Barduck

The height error has been corrected, still need to build the rest until I can put the roof beams back in place. The 2 minifigs stacked on each other are to get a better view on the height of the door openings, to better compare to pictures I have so I'm sure it is as correct as possible. It does seem to be so. specially when compared to this picture: Portland Union Station by Stones 55, on Flickr As always, comments, suggestion, and most definitively pictures, all welcome

Well, I did have the main hall figured out for quite some time, so on this I can work faster. This part is 2 XL MILS that are both 64x64 studs then the entrance for it (track side) is added which is another 16x64 studs. Looking at the photo from what've build, similar XL MILS are added on the left side and two times that on the right side. Those I still need to figure out and it's of those parts I don't have pictures. Reinforcing the cross beams a bit more might be needed as you've pointed out, I'll have to look in to that. Though using brackets may create to much of an offset for the inner beams (you can see those on the second photo). Prosper Portland was the first I reached out to but have not have the pleasure of getting a reply to my email. As for era, I haven't given that much thought really, I'll already be happy if I manage to build this thing. I do have to admit that doing a late 1930's era would be nice as my M10005 would fit with it rather nicely then (although it would have been it's sister train, the "City of Portland", that served the station in it's time). So reaching out to the person you've suggested could help.

Got a bit more done: Still no word on more pictures, not even from PortLUG, Hope someone from that LUG follows this forum and reaches out. Once the main hall is finished I'll be stuck because there's no pictures of the rooms next to it. Today I did some extra work, added the windows and top wall at the trackside: It was while doing that that I noticed I made a mistake in the height need of the main hall and that walls and thus also the roof beams that I've already added actually need to go higher. Also the inner parts of the arches need to be higher. So next few days I'll be taking a lot of bricks of those walls to do just that. Might take a whole week to be at the point I need to be. And yes, you'll notice I've cut the tile, it's the only way to hide the wires for the LEDs And please, comments, input, ideas, ... all welcome. Still need to figure out how I can do the circular part of the main hall's roof, any ideas on that are most welcome (it is still my first building I'm doing so I'm a rooky on this)

I wouldn't called it "a little" station, maybe it is in American standards but it's still huge. I've contacted the ORHF and recieved a reply but unfortunately they are unable to help as they are not located near the station. As for native loco's, I'm thinking of getting instructions for an Amtrak engine but I can very well add UP engines as the station was use by UP ( the "City of Portland", which is a sister train of my M10005 "City of Denver" served the station, so technically speaking I could let that one drive thru and it'll fit right in)

Making the decals was “fairly” simple, browsed the internet for a beautiful marble pattern (white marble), filled an A4 sheet in photoshop with it and printed it with a laserprinter on transparent vinyl. The hard part was measuring out where the cuts needed to be and applying them. Apart from more pictures, my biggest worry is the rounding of the main hall and the dome shaped roof on top that. It’ll be a challenge for sure

it's not that they're dirty, a bunch have decals with marble effect on them

yeah, it's gonna be totally nuts when I can finish this, just over 3m long and that's just for the station. Reaching out to PortLUG might be a good idea, I'll try that. Posted this on some Facebook groups as well and someone there also suggested contacting museums and libraries in Portland. I had just send mails to 2 of the links you've suggested before you replied to this topic, hope something turns up

Well, she doesn't. She was never designed to take r40's but for r104. With some tweaking she might be able to take r88, maybe r72 but smaller than that is simply impossible without changing the connection system. And yes, I'm the "triplex" guy 😁

apart from the M10005 all of my 8 wide engines take r40 without problems, even my triplex

didn't want the hassle of adding an interior that most of the time will not be visible anyway, so no

