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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? -
1950's Astro Bot 33 and retro style Classic Space car - real world (revised) MOC builds
Murdoch17 posted a topic in LEGO Sci-Fi
This Classic Space version of Build Better Bricks' Iron Giant with the head of the previous @hachiroku version of the Giant's head added on. (consider it a mashup of the two Iron Giant models!) The car was also inspired by this Hachiroku build here, and was originally made by me in September 2020. I have just now revised this early 1950's car for Benny with new mudguards that cover the (enlarged) two rear wheels. I made both MOC models into CS colors (black, both "new" grays, and blue, with white for the car roof) with red and green indicator light parts (on the robot only), and two yellow / black bumblebee stripe tiles with a printed 4 x 2 slopes on the arms / car trunk lid. (They aren't shown, but have this print) The gray jumpers near the robot's waist are for power conduits, so he can be recharged without consuming (costly!) metal products via his opening mouth. Speaking of which, the mouth now can open to allow for posing... but unfortunately, it doesn't play nice with the shoulders, so the mouth must remain closed until I can figure out a better solution. Another thing that didn't work well was the rotating waist: it operated too jerkily and was hard to operate, so I removed that feature. The rear of the robot. Not sure if it's a feature, but the arms won't go down any further to the sides... I tried everything I could think of, but no dice. This is because the arms can't be removed without destroying the awesome-looking - and very intricate - torso. Looks pretty classy, right? The two doors open, but the obligatory black space seat is missing, because any more height and Benny would not fit inside. The rear has a license plate, the classic space logo, and two coverings mostly obscuring the rear wheels. As a courtesy to the driver instead of the space seat, I have included a light bluish gray upholstery for the back of the seat. As usual, Thoughts, Suggestions, Comments, & Questions of any kind are always welcome! So, what do you think? -
Welcome aboard the Astro-train! This futuristic stream-liner was a mix of the 1950's Earth train called the "Aerotrain" but redesigned specifically for use by Nexus Force personnel as a high-speed, high-security ground transport between the northern-most city of St. Nicklaus and north-pole-hugging outpost of Ice Station Odyssey, around 590 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 original Earth version, the Astro-train is super-streamlined, and can go up to speeds of up to 230 MPH on special track, with super-elevated curves and long straight-away's of 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 Seven identical versions of itself on the route with up to five in running order on the route and at least one in the maintenance shed at any one time. Also, please NOTE: The train is authorized to make 15 minute stops in the icy wastelands at native villages as requested before continuing on to it's destination. Signal boxes are provided at certain spots to stop the train at the correct spot to en-train, with only village elders having the keys. To de-train, you must pull the cord at least full 10 minutes before you wish to disembark to allow the train to slow down. Only five stops are marked on the route, but several unmarked villages are springing up, so the schedule has gone out the airlock recently. (In actuality, this is a heavily modified version of 2018 Star Wars set 75217 (Imperial Conveyex Transport) mashed up into an 8-wide version of my 1950's Aerotrain model. The model also features inside details and Jacobs bogies besides the lift away side panels of 75217 and removable cab roof.) This loco is missing five printed pieces: (1) slope of this type for the front of the nose, right below the third headlight. It is the Nexus Force's logo. (4) of this round tile for the roof engine exhaust vents. Fold up the walls so you can look underneath at the powerful diesel engine. The roof of the engineer's cab comes off to place a figure at the controls. Each of the four cars can hold four seats each behind the two fold-up side walls. These are the four passenger cars, which are linked together in pairs of two by Jacobs bogies. They can have more two-car sets dropped in or out, but the rear-most car set is the minimum. (as the last car carriers the four tail markers) I thought about adding another two cars, but the price was too prohibitive right now. Anyway, I think this might become a real brick built model sometime around Christmas to go with my Nexus Force space base... as seen in this horribly out-of-date picture from January 5th, 2019 and this topic here. We will just have to see what the future holds!
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Classic Space Astro-train - Benny's space-train, space-train!, SPACE-TRAIN!!
Murdoch17 posted a topic in LEGO Train Tech
Welcome aboard the Astro-train! This stream-liner was a mix of the 1910's Earth train called the "Bipolar" built specifically for use by Classic Space forces as high-speed, high-security ground transports for senior level officers such as Benny. Unlike the Earth version, the Astro-train is super-streamlined, and can go up to speeds of up to 400 MPH on special track, with super-elevated curves and long straight-away's of tens of miles.\ BUILDER'S NOTES: In reality, I liked my original take on the Classic Space Aerotrain, but it can't be built due to design and motorization issues. thus, I stretched the design into the model you see here but with my Super Bipolar at the head. This will be able to allow the engine to pull freight cars, (such as Benny's road car on a flat car) too. This model was inspired by both a 1999 version of the original, real-world Bipolar engine built by user Legosteveb and by a digital-only design by @Sunder to create the Super Bipolar you see in my picture above. Note, the two 4 x 2 slopes should have this CS print while the four white 1 x 1 tiles should have this "60" print. Also, a bonus for this engine model is if I ever show off this train at a LEGO show, I can replace the middle wheel-set on the loco with another person's 9V motor swapped in to power the train. This is the baggage car, and like the rest of the train, all the doors open. (Although there are no interior details, so it can be whatever you want it to be inside!) These are the two passenger cars. The observation car. This is the complete train. I'm planning on building this in 2019 in real bricks, at some point, hopefully. Anyway, comments, questions, complaints, and suggestions are always welcome!