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Showing results for tags 'steam'.
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Hello everyone, after building the 99 236 last year, it was now the turn of the "mother," aka 99 222. I started on the locomotive back in 2022, but paused construction in favor of the 99 236 and the IK. Now I've been able to complete the locomotive. Here you can find the video like always: Pictures of the moc are available on Flickr: Best regards, Niklas
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Western fans rejoice! The River steamboat has just rounded the bend in the river and is pulling up to the dock! 21356 River Steamboat Rated 18+, 4,090 pieces $329.99 / £289.99 / €329.99 Available at LEGO.com from 7th April The ship's display stand is removable, and the paddlewheel apparently rotates when the vessel is pushed on a flat surface. More pictures are visible at Brickset. Additionally, there will be a GWP: 5009157 Amelia Ticket Booth will be available exclusively with the River Steamboat between the 7th and 13th of April (or while supplies last) What are you thoughts on this new set and it's GWP? Leave them below! -
So after looking at my 2-6-2 steam loco a bit harder late last month, I decided the tender for that loco was too small by two studs length-wise. Thus, in order to make it more proportionate in relation between engine and tender, I made a longer tender for that loco (which is already uploaded to EB in it's final form in this thread) and added the old tender to this brand-new 0-4-0 yard goat. This oil-fired switcher shares a piston design with my MOC of Lady from Thomas and the Magic Railroad. The rear of the loco. Credit where it's due, the cab design and some of the tender were inspired by @SavaTheAggie's 2-6-2 design from over a decade ago. Inside the 7 wide cab. This tiny loco might also be my last Brick Railway Systems engine as the letters / numbers on my engines are getting WAY too expensive, and my stash of them is practically empty. I'll still build other stuff, (probably freight cars, which I don't have a lot of) but I have too many locos as it is, so this might be the end of that. It's kinda funny though, as my locomotive collection started with a 0-4-0 twenty years ago, and it just might end with this same wheel arrangement! Thoughts?
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The permanently parked 2-6-2 'Prairie' steam loco is enshrined in a small public space in Lego City. The park used to be much bigger, but eminent domain for more buildings has shrunk it down quite a bit to the size you see now. Nowadays, the OCTAN Company is threatening to take the rest to make into a automotive service station, hence the billboard. Octan and the local historical society are currently slugging it out in the courts to see what will happen to this lot and it's resident steam loco. Nevertheless, this park remains a popular place to grab a hot dog from the vendor and hold a picnic. If you need a rest on your walk, there are two benches, and if you want to read some about the loco there is plaque is placed behind the stairs to the engine's cab. The back side of the MOC, which is pretty ugly and sparsely decorated. I've been on a bit of a modular building kick recently... this plinthed 2-6-2 Prairie-type steam loco with surrounding public park is like my twelfth in a year or so. I've got two others waiting in the wings waiting to be finished as well. The food stall is run by Heimlich Stewblaster from the old LEGO Universe video game. ...Someone left a cake out in the rain, with all the sweet cream icing running down... (this is a reference to a song called 'MacArthur Park' and was sung by Richard Harris - yes, the original Dumbledore had a singing career!) Back when Bricklink allowed you to buy custom MOC instructions, I bought some plans for a small 2-6-2 steam loco from @SavaTheAggie in January 2014. (You can now buy Sava's instructions for his original MOC - and more - at Brick Train Depot.) I devoured the instructions, used the techniques shown to make me a better builder. Now, ten years later, I've revisited the model: I built it in LDD, (with some stand-ins for BBB parts) then went to town making it into my style and then bought the parts in the real world. I changed the boiler to be studs-up instead of SNOT, and removed the squeaky old tiny wheels from the model, and made space for XS Big Ben Bricks wheels instead. (this actually was easier than I thought it'd be!) I added a different stack along with heavily revising the piston / side rod assembly. As for the all-new, longer tender, different wheels were added and a 'painted' box put on the sides. The rear of the loco. The engine is numbered 119 and lettered for BRS (Brick Railway Systems), my original LEGO railroad that I began when I was in late-stage elementary school nearly 20 years ago. (Man, how time flies!) I also gave it the original black-and-red paint scheme of my first train MOCs from the early 2010's, as a nod to my past. This loco was my third set of instructions I purchased from Sava back in the day, although I had never built this one until now. (I did build the 4-6-0 and Berkshire I bought in 2010 and 2012 respectively, but oddly not this one from 2014) The inside of the cab. Thoughts? EDIT: @JopieK Do you you think this in the right area? Or should it be moved to town? I was confident before in my placement, but now I'm not so sure...