Today I finalized 2 coaches for the "City of Denver" consist. In total ten coaches were running behind the M10005, all have been designed already and now the first 2 are completely done (had to wait a bit on my decals, but as usual OKBrickWorks delivered perfect work). So here are "Silver Dollar" and Ogallala": "Silver Dollar": "Ogallala": edit: instructions are now available: https://rebrickable.com/mocs/MOC-112327/Barduck/up-ogallala-and-silver-dollar-coaches-for-city-of-denver-consist/#details

Very nice looking engine, my only issue with it is are all the bricks with studs on one side and blue pins that you've integrated, I don't think they add anything to the solidity of the build. You could eliminate more than half of those with a very small change to the side walls while still retaining the look. Most definitely an engine I'd buy the instructions of if you decide to release them

Unless used on R120's, that's not going to work. Your current set up is F-B-B-B-F, which makes it impossible to take R40's and switches (and frankly, as I said at the start of the comment, only R120 will be possible). Now if you'd change the set up to B-F-B-F-B then you're in business

As I pointed out in the OP, it was sheer luck that found that book. Stumbled on a page of someone building a livesteam version of it (one of those that you can actually sit in or on) and somewhere in there was mention of that book so I started looking. Found it on Amazon, wasn't cheap (and the added import taxes sure did hurt too) but it's more than worth it. And, nothing is keeping you from going 8 wide, or at least have one train in 8 wide. It's the best scale for trains, not to big to be bulky but big enough to add all the details you never knew you wanted to add. So go ahead, get my instructions, it'll make your day (and mine)

That nose sure gave me headaches, specially with wanting to integrate the grill at the front. The two studs that are showing (from the 1x4 plates) were a compromise, tried different looks (with a cheese slope on it, with a 1x1 tile on it) but in the end that was the best looking solution. The tapered roof from the cabin was something I found very early on in the designing, having it go half a plate down with every step was a great find to achieve the look I wanted. And, "master builder"? I wouldn't go that far, there's builders out there that have better builds or more complex builds. But I would agree that my attention to detail does set the MOCs I try to make to a high level. I'd rather not build it then have it not look the way I want it

Oh cool. This makes me wonder what your colleges have to say about her. And what can I say, ever since I saw a miniature model of this locomotive on Brass trains I wanted to build her, so now I have

From Teunis's Flickr:

I’d advice using Blender to make the render with the tubing added, there’s a tutorial online that explains how to import and render Lego models. I’ve used that to make renders of my Virginian Triplex: https://www.eurobricks.com/forum/index.php?/forums/topic/183056-virginian-2-8-8-8-4-triplex-version-3-wip/&tab=comments#comment-3350734 It’s a steep learning curve for sure but once you get the hang of it it’s a walk in the park

As a rule I don't support anything anymore on ideas. Why? Well a tendency can be seen in where, of all the ideas that get to 10K, only the stupid ones get passed review. And then a few years later, when everyone has forgotten about it, a set appears that is so close to the rejected idea that its just to much of a coincidence. Funny thing is, on Legomasters, some Brickmasters go: "no, I don't see the story, nor the playability". And then LEGO approves an idea that lacks those very same things

I'm afraid 100 coal cars are a bit above budget. Could you spot the differences with V3 (and V2)? not inspiring enough for myself, don't think I'll be tangling another steamer this year, this one was already enough Everybody else that commented (can't be quoting them all): thank you for your kind words on how much you like her, now of you go to Rebrickable and buy those plans

