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Showing results for tags '1930s'.
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The model seen here is originally based upon open-back instructions purchased in 2012 from Brick City Depot. The 'Winter Village Train Station' can be seen here and was first built in real bricks by me in 2017, but then torn apart only three years later in 2020. Well, I regretted that decision to dismantle the model from the moment I did so. Thus, I've rebuilt it using newer techniques and a few modifications. Some examples include (but are not limited to): two new ramps at the ends of the slightly-shorter platform removal of the second story seats have been redesigned vintage Coca-Cola vending machine added new signage, posters, and billboards station master mini-figure new chimney flue Here we see the track side of the station. Two benches are placed outside, and another is inside. Also visible is a chalkboard showing arrival and departure times from this station, along with each train's destination. Here is the street side of the station, with a Coca-Cola machine and a Radiator Springs poster visible. Empty bottles are in the wooden crate next to the soda machine. The inside of the MOC has a waiting room and ticket seller one one side, and a baggage room on the other. Shown here is the passenger waiting room. (yes, the clock is 90 degrees out of place. I didn't realize until after I had made the pictures that it was incorrect compared to the other two clocks) Here we see the baggage room, used for express freight, passenger baggage, and the mail. Two big sliding doors allow for cargo to be loaded onto the platform side, or out the street side and onto a truck. Here's the late 1930's / early '40's era station master of the small town Mount Clutchmore train depot, who I've named named Robert. Robert has seen a lot of changes in his 25 years of railroading. He's seen the Boys go 'Over There' to fight in the trenches, survived the Flu Epidemic of 1918 around when they came home, witnessed the golden years of the Roaring Twenties end with the economic Crash of '29, and saw masses of hoboes riding freights through his town, while sleek streamliners flash by. Now, another war is starting abroad and he's also seeing the diesel-electric locomotives for the first time as well. Simply put: the times keep changing and the calendar marches relentlessly forward. Robert isn't sure what tomorrow will bring, but he's certain the railroad will get us there. That's all I got for this MOC. Thoughts? -
I like the late-1930s car from 2015 San Diego Comic Con set 'Action Comics 1 - Superman', but didn't particularly care for the garish colors of green and yellow - or the insane price! So I used the instructions and built my own normal version in dark blue, then this black one with XS Big Ben Bricks train wheels instead of rubber tires as a railroad inspection vehicle. This rail mobile has a number of changes from the set, but it still seats one figure at the wheel. Speaking of which: the person in the picture is a division superintendent, and he is wearing green in tribute to the original colors of the SDCC set that inspired this MOC. The rear of the rail mobile. (apologies for the dust - I just built this two days ago!) Inside the vehicle, featuring the drivers seat. Thoughts?
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Here is my recently completed 19th custom modular building (if I counted correctly) which is inspired by a 2012 Haunted House LEGO model - set number 10228, to be precise. I made the Victorian-styled house un-haunted, changed the colors and made the house have lift-away floors instead of a opening like a dollhouse. The back door was removed in order to fit the house on a baseplate, and each floor has detailed furnishings. For this car model I took another set of free instructions from user @Leewan and modified them in major ways. You can view the original MOC here on Rebrickable. This picture is a little washed out... the actually-yellow car looks almost bright light orange. (Sorry!) The house's front, without the car and figures. The rear of the house. The ground floor has a fireplace, chairs, couch, a phonograph, and a grandfather clock. The upper floor has a bed, organ, and a trio of bookcases, among other things. I put a seance table in the attic. Why, you ask? first, a bit of background info: Following The First World War and the loss of so many people to the meat grinder known as trench warfare and the following influenza pandemic, spiritualism saw a resurgence in the 1920s and mediums were called into houses across the country to have the dead family members speak through them. (Naturally, this was a bunch of feel-good hocus pocus mixed with disguised party tricks - the 'mediums' usually hoodwinked the families while making them believe the dead have been reached, all while making good money off the bereaved families.) The long and short of it is, the couple who own the house lost a son to the Great War, and are trying to communicate with him in the beyond. For my changes to the car I turned the color from white to yellow (red and black copies have also been built), replaced the Speed Champions wheels, saucer hubcaps, and teacup headlights with other parts that suit my tastes more. I also substituted the older one-piece Racers grille with cheaper parts as well. The 3x3 round dish on the back end is supposed to be a spare tire cover. The removable roof design was also changed from the original MOC to be stronger. There is also a bit of space behind the headrest for some luggage. The couple who own the house and car. Thoughts?