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NOTE: The steam loco itself began life as a 2-8-4 Berkshire type built by @Plastic_Goth and the instructions were purchased from Rebrickable as seen here. To make this steamer my own, I upped the wheel count of the original locomotive by another leading axle, making it into a 4-8-4 Northern-type from the original 2-8-4 Berkshire as built in the instructions. The piston / wheel assembly is entirely my own work, as is the completely new 7-wide tender and the train the loco pulls. The whole train, with the steam loco and five cars - a baggage car, three coaches, and a observation lounge. This engine originally pulled my MOW (Maintenance Of Way) train when it was built three years ago. Now, it's been upgraded to passenger train service. I also updated the front of this 4-8-4 steam loco model to have a smaller cowcatcher, as opposed to the original one-piece cowcatcher I originally had installed. The rear of the loco, which is lettered for my railroad, Brick Railway Systems. Inside the cab of the engine. The baggage car. All five cars use roller-skates for door handles. These three identical passenger cars are also in the train. The observation car on the tail end of the train uses four of the new 3x3 macaroni brick parts in trans-clear for the back window. These parts are actually the reason I didn't upload this a month or so ago when the rest of the train was finished - I had to wait for them to arrive from Pick-A-Brick. Thoughts? Comments are always welcome!
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It`s all started as attempt of making an engine based on some cool British Rail engines from P2`s series with 2-8-2 wheel arrangement. It`s not an accurate build but mostly "inspired by". I tried to give it some kind of option for possible motorization. No custom wheels (sadly) and only custom windows (prints/stickers) Lapis Lazuli Luminar bricklink Ruby Rocket bricklink Peridot Pathfinder bricklink Bonus y
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This model is a complete remodel of my quite recently completed BR01 . Once finished with the first iteration it never felt quite right. The proportions seemed way of and there was quite a lot of details I didn't get right. This time around it feels a lot better. It have gotten longer, taller and perhaps most notably; wider. The added width suits the rather wide proportions of the minifigures. It will also provide ampel space in the passenger car I've designed for this. Furthermore tests have been made on track and it seem to handle R104 without problem. While i'm most pleased with the current state of the model suggestions and tips are always welcome. I try to read up on whatever it is i'm building but the steam locomotives have quite a lot going on with them so the chances are that i've overlooked at least one detail of importance. ...since i'm using #7750 stickers it seemed fitting to add in a modern retake on the original minifigures.
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Originally, me and my dad made me a train way back in the early 2000's as my first train MOC. (you can see it as the last photo of this post) At my request, he got rid the bright colors of the original 1980's train sets it was inspired by with more subdued tones. The black and red are what became the standard color scheme for my fledgling railway for a good many years. And now, two decades later in 2024, I'm updating this original train again. This time, I've Americanized them. Before they were more European looking, with a baggage car at the rear - now, they will have an observation car with a platform at the back and the baggage car added to the front of the train instead. I also added a updated 4-6-2 steam loco with a 7-wide cab and tender inspired by the works of @SavaTheAggie. I really liked the cab and tender from from the 2-6-2 steam loco I recently built (which was originally a Sava design) so I decided to make another engine that uses them too. I took a 4-6-0 frame (originally from the 2023 Hogwarts Express loco) model, stretched it out a bit and added the 7-wide cab to make it a 4-6-2 Pacific (the 2-6-2's tender design was stretched out quite a bit too!). I also put on a bucket as a funnel like in the Orient Express LEGO set. Rear of the loco, with the stretched tender design mostly taken from a few Sava models. (his 2-6-2 for the basic look, and his 4-6-0 for the stripes) BRS stands for Brick Railway Systems, which has been my railway for twenty years. This anniversary prompted me to make this revised MOC. Inside of the cab, which has also been lengthened by a stud since the last time I showed it off. Inspired by set 7722 (steam cargo train set) and the red / yellow guard's van. These three coaches were inspired by the red and blue coaches of set 7715. (Push along passenger train) The observation car is my own design. ...and here is what it all looked like originally. (picture circa 2017) The diesel at bottom left is long scrapped, but the original 0-4-0 steamer survives to this day. This tiny loco was inspired by set 7722 (steam cargo train set) while the steam engine's tender was inspired by 3742 (My Own Train series) from 2001. Thoughts?
