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New York Central 4-6-4 Hudson steam locomotive - Dreyfuss streamlined style - digital WIP (so far)
Murdoch17 posted a topic in LEGO Train Tech
NOTE: As some of you might be able to guess, this loco was inspired by pictures of @SavaTheAggie's original streamlined Hudson locomotive from 2007... no instructions were used to build this engine. See the inspiration here on Flickr. This Art Deco-styled 4-6-4 steam loco is to be numbered 5447 and is sort-of modeled after a real, long-scrapped New York Central engine. The tender really should say the railroad's full name instead of its initials, but I don't want to shell out the money for all those 1 x 1 tiles, so I'm using fewer 2x2 tiles instead to spell out NYC, as it's much cheaper that way! The rear of the loco. You may have also noticed I've also placed older 9v-era couplers on the loco and tender, as my dad has the 20-year old Santa Fe Super Chief car that (I'm hoping!) he'll let me eventually display with my loco at Gateway LUG shows. The tender top *should* line up directly with the roofline of the Santa Fe cars my dad has. Thankfully, those coaches look close enough to pass as the New York Central's 20th Century Limited as well as the ATSF Super Chief coaches they were modeled after - especially as they are without any stickers applied! If all that doesn't work out, I'll just build a bunch of coal hoppers and have it placed about to demolish my Iron Giant, like in the animated film! NOTE: This MOC is either going to be a January 2024 or December '23 build. I have other things I have to do first that will influence that decision, so we will see when this gets built. I will keep you guys posted on any progress, of course! Thoughts, comments or questions welcome! -
Linus, The Brave Locomotive - 2-4-0 steam loco MOC based on an animated short
Murdoch17 posted a topic in LEGO Train Tech
Meet Linus, the Brave Locomotive from Andrew Chatsworth's "The Brave Locomotive" animation on YouTube. I decided to make this 2-4-0 out of LEGO after watching the short over and over, as it's an inspiring tale and very well done animation-wise. (Shout out to Peter, a friend of mine who showed me the short in the first place!) I did make some changes to Linus' design, such as adding a number to his tender and cab. (He's become engine No. 2, in case you were wondering) I also borrowed heavily from the 2019 Disney train and 2010 Toy Story Western Train Chase sets. In fact, the Toy Story loco is engine number 1 on my railroad. The rear of the steamer. (handrail parts and some printed tiles are missing in LDD) Linus' engineer from the animated short, Henry, will be built as well at some point too. (probably by using most of the CMF series 25 train-suit kid figure) The whole train together. Once Linus is built in the real world, he will be added to my Conjunction Junction train, which also has Katy Caboose (from the book 'The Caboose Who Got Loose', and heavily inspired by a @zephyr1934 MOC.) featured as well. Fun fact: This is almost a Disney train - Linus from "The Brave Locomotive" was started by Disney animator Andrew Chatsworth before he got hired, Bill Peet wrote "The Caboose who Got Loose" some years after being let go from Disney, and Conjunction Junction (part of "School House Rock!" educational TV series) was created by ABC, which is now owned by Disney. Thoughts? -
After some time in the making I can finally share a little something I’ve been working on. This right here is one of the engines built by the Société de Saint-Léonard, and employed by the SMMP (Sociedad Minera y Metalúrgica de Peñarroya) in the mining complex of Puertollano, Spain. It hauled coal and other goods between the different facilities until the mid-70s. By the time the mineshafts closed, they had no use for these engines and most of them were scrapped. Luckily a couple of them survived, one of them being this very same engine. Although officially named “Pozo Norte” after one of the main mineshafts in Puertollano, to this day everyone referres to her as “La Gorda” (The Fat One) no doubt in part because of her imposing girth. Nowadays you can find her sitting (in a rather disheveled state…) on a few meters of track in the gardens of the Mining Museum of the same town it used to work at. I’ve been to this museum many times, and seeing this locomotive was always the highlight of my visit. It was only a matter of time until I finally built it out of Lego. Building this engine was a refreshing change of pace from the high-speed modern trains I’m more used to. Trying to replicate as many shapes and details as possible was a fun challenge. Also, shoutout to @Redrado for suggesting the use of the 4625 hinge 1x4 tile to represent the riveting on the side of the water tanks, it looks great and the engine wouldn’t feel complete without it. The models for the wheels (ML), connecting rods and side rods are from Breckland Bricks. The model is designed to be motorized with a Powered Up L motor, the power is transmitted to the middle axel and through the connecting rods to the rest of the wheels. I’ve used this type of transmission before and I trust it will be strong and durable, however, I’m not so sure about the placement of the battery box, I’m concerned it’s hanging off too much and will cause balancing issues. Hopefully the weight at the front will shift the center of gravity forwards, but that’s something I won’t know for sure until I start messing with real bricks. Here’s a bonus picture of what these engines used to look like in their heyday.