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For this car model I took a set of free instructions from Rebrickable user @Leewan and modified them in several major ways. (You can view the original MOC here.) For my changes I turned the color from white to red (yellow and black copies have also been built, with pictures coming soon!), replaced the Speed Champions wheels, saucer hubcaps, and teacup headlights with other parts that suit my tastes more. I also substituted the older one-piece Racers grille with cheaper parts as well. The car without the driver, who can fit in the seat - but just barely. This is because there aren't many hairpieces that can be used with this car due to the low roof. Originally I wanted Cruella De Vil to be the driver (as this looks very much like her car), but she doesn't fit due to her hair being too big. The back of the car. The 3x3 round dish is supposed to be a spare tire cover. The removable roof design was also changed to be stronger. There is a bit of space behind the headrest for some luggage. Thoughts?
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For those of you who don't know, the department store Sears (remember them?) used to sell homes through mail order catalogs as do-it-yourself kits from 1908 to 1942. Over the years, they had 370 styles available, and ~70,000 homes were built over that timeframe. They had optional extras for each style including electricity, indoor plumbing, central heating, and telephone hookup. You can read more and even flip through numerous catalogs here on Wikipedia. The house I've made is not based on any specific model or year, but it *looks* like a 1920s / 1930s kit house to me, so thus it became one. This house is a super heavily modified version of a Brick City Depot design, specifically this Winter Village house that I bought instructions for over a decade ago. I updated the design quite a bit, while leaving enough of the early-2010's charm of the original MOC. I also added a much-needed back half to the model with stairs to the upper level and a chimney. The building folds open dollhouse style. Inside the front we have the entryway / foyer, and living room, with bedroom upstairs. In the back we have the dining room and stairway, all with the proper furniture for each room. The modular footprint is removable from the building. I like the late-1930s car from 2015 San Diego Comic Con set 'Action Comics 1 - Superman', but don't particularly like the colors - or the insane price! So I used the instructions and built my own version in dark blue. The car has a number of changes from the set, but it still seats one figure at the wheel. The rear of the car. Inside the car, featuring the drivers seat. ...apologies for the dust everywhere. I don't know where it came from, I just built this MOC last week! Thanks for viewing!
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This building was heavily inspired by a Winter Village MOC by Brick City Depot from who I bought a copy of some instructions from in 2015. (The link to his store's site is here.) I added a back wall to the building, made it look more late 1920's / early '30's by adding painted wooden siding, and removing the Christmas-time items. Also, several items are missing prints in these pictures that would be fixed in real life. Please note: Both these OCTAN models go with my Hogsmeade-style MOCs... and yes, I know that doesn't make sense with Harry Potter cannon. I don't really care, it looks good next to them so thus it stays! The front of the building with the two art-deco gas pumps. The four yellow 1 x 2 tile parts should have warning stripes pointed on them, and the twin pumps should have OCTAN labeling on top as well. This rear portion of the building is new, along with the removable roof section. It's a little crowded inside, with two shelving racks, a service counter w/ cash register, and a printed poster for Radiator Springs on the wall. The gas tanker is a mashup of the truck in set 10222 (Winter Village Post Office) and the one in Indiana Jones set 7683 (Fight on the Flying Wing) and should have OCTAN branding on the sides of the tank. It can seat a single driver figure at the wheel, too. The rear features tank controls and a rubber hose for filling up the gas station's underground tank. Thoughts on this future addition to my expanding small town?
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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).
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Hello all. I've just recently completed a new bank as its been over a decade since my last one https://www.flickr.com/photos/52656812@N04/5873042040/in/dateposted-public/ - hopefully it shows I've improved - at least in my photography skills! Its still of an art-deco style like the former but with some more geometric touches and a sharper finish. It was inspired by the Bank of Ireland building in Belfast which was built in the late 1920s and still stands today; I've also included an interior for the ground floor which is not based on any bank interior in particular as the material from that time is very hard to come by for a smaller bank. There is an elevator, patterned floor, teller booths and a relief on the wall to capture the period. As usual you can find them on my flickr stream here: https://www.flickr.com/photos/52656812@N04/ Regards!