Only one 2-8-8-8-4T was ever built, a Mallet-type for the Virginian Railway in 1916. This is the one in the above photo, it is also the one that you are about to build using these instructions. Built by Baldwin Locomotive Works, it became the only example of their class Xa, so named due to the experimental nature of the locomotive. Like the same railroad’s large articulated electrics and the Erie Railroad 2-8-8-8-2s, it was nicknamed “Triplex”. The purpose of the Xa was to push heavy trains over steep inclines, requiring high tractive effort, but low speed, over short distances. The Xa worked on a difficult 14-mile section from Elmore to Clark’s Gap. The Xa’s center set of cylinders received high-pressure steam, and the exhaust from these was fed to the two other sets of cylinders, which were valved for low pressure.The right cylinder exhausted into the front set of low pressure cylinders, and the left into the rear set; this is also why the high pressure cylinders have the same diameter as the low pressure ones, whereas most mallet locomotives have much smaller high pressure cylinders. The front set exhausted through the smokebox and the rear set exhausted first through a feedwater heater in the tender and then to the open air through a large pipe, which can be seen in the photo. Since only half of the exhaust steam exited through the smokebox, firebox draft (and thus boiler heating) was poor. Although the boiler was large (in line with contemporary two-cylinder and four-cylinder practice), six large cylinders demanded more steam than even such a boiler could supply. With all six cylinders operating at their full pressure (which could not be sustained for very long), the Xa produced huge amounts of tractive effort that may have been the highest of any steam locomotive before or since (160,000 pounds-force in compound mode, which was the largest tractive effort for any locomotive up to the time,1914-1916).The Xa is also considered the largest tank engine ever built since the tender had driving wheels as well and thus contributed to traction. The problem of variable adhesion on the Xa’s tender unit was not a serious one, since pusher locomotives had frequent opportunities to take on additional fuel and water. The Xa was unable to sustain a speed greater than five miles an hour, since the six cylinders could easily consume more steam than the boiler could produce. The tender had a four-wheel truck at the rear to help guide the locomotive into curves when drifting back downhill after pushing a train over the hill. This MOC has around 2800 parts in her (and about 80 3D printed parts). She runs on PU, 1 battery, 2 Large motors. Decals made by OKBrickWorks.com Even as large as she is, she still manages to take R40 turns https://flic.kr/p/2kJu33v and switches: https://flic.kr/p/2kJq1K4 She can even take light graded slopes (1 plate/straight increase) https://flic.kr/p/2kMA1um Instructions available on Rebrickable

there's 3 linked in the topic thanks, she's a complicated but fun build

Well, it is already V4. V1 got scrapped, V2 got burned to a crisp. V3, of which I have only done renders took about 2-2,5 months to redesign starting from V2. I pushed her a bit to enter the Brick Train Awards. But instead of building her, I finetuned her, extra hatches on the cabin roof, shortened her and the tender a bit, lowered the cabin roof, etc etc. And thus V4 was born. I recon, if I'd had to start from scratch she would have taken the better part of 6 months to design. Once the parts were ordered and printed (the valvegear is homemade, from design to printing) she took about 3 days to build at around 4 hours a day. That might seem long but I didn't want to push her and make building mistakes. And test while building (and even change the design a bit at some places to add more rigidity or change how something was connected. At the end testfase, where I was testing to see if she'd take R40 I made another change to enable her to do just that. All it took was changing the set up of the wheels on the second truck from F-B-F-B to B-F-B-F. To enable her to take R40 switches all I had to do was change the beam connecting the second (last loco truck) and the third (tender) truck from 9 long to 11 long with pins at hole 1 and 10. Even though she can take R40 (and actually I designed her with that in mind), she'll look a hell of a lot better on R104 curves and switches

Although.... competing to win 3rd party prices without being allowed to use said 3rd party pieces is a bit the chicken or the egg

Well, the cat is out of the bag as they say. Now that I've enter the renders of the WIP in to the Brick Train Awards I might as well start the topic here too. I'll try to post updates whenever I can as I enroll in this endeavor. So... Another Virginian Triplex or XA as it was called.... This is al ready my 3th version of this train. (Topics on V1 and V2 can be found here and here). I like my previous version a lot and to have it go up in flames in 2020 when our house burned down made me want to rebuild her. But when I started looking at the plans I made I thought to myself, why not improve her? Why not add more details? So I virtually tore her apart and started on a redesign. Now, she's ready for the future as she'll have the new PU system to power her. Let's hope it's a bright future. Now for the renders: