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I will be taking the Daylight to Brickworld... [to be continued] [album on flickr]

Hello, our latest moc train-base, we tried a 0-10-0 and it works fine in normal lego curves :

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)!

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!

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?

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

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.

Welcome to Feel Good Island! This is your Captain DoubleBU speaking. Thank you for chosing Air "Feel Good Island" for your trip. We're ready for take-off in about 10 minutes, so please switch off your mobile phones and fasten your seat belts. During your flight with us you can experience and enjoy the following features: - Power Functions as well as (switchable) manual mode - Many rotating/moving elements - Detailed environment (with some Easter Eggs) for nice display - Also a stable and heavy structure for heavy play - Accessible battery box withoutdisassembling the whole island, completely hidden inside the structure - A landing mode, optionally with or without the specially designed tensegrity stand. - A tensegrity stand that very stably supports the island in a floating position but also allows you to easily pick it up for play. For further information please refer to our brochures "Feel Good Island" or "Tensegrity Stand" right in front of you. Thank you very much for your attention and I wish you a pleasant flight...!

This is an original creation of mine, and also one of my favorite MOCs. Though I referenced some real life streamliners, the design is wholly original. It is a streamlined Heavy Pacific locomotive, with its shape and silver accents garnering it the moniker of Silver Bullet. This MOC uses mostly vanilla parts in Bricklink Studio, aside from many of the silver parts, custom single studs used for lighting effects, and the XL wheels from Big Ben's Bricks. It also has fully modeled valve gear made entirely out of Technic, as well as an original design of corridor tender. Feel free to comment your thoughts and feedback, and lemme know what y'all want to see next.

So this is gonna be like my default thread for posting lego trains. Anyways, lemme start off by posting this double pacific Garratt, complete with railings, fully modeled valve gear, number plates, and full articulation Here's a side view with light effects

There were two trains at Disneyland opening day in 1955, and these were the Retlaw series. Retlaw 1 was the passenger train which consisted of one baggage, four passenger cars, and the observation car. Five of which are no longer used or were sold. (but the observation car is still used - as the Lilly Belle parlor car as seen in the official set) However, in this fictional revised version of the train, this retirement didn't happen, though they were modified. (Also, Retlaw 1 was NOT normally pulled by the engine C.K. Holliday, instead, it was pulled by the E.P. Ripley. But I forgot about this fact when I digitally built it / took the pictures.) The real Retlaw 1 was originally a yellow painted train, featuring front facing seats until it was mostly retired in 1971. The observation car of Retlaw 1 then became a parlor car known as the Lilly Belle. (named after Walt Disney's wife Lillian) This fictionalized train is in the revised, post-1971 color scheme of the Lilly Belle also has two passenger cars plus a baggage car with opening side doors. These cars all have side facing seats, as if Retlaw 1 were around and used in modified format after the 1971 overhaul of the Retlaw 1 observation car into the Lilly Belle. As a side note, each of the cars feature a removable wall for getting at the inside details, as in set 71044. The baggage car features two sliding doors in red, though other colors are an option to stand out more. (I prefer black doors, but that's not prototypical!) The side wall comes off, as it does on all the cars, to reveal seating. In this car, that means luggage room and two seats. The two coaches are identical in every way, and are also quite similar to the parlor car at first glance. The inside features side seating, as in the Disneyland park... this also allows for easier moving of figures, and placing them in any of the five seats per car. This is the stock LEGO set 71044 version of the parlor car, but I thought you guys would like to see it alongside everything else. The inside of the Lilly Belle is different than the other cars, featuring a table, three seats, and a bunch of table-top items (I couldn't find the teacups in my program, or make the flower pot work, so they are missing here!) The rear of the whole train. This train was designed with my father and his trains in mind, though he doesn't want to build them in real life. (This explains the 9v motor hooked onto the tender, as that's his preferred system) Thus I'm going to give away the LDD file for them, which you can find it at on my Bricksafe page.

It has been almost if not exactly or more than a year since I created the Z-6 challenger. I originally thought I could not improve it any further, but it turns out I was wrong in more ways than one. The model you see before you is a MASSIVE upgrade compared to the one I originally made. It features new trailing truck and tender bogies which have been needed to be worked on for quite some time. Those bogies that were once on the original model were both blocky and incomplete at the same time. The trailing truck is now more gradually sloped and the tender bogies now look like they were off the prototype. I also was able to number AND letter the locomotive where it represents an MTH version of the model (The MTH version of the locomotive was the source of my inspiration to constructing this behemoth and how I became a fan of this design). If you have noticed the display track the locomotive sits on, I bet you can guess what is going to become of it. But to leave no one on a cliffhanger, I will say that it will be going to the Lego Ideas website to become an actual product. If you wish to have this model on YOUR Lego train layout, be sure to support it. I will let you all know when it appears on the Lego Ideas website when I update this topic.

(Built and designed for my father, not for me) The Disneyland engines with consists in order from Left to Right: 4-4-0 "C.K. Holliday" (engine 1) from 1955 pulling the my semi-fictionalized version of the Retlaw 2 freight train 4-4-0 "E.P. Ripley" (engine 2) also from '55 is pulling the post-1971 fictionalized Retlaw 1 passenger train 2-4-4 "Fred Gurley" (engine 3) started service in 1958 and is pulling the Holliday Blue excursion train 2-4-0 "Ernest S. Marsh" (engine 4) began service in 1959. Most of the 4-4-0 models use 9v motors, as my father has that system as his preferred train propulsion type... and GatewayLUG uses the 9v style-track / motors too, so it makes it runnable at shows. The Fred Gurley is not able to be powered this way, sadly. C.K. Holliday 4-4-0 and Retlaw 2 freight train There were two trains at Disneyland opening day in 1955, and these were the Retlaw series. Retlaw 1 was the passenger train which was pulled by E.P. Ripley and consisted of one baggage, four passenger cars, and the observation car. Five of which are no longer used or were sold. (but the observation car is still used - as the Lilly Belle parlor car as seen in the official set) Retlaw 2 was the freight train, pulled by the engine as shown above - C.K. Holliday - and consisted of three cattle cars and three gondolas, plus the caboose. As you may have noticed, I chose to only use two cattle cars from that train, and no low-side gondolas... There are no pictures of those as far as I can tell before the freight cars were all converted into another train type, the same as are in LEGO set 71044. The tanker car and coal hopper are my own invention. The two cattle cars. The two doors on each side of the identical cattle cars fold down. The roof sections come of now as well. As you can see, no seats are inside these cars as there were none installed in Retlaw 2 on opening day 1955! The two gondolas have been shortened from the original versions on the original Retlaw 2, but they are pretty close to it in looks! The caboose. I made up this car, as I couldn't get the real four-world axle caboose to look good in LEGO. The caboose has a removable roof too. E.P. Ripley 4-4-0 and Retlaw 1 passenger train (fictional post-'71 rebuild) Retlaw 1 was the passenger train which consisted of one baggage, four passenger cars, and the observation car, which were pulled by E.P. Ripley on opening day in 1955. Five of which are no longer used or were sold. (but the observation car is still used - as the Lilly Belle parlor car as seen in the official set) However, in this fictional revised version of the train, this retirement didn't happen, though they were modified to suit side-seating. The real Retlaw 1 was originally a yellow painted train, featuring front facing seats until it was mostly retired in 1971. The observation car of Retlaw 1 then became a parlor car known as the Lilly Belle after Walt Disney's wife Lillian. This fictionalized train is in the revised, post-1971 color scheme of the Lilly Belle, (which is in set 71044) and also has two passenger cars plus a baggage car with opening side doors. These cars all have side facing seats, as if Retlaw 1 were around and used in modified format after the 1971 overhaul of the Lilly Belle. As a side note, each of the cars feature a removable wall for getting at the inside details, as in set 71044. My revised version of @TJJohn12's MOC of the Disneyland number 2 steam loco. I made it using parts ordered by my father, but it's still missing the 9v motor in this picture. As you can see, the loco is mainly dark blue, as it swapped colors with the originally dark green real-world engine. This is because the C. K. Holliday model in the Disney train Lego set is also color swapped, from what should be dark blue to dark green. So, basically, Lego used bits from both engines for the set, and we continued this trend here. The baggage car features two sliding doors in red, though other colors are an option to stand out more. (I prefer black doors, but that's not prototypical!) The side wall comes off, as it does on all the cars, to reveal seating. In this car, that means luggage room and two seats. The two coaches are identical in every way, and are also quite similar to the parlor car at first glance. The inside features side seating, as in the Disneyland park... this also allows for easier moving of figures, and placing them in any of the five seats per car. This car is in the LEGO set 71044, but I thought you guys would like to see it alongside everything else. Fred Gurley 2-4-4 and Holliday Blue excursion train The Holiday Blue train was added in early1966 to replace the original Retlaw 1 passenger train which was going to be being pulled from service due to slow loading / unloading at stations. (It is also notable as the last consist added to the Disneyland Railroad.) Here it is being pulled by the Fred Gurley, also known as Disneyland number 3. Here is my Dad's (now finished IRL!) third Disneyland loco, to accompany the C.K. Holliday one in set 71044 and the E.P. Ripley MOC I just finished for him: it mimics the real world Fred Gurley pretty well too. The real 2-4-4 loco has been at Disneyland since early March of 1958. This paint scheme isn't 100% accurate (black boiler / black domes are dark green / red here), but IT IS in line with the modification my Dad and I have already done to the other locomotives. The roof lifts up as normal for this series. This loco is one of my Dad's few unpowered engines, as it is impossible to fit a 9v motor underneath... or any motor block, really! The "Holiday Blue" car by themselves, with only tail-lights added to them. The Disney train my father bought has added three Bricklinked cars with some new cartoon passengers courtesy of "The Minifig Shop" LEGO resale store in Kirkwood, Missouri. Still need get the 4th car and the Lilly Belle car built from the actual set, and add the Star Wars characters to it and the empty one on the right. I should probably put Donald Duck as a he fireman as seen in the cartoon short 'Out of Scale" from the late 1950s. Ernest S. Marsh 2-4-0 Just to complete the first four locomotives from Disneyland, here is Ernest S. Marsh. It's a 2-4-0 based off the 1871 Denver & Rio Grande loco number 1, "Montezuma" and was readied for service at the California park for the first time in late April 1959. This LEGO version is also inspired by LEGO set 71044 for the two-axle tender, piston design, and general look of the engine, while the boiler design originally hails from set 7597. The tender is powered by a 9v motor, and weighed down for traction by a standard weight brick. Notes on the post and future additions: Real life pictures will be added whenever possible. Also, Disneyland RR Number 5 - Ward Kimball - is a relative newcomer to he park and is a 2-4-4 like the Fred Gurley. It would not be interesting to have two more identical locos on the roster, so it is not included, and as it arrived in 2005, it's not quite from for the time period my dad and I are attempting to model. (He is kind of not sure if he wants another loco after Fred Gurley, so the 2-4-0 steamer Ernest S. Marsh might not get built either!) Any questions, suggestions, or complaints? Let me know below! EDITED 8/26/21: added Fred Gurley (Disneyland number 3) steam loco's real world MOC pictures to this post!

Does you track need to be repaired after a major storm? Want to connect Point A to Point B with a brand new rail-line? Did the Flying Kipper have another accident on the main line? Or maybe you want to upgrade the signaling and double track the line at the same time? Call out the Maintenance Of Way (MOW) train to fix all these problems and more! This train consists of a late-1950's diesel locomotive, or a mid-1930's large eight-driving wheel steam engine and six specialty cars: - a (working!) crane car - depressed-center rail wagon - a (working!) ballast hopper - a tanker car - workman's tool car - caboose The 4-8-4 steam loco is new-to-me, and began life as a 2-8-4 Berkshire type built by Plastic_Goth and purchased from Rebrickable a seen here. To make this steamer, I upped the wheel count of @Plastic_Goth's locomotive by another leading axle, making it into a 4-8-4 Northern-type from the original 2-8-4 as built in the instructions. The new piston / wheel assembly is entirely my own work, as is the completely new 7-wide tender. The inside of the cab features two gauges and the firebox door. This model was originally a ALCO MRS-1 built by @SavaTheAggie, but has been so severely modified that it no longer looks like the prototype loco. So I went searching And found another ALCO locomotive, a RSD-12 that looks like my loco. Both my model and the prototype have the six wheels, and the same basic hood and cab design. The long hood of the loco has been designated the rear with a double red light. This car carries liquid weed killer for use after the track has been laid. This stream crane model was heavily inspired by Whoward69's instructions for a set of crane and match truck train cars. I modified the original model seen here. (sadly, it seems his Flickr profile and pictures has been deleted) I originally meant for the crane to have ropes to move the boom, but it got confusing on which rope went where so for now it's moved by the H.O.G. (Hand Of God) method. The crane can spin around in 360 degrees and lift anywhere up to 90 degrees straight up. (Their is a double set of pins keeping the boom from going too low, as well.) The heavy-duty depressed-center wagon has brick-built arms to secure the cargo of prefabricated railroad track in place. This model was inspired by a coal hopper on an older website called LGauge .com. I turned the old finger hinges into new pin-orientated ones and colored the car yellow to match the MOW paint scheme. The hopper's bottom doors open and can dump 1 x 1 round plates / bricks onto the tracks for ballast. This old passenger car carries the workmen and their tools. The caboose features two ladders (one per side) and more of those fancy printed 2 x 4 tiles. If you like what you see in this topic, check out the home base of the train and assorted other vehicles in this thread here! Thoughts? Comments, Suggestions, & Complaints always welcome!

This 7-wide steam loco began life as a 2-8-4 Berkshire type built by @Plastic_Goth and purchased from Rebrickable a seen here. This train features an 4-8-4 "Northern" -type steam engine that was purchased and modified a month ago from the link posted above. However, it still hasn't been bought parts-wise IRL. The coaches are just recolored and modified versions of my dark green / black Emerald Express cars, with the rear car having a rounded window instead of a open platform. I upped the wheel count by another leading axle, making it into a 4-8-4 Northern-type from the original 2-8-4 Berkshire. The pistons are entirely my own work, as is the 7-wide tender. I chose the Wabash Frisco and Pacific as the name of the owner of the engine, because the real world ride-on 12-inch gauge railway is re-opening soon (Yay!) and because I felt the shark-nose Baldwin diesel units (plus the passenger train as well) I made in a similar paint scheme could use some company. The coal tender will have the letters W-F-P on the side, standing for Wabash Frisco & Pacific, while the cab will feature the number 2980 on both sides. This is a scrambled homage to real world WFP 4-8-2 engine 928, which is so strong, it's pulled every piece of rolling stock the railroad owns -at one time- with ease! The inside of the cab features two gauges and the firebox door. This combination baggage and passenger car (known as a combine) relies heavily on techniques taken from Retlaw baggage car built by @TJJohn12, as seen here. The three identical coaches have inset doors I designed myself. The streamlined observation car of this train should feature two of these windows in white (which sadly aren't in LDD).

The 0-6-0T (T standing for Tank) steam engine seen below was inspired by this English 0-4-0T shunting loco made by Block Junction. I made the loco look a bit more American and gave it a grayscale color scheme so it could be owned by my fictional version of the real-world Wabash Frisco & Pacific 12-inch gauge ride-on steam railroad. The loco gives me a 1920's commuter-engine feel, so I hooked it up to four, two-axle commuter cars which were created by using this tutorial made by @Pdaitabird here to build the coaches. I heavily modified the coaches by enclosing the entry doors area and adding inter-car connection doors. The loco is a 7-wide six wheel model, with (working!) outside pistons. Big Ben Bricks medium wheels will be used for the driving wheels, with two being blind, and the remaining number will be flanged. The engine will feature the letters WFP (standing for Wabash Frisco & Pacific) on the tank side, while 771 will go on the cab walls. The rear of the tank loco, showcasing the coal bunker and inside details. The four-wheel baggage car. The are two commuter coaches. The observation car, designed to give a little class to the workday commute with a rear platform at the rear of the train. This train will go alongside the shark-nose diesel loco with mainline passenger train and the (as yet unbuilt) 4-8-4 steam locomotive that will pull the Conjunction Junction freight train on my layout. What do you all think? Comments, Questions, and Complaints welcome!

Hey guys! I have made some custom parts for Stud.io which I wanted to share with you! First of all I added the connectivity to the files of the Big Ben Bricks drivers. In addition I used them as a basis to make part files for the #13 (XXL) drivers as well as thin train wheels in sizes #6, #7 and #9 (MS, M and L using the old naming convention). custom drivers for Studio by ScotNick1, on Flickr Also I created parts for the windows which are in develoment by Fx Bricks: Fx Bricks train windows for Studio by ScotNick1, on Flickr Here are the links for downloading the files: Train Wheels Train Windows Best is to download the whole folder as a package. I also included a text file with instructions how to add the parts to your custom parts library. Keep in mind that some of the dimensions might not be 100% correct, but they are pretty close and have always worked out for me so far While I didn't have any problems rendering the wheels I did run into problems rendering the glass panes of the Fx Bricks windows in trans-clear. Let me know if you run into any problems or struggle with adding the parts! Hope this will be helpful to you! Cheers, Nick

These two trains comprise my space-train fleet for the Nexus Force, one streamlined passenger train, and one generic freight train. You can see more the Nexus Force stuff in this thread here in the Space sub-forum. It features a modular base, trucks, crawlers, and several spaceships, along with the mini-figures. (human or otherwise!) The Moonlighter train is owned by the Nexus Force, and is a retro-futuristic stream-liner mix of old-school steam technology, but with hyper-modern safety features designed specifically for use by Nexus Force personnel as a very high-speed, high-security ground transport between the northern-most city of St. Nicklaus and north-pole-hugging outpost of Ice Station Odyssey, around 500 miles away. (this all takes places on the ice-bound planet of Beta Polaris, which orbits what we here call the North Star, far away from Earth.) Thus this makes it a space train! Unlike the slower Earth trains, the Moonlighter type of space-train is super-streamlined, and can go up to speeds of up to 110 MPH (135 is the loco's top possible speed) on it's special track, with super-elevated curves and long straight-away's over hundreds of miles, all while using Positive Train Control (PTC) on the the mostly double-track mainline, where all vehicle crossings are flyovers and switches virtually non-existent once out of St. Nicklaus city limits. This train runs along with nine other identical versions of this train (10 total trains in all) on the route with up to seven in running order on the route and at least two in the maintenance shed / in emergency backup storage at any one time. They are numbered 200 through 210. The Nexus Force logo on the nose of the Moonlighter streamlined casing, (near the smokestack) and the rear of the observation car, while the engine's number (207) goes under the cab windows. The two forward tanks are for oil, and the rear tank is for water. The engine is equipped with a water scoop (like on the old New York Central steam locomotives) for refilling the water tank on the fly. There is a ladder from the tender-top deck to the coupler level behind the engine for access to the trailing passenger cars, and two ladders on either side of the steam loco for entry into the enclosed control cab. Three of these passenger cars go on the Moonlighter, with two before the dome car and one immediately after it. The recessed panels are the platform doors. One of these vista-dome cars goes in the middle of the train. (You may have noticed there are no exterior platform doors on this car. I decided not to add them because they didn't look good with the dome.) The rear observation car is currently missing it's rear curved windows, but it will have them when built IRL. The Nexus Force logo goes on the rear of this car, as previously mentioned above. After 45-ton locomotive 2011 has arranged a freight train in the Nexus force spaceport's yard, a electric main-line loco has arrived on scene to pull it's train to the some 500+ miles distant city of St. Nicklaus. This larger locomotive is numbered 99, and is running with a mobile armored cannon unit for the journey ahead, as it runs through some areas that could be ripe for an ambush by enemy forces, as you never know where the Maelstrom might have agents in deep cover or have planted ambushes alongside the line. A train was derailed and attacked last month in Avalanche Canyon by pirates, which is why the railroad is taking no more chances while it's position is being currently fortified all along the route. The other cars being pulled are: a flatcar carrying Commander Bob's 1960's sports car (going for it's yearly tune-up in town), a fully-loaded gasoline tanker, bathtub gondola with ice boulder load, and a bay-window caboose for the train's rear-end crew and a few more soldiers... just in case! This orange and white electric locomotive was inspired by the preliminary version of set 60198. (2018 Freight train) The inside is accessible via the removable roof sections. This model was inspired by this armored train MOC, that was itself inspired by the movie "Castle in the Sky" and it's armored train therein. The road vehicle model is partially inspired by Lola the car from the TV show Agents of Shield. (although this one doesn't fly) The sports car doesn't have great off-road capabilities, so it has to be trucked in on a flatcar to the remote space base. This fuel tanker is filled with gasoline or diesel fuel for use in the space base's land vehicles. Usually two or three tanker cars are sent into the base every couple weeks for refueled the on-base supply. This bathtub gondola is filled with ice boulders that have frozen ancient lifeforms trapped inside. The Nexus Force is sending them to a specialist laboratory off-world to have the DNA decoded and the beings themselves studied. Due to height clearance issues in St. Nicklaus city, regular-height cupola caboose types are forbidden. So, the bay window type is used instead. This moon base-like space base model is where the Moonlighter travels to, and was inspired by set 60036 (Arctic Base Camp), with a rooftop shield generator partially lifted from set 75098 (Assault on Hoth) and a sensor array inspired by set 76157 (Wonder Woman VS. Cheetah) The base consists of eight separate, interchangeable, modular sections, all of which have opening roof / wall sections for ease of access. These sections include (but are not limited too): a common bunk room, a spaceship control tower, a fusion generator, communications room, break room, and several more. As you can see, I joined the base to the rail-line with a short siding for freight deliveries, and for the servicing of steam locomotives on services such as the Moonlighter.

I know it has been a while since I posted on this site so my first, the Z-6 challenger link to it will be posted here for those who forgot about it. But I also came across another steam locomotive that struck my interest, enough actually for me to recreate in Lego. Thus, without further delay. I give your my take of the Western Maryland's exclusive 4-8-4 "Potomacs". Just to note. It is 10 studs wide and is one of my earlier builds, therefore it is an older design with PIVOT bogies, not the bogies I use on the Z-6. Z-6: Northern Pacific Z-6 Challenger - LEGO Train Tech - Eurobricks Forums Let me know what you think of them.

In this latest model series, I decided in order to keep the "toy like" proportions of it's inspirational genesis, set 71044. (Disney train) Now, people who know my design style are probably scratching there heads right now in confusion, as I don't EVER build in 8-wide for trains. But in order to make it look as good as possible with the original 2010 Toy Story figures and their stretched appendages, I had to do 8-wide. My current setup... minus a few things on the other table not shown. This scene will change, as the freight 4-4-0 needs revision on the tender, and the passenger 2-6-0 and it's train need heavy work done, as you will see! Loco Number 1 - 2-6-0 Mogul w/ passenger train This 1890's style train is to be pulled by my revised Western 2-6-0 steam loco, and will be made from my older three yellow train cars. These newer cars are four studs shorter, so I can fit a fourth car in the storage box with the extra space. Also, the sidewall closest to the camera comes off on all the cars so you can get at the inside details. The coal-burning straight stack-styled locomotive is a mish-mash of two steam locomotives, the 4-4-0 from the Toy Story 7597 set and a British 2-6-0 train model designed by Block Junction. I repainted the British engine into a Toy-ish color scheme, then added 8-wide late 1800's American-style features with printed parts from set 7597. Oh, and I built a brand new small size tender from the rails up, which uses new red wheels from BrickTracks.. The rear of the engine features a coal tender with a ladder from the water tank-top down to the magnetic coupler. This tender is smaller than before, as it looked very silly next to my 2-6-0 IRL, and even worse next to my blue Western 4-4-0, which currently has an exact copy of the earlier tender version as well. The baggage car features two sliding freight doors in red along with two non-functional passenger doors in black. The side wall comes off, as it does on all the cars, to reveal seating. In this car, that means lots of luggage room and two seats. The two coaches are identical in every way, and are also quite similar to the parlor car at first glance. The inside features side seating, as in LEGO set 71044's Lilly Belle car... this also allows for easier moving of figures, and placing them in any of the five seats per car. The observation car features a rear platform, plus a red drumhead ready for the train's logo. The inside is the same as the two coaches, with five seats. Loco Number 2 - 4-4-0 American w/ freight train This freight-hauling locomotive is meant to be built from sets 7597 (Western train Chase from Toy Story 3), 71044, (Disney Train and Station) and set 10014. (Caboose from the My Own Train series, albeit a bit bigger width-wise!) I also used set 10013 (Open Freight Wagon, also from My Own Train) as a guide for the pipe-carrying car, plus model 15 (Tanker) from set 10183, Hobby Trains for the tanker car. This loco shares the same tender as my other Western 8-wdie loco from this time period. The engine itself, however, is an enlarged version of 7597, in yellow and blue. It's also meant to have inside pistons as it's an early-to-mid 1860's locomotive. (thus the lack of visible pistons!) The locomotive is missing these printed parts. They are as follows: The four yellow 1 x 6 bricks are supposed to be printed with this number 2. while the headlamp is supposed to have two of these printed yellow 1 x 1 tiles. The firebox door requires this print. This boxcar is an enlarged to 8-wide and recolored boxcar from set 3677 (2011's Red Cargo Train). The printed doors (not shown) and from set 7597. (2011's Western Train Chase) The coal-filled 8-wide gondola was inspired by a sub model from set 10183. (2007's Hobby train) This water tanker is a version modified of set 2126's (Train Cars) design with newer reddish brown tanks instead of the vintage 1998 brown of the original model, and now in 8-wide. This model was built from instructions seen at the Old Workhorse's Lego Ideas page as seen here. (I am not affiliated with the creator of that page, I just used their free instructions, visible further down in the updates section, to build the traction engine seen here.) This car is a mashup of set 10013 (2001's Open Freight Wagon) and the bed area from set 60059. (2014's Logging Truck) This caboose was inspired by set 10014 (Caboose) except this versions is 8 wide and the main two colors are reversed. Loco Number 3 - 4-10-0 Super Mastodon w/ military train This entire eight-wide military transport train was inspired by sets 71044, 60052, 79106, and 79111. It is inspired by the 1975 film "Breakheart Pass", which features an US Army resupply train traveling to a Western frontier Fort under siege. This train also has a couple play features, such as a rotating Gatling gun, moving steam engine side rods, and a exploding jail car wall, among a few others. This engine is basically a stretched version of my Western 2-8-0, with another driving axle and a four wheel truck in front. The wheel diagram show which six wheels will be blind and which four will be have a flange. I've tried a similar (albeit reversed) setup on my UK 2-10-0, so I know the wheel arrangement works in it's basics, I'm just not sure how the magnetic coupler will like this new arrangement. (My 2-10-0 doesn't like having a magnet, so it's hard-connected to the tender by a lift-arm on that MOC.) I included the working pistons, and a more cohesive color scheme of red and green, with a splash of yellow as on the previous 2-8-0 steamer. Big Ben bricks' medium size wheels, 4 with flange and 6 blind, are meant to take the place of the gear wheels in the order shown above. You can buy them at his site here. The tender and cab walls are supposed to have four of this printed red 1 x 6 piece inserted into them: The front headlight is supposed to have two of this printed 1 x 1 placed on it. This horse car was originally a cattle car from set 60052, (2014 Cargo Train) but I've re-purposed it for my Army officer horses. These cannons are from set 79106 (Calvary Builder Set) and were placed on a generic two-axle flatcar for transport by rail. The rotating Gatling gun you see here was taken from set 79111. (Constitution Train Chase) This car has the basic "look" of the Lily Belle parlor car from 71044, (Disney train and station) but is less ornately furnished due to be a second-hand coach refurbished cheaply for use by the US Army of the 1880's. The right-side wall is removable for access to the inside. The jail / baggage car you see was originally from set 79111, (Constitution Train Chase) with the basic coach styling of set 71044. This car has one play feature that is sure to blow you away: the back wall can be removed to get at the jail cell via the "dynamite" on the outside of the back wall. When pushed back towards the other end of the car, the lever on the left side pops the back wall out and the bad guys can escape! Also, the right-side wall is removable for access to the inside. Loco Number 4 - 2-8-0+0-8-2 Garratt w/ rotary snowplow train This blue train is marked (2-8-0+0-8-2 Garratt, for heavy duty rotary snow plow jobs) number 4, and joins the family of similar mid-1880's engines such as the large 2-8-0 for military transport, the inside-piston 4-4-0 for freight, and the fancy 4-6-0 for passengers. This 8-wide Garratt-type steam locomotive is perfect for use on the mountainous terrain of Colorado Rocky Mountains, with it's double steam locomotive pistons sets. (Before anyone says anything about Garratt loco's not being ever sold into the North American market, I'll say it's an lost experimental prototype to help with a motive power shortage. It may have been seen by the owner as a economical way of sending one locomotive to do the job of two.) This steam powered rotary snowplow was inspired by the real-world Denver and Rio Grande's narrow gauge plow "OY", as now seen on the Cumbres and Toltec RR in New Mexico / Colorado. I've decided to name my plow "YO" in tribute to my inspiration, using four of this part from the original Toy Story sets as a sort of marker. The rear of the plow features the coal tender. This 8-wide engine was originally a SRW locomotive works product, (made by Anthony Sava and formerly available on Bricklink until LEGO sadly removed most of his models.) I reworked the engine to have working pistons and side-rods plus a longer frame. This made it from 2-4-0+0-4-2 to a 2-8-0+0-8-2, among other smaller updates to the engine. I also substituted a Disney train-style boiler onto the engine to backdate it to the mid-1880's or so. Even with the added pistons, the engine can go around corners and switches quite easily. A simple caboose, for the snow plow train. I used a pair interesting windscreen parts for the cupola windows. Loco Number 5 - 0-6-0ST shop switcher Locomotive number 5 is an eight wide model of a generic 0-6-0 saddle tank steam engine from the