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[WIP] 2003 New Flyer D60HF Metro Transit Bus
JLiu15 posted a topic in LEGO Technic, Mindstorms, Model Team and Scale Modeling
All my bus models up to this point have been of buses currently in active service. However, my next bus model will be of an older, retired bus: Metro Transit's 2003 New Flyer D60HF. Metro Transit, the transit operator in the Minneapolis-St. Paul metropolitan area, ordered a large number of New Flyer D60HF articulated buses in the 1990s and 2000s, with the final buses in 2006 being the last high-floor articulated buses ever built in the US and Canada. Over the years, they have been gradually replaced by newer New Flyer D60LFR and XD60 articulated buses, and the final D60HF buses were retired by 2021. A number of units were bought by private owners after retirement, such as #3143 (a 2003 model), which was exhibited at the 2022 NJ Historic Bus Festival. My plan is to make my model be of bus #3143; the simple yellow/blue livery should be easy to build in LEGO so the amount of custom stickers for this model should be minimal (only the fleet numbers, Metro Transit logos, and destination signs come to mind). Thanks to the high-floor design and the boxy build of the original bus, it should be easier to incorporate mechanisms into this model as opposed to my New Flyer XD60 model as New Flyer Xcelsiors are low-floor buses. The chassis can be reinforced much better (I could probably make it 5 studs high throughout the bus, same as the rear section of my XD60 model), and I may even be able to place all electronic components and mechanisms in the chassis without placing any (e.g. the doors mechanism) in the roof. The model will use Power Functions motors and will be controlled by SBrick. The tentative list of functions/features for this model is: Drive (with two XL motors; my XD60 model with one XL motor felt a little underpowered) Steering (with working steering wheel) Pneumatically opened doors (one of these per door) Cummins engine model (with new engine elements from 42170 Kawasaki set) Bike rack (removable) The design process starts out by using my New Flyer XD60 model as a base to determine the locations of various features (axles, bellows, etc). I plan to use 49.5x14mm tires for this model, as they offer better proportions than 49.5x20mm tires. The middle and rear axles with double wheels can also be spaced further apart, allowing me to use a 5.5L axle with stop and thus prevent the half shafts from pulling out from the differential under load, an issue experienced with my XD60 model. I still need to determine the seating layout of the original bus, which will make it much easier to design the chassis without needing to make adjustments later on for the passenger seats. I also plan to use the new engine elements from the 42170 Kawasaki set in the Cummins engine model, as the axles-and-bushes design is a bit noisy and I've found it to jam a few times too when using it in my previous bus models. Side note: I have found the new Kawasaki engine pistons to not "click" properly in place to a liftarm, stud or the crank disks in Stud.io - maybe this is just due to these parts being new and not having been really refined yet in Stud.io? Would love to hear any other experiences with this. There's still much to be done, but I'm looking forward to this MOC. I've already built an articulated bus model, and this one should be more straightforward with the high-floor and boxy design. I strive to add something new in every one of my bus models, and I'm curious to see how the pneumatic doors turn out (all my previous bus models used mini linear actuators or a worm gear for the door). If you guys have any suggestions for me, please let me know.