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My beefed version of 58 engine with more wheels for balance and yeah like people from reddit mention it`s also kind of looks like BR GT3 (not international but...) Sadly not a motorized version coz i don`t know witch setup is better (i could use just for big wheels standard lego train motor or use something other (now it`s lot`s of options but sadly not all i could integrate (for now)) Bricklink
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Notes: For the sternwheeler, I saw a similar steamboat on LEGO Ideas a number of years ago and in 2019 I finally got around to recreating it from the pictures provided. (the project sadly never made it past several hundred votes, it my memory is correct.) I modified it heavily into the version you see far below with my own tweaks and twists in the design installed, such as I added a second funnel, revised the placement of said funnels to the front of the ship, and removed the roof off most of the second deck. Oh, and I added three whistles to the top of the pilot's cab like those in set 21317. (Steamboat Willie). The sidewheeler model (seen directly below) was created in 2024 out of my desire to have two very different styles of steamboats in my collection, with this one being a sidewheeler, and the other a sternwheeler. (I also have a 1930s towboat and a few tows to complete the scene, but those are too modern for this thread.) The sidewheeler has no interior, just like the sternwheeler, and was also inspired by set 21317. I named this later vessel Lodi and the first one Proud Mary - both of which are Creedence Clearwater Revival rock-n-roll songs from over 50 years ago. Lodi (sidewheeler, built 1869) "...Just about a year ago I set out on the road Seekin' my fame and fortune Lookin' for a pot of gold Thing got bad things got worse I guess you will know the tune Oh! lord stuck in Lodi again..." This notorious side-wheel steamboat, named Lodi, was named after the city of it's construction in 1869. But unlike the strict city of Lodi, with it's anti-gambling stance, Sunday no-business laws and abstinence from alcohol attitude, this boat thumbs it's nose at those rules, resembling the city in name only. It's a haven for card-sharks, shady ladies, pick pockets, and con men selling 'medicinal' snake oil cure-alls. Why would anyone take a ride on the Lodi, you ask? Well, the only other steamboat plying Rapid River is the slightly older Proud Mary stern-wheeler, which takes about a two weeks to get from one end of the river to the other. (not including stop times at towns and villages) The Lodi then has a sweet spot when the competition is out of the way: it's the only other steam boat in town, making it very easy to attract potential customers. The ship is captained by a man by the name of James Dagny, who is known for taking serious risks without a second thought to safety of his ship, passengers, or crew. This has earned him the nickname of Jim Danger, but don't call him that to his face if you value your life! (You can see him above standing by the second deck's railing towards the stern of the ship) The rear of the sidewheeler. Proud Mary (sternwheeler, built 1867) ...Left a good job in the city Workin' for the man ev'ry night and day And I never lost one minute of sleepin' Worryin' 'bout the way things might have been Big wheel keep on turnin' Proud Mary keep on burnin' Rollin', rollin', rollin' on the river... The captain of the Proud Mary is Thaddeus Sweeney, better known as "Old Man Sweet-tooth", for his habit of chewing saltwater taffy when the going gets tough and and giving candy out to the little children whenever he lands at small towns and native american villages such as Lone Tree, Nebraska, or Fort Legoredo, Colorado. He usually plies his stern-wheel steamboat up and down the Rapid River, with the Missouri River landing at Kansas City at one end, and the the mighty cliff face of Showdown Canyon Springs at the other end in the middle of Colorado. Thaddeus is the only one he trusts to handle his ship, as he says the Rapid River is too treacherous for many newer pilots, as the wrecks that litter the shoreline prove. However, even Captain Sweeney admits from time to time that age is catching up to him, and he has been looking for a suitable first mate for the Proud Mary for some time. The rear of the sternwheeler. Captain Thaddeus Sweeney, also known as Old Man Sweet-Tooth. Thoughts?