later half of the 19th century, and was inspired by a @ScotNick build of Stanley from Thomas and Friends for the stripe work, and this build of Percy (also from Thomas) from the L Gauge site for the front of the boiler/ piston assembly. Here is the coal bunker / driving controls shot for this 8-wide yard goat. NOTE: The color scheme is red and yellow, though sadly here red looks pink. Loco Number 6 - 4-2-4T w/ RR office car I created a more realistic version of the 2016 Winter Village holiday train (set 10254) for all the train fans who didn't like the engine. I added working pistons, and more colorful (and less festive!) color scheme plus two more sets of fuel bunker-based wheels on the rear of the engine. The accompanying business car is for the WXYZ railroad president, and features a accessible interior, like the Disney Train (set 71044) it's modeled after. This private car has been given the name "Mount Clutchmore", after the tallest peak and highest point on the WXYZ line, at the tunnel under said mountain in Colorado. This locomotive is modeled after the unique C.P. Huntington of the Central Pacific railroad. The model will be numbered 6 for use on my Wild West railroad, and and features a (small) balloon stack, yellow and blue paint scheme, with red accents. This railroad office car is modeled after the dark red observation car as seen in the Disney Train LEGO set. It has been changed to a blue paint scheme, with red doors/ windows and brown trim, with a black roof. As the car has been stretched by four studs to fit the longer frame, there is more room inside. The Mount Clutchmore office car features three chairs, a table with drinks for investors / newspaper reporters, and a planter on a table at the rear-most end. Almost the whole wall is removable to get at these inside details. Loco Number 7 - Automotive Rail-Speeder The early '50's automotive rail-speeder is inspired by this fairly recent @hachiroku build here and by @Cale's pictures of Ma & Pa RR 101 as seen here. The vehicle is numbered "7", for use on the WXYZ Railroad, and rolls quite well on the track with no problems in stock switches or standard R40 curves. The rear has two coverings almost fully obscuring the rear wheels, in true retro style. This model is designed for track inspector's and high-up executive's to get up close and personal with the railroad. The roof is removable and the doors open, with seating for two figures side-by-side. Loco Number 8 - Galloping Goose (freight version) This Galloping Goose's front half was inspired by @hachiroku and his Indiana Jones staff car MOC, as seen here. The rear of Number 8, with all the doors open. Loco Number 9 - 2-4-0 Old English w/ silver ore and mine payroll train This very short train is based off set 7597, Toy Story 3's Western Train Chase, which my dad purchased for my birthday gift for later this year. I digitally converted the 4-4-0 "American" into a 2-4-0 "Old English" type which I then based off the real world 2-4-0 'Montezuma'. That 1871-vintage engine was the Denver & Rio Grande's first steamer. (which was the basis for the fourth Disneyland loco, the Ernest S. Marsh, by the way.) I had a real urge to name the LEGO version of the engine after Achu, the South-American tribal leader from the Adventurers' "Jungle" subtheme as a tribute to the real-world Montezuma engine and it's namesake Aztec leader. But I didn't think anyone would get the reference, so I didn't... at least not yet! The locomotive as it will be later in the year. I used the basic look of the Disney set 71044's engine for the two wheel tender, as it was too good an opportunity to pass up. (and it's accurate to the real engine it's based on, too!) I also managed to add working pistons, though quartering was not possible, sadly. The rear view of the engine, which will be numbered 9 in my numbering scheme for the Wild West-era W.X.Y. & Z. Railway. (This means it is replacing the 2-6-2 loco on the wanted list.) These three silver ore cars are taking their loads to the U.S. Mint in Denver to be made into coins. The mine payroll boxcar will feature dollars signs on the doors, as in the Toy Story 3 set. The caboose will have printed parts on the sides, saying "GREAT WEST". The inside with the roof removed. The Wichita Xenia Yazoo & Zephyrus Rail-Road (Stock market trade name WXYZRR) was a mid-19th / early 20th century enterprise also known as the Wasted, eXausted, Y bother & Z*. (*No one could figure out an insult to the railroad that started with the letter "Z") The railroad started in Wichita, Kansas in 1868, then went straight through Xenia, Oklahoma, while then meandering into Yazoo, Colorado and barely making it into Zephyrus, New Mexico by 1875. Other stations included several army forts dotted along the route through Oklahoma and Colorado, along with scattered mining camps and agricultural towns across the maps of New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Kansas. The railroad is hardly mentioned anywhere in writings of journalists, except in scathing "letters to the editor" of various newspapers about lack of the promised service on the line in the early years. Also, the much derided company slogan "last railroad you'll ever need" did not work out well for the new railroad, but it did vastly increase questions fielded to the main office about coffin, headstone, and various other memorial shipments from all over the area from which the railroad served. It is therefore shocking the railroad lasted as long as it did, a substantial fifty-six years from incorporation in 1867, to it's sale at auction in 1923! The old WXY&Z railroad had about 35 locomotives on the books at the maximum, but most of these were already very old when purchased and broke down frequently so they were chronically in the workshop for some reason or another. In fact, the seven additional 4-4-0 locomotives purchased third-hand from engine dealers were of the long-obsolete inside-piston variety of the mid-1850's, yet were bought in the early 1870's! However, what the railroad lacked in regular service motive power, it made up for in the snow plow-train department. A single prototype of what would later be called a "Garratt" (a doubled-power-unit steam loco with a single boiler not normally found in North America) was first run on the "High Line" between Fort Legoredo, Colorado and Glencoe, New Mexico in the steep Rocky Mountains. This is where the railroad really shined, in keeping the trains running through steep mountain passes with a single experimental train with a rotary snowplow at the head end... of course, there were other plow trains, but only two rotary trains. (One would work from either end of the Glacier Gulch Pass, and meet in the middle on a passing siding. The Garrett would be on one train, and two regular locomotives pushing the other.) After 1923's closing of the railroad, it was bought wholesale by a consortium of stock brokers from Denver, with plans to redo the line with less sharp grades and more snow sheds. However, during this reconstruction, the 1929 Great Depression began, leaving half the line with old grades though most of Colorado mountains, but new grades on New Mexico were finished in time. The passenger car fleet was upgraded, but the freight engines (downgraded passenger power, really) and rotary plows remained vintage as far back as 1878 for motive power. The older inside-piston locomotives went for sale once the Depression really started up, and one was snapped up for a potential history museum in Glencoe, while the rest were scrapped. Then, a miracle happened: the movie industry intervened, and several production houses bought some of the oldest rolling stock, engines, and the line was given enough cash to stave off it's dismantlement until 1941, when trains of heavy munitions from companies on the line came rolling through for the War effort, making the line the busiest it had ever been. The profits from this, and the later 1950 / '60's movie companies use of the stunningly scenic "High Line" line for motion pictures saved the line. When the good times started to dim in the early 1970's, the railroad was jointly bought by the states of Kansas, Oklahoma, Colorado, & New Mexico for tourists, occasional movie trains, and the freight that still used the line, as the original stock broker consortium had by then been dissolved. The "new" WXYZ railroad, (the town names were shortened to just the initials for simplicity's sake) was thus founded in March 1st, 1971. It has been running, mostly non-stop and is closed during the three winter months of December, January, and February for running of the single remaining rotary snowplow to get the line ready for opening day on March 1st of every year since the early 1970's. (NOTES from the writer: Only Wichita (Kansas) and Xenia (Illinois) are real-world towns, with them being based in name ONLY on real places. Yazoo, for example, is really a river in the state of Mississippi, while Zehyrus was simply because I needed a "Z" name that sounded plausible, and the Colorado Zephyr train was on my mind at the time. The rest of the story is also fiction, as no Garratt ever rode the rails of North America.... ever. Also, the WXYZ logo is an old Union Pacific logo from the early 1910's, while the railroad name's initials have never been used ANYWHERE on a railroad in the USA.) EDITED 8/3/21: added screenshots of engine No. 9 and it's train. I still need to take real-life photos of the private car and 4-2-4T, and now the blue 4-4-0 and it's freight train require photos too.