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The Frisco 1522 loco is a 1926 oil burning 4-8-2 "Mountain" type, (4 leading, 8 drivers, 2 trailing) that was made surplus in 1951, donated to the Museum of Transportation (in St. Louis, Missouri) in 1959, and restored to working order in 1988 by the St. Louis Steam Train Association (SLSTA) for it's excursion career. It's new lease on life lasted until 2002 when rising insurance costs made the engine enter it's second retirement, which will be probably be forever. When the engine was running in it's second career, the SLSTA had four train cars in it's excursion support role. They carried parts, tools, merchandise to sell, and crew members not on duty. After re-retirement of the 1522, most of the cars were eventually sold to Milwaukee Road 261 organization and were renamed and repainted into a different paint scheme more suited to that group. This may not be the best interpretation of the Frisco 1522, but it seems to be the one of the few I've seen built out of Lego. The model you see here has been my dream ever since I was 5 or six years old and rode behind the steamer on one of it's last public trips. (I don't remember much of the trip, but I do remember the sense of awe and respect for the power of steam after seeing the loco pull past us on it's journey back to the museum and into what looks to be permanent retirement.) The cab walls on both model and real engine have the name of the railroad (Frisco) on it's side, while the number of the loco (1522) is on the tender sides. One half of this baggage car (named 'Black Gold' after a train the 1522 used to pull) housed tools, spare parts, lubricants and a fire hose or getting water for the loco, among many other things. The other half (usually closest to the engine) had the souvenir shop with shelves and tables for fundraising merchandise selling. The car is now repainted and named 'Golden Valley'. It has been used with Milwaukee Road 261. The 'Firefly' was the crew car. It was also named after a train the 1522 used to pull. The car has been sold to be used with Milwaukee Road 261. It sits in storage currently. The diner-lounge 'Chouteau Club' wasn't owned by the St. Louis Steam Train Association (SLSTA), but by a private individual who was a member of the club. It now is stored / owned by Illinois Transit Assembly in Madison, Illinois, sidelined by side sill rust. The 'Bluebonnet' was a business car and brought up the rear of the train. It was also named after a train the 1522 used to pull. The car has been sold to be used with Milwaukee Road 261. It has been renamed back to it's first name of 'Milwaukee' and repainted into the proper colors for that railroad. The real engine is publicly displayed at the Museum of Transportation in St. Louis, Missouri. The Lego model of the loco is sitting on the front of the loco, just above the cowcatcher. This official Frisco 1522 website gave me invaluable info and pictures of the excursion cars and the loco itself. This page in particular was very helpful in getting the window amount / spacing / 'look' of the excursion cars right. NOTE: Yes, I had a thread made in 2016 for the loco only. That thread was last updated in 2017, and I didn't want to mess with the moderators by bumping it. Thus, this new thread was created. I hope that was ok! EDIT: 9/23/23: Real world photos added!
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One of the reasons I'm excited about the 2023 Hogwarts Express is that I hope it gets people into building steam locomotive MOCs. This happened for me by modifying it's predecessor, 75955 20230508_162151 by Sam Szeto, on Flickr I got two copies of 75955 cheap on eBay. My aim was to make the locmotive look more like a GWR Hall Class, whilst keeping it "LEGOish". I wanted it to be able to run on R40 tracks, with power functions. I also wanted to mainly use parts from the sets, with some from my own collection, and not have to Bricklink anything. This meant it had to be 6 wide, and use a similar boiler design. Also no custom wheels/rods/stickers. 20230508_162212 by Sam Szeto, on Flickr The original locmotive's proportions were rather tall and not long enough. I extended the boiler by 4 studs, and the firebox and the smokebox by 1 stud. I need to take a better photo, but I'm quite proud of the taper on the boiler. It extends by 1 plate, over 12 studs. The rear of the boiler is clipped to the firebox and the smokebox. The smokebox is not attached with studs to the running board, but on a Technic axle, so it can legally be a fraction of a stud off grid. I also added droid arms to create break rigging and sand pipes. 20230508_162243 by Sam Szeto, on Flickr 20230508_162447 by Sam Szeto, on Flickr 20230508_162508 by Sam Szeto, on Flickr The biggest challenge was getting the pony truck to go around R40 curves, and not interfere with the cylinders. This was an absolute headache - a lot of MOCs I've seen in recent years, are designed for wider curves, or they have the second set of pony wheels fixed, and only have one set of flanged drivers. I didn't want to do this so I created a pony truck with a sliding front axle. The pony truck can pivot to a fixed angle, than there are stoppers under the cylinder, which stop it moving any further. As the axle is free to move axially, it will un-centre itself to go around the bend. It works, but looks a bit strange, and is something I want to improve on the next version. 20230508_162221 by Sam Szeto, on Flickr Tender has all the PF components. Again for simplicity, I used the normal train motor guards (and mimicked the design around the front wheels), but I want to improve this in my next version. Also, for part reuse, I'm using the trap door from the original's tender to mount the train motor and thread the cable. 20230508_162629 by Sam Szeto, on Flickr 20230508_162711 by Sam Szeto, on Flickr The coach isn't meant to be a BR Mk1. I don't have any dark red parts, so I just decided to extend the official coach out to use a proper train base, whilst keeping the removable wall from the playset. I also have some older windows in my collection which were quite useful. If interested, their are more photos on my flickr. When I have the time, I'd like to do a full rebuild in 7 wide using custom wheels, with dark red Mk1s. But for now, I'm happy with this - I'm glad LEGO's play set was mis-proportioned as it inspired me to do this. Already working on a proper MOC now . References A lot of inspiration was taken from Phil B's incredible MOC/MOD @Phil B, particularly with the tapered boiler using the original set's design
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[MOC] 1:48 Pennsylvania Railroad Q2 Duplex (PF / PU)
Commander Wolf posted a topic in LEGO Train Tech
Hello all, I have recently built a model that might actually deserve a post. This is a working, running (albeit only on R104 curves) 1:48 scale model of the Pennsylvania Railroad Q2 duplex. PF or PU motors power all five driving axles, and the design uses no third party parts besides #11 drivers. See the video for a more detailed description. -
Updates! https://www.bricklink.com/v3/studio/design.page?idModel=418816
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Hello Again. I have a rather iconic piece of railroading equipment for you all today. It is the oldest engine on the Strasburg railroad as well as the only operating 4-8-0 mastodon operating in the United States, it is 475 herself. She is a rather unique piece of equipment in more ways than one. Built as part of a series of locomotives in 1906 for the Norfolk and Western Railroad, they were the answer for increasing train loads. The 4-8-0 was utilized over the 2-8-2 because of adhesive weight. The M class was a deckless locomotive where the cab was alongside the firebox with the crew literally sandwiched between them. They were at first given Stephenson Valve gear but were later on given Baker valve gear 10 out of 125 ordered was superheated and all were fired by hand. Nicknamed "Mollies", they may have not been the prettiest locomotive created, but at over 40,000 lbs. of tractive effort for something made in 1906. However, when the Norfolk and Western started ordering new Y Class locomotives a decade later, it downgraded the Mollies to branchline work. 475 still runs to this day at Strasburg About this model: With my plans to start a company now taken seriously, I decided to build another and this time a smaller locomotive to complement Santa Fe 3463 and the C&O Allegheny. All I have to say was HOLY HELL, it was a bigger challenge than I thought it would be with its "distinct" shape of the boiler. But with a little help of brackets, I was able to complete it. However, it renders part of the boiler to not be as aesthetically pleasing, primarily along the bell area and below it. This model is equipped with Baler valve gear, but I also want to apologize for the lack of complete valve gear, for I had technical issues that saw my last computer's boot device fail, and it is only compounded by PartsDesigner being temporarily disabled at least on my side. Therefore; I am unable to make the new parts required to complete it. I do plan to have that resolved in time) With that being said, here is the photo gallery: As stated before, these locomotives were deckless. I did try my best to cover every square inch as possible, even the "backhead" to this locomotive. If I offer this as a product, the only thing that will be added aside from crew members will be the Reverse gear and the train brake. The throttle is also present but it is attached to the cab roof.
