KvadratGnezdo

This 100%

Good one

I'm just going to say that LEGO for some reason cant get their poop together when it comes to steam trains. First the gigantic Hogwarts Express and now this toyetic nonsence. Star wars guys tore Lego a new one when it tried to sell them a playset as a UCS, this is basically the same. Like come on, this thing doesn't even have a smokebox and the proportions are all wrong.

Hello everyone, I've recentlly installed stud.io's latest update and suddenly it stopped working as usual - it now takes way longer for my files to open, random parts from the parts library aren't loading (when dragging them from catalogue, it looks like I'm not dragging everything, but the workspace grid seems to react as if said parts actually were there), multi component parts like magnets, wheel and frame assemblies are not loading completely, for example magnets load without their plastic frames, but retain their connection points somehow. The worst thing is - I cant even delete stud.io from my device now - the process crashes right at the end. Can anyone explain what the heck is going on?

Yep, as far as I know parts of the fleet were made in Sweden, Germany, Poland, Hungary, Czechoslovakia and Romania as well as the E class "Russian decapod" built in the US. Another interesting fact is that all trophy Br 52s were renamed ТЭ - which stood for "Trophy equivalent to Э class"

Some more renders and I've made a depot for this thing) On this picture the tender car is mounting an extended oil tank To some the colour palette may seem christmas-ey, but the red/green/white/tan was the prevalent paint scheme for the Russian empire and USSR when it came to railroad infrastructure all the way until the late 50s.

Update time, yaaaaay, so I've finished it a while ago, but here it is - the last of the E class mods, the post-war Er class. With this one it's like hopping from the start straight to finish. Despite looking very similar to the standard E, the Er is a very different machine in terms of it's composition and mechanics. In real world Er class had a better smokebox and boiler design, weight distribution, steam re-usage, onboard electrics, tractive effort, cab view, ventillation and many other improvements. As most late soviet steamers, a lot of Ers were converted to use crude oil instead of coal or wood as their main fuel source. The standard tender also had it's improvements - the tender's fuel storage volume had increased almost twice and later was replaced with the oil tank as shown on my model. Another standout feture for many Ers is the top roof superstructure which helped to better ventillate the cab, save up on using the electrig generator for lighting and also hepled to spot potential aerial attackers, which was really useful for running military convoys and armoured trains. Additionaly, the Ers were also present to test and work changes, implimented by the MPS during late 40s and early 50s: wide acceptance of the SA autocouplers and the buffer removal And now for the model: And the swinging cab action - ladders and other underside cab detail is actually attached to the frame and moves along with it

Coming back after a lot of stuff was a bit hard, but here we are. The today's topic is an internationally overlooked engine. but an important one nonetheless. The E ("Э", "Echo", "Eass") class was a mainline freight locomotive produced during the last years of the Russian Empire and into the early Soviet period. In design philosophy it's closest counterparrt would be the famous Br52 - it is a technologically streamlined steamer, designed for wide scale production (and it was wide as E class is considered to be the most numerous steam engine class ever), meant to be used during wartime. Almost all E class were made in a decapod configuration and were generally lightweight as they were supposed to navigate not only the mainline, but the hastely built railways during the war and the rather gaudy byroads during peacetimes, which meant the engine had to be short with 6 of its 10 wheels being blind for better turning capabilities. The first model I've made was based on E-2432, currently a monument, but still - a rather rare example of a pure E class without any modifications (so rare, that most E classers you will find online and IRL will be either Em, Eu or Er) And here's my model: On most picks of the class you will probably see it coupled to a normal tender car (нормальный тендер) - a contemporary design, meant to be used with a wide variety of steam engines, both passenger and freight ones, many modifications exist, but the model is based on the default one - without the raised sides, extended bunker and oil tanks. The model is fully motorised, also I've made the cab frame to be able to swivel in order to mitigate the overhang created by standard lego track. This is all for now, I will slowly update during the week, I've almost finished my Er model, then I will make some more contmeporary rolling stock and maki this into a real MOC somwhere closer to december.

So yeah, as usual I have disappeared leaving nothing in my wake and now returning as if nothing happened. This way, while probably mimicking someone else's dad, I've had a chance to vent and get more inspiration to do the stuff that I do even though now I probably have diverted a lot from the stupid chart I drew a couple of years ago. I'm not saying that I'm leaving or anything - far from that, but the release schedule will be way less thematically consistent. As such, having finished my little rambling, I present this thing as a teaser of a probably extensive article about the class 24 steam engines and their very special place both in history and in hearts of people who care about them.

