just stand-ins), whereas the original was inappropriately upsized to accommodate XL wheels. The tender was also completely rebuilt, and is - I think - a lot closer to the source material. I actually started this wanting to do the normal boiler, but I just can't figure out a method to do good smoke lifters without them looking way too chunky. And while I realize that most people just bite the bullet and go with oversized lifters, I cannot force myself to cave in this instance, so a Crosti it remains.

Out of curiosity, where is the articulation point? Just trying to learn new techniques :).

Wow, you articulated the whole front frame, and not just the bogie? Why? Just to keep the cylinder profile narrow? How does that affect the performance of the running gear?

Not to pick nits, but I think it was actually based on this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fairchild_C-123_Provider

I'm not raging - I wasn't going to buy the thing anyway (I'm just not a Technic person, is all). But I feel for the people who were... and I don't appreciate hypocrisy from Lego. And, let's be honest, they've been shoveling it on pretty thick a lot lately (remember the 'police are bad, mmmkay?' thing from earlier this summer?). "Guns are evil," but cowboys and U.S. cavalry armed with rifles, pistols, and even a Gatling Gun are okay? And I don't for a moment begrudge the inclusion of these themes - I want violence. So do kids - it's simply human nature. We, as a species, enjoy action; our stories and legends are tales of loss and triumph over adversity, and when that adversity is human in nature, it's typically well armed. But I don't appreciate being preached to by a company that actively profits from historical - and even, occasionally, contemporary - death and destruction about how 'evil' violence as a whole is (not in the least because it's enormously silly - did the medieval knight with his arm cut off, left to bleed to death on the battlefield somehow suffer less than some victim of a hypothetical missile strike from the V-22? C'mon. I know which death I'd choose if given the option). If the Osprey was pulled because there were serious QC issues, that's an entirely other can of worms, and they should be honest about it. But if it was truly yanked because some nebulous internal policy was ignored, only to be last-minute applied helter-skelter to this single instance of portraying a machine of war, Lego deserves to take more than a small amount of flak.

I also think it's ridiculous. That's CLEARLY based on an F-35. So... what's kosher about that over the Osprey? I absolutely guarantee that the F-35 is going to kill more people over its lifespan than a transport hybrid.

IRL, I know that most engines used a fixed rear wheelset and an independent foward truck. However, in Lego this seems like it would produce results that are neither attractive nor practical. Is the most common approach to treat both wheelsets essentially like big bogies with the body connected at two points above? Would the connection points be at the center of the two flanged drivers, rather than the center of the wheelset itself? I have never done an articulated loco before, and don't want to start on the wrong foot. *Edit* Here is a little diagram to better illustrate what I am talking about:

Would like to see a video of it running, if possible.

I so wish there was a part that could capture the hood over the light.

Kind of reminds me of the old micro machines trains.

You did a fantastic job capturing it. As others have pointed out, the original locomotive is a bit of a rolling brick (it reminds me of a toolbox on wheels), and thus very well-suited to Lego.

You should invest in 4x custom wheels and do real rods. Even if you don't physically connect them to the cylinders, it would be a marked improvement.

No worries - never say sorry about advice. I decided to redo the whole ship anyway. Look for the Indefatigable thread!

Lego Digital Designer. Thanks! I kind of waffled on the waterline height. I feel like Razees were fairly low slung. Based on the render below (and the waterline shot), do you think it needs to be heightened? I may be reworking the bow and stern to give the appearance of more flare, anyway, so if you believe it's still too low, I can give it a look. I really also want to make more of an effort to capture the clipper-like bow on the razees. Thanks!

This was an Austro-Hungarian Empire design that served all over Europe. I didn't have a lot of photos to go off of, and none were of good quality. I also elected to go with a normal stack, and not the weird wide one that the KKSTB experimented with for a while.

Virginian was a smallish, kind of no-nonsense railroad. Only three total locomotives from the entire line were spared.

Yeah, I was wondering if that would cause problems. I might be able to just run a shared technic axle through the boiler. I'll see what I can work out when I get back from vacation.

Thanks. It's definitely a top contender for building I'm not going with tender power for a few reasons: 1) I am not confident about a 4 axle tender being able to push a 12 axle locomotive and maintain stability 2), I am a purist, and like my engines to pull, and 3) that particular tender is pretty small - not sure I could even get 2 can motors in there. One thing I likely could do is get 3x large PF motors in the loco - 2 for the trailing drivers, and one for the front set. The question then becomes: is 3x large motors a better tradeoff than 1x XL motor? Especially with all 3 nursing on one battery pack?

I went back and forth on the stack, but apparently most of them didn't have it: A number of these wound up in Poland and Italy, and I think they did their own mods, too.