Hello everybody, parallel to my train "LMS Class 5 The Jacobite" I also built a famous railway bridge in Scotland. Ok, not the" Firth of Forth Railroad Bridge "... And not the bridge over the Tay ... It should of course be a bridge that the train "The Jacobite" actually crosses. I myself was there in 2005 and was able to photograph the bridge "The Glenfinnan Viaduct" with the train "The Jacobite" and I was a fan of Scotland, the bridge, "The Jacobite" and of course whiskey for a long time. The "Glenfinnan Viaduct" was built in 1897/1898 and has a curved track design as a special feature. Of course, this doesn't make it easier to recreate it with Lego bricks. The next problem is size. The Lego R40 curve is too narrow for most of my trains and the bridge wouldn't really work either. Then it would only be 4 curves long and only one locomotive would fit on it. So I used the R104 curve from Trixbrix as the rail. This means that the bridge has 8 curve segments and 1 Lego straight at the beginning and end. The arc describes a 90 ° curve. In order to be able to show the bridge at exhibitions and to integrate it into routes, it had to be built transportable. A modular construction was unfortunately not really possible for me, only the area with "The Glenfinnan Monument" is modular. I transport the bridge itself in a specially made wooden box and this box also serves as a height-adjustable table at exhibitions. For the Lego implementation I first tried to build an arch from Lego bricks. Then the pillars down, then the foundations, then the landscape. Just like you build a bridge: from top to bottom ;-) There was no digital planning, the model was created through trial and error, various new buildings and many stone orders. My children's Lego Duplo bricks that are no longer used are built into the substructure and covered with a Lego 2x4 wall. Construction began after Christmas and dragged on until summer. In August 2020 the time had finally come. Despite the Corona crisis, it was possible that a meeting of Lego railway fans could be held in Schkeuditz near Leipzig, Germany. And I was there ;-) There were hygiene requirements and no visitors were allowed, so that only we Lego train fans had 4 days to play with. A huge track was built and my bridge was integrated at the beginning of a single-track branch line. At home in the living room my bridge looked huge, on site in Schkeuditz it was rather tiny and there were concerns that not all models would fit ... But it worked for most models, even an ICE could pass. Only a huge American diesel locomotive got stuck. But it was just a branch line ... But what is a bridge without a train? The railway line between Fort William and Mallaig is still in operation and in summer the steam train "The Jacobite" runs as a tourist attraction over this railway line with the famous bridge. I had shown the train "The Jacobite" of an LMS Class 5 locomotive and 6 classic British passenger cars of the BR Mk. I series here at Eurobricks. And hasn't the bridge become even better known through a series of fantasy films? Many may only know the bridge from the Harry Potter films. And so it made sense to change my design of the LMS Class 5 to a Hogwarts Express train. I hadn't seen any of the films until last year. My first impression of the Hogwarts Express comes from the book title of the jewelry edition from the first volume. This is how a Hogwarts Express had to look to me. Later on in the films I was disappointed: the locomotive looks way too good and has nothing at all like a magic train. So it was clear: "my" Hogwarts Express should look something like on the book title: I hope I was able to entertain you a bit and you had fun reading and looking at the pictures. Enjoy, Thomas