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I digitally recreated this model on January 30th, practically the day pictures of set 40532 - Vintage Taxi were revealed. I then ordered the six new black brackets + about 295 other parts from Lego Bricks and Pieces (R.I.P.) and the rest from BrickLink. Most of the car was finished February 7th, but the black brackets only arrived today. (March 24th). Here is how I recreated the car without instructions by guesswork: For this model I used Rebrickable's inventory to get a parts list of set 40532, removed all the accessories' parts (taxi stand, mini-fig, etc.) and changed the color of the yellow parts to several other colors to see what worked before settling on dark red. As this was designed / built before the instructions were released, it was just a visible parts field at first. (Nothing but parts laid out in a grid in LDD.) I didn't want to wait for the instructions while part prices could go up and thus I reverse engineered it using only logical part placements from the list. I also used Brickset's review of the set for reference to things official LEGO pictures didn't give... although I did miss a 1 x 2 green plate part doing it this way, and had to get a black one from my own collection. I changed the wheels to be something I already have in the same basic size, and the front grille to be a different style for reasons of cost saving and individuality. (If everyone else is going to have that one-piece front grille, why follow the crowd?) Doing something similar, but yet not the same was a goal in this entire project to begin with anyway. I added a license plate to the rear of the vehicle. The car still seats two with room for some luggage behind the passenger. As for the other 295 parts I purchased that January day, they are going to this house build which you can see more of in it's own topic here. All the parts have finally been gathered, with construction to start VERY soon, possibly Saturday... eight months after I started looking for parts for it! Thoughts, comments, and or complaints welcome!
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Hello fellow EB members; My latest MOC is called Astrid and Associates Architecture firm. This building is the new head office for the firm as a showcase of the firms abilities! It's taken quite a while to build as I've struggled to find the right direction to take the building. After finding the right proportions to using the large arch pieces surrounding the windows on the ground floor the rest of the building took shape from there. I wanted a good mix of colour and texture, using inspiration from 1920's/1930's buildings with perhaps a touch of middle eastern influence. The interior is modern as I wanted to do something different from one of my many older themed buildings and timelines. Anyway on with the pics, 8 in all; You can also find them here on my flickr page if you prefer and it bigger sizes. https://www.flickr.com/photos/52656812@N04/ Comments and questions welcome! Cheers
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This early-1930's Duesenberg SJ is based off the car seen in Indiana Jones set 7682 (Shanghai Chase) from the 2009 Temple of Doom line. I changed the color from tan to black, updated the look with parts not available 15 years ago, and added a hardtop roof among other things. Oh, and me being me, I added some flanged railroad wheels to use the car an an inspection vehicle for railroad officials like the one shown. (Because why not drive the high iron in style?) I've always wanted to build one of these in black (since the set was released, actually), and now I've got one! The only problem is, it show dust WAY too easily, as you can see. ...It's the curse of building in black! The rear of the car. The car seats two figures inside the cabin. Thoughts?
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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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Hi EB followers. I've finished my most recent build. Predictably its another Art-Deco/Streamlined hotel building but I figured its been a few years since the last so I've had time to refine my ideas! It's called the Deluxe hotel and it's taken a couple of months to finalise due the constant changing of ideas in my mind in how I wanted it to look. It's not directly based of any paricular hotel but incorporates elements of many ones found in South Florida. Only a couple of images to show, the interior is quite shallow so I didn't bother with an interior this time. Anyway, comments and questions as always welcomed! You can find the images on my flickr here if you prefer. Regards! Andrew
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This heavily modified copy of set 31064 (Island Adventures) is now based on a fictional aircraft from the 1930's-set animated Disney TV show 'TailSpin'. Technically it's a Conwing L-16 amphibious seaplane, but it's better known as the Sea Duck, and is piloted by Baloo. This anthropomorphic bear is originally from the 1967 Jungle Book film, and he is not alone in making that transition from the film to small screen, but you'll have to read the show's wiki page for more info as I don't have the space for a full synopsis! Sadly, the plane's pilot, Baloo, isn't possible to make as LEGO doesn't make a bear head in Black. Hopefully someday I will be able to get him built in real life! The rear of the plane. I extended the cargo bay a bit from the original set, and modified the horizontal tail to be stronger and less floppy using technic rods instead of pins. The cockpit roof opens to place a pilot at the controls. The cargo door opens as well. ... and that's all I got. Thoughts? MODS: I wasn't sure where to post this. Move it how you see fit, if you need to.