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[MOC] Oregon Pacific & Eastern 19 - "Emperor of the North"
Glenn Holland posted a topic in LEGO Train Tech
My Favorite Be forewarned, this post will undoubtedly be lengthy. On April 9, 1915, Baldwin Locomotive Works completed serial number 42000, a 90 ton, 2-8-2 mikado locomotive (class 12-34-1/4-E-30) for the Caddo & Choctaw Railroad Company, subsidiary of Caddo River Lumber Company in Arkansas. Originally numbered 4 and named "R. L. Rowan," the engine served the logging industry until 1920 when it was converted to burn oil (instead of coal) and sent to Mexico. Upon arrival at the Compañía de Real del Monte y Pachuca, it was renumbered to 105. 105 operated northeast of Mexico City where silver mining was the main industry. In 1924, 105 was sold to the McCloud River Railroad, which would be home for nearly 30 years. Upon arrival at McCloud, shop forces found bullet holes in the boiler jacket. The rumor formed that the engine served with Pancho Villa during the revolution, however the revolution was over before the engine arrived in the country. The story stuck, and earned the engine the nickname "Pancho." McCloud renumbered the engine to 19 and upgraded the engine over its time there to roughly its current appearance. The 19 was involved in a three-way tender swap before leaving McCloud, and it ended up with the tender from the 18. 19 still uses this tender today, identifiable by a plate with welded letters reading "T-18" affixed to the tender frame. The original tender was scrapped along with the 16. The Yreka Western purchased 19 from McCloud in 1953 (and would later purchase the similar 18). The engines operated between Yreka and Montague where the road interchanged with Southern Pacific. In 1971, Yreka Western owner Willis Kyle purchased 51% of the Oregon Pacific & Eastern in Cottage Grove, Oregon. 19 was leased from Yreka to the OP&E and in 1971 began operating the "Blue Goose" excursion trains over the line using a large variety of passenger equipment. In 1972, "Emperor of the North" was filmed on the railroad, using a mix of OP&E equipment and some purchased specifically for the film. 19 carried the iconic "State of Oregon" herald on the tender, designed for appearance in the film, during this time and into as late as 1974. It was then repainted to use the "Blue Goose" logo used by other Kyle-owned roads. 19 continued to pull Blue Goose trains into the 1980s when Hollywood once again came to the line and parts of the coming-of-age classic "Stand By Me" were filmed. 19 appeared in the movie in the scene where Corey Feldman plays chicken with an oncoming train. In 1987, 19 returned to Yreka and continued to pull Blue Goose trains on this line, and was occasionally used in freight service. 19 stayed in Yreka into the 21st century. It became the subject of several legal battles where some work performed on the engine was never paid for. Eventually, it was auctioned off in a sheriff sale where it was purchased by Jerry Jacobson. 19 is currently in the backshop at the Age of Steam Roundhouse Museum undergoing its 15-year inspection work for return to operation. _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ I can't quite remember when exactly I began this model, but it came together digitally in late 2019, and I began ordering parts and assembling the locomotive in early 2020. It's taken a while to complete, mostly due to the refining of several details, not the least of which being the running gear and artwork. The details on this engine are particular, especially given my familiarity with the real one. I modeled 19 to accurately portray the engine as it appeared in Emperor of the North. I'm using a Power Functions L motor driving custom wheels at a 1:1 ratio. It gives the engine a good speed but enough power to pull a realistic number of cars. I'm using a Power Functions I.R. receiver and a 7.4v 700mAh battery due to limited space. I'll write more about every detail on the model in accompanying photos of the model. I say it every time, but this time, I really mean it: I'm incredibly happy to have the model complete. I should call it version one, as I'll undoubtedly build another copy of this model with new techniques in the future - I already have a few ideas. I've learned a lot between the time I started designing this and now, and I'd love to have more than one model of 19 anyway. It may never be as big or technically impressive as some other models I've built, but 19 will always have something the others don't. It is, by far, my favorite steam locomotive. I'd write about why here, but I'm already putting a lot of words under this photo, so I'll invite viewers to see the next photo for why 19 is my favorite. As always, I've shared more photos to my Flickr in this album: And I've uploaded a video to YouTube detailing the model here: *** I have omitted a large chunk of this post for sake of brevity. If anyone would like to know the reasons why 19 is my favorite, I invite you to enjoy this photo and its description: Thank you for reading. Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, and Happy New Year. Glenn Holland -
"Masterpiece" Spending so much time at the Age of Steam Roundhouse Museum, one will really begin to appreciate everything in their collection, not to mention the facility itself. Everything from the extraordinary to mundane will find its way into your mind and heart. I must admit that in my years of steam locomotive research and enjoyment, the Nickel Plate 700's did not strike me. For whatever reason, they just didn't click with me. I'm not sure what it was, but obviously, that's changed now. Cale and I modeled 765 way back in 2017 when we were still figuring out Brick Model Railroader. It took some convincing, but we eventually decided that Nickel Plate Road 765 would be our first collaborative steam locomotive model. We had a running model that needed some adjustment, but quickly became disinterested in the project due to external factors. We were never quite happy with where we left this project, and vowed to each other that we would return to the model some day to do it again, properly. Several years later, in late October 2021, and on a whim, I laid out a scaled wheelbase in stud.io, just to see what it would look like. I left the file alone for a couple more months until the Holiday season of 2021. I began thinking about a Nickel Plate Berkshire running around a Christmas tree, inspired by the amazing "Travel Refreshed" speculative project: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h2mU6jVcv4w&ab_channel=FortWayneRailroadHistoricalSociety This set my mind racing with thoughts of the late 1940's when large mainline superpower led "hotshot manifest" trains through the heart of America. If there was ever a perfect depiction of postwar steam railroading, it was this, and the Nickel Plate Road was the poster child. The Nickel Plate Road connected the farms of the Midwest in St. Louis and Chicago to Buffalo in the east. The road took a fast, level route along the southern edge of the great lakes. A direct competitor to the New York Central, it was purchased by the Vanderbilts in an effort to remove competition. As such, the line was never optimized and operated with older and slower equipment. The Nickel Plate was purchased by Oris and Mantis Van Sweringen, brothers from Cleveland who had controlling interests of several other roads including the Chesapeake & Ohio, Wheeling & Lake Erie, Pere Marquette, Erie, and more. The "Vans" would lead efforts to completely transform the Nickel Plate into the powerhouse bridge road it is remembered as today. One of those efforts included the creation of the Advisory Mechanical Committee (AMC), which served as a design bureau for the roads under control of the Vans. One of the first projects for the AMC was the design of the C&O T-1 class 2-10-4 engines, the largest two cylinder steam locomotives when built. Continuing in efforts to rejuvenate the Nickel Plate, president John Bernet assigned AMC officer William Black the task of designing a super-power locomotive. The result was the Nickel Plate S class of 2-8-4, built by ALCO Schenectady in 1934. The AMC, capitalizing on their winning formula for the T-1, maintained the factor of adhesion just above 4 while scaling down the rest of the locomotive: eliminating the fifth pair of 69" drivers and creating a locomotive with 70% of the tractive effort and 70% of the weight. Unbeknownst to Bernet, Black, and the AMC, they had just captured lightning in a bottle. To truly appreciate why the 700's were such good locomotives, the operating mentality of the Nickel Plate must be understood. The road was a masterpiece of engineering, maintaining a very flat right of way along the mainline, running shorter but faster trains handling bridge traffic over the line. Operating conditions like these coupled with the high-horsepower 700s, there has hardly been a more perfect match of locomotive and railroad. The Berkshires were so effective and loved, the Nickel Plate laughed away EMD diesel demonstrators multiple times until the end of steam in 1958. Even still, several of these locomotives were stored serviceable in anticipation of a traffic spike that never occurred. 763, part of the third batch of Berkshires in total (S-2 class) and second batch from Lima (Works #8671), was one of these locomotives. Officially retired a few years after the end of steam, it stayed in Conneaut, Ohio until 1966 when it was purchased by the Virginia Museum of Transportation in Roanoke, Virginia. 763 remained in Roanoke for several years until it was towed to New Jersey for inspection to pull the American Freedom Train, but other locomotives were selected., and 763 returned to Roanoke. Ohio Central and Age of Steam founder Jerry Jacobson purchased the locomotive from the museum in 2007, returning the engine home to Ohio. It is currently stored inside the Age of Steam Roundhouse Museum in stall 4, a regular favorite part of any regular public tour. All that to say: I never expected to have such a deep, genuine understanding and appreciation for these engines. It says a lot when someone can connect with a piece of machinery in such a way, and gain understanding of its purpose and reason for existing. The 700s were truly magnificent machines. So, in deciding that I was going to model one of these amazing locomotives, I began working in stud.io, and over the course of several months, I came up with what must have been at least a dozen iterations of the rough shape of the engine solely to achieve "the look." With 765 currently operating and with countless fans of the locomotives, the 700's are well recognized and people are going to be able to pick out the details, so any model of one has to be done properly. Once I had the correct shape and proportions, I filled in gaps and rebuilt section after section until I had a completed digital model in June of this year. By then, I had just seen 765 operate in person for the second time and was feeling inspired, so work on the custom wheels and connecting rods progressed alongside. Refining, trial, failure, adjustment, and testing continued until December 2022 when I completed the physical model. Naturally, I had to model 763 specifically, being the preserved example at Age of Steam. Under the hood this model is identical to my Mohawk: a pair of Power Functions L motors geared 1:1 driving the third axle, each operating from its own Power Functions IR receiver, and powered by a Tenergy 7.4v 2200 mAh battery. 763 operates smoothly and without issue thanks to the drive train design and high-quality printing of the wheels, rods, and valve gear. Drivers and trailing wheels designed by me and printed by Rob Hendrix, all rods and valve gear designed by me and printed through Shapeways. All artwork was faithfully recreated by Cale Leiphart. Decals printed by OKBrickWorks and UV printed number boards and bearing caps are from Richard Glatter. Thank you all for your help with this project. Having completed and published Buffalo Creek & Gauley 13, Morehead & North Fork 12, and now Nickel Plate Road 763, my Age of Steam collection grows. Those who know me personally understand that I'm not one to brag about my work. However, I feel I must say that I think I've outdone myself with this model. I would say this is the most new, ground-up design of locomotive I have built in a while. I've achieved detail and accuracy that I haven't seen on even some traditional scale models, and it all works together to make 763 perhaps my best model yet. A masterpiece of a masterpiece, if you will. As 2022 winds down, I'm elated to publish this locomotive and check it off the list. As I mentioned earlier this year, I've had a lot in progress recently so wrapping something up feels fantastic. There's a bit more in store for the immediate future, but we'll get to that later. As always, thanks for reading, and thanks to everyone for their support of my work through comments, questions, and compliments. It is always sincerely appreciated and I am thankful to be a part of such a fun community. More photos here: Video here: Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays, Glenn Holland
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First, some context: Here's a shout-out to Daedalus304 and his ATSF #2926 4-8-4 locomotive, for this locomotive of my own shares quite a lot of cosmetics with 2926. Onto my project: Santa Fe 3463 was built on October 30th, 1937 for the Santa Fe Railway as a passenger locomotive and was assigned to crack passenger trains that ran from Chicago, IL to La Junta, Colorado along with its sister locomotives. 3463 was assigned to lightweight trains such as the Chief when they first rolled out, but given their power, they were assigned to heavier trains on the Chicago-La Junta Division in January of 1938. This locomotive pulled trains like the aforementioned Chief, the Scout, The Oil Flyer, and even the Fast Mail Express. In fact, one of these 3460 class Hudsons', No. 3461 set a record for the longest run without any maintenance stops, the only exceptions of course were fuel and water. No. 3460 was given a very special streamline shrouding which earned it the nickname "The Blue Goose" and was the ONLY streamlined locomotive to run on Santa Fe rails. 3463 would soldier on until 1953 when it pulled its last train The Antelope. In 1956, it was put on display outside what is called the Stormont Vail Event Center in Topeka, Kansas, and has remained since. There was an attempt to get this locomotive restored by the CSR in 2012, however, legal issues plagued this for 5 years and after that, the favor was to go to the CSR in 2018. But even then, there were more turn of events that still render the locomotive dormant. To me, the poor girl's restoration was doomed from the start and personally, I would like to see her back in operation someday. This model demonstrates the Hudson in 1/35th scale, it is roughly 11-12 studs wide, approximately 17 studs tall and 113 studs long. This thing is LOADED with details, even an (almost) perfect valve gear system. 6 L-motors are the current power source in place, 2 in the locomotive to keep the drive wheels in order and 4 in the tender, this may be upgraded later but I doubt it. This train HAS been assembled before, however, it was HEAVILY flawed. Faulty drive design with the side rods and gear ratio, too small drive wheels of the incorrect design (I ordered #13 boxpok drivers a while back) which as far as design goes to the wheels, drivetrain, and cosmetics has been resolved. You can check out my wheel by searching for Baldwin Disk Driver. That very same driver will also be going on this locomotive in the future. I even went ahead and designed some special parts that will be incorporated into the locomotive as well. This locomotive is a design that dates back to October of 2021 and by spring of 2023, I plan to have it completed by then unless something comes up. Who knows, I may enter it into the Brick Train Awards if the timing is right and I may have a consist running by the summer of 2023 as well, but I cannot say for certain because the locomotive and tender will come first. For the most part it is complete, but still could probably use a few tweaks before being finalized. With that out of the way, here is the photo gallery of my engine. Here is the valve gear on the LEFT side of the locomotive Here is the valve gear on the RIGHT side of the locomotive I did my best to capture the cab. Unfortunately, I could only find ONE picture and the picture in question is the one with the locomotive in its current condition, that being derelict. Here, we have a water glass on the left, In-Cab signals in the middle, Steam pressure gauge is located below the signals, Speedometer is to the right of the firebox followed immediately after the throttle. The brakes are located below followed by the power reverse on the cab floor. Oil "stoker" is located under the water glass along with gauges.
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Hello together, we have the beginning of October, so time for an new OcTRAINber ;-) Whereby I will be honest: I started with this project already at the beginning of September (after the announcement of the topic for this OcTRAINber) and thus in the construction a month ahead. But I first wanted to get a feeling for whether I can even create such a project in the short time. I therefore show here in the first days the construction progress of September and then approach after a few days the actual state on my desk. Ps: for the readers from a German forum: please do not spoil ;-) Thomas
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DISCLAIMER: This steam locomotive featured below was heavily inspired by pictures of @SavaTheAggie's 4-4-0 from 2007, visible here. I added a tender inspired by another Sava loco (his 4-6-0, also from 2007) as seen here. I also made the front bogie actually connect to the front of the loco. (before, in the original design it was totally free-floating) I also made a few structural / style tweaks here and there, to make it "my own". My dad is getting this loco for his 65th birthday, as I wanted to make him something he would find relatable to his own collection of 1990's / early 2000's 9v era trains, of which he has most of what was released. This engine is meant to go with a few copies of 10015 - Passenger Wagon, and a single 10014 - Caboose will accompany this engine. The loco isn't motorized however, but it can be by removing the tender's wheels and adding in a 9v motor instead. Sadly, when I gave it to him I forgot to get pictures of the whole train together... this older picture will have to do until I can get a proper one taken. Thoughts?
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Stupid name, I know. It wasn't intended to stick, but here we are... This MOC started out as a chassis test and grew from there. I was trying to build as compact a steam based driveline as possible, similar to my Powered Up Shunter from a while back. While that was the smallest I felt I could go with a Diesel (using strictly LEGO parts and legal techniques only) this was kind of the same exercise but with a steam locomotive. Obviously I couldn't hide a battery box in the loco anywhere, so I made a tender. Not prototypical, I know, but this isn't based on anything in particular. It's fantasy for a fictional railway that doesn't really even exist outside of a couple of locos with the WFLR initials on them! That being said, here is my design process so far. Power Tank Engine MOC on Imgur. Sorry for the whole external host thing. Maybe I'll modify the post once I get time to manually resize all the images and embed them from the Imgur links. For now, the external link will have to do. Sorry! I may convert this into a proper tank engine at some point with a coal bunker on the back and a boxcar for the battery box, but I'm pretty happy with it for now.
