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CB&Q Pioneer Zephyr streamlined diesel train-set - updated 12/08/23
Murdoch17 posted a topic in LEGO Train Tech
The Chicago, Burlington & Quincy (CB&Q) Pioneer Zephyr was the first successful American stream-liner, and made a record-breaking speed run from Denver to Chicago on May 26th, 1934. It arrived 1 hour and 55 minutes ahead of schedule with a total run time of 13 hours and 5 minutes... Note, the run time of a regular steam train pulled across the same distance in about 25 hours at much slower speed than the 77 MPH average of the Zephyr on this non-stop run. (It even reached a top speed of 112 MPH at one point during the trip!) This event was even featured in a heavily fictionalized Hollywood block-buster movie, "The Silver Streak" (The original 1936 drama, not the 1970's comedy of the same name) which also featured many scenes of and on the train. This train even started it's own Zephyr-mania, with everything from Ford cars to sports-teams having "Zephyr" slapped on the name to capitalize on it's considerable fame. The Pioneer Zephyr consist was eventually donated to the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago, Illinois on the 26th anniversary of the Denver-Chicago speed run. From 1960 until 1994 it was stored outside, but since then it is now indoors in the basement of the museum near the parking garage. As such, it will never turn a wheel again. (picture coming eventually) The rear car features a wraparound back window. (It isn't pretty, but it is the best I can do.) (picture coming eventually) The Lego model and the real train feature four joined cars, with the power car / RPO area up front, (RPO is short for Railway Post Office) baggage and coach in the next car, then another coach, and finally the observation lounge at the rear. The third car (the coach) was added in 1938, and even though it isn't original to the train and is not on display with the rest of the Pioneer Zephyr in Chicago, it carried the car for most of it's operational life, thus it was added onto my MOC. Comments, Questions & Complaints are always welcome! Thoughts? NOTE: Main post edited 12/8/23 - one real life photo added to this post, the other two didn't turn out... will retake them when time allows. Sorry! -
Interstellar Zephyr - streamlined diesel with passenger train for space layout
Murdoch17 posted a topic in LEGO Train Tech
The Interstellar Zephyr transports 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.) Unlike the slower Earth trains, this Zephyr 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-a-way'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. You may have noticed the train model is NOT in the original light gray "stainless steel" of the original Pioneer Zephyr on which is was (kind-of) based. The orange and white color scheme is because it's for my Nexus Force theme... to be honest, it's not even really a Zephyr that much anymore. It's more of a mix of the Pioneer Zephyr and several other concepts that began in the 1930's - '50's era, like the dome car. (To call it a hodgepodge would be accurate!) This model features three joined cars, with the power car up front, a coach, diner-dome in the middle, another coach, then the observation lounge at the rear. None of the car's roof sections come off, and their is no interior, to save on costs when this model is built in real life. The repurposed 2014 CITY Arctic logo slope on the rear of the lounge car is a missing print, as are the three dark bluish gray "donut" tiles on the loco unit. (these parts should have a engine fan / rotor print) The train uses only a few magnets to sperate the train in the middle, as having Jacobs bogies throughout with my current storage setup would have been unwise. This also leaves open the possibility for future expansion of a car or two... maybe a dome car could be in the cards somewhere down the line? (Yes, I know no shovel-nose Zephyr ever had domes... but this isn't a normal Zephyr, now is it?) You can see more details on the arctic / space base shown above in this thread in the Sci-Fi forum. Be warned, it needs to be updated with some newer pictures of stuff I designed! Thoughts on this model? EDIT 5/10/22: model completely revised and updated. EDIT #2 5/11/22 Three hundred parts found, 737 left to go on my space Zephyr. (the wrong colored window glass will be popped out an replaced when it's needed) The dome car, is not included in the totals either way as I'm still not sure it would work out to build it... even if I did make it work, I would be buying almost every single part on it. So, basically, it won't even be attempted for a while. Also, I got the shovel-nose built except for two orange slope parts. -
Welcome to the wonderous world of Yesteryears' view of the future! Where the moon is being colonized, robots are commonplace in our homes, atomic power is everywhere, and outer space is the new frontier! Here we see two Retro-futuristic trains together: the longest one is the "Nucleus Express" atomic-powered express passenger train, while the shortest one is the "Astrotrain" diesel passenger four-car train set, and the middle one is the "Moon Mover" diesel-powered freight service, with all three sporting streamlined Classic Space color schemes. ASTROTRAIN I already have a real-world Aerotrain LEGO model completed, and was fiddling around while bored when I came across this Classic Space version of the train from 2018. I had to take out the upside-down slanted coach windows because the parts don't exist in trans-yellow yet. I added different windows, red and green directional lights, and a bigger horn that looks like a thruster pod. I used black wheels instead of gray ones because they are cheaper and easier to find, but you'd never know that because I hid them