Good evening community, Today i want to present our latest realized model. The XII H2 was especially designed for the hilly terrain of saxony. It has been built in Chemnitz between 1910 and 1927. The model consists of approx 1121 parts and it´s about 58 studs long. The model is a customer-wish and it´s designed for a motorization with power-functions as well as powered-up and for sure with the old 9V train-motor. All the electronics like motor, battery-box and IR-reciever take place in the large coal-tender. All the wheels are from Big Ben Bricks. The main wheels are XL-drivers, the wheels on the front-bogie are medium and at the tender are small train wheels. To make this locomotive with the low hanging cylinders suitable for curves, i separated the cylinders horizontally. The upper part is fixed to the main frame and the lower part is connected to the bogie and could swivel left and right. Special attention was paid to the boiler with the golden rings and the golden accents like in the example. The technic to create the boiler rings was taken over from the DR BR 01 of Simon Jakobi (Dr.Snotson). The instruction of the DR BR 38.2-3 is no available on our website. As a speciality i also want to use this opportunity to present our latest news. Since November the 1st we offer different 3D-printed components in our shop too. We offer different rod-designs in various dimensions, as well as rod sets or special components like blind-wheels or customer solutions. This offer is probably most interresting for customers in europe because we´re located in Germany but we ship worldwide too. And here with custom 3D printed parts.

Hi all, after a quite long absence from the forum, I'd lilke to show you this small MOC I just prepared. It should have been a model for the Octrainber, but since I've no time to prepare the whole diorama, I'll show you only the little railcar. The Egger-Bahn is a model line created in the 60s, based mainly on fictional freelance rolling stock (even if some models were inspired by real prototypes). These models were in 1:87 scale, running on H0e track - therefore simulating a narrow gauge system. One of the main models was the articulated steam railcar you can see in this picture taken from internet. The lillte railcar is articulated and composed by a steam motor and an half-passenger wagon. It is a very nice model and I've always liked it! Since I'm working a lot on big scales, I wanted to do something different, so I got back to 6-wide on 4-wide track: It's super-deformed as my other small locomotives I made , and it's based on the 9V red MicroMotor. It can run on black Lego narrow-gauge track and on LEMAX Christmas Train track - which is perfect for small Lego models (and features straights and larger curves). Here below you can see the different components, like the MicroMotor, the rear bogie, and body parts (motor and trailer). And here's a detail of the motor and passenger trailer. As you can see, the 9v MicroMotor is mounted upside-down, and moves the rear wheels of the steam motor. The power comes from a 9v battery box, but I succeded to run the Micromotor on small 12v batteries. Some home made electronics may save space! The batteries should be placed near the trailer link, therefore their weight - insisting on the only driven axle - can improve traction. I hope you like it! Ciao! Davide