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This late-1930's American-styled coupe car model is heavily modified and recolored from these free police car instructions as seen at this Rebrickable MOC by user Leewan. I remade it into both yellow (not shown) and blue varieties from the original black-and-white, removed the doors, and revised some other stuff "under the hood". Also, the model bears a resemblance to the titular car from the 1952 Disney short film 'Susie the little blue coupe'. The front of the car. The rear of the car. The inside can seat two figures and the roof is removable. (Picture from Wikipedia - the short's music is still under copyright, but the pictures are not, strangely!) I couldn't do the radio antenna on my MOC, as it changes sides on the car from scene to scene. Also, I couldn't get the eyes on the windscreen. Fun facts: - The design of the Disney / Pixar 'Cars universe' characters was inspired by Susie. - Bill Peet wrote the story treatment for Susie the little blue coupe. (he was quite prolific as a writer and animator for Disney, see his wiki page) Later, he also write the book 'The Caboose Who got Loose', another one of my favorite books - and MOC's! ...and that's all I got. Thoughts, comments, suggestions and questions are appreciated!
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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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This house was digitally built in 2018, really built in 2019, then languished in a WIP state for several years before being finished last month. Enjoy the pictures - this model has been a long rough ride since the beginning, but it was worth it! I was inspired to create this model from the 2018 Jurassic World set 75930, Indoraptor Rampage at Lockwood Estate, with some design cues from set 10228, Haunted House. The dollhouse-style model was built from the set pictures, with the play features removed and opening rear sections added to match the front half. The house folds apart, doll house style, with the rear section opening in quarters up to 90 degrees. (Technic pins hold the model shut for transport and ease of handling) The modular building compatible base is able to be removed from the building to facilitate access to the inside details. The rear of the mansion features a back door (perfect for escapes when the locals get feisty about the scientist playing god again!) and the chimney flue. Moving inside, The bottom floor features the living room and dining rooms, while the second floor is the bedroom, study and pipe organ rooms. The third floor features the laboratory for the study of time travel. The rear door to the outside is in the right rear section, while the safe containing the house's title and family paper work is directly above on the second level. This area also has stairs from first to second floors and what appears to be Frankenstein's monster on the third floor's operating table! The left rear quarter features the fireplace and telephone on the first floor and a bed for the second floor's master bedroom. The stairs to the third floor are also on this side. It seems the time stone from the Marvel Universe is also here... I wonder what the Doctor plans on doing with it? I built the roadster model by heavily stretching set 40532 - Vintage Taxi by about seven studs. This allowed for me to add in mechanical details. I added a covered spare tire at the rear of the car, and blacked out the back windscreen to give the impression of a fabric convertible top. As an added bonus, the car still seats two figures with room in the trunk for luggage. (Any and all resemblance in the mad doctor to moderators, living, dead, or otherwise, is totally coincidental. It is totally not @Professor Thaum in his younger years. ) The rear of the MOC. Inside view of the car, with seating for two and room for baggage. ...and that's all I've got. Thoughts, comments, complaints and suggestions welcome!