At least it is better than the previous ones

NGG and something about critters Honestly, I was really afraid of passing this milestone in terms of my MOCs because it was honestly a chore, but a fun one at least. So. Mining equipment, the underground one. This was probably the least amount of fun in this entire project. Why? Because there is a literal ton of these things, they are constantly modified, reconfigured, renamed just because they are built in a different factory, some of them are virtually identical but are still considered different models just because of a gauge diference or the pattern of contact sockets for the battery. So, I will cheat a little: I didn't make every single possible one, just limited myself to the most common archetypes and body layouts for these things. There probably should be a small history lesson, but there is nothing to talk about. Human make slab with battery that power motor. Slab pull minecart. Done. This is essentialy part 1 of this madness, where only mass produced vehicles from CIS or ex CIS country will be included, while the various one-offs, earthmovers and imported ELs will be left for part 2. Part 3 is just minecarts. Most of the models present usually are pretty basic, but include Multiple Unit System plugs, can be made both blast and spark-proof (in case you don't want an entire coal mine to combust, melting both people and the equipment in the process) and also can feature a variety of different cab designs or none at all. So, on the pic below are: AK, ARP, ARV, ADS, AM, ARV and ERA series locos. In a later post I will connect a different picture with model names added. For the Octrainber people: probably counts as micro critters *jiggles* P.S. render dump for these comig soon.

Thanks

A BIT OF INTRODUCTION Well hello. So octrainber 2021 is a thing and that's great! Although at the beginning of the month I've suddenly went on a shipbuilding tangent (check my flickr page for the results), that would mean me completely not noticing that it was time for the building challenge. To be fair, this years theme overwhelmed me at first for a number of reasons: firstly, I prefer my Russian/Soviet rolling stock. Why? Because even at this day and age it's really out there for most western people, lumped together with Сhinese and Hindu vehicles into this pan-asiatic mess that no one dares to properly translate and/ or keep track of. Second reason is generally derived from the first: due to NGG being it's own thing and planned economy to some degree being very prevalent to my homeland for the last 150 or so years, the peak of small scale vehicles just came and went unnoticed, because standartisation is a thing. Most of the experimental vehicles were mostly huge mainliners and you can read about the elsewhere, small scale shunters with intersting design were the TGK and TGM lines and I've made two of the most unique ones last year. So no narrow gauge, no small shunters and also I wanted at least some documentation on the stuff I was building. So then it hit me - coke quenching industry. No matter the part of the world - it was the cause of very odd and interesting vehicles, so I've decided to look there. THE EK SERIES Elektrovoz Kontaktniy aka Contact Electric locomotive was a series of electric vehicles specifically developed for industrial purposes. Why was (and is) contact put into the naming - easy, because these vehicles didn't need to have batteries to store their electricity which was one of the two ways to power and electric shunter. This time it was used becuase the rail network of each individual factory was not that big to make servicing the contact wires an expensive issue, and because batteries at the time tended to last way shorter and were prone to constant problems with heat and capacity leaks. Smaller vehicles could be fitted with batteries but here it was not needed and making a twin-system loco was proven to be a terrible idea: VL26 (nicknamed "Scheiße") electric heavy shunter which used both the contact network and batteries. Then it was up to me to decide which model to... well... model. Out of the three more or less known types, those being 13, 14 and 15 I chose the 13. Because 15 is just visualy boring and doesnt look as tall as the two other ones, 14, the one in the first picture could fit, but the cab was kinda boring and the whole loco felt just too boxy, so left was model 13 - the one with rounded hoods and most cab windows. Schematics of the 15 and the 13: EK15 is longer by 1.5 meters and, unlike with the 13, you can clearly see the contact pads underneath. The main function of these is to move cars loaded up with coke from the oven to the coke quenching tower. The interesting bit is the coke, which, during the entire process, is heated around 1100 degrees C, so both the engine and the cars are meant to withstand higher heat levels, than their mainline colleagues. BUILDING: So here is the summary of my first thoughts of this in an easy to understand graphic form: So, yeah, fast forward a bit and this is what I got: As you can see, I, ve mostly used the photo from the previous picture as a refference (which is notable with modified windows and side ladders which were only one way on the original).This model is easilu motorisable thank to it being (basically) a giant shell inside of which you could probably fit a 9V motor unit or a 3rd party battery piece connected to PF or whatever else small motor. More renders later,