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My attempt at making a 4-6-0 locomotive. It's a tough challenge due to wheels sizes, for making it properly sized and shaped. Plus, I tried using standard cylinders for shaping the boiler. But it comes with a cost of some stability and impossible? for further motorizationBased on LNER/BR B1/B17 4-6-0 4-6-0 Victorian Voyager from BrickLink Studio [BrickLink]
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This long journey started in November 2021 with a used copy of Toy Story 3 set 7597 - Western Train Chase - bought from a local Lego resale shop here in St. Louis. I quickly expanded the loco to have a tender, then working pistons, and finally rolling stock. I was then inspired by the original 1955 engines from Disneyland for a second coal-burning loco, (the C.P. Jupiter and U.P. 119 from the Last Spike Ceremony of 1869 was also an inspiration!) and then awhile later a 4-2-4T styled after the C.P. Huntington. (This became a 2-4-4T last December.) The 4-10-0 was originally 8-wide, and was built before I got the 7597 set in August 2021. I never liked it in eight wide, (I never even photographed it in that form) and when I was taking apart all my eight wide MOCs recently, I took pity on it and converted it into 6 wide to preserve it. Then, I took photos of all the locos... I still haven't finished some of the freight cars, so the rolling stock will be added later. (I promise it won't be three more years!) All rolling stock added 6/1/24! The trains all together, minus the rolling stock. This 4-4-0 pulls my passenger train This was the first engine finished. Rear of loco No. 1. It's styled as a mid-to-late 1860's wood burning loco. You could also say it is likened to the Jupiter and the Gov. Stanford of Central Pacific Railroad fame. The passenger cars were styled after three sources: the one in set 7597 - Western Train Chase, set 10015 - Passenger Wagon, and the Disneyland and Santa Fe 'Retlaw 1' MOC's made by @TJJohn12. This is my coal burning 4-4-0 (numbered 8), and pulls my railroad executive's train. The front of the coal-burning locomotive. This MOC is modeled after a early-to-mid 1870s loco, but it could be considered to partially resemble the Union Pacific 119 from the Last Spike ceremony of 1869. The combination baggage / sleeper car is for my railway executive's train. This car's purpose and paint scheme is actually inspired by a car owned by the (fictional) Wasatch and Nevada Railroad in the 1975 Western / thriller 'Breakheart Pass', based off the novel of the same name by Alistair MacLean. This private car was based off the same source material as the tan sleeper / baggage car, which is the film Breakheart Pass. In the film, the car was named 'Fairchild', after the fictional Nevada Governor played by Richard Crenna in the film. As to why Abraham Lincoln is standing at the back of the car even though he is actually long dead by the 1870's, I have but one answer: because it looks cool to have him there! The 2-4-4 tank engine I'm using as a switcher, and is seen here moving a cut of freight cars. In my fictional backstory I wrote, loco No. 4 was originally a 0-4-4 Forney loco that soon needed a leading two wheel pony truck to operate better at speed and keep wear down on the front set of driving wheels. Of course, in reality, it was first built as a 4-2-4T like the C.P. Huntington you can still see in the California State RR Museum, or at you local Zoo / amusement park, as smaller-scale replicas are made by Chance Rides for places like that. This coal-hauling hopper car was modified from 2007 set 10183 - Hobby Trains - specifically, it was alt model 28 - Gondola. The tanker car you see was inspired by part of the 1997 set 2126 - Train Cars. This green boxcar was taken directly from 2011 set 3677 - Red Cargo Train. The caboose was inspired by set 10014 - Caboose - and set 7597 - Western Train Chase. This monster of a steam engine hauls my freight train. This loco (No. 3) is modeled after the only 4-10-0 to ever run on US Rails. This, of course, was the 1883-vintage El Gobernador. (Spanish for "the Governor") The real locomotive was a colossal failure, but this one is (in my fictional backstory) built from the plans with the mistakes corrected, making the loco a good drag-freight engine. The rear of the engine, with it's tender being two studs longer than the others. The cannons on this flat car were inspired by 2013 Lone Ranger set 79106 - Calvary Builder Set. This drop-side gondola was inspired by the one in 2022 set 60336 - Freight Train. This red boxcar was lifted from 2006 set 7898 - Cargo Train Deluxe. The caboose was inspired by set 10014 - Caboose - and set 7597 - Western Train Chase, but done in yellow instead. This loco (No. 5) is a 4-6-0 wood-burning steam loco. The 'look' of the engine was inspired by the Baltimore and Ohio loco 'Thatcher Perkins' from 1863, but with a different, more colorful paint scheme. The rear of the loco, which does not have a train assigned to it... yet. Anyway, that's all I got. Comments, questions, and other things like that are welcome!