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I've had these ten train cars built for months now (years in some cases!) and thought I'd better upload them before I forgot again. The two old-fashioned freight trains consist of the following items (in no particular order): - red standard caboose - two boxcars - three generic open-top wagons - flatcar with rail load - OCTAN fuel tank car - livestock car with cow - green streamlined caboose This green 1930's streamlined caboose was inspired by a very similar real-world Wabash caboose located on the Katy Rail-Trail at St. Charles, Missouri. This caboose model (along with the green streamlined one) is inspired build-wise by the Katy Caboose (as in, "The Caboose who got Loose" from the children's book) model I copied in late 2021 from TrainedBricks' MOC. These two nearly-identical boxcars were inspired by set 7597 (Western Train Chase) from the 2010 Toy Story 3 line. They are 99% the same except for colors in a few places, as not many train cars are identical to each other - especially freight! The simplest car of all: a flat car with railroad track / rails strapped to the top in four rows. These three generic wagons cars are actually British Railways plank wagon models, not American at all... but they work well enough for me! These cars were designed by the_chestertonian, but sadly he deleted all his photos. This is just a quickly-mocked up tanker car in OCTAN colors. It's nothing too fancy, but it does look good. (to me at least) This livestock car was heavily inspired by 2014 CITY set 60052 (Cargo Train) but with a roof for more realism. I can now understand why LEGO left it open top in the set, but I managed to make it work. The roof (which was designed with the same look as the boxcars) is even removable and the ramps fold down so you can take out the cow. Believe it or not, the freight cars wouldn't fit in this box in any other configuration! That's all I have... Thoughts?
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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?
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Description from the Museum of Transportation's website on the real vessel I based the towboat off of: The H.T. Pott was the first Missouri River towboat with a welded steel hull instead of a riveted hull. The vessel operated out of Kansas City, Missouri on the Missouri River. It is named for Herman T. Pott (1895-1982), a distinguished river transportation executive and entrepreneur. The groups of barges that are moved on the nation’s rivers are called “tows." The boats that propel the barges are “towboats” even though they push the barges from the back instead of pulling them. The H.T. Pott is 58 feet long and 15 feet wide, and it has a “draft” the amount of the hull below the water line of 6 feet. You can walk the decks of the H.T. Pott. You can see a picture of the real towboat on the Museum's website here. Notes on the LEGO model: The name of the vessel, HT Pott, will go on the studs just below the roofline on the bridge. Besides the lettering, two white brackets and four black curved plates are missing from the digital model. Also, a printed-cloth American flag will fly at the rear of the craft off the second level. The rear of the vessel, with flagpole and ladder to upper deck visible. I plan on putting this 1930's towboat and my 1880's Proud Mary steamboat on the depressed-height table holding my Eads bridge, to give a stereotypical view of life on the Missouri / Mississippi Rivers, both distant past, and more recently. (as the towboat worked the Missouri river traffic from '33 up until the middle 1980's.) Now, you may be asking yourself "What good is a towboat without something for to to push up / down the river?" This was the existential question I asked myself today, and the answer I came up with shortly thereafter was "not very good". So, I set about building something quite commonplace if you live near any of the major rivers of the mid-western USA: a pair of un-powered barges! (I think they usually use them for grain and silica, among other bulk goods, but here they are empty, mostly because like the towboat model I made, they have open bottoms.) These type I see a lot here in Saint Louis, and are of the modern variety... although I'm unsure how long they've been using this design, to be honest. It seems to be two barges next to each other, but in actuality, they are one big barge. I did this because less parts are used this way. I will eventually have two of these ancillary models hooked onto my tugboat / each other with 5-long LEGO chains. (these are not in the picture) The HT Pott is few bricks less in height (and more than a few studs shorter in length) than my 2019 sternwheeler steamboat MOC, the Proud Mary (link to it's topic). Side note: The two being near each other like this isn't exactly an anachronism, as there were a scant few steamboats still plying the rivers when the HT Pott was built in 1933. (Granted, most steamboats had seen better days and were on the way out or retrofitted for cruising duties by then, but it's still accurate!) Thoughts? EDIT 6/2/22: added real world pictures.
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This gothic-style building is inspired by 2011 Harry Potter set 10217 - Diagon Alley, specifically the Borgin and Burkes shop. There are also two heavily modified versions of the gangster car from Shanghai Chase set 7682, now being used as identical police cars, while the 1930's officer torso's are from the recent modular police station. This building will serve as my town's 1930's-set police station. It was heavily expanded from it's original form to have a second story and back wall. It also has hinges (like in the old Medieval Market Village - set 10193) to allow for it to open up to 90 degrees to access the detailed inside. The building's design also features a tower, three fireplaces on one chimney flue, and staircase to the upper floor. (Sadly, the attic has no room for any staircase leading to it.) The front half of the building's exterior, with the imposing public entrance based of Borgin and Burkes from the 2011 Diagon Alley set. This model will serve as my police station on my town, and as such has a jail cell, "wanted" board, and two desks in the front half alone. The rear half of the building's exterior, with officer entryway and a roof-mounted bat signal. Why have that, when the model is not set in Gotham City? Because Batman! The back half has the other portion of the jail cell and a weapons storage area for officers Photography equipment is also located on this section for documenting suspects. There is also a breakaway exterior wall section to bust the bad guys out of the cell! "Calling all cars! Calling all cars! Silent alarm at the First National Bank of Legoland, suspected robbery in progress. Bat-signal has been activated. I repeat, Bat-signal has been activated, over!" ...What do you guys think? Comments, questions, and suggestions are always welcome!