behind SNOT'ed panels that look more like the prototype. Then, I deviated wildly from the GM Aerotrain and added a Baldwin Sharknose type-end to the front of the engine to make it even more unique. The classic space 4 x 2 slope from Benny's spaceship goes right below the headlight, of course. Also, as a side note, a 9V motor can be added to the engine for shows alongside my CS base / vehicles. (I don't own a 9V motor or track, but some GtwLUG members do and have offered to try out my locos wit h 9V power in the past.) The engine has been thoroughly made into a futuristic space locomotive... which wasn't too hard as it was already pretty forward-thinking designed originally. The roof is now removable, with seating for a driver and dual weight bricks for adding traction to the 9v motor. (when it has one for shows) As a concession to using trans-yellow as a window color, I had to remove the original slanted GM Fishbowl-bus style windows that were used on the original Aerotrain due to lack of parts in that color. The rear of the train has no coupler as it's "supposed" to be a part of one complete train-unit. Here we can se the original aerotrain working slightly at my dads. link to video showing Aerotrain in motion at Flickr Please excuse the pineapple couch, its my dads, as is the borrowed 9v equipment. The motor sadly only can pull three cars and at full speed only or not at all. But, it is a step towards having it run at train shows! (if anyone can help me figure out how to get the motor to move more than three cars, or add the video to my actual post, please respond below! Thanks to a suggestion by @XG BC, the locomotive now has weight bricks over the (potential) motor, so it should be ready for 9v power for shows next year. NUCLEUS EXPRESS PASSENGER TRAIN Heavily inspired by @Electricsteam's long-awaited Atomic Streamliner project, (as seen here ) I have designed my own Atomic-Age wonder for my "Moon Mover" fast freight service. It is, as is Electricsteams' engine, a fission powered turbine loco with 4-4-2 "Atlantic" wheel arrangement. This engine lacks the full streamlining of other locos, but it does have the nose streamlined. This allows for easier working on the nuclear powerplant that powers the engine's movement. Unlike the slower Earth trains, the Nucleus type of space-train is super-streamlined, and can go up to speeds of up to 180 MPH on it's special track, with super-elevated curves and a long straight-away over 101+ 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 the city limits. Here are the three coaches for the Nucleus train. The inside of all the cars for this train look the same - three seats for each car. This dome car features spectacular views of Earth through it's car-width rooftop window. The rearmost-car features a large observation window. ASTRO-BASE COMMUTER RAILROAD STATION This commuter station will be the departure point for my two Classic Space trains. It features a very low floor with two accessibility ramps to get at the two train tracks - one run through and one stub end. There are two benches, two ticket machines, and a single double-sided analog clock. The manned ticket booth (for those uncomfortable or unfamiliar with the electronic machines) has a sign above it saying the train terminal's name, which is named Astro-Base. This is because it is located next to my Classic Space moon-base. Here we see the other side of the run-through track. OTHER STUFF The two identical doors of the space base has been re-designed to handle train tracks so the trains can enter and exit the walled-in base and the doors still open and shut. Atlantis City (located in Copernicus crater on Earth's moon, in XL shape and yellow on the map), the great domed wonder of the solar system, has a rail system to get people to work at it's outlying un-domed facilities. The interstellar transport hub of Reinhold is the next stop, and is the terminus for all the public passengers / galactic tourists. (The Reinhold crater is in green here) The following two branch lines are for specific crewmembers only: The Lansberg line is for power / shield generation over the city and surrounding land areas. It also was where the original city was located, before the original founders relocated to Copernicus Crater and founded the Great Glass City as we know it today. (Lansberg is in violet / purple crater) The Gambart line is for military personnel only, as it where the top brass pour over charts and make way for the latest improvements in "laser scanner" technology. (This one in the Blue with yellow rim crater) Potential new tracks could be laid to the planned 100,000 seat stadium in the older Stadius crater (barely visible near Copernicus crater) for Sportsball events. New tracks could also be laid past the space hippies encampment at Hortensius Crater (small yellow crater), but has been continually voted down by protesting neo-hippies, as it would bring bad vibes to their region by the loud construction vehicles just to get to the ice mines of the Mare Insularum. (No one has managed to get through to them that there is no sound in a vacuum!) (Photo from Google Earth, with railroad lines drawn and story by me. The colorful moon landscape background is from early 1960's NASA maps that I thought were really cool. More stuff will come as I think of it, so keep your eyes peeled for updates to this thread! UPDATED 7/11/21 This Zephyr-like loco is going to replace the engine at the head of my Astro-train. I decided to do this for one reason: motorization! I will soon be able to put a 9v motor at the head of the train, running it via electricity for shows with Gateway LUG. The inter-car connection is the same as before, and most of the needed parts for the engine (plus one more passenger car!) will come from the pervious loco. Thoughts?