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[MOC] Lego DB BR80 12v - in Torben Plagborg style (8-wide)
Paperinik77pk posted a topic in LEGO Train Tech
Hi all, since I read the very, very interesting thread about Torben Plagborg creations, I've been trying some new designs (some are just sketches, just to understand how things could work). Now, in this nice thread some nice 12v creations can be seen - but one captured my interest more than others. It's a little blue steamer with a black 12v motor. It seems pretty big, so I'd say it was an 8-wide experiment. In general, all the top shelves are very interesting. Starting from that little steamer, I began to think about a 12v locomotive in 8-wide. So I started designing another small steamer (I'd say a well known prototype): the great Deutsche Bundesbahn BR-80. 8-wide is not a common scale for me - I only tried it two times in my whole life, so it was a trial and error process. I tried to use parts that could have been available in the last 80s /first 90s - during the Phase II of the Gray Era and the advent of 9v era. And here it is...it recalls me a "fat" 7727/7730, with a touch of 7810... 8-wide gives some possibility also to work with odd number of studs (boiler is 5 studs wide instead of the classic 4-wide used in standard 12v steamers). I kept the standard cylinders, the ladders, rods, red buffers and magnets, which fit nicely an keep the 12v feeling alive. I used Some SNOT for the doors, using headlight bricks. Everything was already experimented at the time (e.g. the B-model wagon with horizontal sliding doors in 7735 instructions). Right side is quite symmetrical to the left one, apart some details. 12v motor looks nice, now that the body is correctly larger. Weights can sit on top of the motor - but the model could already be sufficiently heavy to have some decent traction and pulling power. I think adding lights won't be a problem nowadays, but for sure at the time (80s/90s) it could have been an additional challenge ! But...there are some issues that must be noted: The buffers overhang is quite...massive - and this SURELY will create problems with 12v switches, since the buffers will collide with the switching electric mechanism. Coupling wagons on R40 curves could be impossible...since this BR80 is longer than any other 12v locomotive or wagon not based on bogies chassis. Weight of a complete train could be excessive for the poor 12v motors. I think it has been a very fun experiment, a real "12v+" MOC...but being realistic - in my opinion it's too limited by the motor, wheels size...and 12v track geometry itself . Maybe, with 3d printed 12v wheels and a PF-based motor it could work on PF flexible track - but it would then loose 90% of its "vintage" appeal. I'd classify it as "Virtual Shelf Queen" ! Ciao! Davide -
Of all shown below, credit is due to Zephyr1934, SavatheAggie, and TJJohn12 for making awesome models / instructions that helped me with this. Below you will see breakdowns of all these trains. Conjunction Junction, Katy Caboose, and 2-8-0 "Consolidation" This 2-8-0 engine pulls the Conjunction Jct. freight train along with Katy Caboose, who brings up the train's rear. In 2010, I bought instructions for @SavaTheAggie's "2-8-0 Consolidation" six-wide steam locomotive from Bricklink. I never really used them beyond learning techniques for useful building steam engines that could actually take curves - unlike my own late 2009 4-4-0 MOC that worked well only on straight track! You can see Sava's original 2-8-0 model here (in red / yellow with oil tender) at his new-ish online home for his awesome instructions. Both sets of instructions were dusted off recently, and I used the boiler design for this loco seen here. I had to shorten the engine to make it fit in a three and a half track space, otherwise the original cab and other items would be here. (Basically, all that remains from those instructions is the boiler.) The tender is smaller than the one Sava used, but it must fit inside the loco shed I'm building. The first two (NOT + THIS) are obviously Boxcars. The BUT tanker (most likely hauling Butane) and THAT boxcar. Next up, AND (which is possibly a refrigerated goods wagon) plus an OR (ore) hopper. Heavily inspired by a @zephyr1934 MOC of "Katy" from the classic children's book "The Caboose who got Loose" by ex-Disney animator Bill Peet. Zephyr's version can be seen here, from which mine was reverse-engineered via pictures. Emerald Express and 2-6-0 "Mogul" This 2-6-0 engine pulls my Emerald Express heavyweight passenger train. I had to change out the Pacific as the Sava-inspired 4-6-2 wouldn't fit in my train shed as it was too long for the stall. So, I slapped a new boiler (identical to the style used on the 4-6-2 Pacific) on my older set 7597-style 2-6-0 and thus this Sava-style 2-6-0 was created. As for the 2-8-0, I removed the walkways on that locomotive to make it better match the 2-6-0. The tender is the same one I used before on my newer 4-4-0's and 2-6-0's and is identical to the 2-8-0's as well. This combination baggage and passenger car (known as a combine) relies heavily on techniques taken from the Disney Retlaw baggage car MOC instructions by @TJJohn12. The two identical day coaches have inset doors I designed myself. The observation car of the Emerald Express. The rear deck isn't the best, but it works using the parts available in dark green... a not too common color in some brick varieties! 4-8-2 "Mountain" Eight years ago, I bought instructions from @SavaTheAggie's Bricklink shop (back when you could sell custom instructions on the site) for a green 4-6-2 'Pacific' type steam loco. I never really used them, up until now. I added a more modern frame, smaller wheels, pistons and my own tender. I also added 2 more driving wheels to make it into a 4-8-2 Mountain-type steam loco. All that remains from those instructions is the boiler and basic 7-wide cab "look". (I also obviously changed the color to be mostly red.) You can see Sava's original model here (in regular green with oil tender), at his new-ish online home for his awesome instructions. The tender is basically the same one I used before on my newer 4-4-0's, 2-8-0, and 2-6-0, although it's been stretched two studs for this loco. It's actually not much smaller than the original one Sava built for his Pacific. The cab controls. As you may have noticed, I'm using parts stolen from my 'Haunted Engine' project all over this engine as it wasn't exciting me that much anymore and I was running into issues with finding parts. NOTES: 2-8-0 and 2-6-0 Models completed as of 7/19/22. Two orders down, two to go! (The rest of the parts are coming today / tomorrow.) I will update this thread when it's done as soon as I can. Thoughts?