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I was inspired to build this industrial-looking old fashioned interlocking Tower by set number 60009 (Helicopter Arrest) and a number of old towers in my hometown of St. Louis, Missouri. In addition, the unusually-placed signal arm attached to the building is inspired by an mid-1960s WWII-set black and white film, (The Train) in which a French signal tower very similar to this one is used for some sabotage of a German train and is subsequently blown up in an Allied air raid... and yes, they really did blow it up - no miniatures were involved! Here you can see the chimney flue on the rear of the building. There is an abandoned OCTAN tank car also visible nearby. Upstairs is a heating stove for those cold winter nights, six lever frames for moving switches and a signal board for showing which route is currently aligned. The bottom floor features a (empty) gas tank, a chest for emergency flares and torpedo's, a trash can, plus a telephone. "This is getting out of hand... now there are two of them!" The one on the right is my original switch tower, while the one on the left is my Dad's (slightly different) copy. He paid for the model and I built it. I ordered the parts last Sunday (Feb. 12th), the three orders arrived Wednesday and Thursday and construction on the copy was completed last night. (the 16th) Thoughts anybody? EDIT: 2/13/23: Real world photos added!
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So I woke up the morning of Sept. 22nd, 2022 to the news Winter Village set 10308 - Holiday Main Street had been revealed. I liked some of it (Trolley FTW!) but the buildings were lacking "something". So, I tried to recreate the music store in LDD to fix what I thought I needed to fix. That quickly turned into full-blown MOC only slightly inspired by the set with a fold-open back wall and vastly different interior. More recently, I revisited it to add in a bay window, elongate the second floor, and revise the troublesome roof with a design inspired by set 10246. (Detective Office modular building) The lower floor has got a sales desk with old fashioned cash register, a scale for weighing packages, and a couple safety deposit boxes. The poster on the wall above the boxes will be a "most wanted" mugshot, for a true post office feel. Moving on, the upper floor is the sorting room, with bunches of drawers for route maps / address change requests / etc., cubbyholes for outgoing mail, and trashcans for dead letters. The table is for where the postal employees do the sorting. The rear of the building has a service door to give access to big trucks for delivery / pickup of cross-country mail. The 8-wide postal delivery vehicle was heavily inspired by free instructions for a 6-wide hi-rail vehicle (called the Stud Inspector) I found at the bottom of this page by Brick train Depot. It really is a cool model, and a neat callback to the "Rivet Counter" trucks you sometimes see on (non-LEGO) model railroad layouts. I added a opening rear loading door, a different color scheme, and (of course) revised it to 8-wide. Thoughts, anyone? EDIT 2/3/23: Revised model, added new pictures. For comparison, here is the original MOC:
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This green 1930's streamlined caboose was inspired by a very similar real-world Wabash caboose (Katy didn't own streamlined cars like this as far as I know) located on the Katy Rail-Trail at St. Charles, Missouri. The caboose model is also inspired build-wise by the Katy Caboose (as in, "The Caboose who got Loose" from the children's book) model I copied in late 2021 from @zephyr1934's MOC, The one shown later in this post is my own version of that caboose, which you can read about in it's own topic here, or you can see his original version in his own topic. I was going to put MKT (standing for Missouri - Kansas - Texas Railroad, the same owner of Katy caboose, and from where she gets her name) on the sides of the new caboose where the printed brick is but in printed 1 x 1 tile letters, but the needed green 1 x 4 Technic bricks were problematic, as was the two letter T's that I don't have. Also, the doors to the inside open, but there are no interior details. There are a number of similarities between the two caboose models. However, they are more different than alike for several reasons. For example, Katy has A LOT more SNOT-work compared to her newer cousin. Why, you ask? Katy's walls are all sideways to better represent planks of wood (typical in caboose construction up until early-1910's), whereas her opposite number has only SNOT in the base of the body / stairs and regular bricks everywhere else to represent more modern steel construction. (I also left the mouth and eyes off the new arrival.) Thoughts anyone?