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Before we get to the real model pictures, first, let's set the scene: It's Friday, January 13th 1939: The Civil War in Spain is raging, Neville Chamberlain (British Prime Minster) has just started conferencing with Pope Pius XI after talking with Mussolini for the past few days, and the film 'Son of Frankenstein' is released into theaters. In a rural area west of New York on the NYC Railroad's four track water level route, a J-3 streamlined Hudson is pulling a passenger train through a picturesque snowy landscape of the early morning while heading for the Grand Central Terminal of the Big Apple. ...And now, onto the finished real-world MOC! The entire train in real bricks. This Dreyfuss-style streamlined 4-6-4 steam loco is numbered 5448 and is mostly modeled after a real, long-scrapped New York Central engine. The loco's tender really should say the railroad's full name of New York Central 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 combine three coaches the observation car. I was originally going to use the new 3x3 macaroni bricks in trans-clear for the rear window, but I couldn't obtain them. Frustrated, I gave up and made my own version. Note: As some of you might be able to guess, this loco with matching coaches were inspired by pictures of Anthony Sava's original streamlined Tequila Sunrise train from 2007... however, no instructions were used to build the engine or cars. Oh, and all the historical things stated in the intro actually happened on the stated day in 1939 according to Wikipedia... and I'll bet the train bit happened too! Thoughts?
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https://www.bricklink.com/v3/studio/design.page?idModel=523436
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Hello all, almost ten years ago I posted the first version of my 1:48 scale T1. This was one of my earliest scale models and it was perhaps not that great and/or perhaps limited by the parts of the era. The model underwent many changes over the years, but at least from an aesthetic standpoint it fundamentally stayed the same. Having designed, built, and operated a ton more trains since then, I finally decided to do a complete rebuild of the T1, and this latest version shares practically nothing with the earlier versions save for the overall profile. Most significantly I moved the drivetrain from the tender to the locomotive, after testing a similar setup in my PRR Q2 (behind). This is a much simpler and more performant setup, and unlike the Q2, the T1 has coupled bogies and can navigate R40 geometry. It it also still an almost entirely purist build save for the BBB #11 and #5 wheels. Anyways, see the video for more details and running shots, and have a nice day! -
Hello everyone, after a long time without a new locomotive, I would like to introduce you to my newest MOC: 99 236 of the Harz narrow-gauge railways (HSB). The model is my most complex one until now (11 months of construction time, over 5,000 bricks). About the original: The 99 236 (formerly 99 7236-5) has been my absolute favorite locomotive for as long as I can remember. Therefore, it was clear that when the time came and after I had some experience with building MOCs (99 1782-4, Mallet 11sm) I had to build this machine out of Lego. About the model: The locomotive is completely to scale and is powered by two L-motors on one axle. I'm a little proud of the slanted driver's cab windows, the slanted tender and the snow clearers, which cost me a lot of work. The MOC can run on standard garden railway tracks of gauge IIm (gauge 45mm). As always, I have put together a short video with detailed shots, driving videos and, as a bonus, a ride with the great role model from Wernigerode to Drei Annen Hohne. I hope you enjoy watching it. Best regards, Niklas -