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Wild West railroad engine shed for steam locomotives MOC - real world WIP
Murdoch17 posted a topic in LEGO Train Tech
This railway engine shed was mostly inspired by user @lightningtiger, who designed the basic Technic frame on his own smaller shed for his town in 2018, and I ran with the technique to create this wooden western-style steam locomotive shed. It is also slightly inspired by by the shed used to store the replica Union Pacific "119" and Central Pacific "Jupiter" 4-4-0 steam locomotive's over at the Golden Spike National Historic Park. (link is to Wikipedia article on the site) located at Promontory Summit, Utah. The shed is 3 1/2 tracks long with a total of 56 studs from back wall to the leading edge of the baseplate. (I ordered 3D printed half-track segments for the model, which aren't in LDD. The model shown uses a full length straight instead, and is thus much longer than it will actually be when finished.) The building also features a cow skull on the front between the locomotive stalls, just to give it that Wild West flair. The roof of the shed is not removable, but it can fold open a bit on clips on either side. The model neatly fits both 4-4-0's I recently made that were inspired by 7597. (These loco's also are heavily inspired by 119 and Jupiter, in case you couldn't tell!) The rear of the shed features a personnel door for workers. Up on the roof, you may have noticed those round black things: they are the vents for smoke and soot from steam engines to exit the building. Slight update to train shed as of 7/14/22: The 3D printed half-track pieces I bought didn't want to attach to the baseplate properly, so they have been removed. Also, the 8x16 bricks were hitting the side-rods of the steam locomotives, so they were replaced with a multitude of 6x8 plates to lower the platform to a height where they wouldn't collide. ...And that's all I have done for now. More real world WIP pictures will comes as soon as possible. As usual, comments, complaints, and suggestions on this model welcome! -
1980's-style Red and Blue passenger train and 4-6-4+4-6-4 (Double Hudson) Garratt steam locomotive
Murdoch17 posted a topic in LEGO Train Tech
The look of this train was partially inspired by several 4.5v and 12v-era sets, such 7715 / 7818 for the color scheme and 7740 along with it's supplemental sets 7815 and 7819 for the general look of the coaches. Some parts of this train (the coaches) have already been built from about five years back, while the loco is still a WIP for now. This steam locomotive was slightly inspired by the Rhodesia Railways "15th class" that was used in what is now Zimbabwe. This 4-6-4+4-6-4 Garratt type was 74-units strong and was built by Beyer-Peacock and Company starting in 1940, and after WWII from 1947 to 1952 in seven total batches. You can read more about this specific loco class on Wikipedia. My LEGO MOC version is 'fueled' by oil, whereas the real-world 15th class was coal fired. This is one of the reasons why I said it was "inspired by" and not an exact duplicate of a 15th class. However, the front unit does features a prototypical streamlined casing, and the rear unit partially does too. This LEGO model can take some serious curves (much more than what's shown above!), but that's what you get for building a Garratt: it's one of this type of locomotive's strengths. This picture just shows off the articulation points of my MOC, but technically it could split a switch* and still work just fine with the front engine on one track and rear unit on a second one! *NOTE: Don't try that with a real-world steam loco! The doors on the cab of the loco are supposed to be the 1980's ones with blue print on the lower half. Another missing print is on the oil tank hatches, while number / letter tiles go on the front and rear units. (The front unit gets the numbers, while the rear section gets the letters saying LLR, which stands for LegoLand Railroad.) This baggage / passenger car is called a combine which is short for "combination". All the doors can open on this train, even the sliding ones shown here. The three passenger coaches are identical in every way. The observation car, the rear-most coach on the train, features a platform for sight seeing. The steam loco is still being parted out using pieces from the previous streamlined electric engine and from parts from my collection. Until it's done this is a WIP thread, but suggestions / comments / questions are always welcome no matter the project stage. Drop your thoughts below! -
I will be taking the Daylight to Brickworld... [to be continued] [album on flickr]
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Hello, our latest moc train-base, we tried a 0-10-0 and it works fine in normal lego curves :
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Today i would like to present you a steam powered machine shop like they used to exist before electric power was widespread. It includes a powered up medium motor hidden in the side building and a train hub for powering the line shaft and making everything move. But without further talking here are the pics: as you can see it is still in the wip phase but you get the idea here is a view of the inside. you can see the powered up motor + hub in the small side building. there is a steam engine, its boiler, the line shafts to transmit the rotary power throughout the entire shop,a drill press, a workbench table complete with a benchvise and a lathe. i am planning to add more tools like a vertical mill and/or a shaper to it. a closeup of the steam engine: it features a moving piston rod and crank/flywheel, a flyweight governour and the various oilers necessary to keep the engine running. a closeup of the drillpress: it also has an oiler to oil the bottom bearing and it features an arrangement of belts (not shown here) to get the power to the head of the drillpress to get the drill spinnnign a closeup of the lathe: this one was inspired by nwbricks on rebrickable but was modified to work and look like a belt driven lathe with its two pulleys for selecting different speeds for turning various diameters and the obligatory oilers that these early bearings needed to keep running smoothly. the build was heavily inspired by Dave Richards from youtube who has built himself a workshop just like back in the steam era days complete with various steam powered metal working machines. Hope you like my model(s)!
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Hello guys: today i would like to present you a small steam locomotive based on the ones used in industrial or logging settings in the early days of steam locomotives. it isnt based off of any real prototype, i just wanted to capture the look and feel of one of these locos. it features a moving piston that moves up and down as the locomotive moves. sadly it is not motorized as there was just no space to do so. Hope you like the model and happy new year to all of you!