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"It was a Monday, a day like any other day. I left a small town for the apple in decay. It was my destiny, It's what I needed to do. They were telling me, I'm telling you. I was inside looking outside, the millions of faces, but still I'm alone. Waiting, hours of waiting, paying a penance - I was longing for home." - Foreigner and their song 'Long, long way from home' (or at least a portion of the song) This seedy, rundown looking building is a heavily modified version of half of the 2015 set 10246 (Detective Office) from the modular building line. I removed the blue barber shop building and cookie-smuggling play features, and added an exterior staircase. I also added a billboard on the opposite wall taken from the Brick Tales pop-up book's cover, plus a new, simpler water tank on the roof. Then, just for the heck of it, I decided to take my de-modularized detective office and modularize it with a removable baseplate. Why, you ask? Because I just wanted to make it usable at Gateway LUG shows since we use modular buildings, but at home I don't use modular buildings. I realized I couldn't put it on a straightaway like the original 10246 set, as there is a billboard I placed on one side that makes this impossible. Thus I put it on a corner... but wait - it's too small for a corner module! So, I decided to build in a wooden fence for the one side where the billboard is, to bring it in line with other modular buildings. I added a gate for access to the pool hall's back door, and placed a tile footing to keep the building removable from the baseplate. Naturally, this made it impossible to put in the connecting pin holes, but they are rarely used anyway so I felt confident it doesn't matter if I left them out. As you can see, the original medium nougat is changed to sand green, and the dark green awnings are now old printed slopes from the 1990's, the red POOL neon sign is now printed round tiles, among MANY other things that were changed around. The upper floor features the quite messy detective's office. Papers everywhere, a hat stand, desk fan, quite a few places to store case info and a telephone. By comparison, the pool hall is pretty sparsely decorated, with a trophy on a stand, darts / dart board, pool cues, and billiard table. Oh yeah, there is a picture on the wall too. The modular, removable base without the building attached. Be sure to mind the guard dog! For it's entire production run of fifteen million vehicles, made from 1908 to 1927, the Model T by Ford came in any color you wanted... as long as it was black. This particular Tin Lizzie's body was inspired by Calin's MOC over on Flickr. It's supposed to be based on the 1923 model year and the Detective figure fits in the drivers seat. The rear of the car with the spare tire. (I just love how Calin used the window frames mounted horizontally for the drivers cabin... it's so ingenious!) EDIT 2/4/24: I even wrote a small story about my detective, who now has the CMF Noir Detective outfit, but the same IJ hat / hair as before. "...'It's over Joe! Turn yourself in!' I screamed into the desolate train yard. Of course, no response. He knew what awaited him back at the penitentiary - the electric chair was a sweet release compared to the desolate inhuman solitude of permanent solitary confinement that awaited him. Suddenly, a movement to my right caught my eye - it was Joe, running away at full speed, bounding over switch handles and jumping rails like a scared jackrabbit in the darkness of the witching hour. I hopped in my Model T to catch up with him at full tilt, almost tearing out my suspension in the process. I grumbled to myself about sending the Feds a bill for car repairs, when I heard a lonesome wail of a steam whistle. 'So THAT'S his game!' I said to no one in particular. 'He's gonna hop a freight!' I headed for the sound, when into my headlights came a sight I'll never forget. Jailbreak Joe came to a skidding halt, trying to get close enough to the engine to hop on the front deck of the loco as it sped past. Only problem was he hit an oil patch, invisible in the darkness. He went tumbling into the path of the loco, knocking himself out in the process by hitting his head of a rail. I tried to pull him clear while the train went into emergency, whistle shrieking like a banshee all the while. Simply put, I was too late to save Joe..." Thoughts, comments, questions, and complaints welcome!