Back when Bricklink allowed you to sell custom instructions, I bought some plans for a small 2-6-2 Prairie-type steam loco from @SavaTheAggie in January 2014. I devoured them, used the techniques shown to make me a better builder. Now, exactly ten years later, I've revisited the model: I built it in LDD, (with some stand-ins for BBB parts) then went to town making it into my style, and now it's done in the real world. You can see Sava's original MOC on his Flickr page here. I changed the boiler to be studs-up instead of SNOT, and removed the squeaky old tiny wheels from the model, and made space for XS Big Ben Bricks wheels instead. (this actually was easier than I thought it'd be!) I added a bigger headlight, and a different stack along with heavily revising the piston / side rod assembly. As for the tender, different wheels were added and a 'painted' box put on the sides. The engine is numbered 119 and lettered for BRS (Brick Railway Systems), my original LEGO railroad that I began when I was in late-stage elementary school nearly 20 years ago. (Man, how time flies!) I also gave it the original black-and-red paint scheme of my first train MOCs from the early 2010's, as a nod to my past. This loco was my third set of instructions I purchased from Sava back in the day, although I had never built this one until now. (I did build the 4-6-0 and Berkshire I bought in 2010 and 2012 respectively, but oddly not this one from 2014) The inside of the cab. Thoughts? (Updated with new 7 wide tender 1/29/24)
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Took some ideas from recent Orient express but made it longer, thinner. And took idea with front boogies from recent Hogwarts Express and Lego's big trains wheels don`t look so small https://www.bricklink.com/v3/studio/design.page?idModel=503834
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NOTE: As some of you might be able to guess, the 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. So you think I'm building a streamlined passenger train too, right? After all, it's a streamlined locomotive... ..WRONG! Yes, I know the streamlined Hudson's never pulled freight in the real world. HOWEVER: The Iron Giant animated film has a New York Central streamlined Hudson pulling a coal train that is badly wrecked (accidentally) by the robot. As I have the Iron Giant model already built, this was a no-brainer to make. Along with the engine and tender, there are going to be four coal hoppers, as you will see. Front view of the loco. This Dreyfuss-style streamlined 4-6-4 steam loco is numbered 5448 and is mostly modeled after a real, long-scrapped New York Central engine. The tender really should say the railroad's full name of New York Central 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 cab of the loco is actually unable to fit a mini figure inside. (It's a brick too short.) These four heavily modified copies of the 1991 set 4536. (Blue Hopper Car) They lack the drop--bottom dumping feature of the set, as I made it much simpler (and cheaper!) by removing the playability from the cars. As you can see, I also had to shorten the train by one car from the original five down to four. This was because I ran out of room in the box to store them with some other freight cars. Now, if the train gets wrecked by a big metal man, I obviously need to add him to the post too! This is not my MOC: I bought the instructions for the model from B3 customs back in 2021. I found them on my hard drive again in late July 2023 and decided to build him in LDD. Then, in mid-August, I built him in real life... and promptly forgot to take photos of the completed model for over four months until November of last year. (whoops!) The rear of the robot. The original models' rotating hip joints (as used in the Build Better Bricks instructions) were removed from this version of the model because it was not strong enough. If the parts were worn even slightly, then the robot would not stand up under his own weight, breaking at the hip. Thoughts, comments or questions welcome! Updates: 1/30/24 real world photos added of everything, including Iron Giant!
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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?
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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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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.
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Updates! https://www.bricklink.com/v3/studio/design.page?idModel=418816