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7597 Western Train Chase steam locomotive fixes and tender addition - with free LDD file
Murdoch17 posted a topic in LEGO Train Tech
Ever since buying my first copy of Toy Story 3 LEGO set 7597 in May / June 2010, I've wanted to make the steam engine in the set look more realistic. The lack of tender bothered me greatly, and so did a few other things I talk about below. I created my first steam loco MOC I could call my own from it's framework, but that failed hard to even make turns at all when built in real life. (I suspect R120 wouldn't even work with that model.) So, it was scrapped in 2012 after sitting around for two years despite my best attempts to get it working. The Lone Ranger sets came out the following year, and I forgot about the odd 7597 engine as years went by and my skills increased. Then, in July / August of this year, a decade after I bought the original copy, I saw set 7597 sitting complete in a window of my local LEGO resale store. It was purchased, and I started working on a design soon thereafter. Of course, the person who purchased it for me (It cost a bit) wouldn't let me get at it physically until November, but nonetheless, here is that design all polished up and ready to roll into your collection via the free LDD file you can find at the end of this post. The locomotive as it is in LDD upon opening the file, which you will find at the bottom of this post. Almost all the needed parts for this MOD are grouped in the file. Everything else should already be on the stock loco model from the set, though it will need to be mostly taken apart to allow you to rebuild it with my changes. if you are building the MOD from set 7597, there are only two printed 1 x 4 green bricks on the tender that should be printed like so. However, if you are building the loco from scratch, use four of the above parts, (two on tender, two on the loco) and one of these 2 x 2 red printed bricks for the number on the headlight. 99.8% of the parts needed for the conversion from the set are shown above. The printed parts are unprinted as shown, and the red wheels are shown, but not available from BrickLink. You will need need one of these custom wheel parts packs in red color (plus 4x part 2878 for holding said custom wheels) for the tender wheels from BrickTracks to complete the tender. Among my changes, I lowered the loco cab floor of my copy of 7597 (Western Train Chase) loco by a brick or so to compensate for the roof being a brick fewer height-wise and to better match the floor of the tender. This still allows for the taller 2010 Toy Story figures to still fit inside the loco cab, and also making for a smoother transition from train cars to steam engine. This change also made the left-to-right swiveling driving wheel section impossible to keep, (I didn't like it anyway!) and by extension the front bogie had to change too. Thus, the connection to the leading wheels from the driving wheels was changed to a 10194-syle design to allow for you to push the train on the track without derailing. I also never liked the awkward original piston design in 7597, so I changed it to have a more stable, non-floppy connection to the engine via a double Technic pin connector. Actual working cylinders connected to the new side rods will never be a thing on this engine due to the way the pistons are attached to the new moving front bogie instead of the boiler, but I can mimic the effect pretty well with the design I have here. You can find the LDD file here at my Bricksafe page for it. I haven't quite finished taking pictures of my version of the model, but this photo of it and it's sister loco (dark blue steamer NOT Included in file!) will do for now. Please note, the model shown has color changed side-rods and "pistons" due to parts I had on hand from my collection. It isn't quite like the LDD file because the parts in said file are cheaper when colored like they are. (Thought I'd save you guys a couple dollars / yen / rubles / euros, etc.) Plus, it makes my different than everybody else's! Thoughts? -
[MOC - MOD] 7777 Idea book - Obscure unloading station locomotive - 12v
Paperinik77pk posted a topic in LEGO Train Tech
Hi all, during a pleasant discussion in this thread... ...a very interesting question was raised by @SDLgo9 member: The 7777 idea book pages mentioned here are those three pages showing the blue matter (!) unloading station and the famous auto-unloading wagons. These wagons are pulled by an obscure locomotive, which is never fully depicted. In fact - the front view is missing, and there's no clear view of the boiler. I've NEVER taken care of it, nor analyzed it too much. It really seems a 7730-based locomotive, but simplified in some details. There's a strange combination of "simple look" and now overpriced rare parts. So maybe it's simple - but it is a wanted effect? Analyzing the whole scenery depicted in the book - it's not a place for a fancy locomotive. There's work to do - wagons are fully loaded and heavy, so that unloading station surely needs a workhorse. And these workhorse is powerful, maybe not so good looking, but simple and solid, ready for its everyday duty. Here's a rear view, similar to the one in the Idea Book: It's a long locomotive and it's not using the classic train base (like 7810). It's pretty boxy and looks heavy. I had to take the scans from Brickfactory and to modify the photos to see a bit better. But which parts were used of the body is pretty unknown to me. So, we have the 2x2x1 black windows on the rear part - being a 7730 derivate - there are also doors, and at this point, the 1x2x1 small black windows. But it seems (to me) that these are not facing towards the front, and instead are used as small side windows. Side reservoirs are big, so fitting the two weight bricks was not a problem. The smoke stack is visible and there's not so much to say - but the boiler...is not completely visible. I added a square steam dome just for completeness. There's an headlight on top of boiler, and it seems there are also two headlights on the "nose". They are not fully visible, for this reason I think these are not placed on the corners of the chassis. Let's try: Simple and straight - the boiler is not round, but goes down to the chassis, same "steering wheel" as in the 7730. Headlights are a bit more inwards. All in all it's a simplified 7730 nose. Then, a more "Narrow Gauge" look - always with 7730 parts: There could be more styles, just removing the front steering wheel part and playing with slope parts. Suggestions are welcome!!! Davide -
LB&SCR E2 Class Tank Engine ("Railway Series" Thomas)
The Lego Railway Series posted a topic in LEGO Train Tech
I've been a long time lurker here and decided to finally bite the bullet and post. I don't know how tagging works or what the etiquette is for this site yet, so feel free to yell at me for that stuff it I miss something or whatever. Anyway I've been posting stuff on twitter and other places for a while now but I thought I would break the ice here finally. So here is my most recent build, its all digital for now until I have the funds to actually start building my models. But here is my Railway Series inspired Thomas the Tank Engine. 31.5 studs long buffer to buffer. he's a long boy, so the couplings swivel atm to make it around bends with rolling stock. currently I doubt they will work for pushing, but ill find a solution to that when I build the model physically. pulling should be fine. 15 stud wheelbase from the center of the wheels. (I know the middle isn't a blind in the images and that a physical build would require it) Fully motorized with a PF M motor and an IR receiver and powered by a normal 9v Battery with an adaptor wire. Full decorated cab interior. I've also done my best to make sure he's build out of parts that actually exist and actually physically buildable and legal. This model does have a single illegal technique, the hands holding the flex tube on the left side of the boiler.