It is the early 1930's. The dark days of late 1929 has worsened into a economic depression of truly epic proportions. Worse, the drought starting in summer 1930 (lasting until above average rains stopped it in 1941) caused the dreaded Dust Bowl and the mass migration of (most) of an entire generation of farmers and their families westward. This time frame also led to the rise of hobos, wandering, jobless people trying to use the one mass transportation still running across the dusty, windswept nation: The freight trains. The backstory on this train is as such: The engine, number 6519, runs daily from Lawrence, Kansas yard to where it finally services the Rust-eze factory in Moberly, Missouri. The line branches off and curves to the left in Columbia Missouri, while the main goes straight on to St. Louis. The rest of the regular freight is worked at the Columbia yard, expect for the acid tanker and the two marked generic boxcars. That tanker goes to the factory too, as it's a chemical component for Rust-eze. Rumor has it that the Rust-eze plant will be moving closer to St. Louis, or even shutting down soon, maybe by early 1934. The engine used to be a heavy-hauler out on the main, but has been relegated to branch line work, as it's 1898-vintage pistons are wearing a bit thin and she is overdue for a overhaul. Unfortunately, with the current depression, she has been reassigned to light branch work with a limit on her speed. Hopefully, they will scrape up the money to get her in the shop soon. This early 1900's-era engine model was first designed as a 2-8-2 Mikado before having the front pony truck removed and a 4 wheel bogie from set 10194 (Emerald Night) added instead, turning it into a 4-8-0 Mastodon - type. The rear pony truck was removed as well, with the 79111-style boiler shortened and cab re-arranged. Then, as of late September of this year, I completely rebuilt her from the wheels up to use the Disney engine boiler you see here. The running gear was originally a Scotnick invention from his 9F, but now comes from my MOD of the Constitution Train Chase set. So, basically, the only thing original left is the tender. Together, these several different engines from four different eras and five separate builders come together to create this one steam engine, which I have numbered 6519. The coal tender was inspired by Anthony Sava's Pacific 4-6-2 model's oil tender with the letters "BRS" added in the middle of the tender using printed 1 x 1 tiles. I was inspired by this photo by JB Lego to build this boxcar as seen here. They are made to haul pallets of cargo, specifically Rust-eze chrome restorer in 55-gallon drum containers for commercial packaging at this facility into smaller containers. Inspired by the green tractor trailer from CITY set 4204 (The Mine), this bathtub gondola is carrying boulders from the mine destined for the gold refinery where they will be opened up and the metal extracted to make coins and ingots. This drop side flat car was first part of set 2126 (Train Cars), but it didn't really have a purpose. It was hauling uprooted evergreen trees in the set, but that didn't look very good, so I changed it to generic freight. (My layout's resident hobo and his trusty guitar usually catch a ride on this piece of rolling stock.) The hobo is trying to get home to his family, which lives in Glenncoe, Missouri. Sadly, he picked the wrong train, as this only get's him halfway there. He's going to have to ride the blind of a steam engine tender on a passenger run to get home. (that's the area between the first car and tender, it's very dangerous because you're balancing on the coupler!) This dangerous liquid tanker was modeled after a real tanker car you can walk through in the Museum of Transportation's collection in St. Louis, Missouri. The real deal hauled hydrochloric acid for Monsanto starting in 1940 up into the late 1960's. I'm backdating the car ten years to fit into my mid-'30's freight train. I have adapted this UK inspired model of a brake van by Fireglo450 (see it here) to once again be a more American-inspired caboose. The caboose has no interior, and the red marker light can go on either end of the model to represent the end of whatever train it is being hauled behind. Here you can find other topics of interest mentioned in the text, or that are similar enough to be placed alongside time frame-wise I have this passenger train, that goes along with the freight train in this time period. (No, the hobo does not ride this one home.) and this branch-line station that is from the same late-1890's era, and on the main line from the San Francisco to New York (via St. Louis, of course!) Here we see the (100% fictional) Moberly, Missouri, Ruste-eze Factory. It seems to have made it to better times, with this picture taking place in the early 1950's. Any thoughts, comments, or complaints?

Hello everybody, my last construction project took me to Scotland. The Jacobite Steam Train still operates between Fort Willam and Maillag. Various steam locomotives are used for this train, e.g. the LNER class B1 No. 61264, the LNER class K1 No. 62005 (when I visited in 2005) or the LMS Class 5 "Black Five" No. 45231. They all serve as wagons of British Railroads Mk. I coaches. The classic British steam train passenger car par excellence. As a locomotive I chose the LMS Class 5 "45231". This promised a challenge as a Lego model: a conical boiler and angled cylinders. Exciting. The locomotive has 2 Lego PU motors as a drive. 1x in the locomotive on 2 of the 3 large main axles (BigBen XL wheels), 1x in the tender on 2 of the 3 tender axles (BigBen M wheels). Each engine has its own HUB. The locomotive is controlled via the Lego PU remote control. However, since the motors have to be operated with different power due to the different wheel diameters, a tablet / mobile phone with the Lego PowerUp APP is interposed between the remote control and the locomotive. The APP accepts the travel commands from the remote control and forwards them to the two HUBs in the locomotive. The lighting of the locomotive consists of self-soldered LEDs, connected to the Power UP HUB in the locomotive. A normal Lego Led for PowerUP is installed in the tender. The entire lighting is controlled via the handheld remote control and the APP. Forward travel: steady light at the front, optionally flashing light or off at the rear Reverse: front flashing light or off, rear continuous light The flashing is realized via the APP. Built from Lego parts with the following third-party parts: - BigBen wheels S, M, XL in new dark red - Linkage from the 3D printer - Lighting partly self-made - Self-made lettering / decoration But only a locomotive is no train.... The classic: British Railroads Mk. I passenger car. Built in the 50s in very large numbers and in many variants, these cars are still in use today on tourist trains and in collections / museums. The color "new dark red" was attractive and difficult at the same time. There aren't many windows and if you do you can't pay for them ... So I first looked for a solution for the windows: buildable, affordable and based on the model. In particular, the 4 small windows above are the mark I also found the variety of variants impressive and couldn't really decide which one to build. So I build all ;-) The cars are all built according to the same basic scheme and yet completely different. There are some with an open compartment (e.g. FO - First open) and some with individual compartments (e.g. SK - Second Corridor). I have 1st and 2nd class. 1st class has dark blue upholstery and a side table with a lamp. The 2nd class is more simply equipped. It was very interesting during the construction: the left / right sides of the car are often very different. E.g. In the case of the corridor cars, the doors are on the corridor side in line with a compartment door. In this way, in the event of war, the wounded could be pushed into the compartment on couches through the outer door. The bogies were of course important to me again: Model type Commonwealth: All cars are again equipped with ball bearings. The reason is simple: the cars are long and heavy, and weigh around 900-950 grams. Most cars can drive Lego R40 curves, only the two very long ones cannot. Since my locomotive also needs R104, I prefer to use the cars on large radii. The roof of all cars can be partially removed to insert figures. With the corridor car you need little fingers ^^ BR Mk. I 3093 Florence FO (First Open): An open 1st class car. 1st class cars typically had maiden names as proper names: BR Mk. I 4951 SO (Standard Open): An open 2nd class car with an open-plan compartment. In terms of construction, this car is longer for me than most of the others, this has to do with the spaces between the windows. All of the cars have the correct number of windows, but the wall between windows in 2nd class cars was smaller than in 1st class cars. It's hard to do with Lego. So I decided to use the length differences. BR Mk. I 1840 RMB (Restaurant Mini Buffet): A restaurant car with a small bar / kitchen for coffee / tea / snacks. In the fan area is the bar. To the left of the middle door is a small storage room. BR Mk. I 13320 FK (First Corridor) Anna: A 1st class carriage with a corridor and 7 individual compartments with 6 seats each. Ok, only 2 Lego figures per compartment because of excess width ... BR Mk. I 99035 BSK (Brake Second Corridor): A 2nd class carriage with a corridor and a brake / attendant compartment. It also serves as a luggage cart. This car belongs at the end of the train. In the case of "runaway" wagons (the wagons were torn off from the locomotive), the train attendant was able to recognize the situation via periscopes (the angles on the roof) and brake the wagons. This is why this car has the rear end for me. This is implemented as a flashing light and can be switched on inside. BR Mk. I 21266 CK (Composite Corridor): A corridor car with 1st and 2nd class. The car transitions are designed the same for all cars: The aim was: the smallest possible gaps when cornering: This is what the car transition looks like in an R104 curve: Enjoy: Thomas