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Showing results for tags 'illinois'.
Found 4 results
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My Dad's realistic XXL Grain Elevator - finished 1/24/2020
Murdoch17 posted a topic in LEGO Train Tech
While I was at my dad's house yesterday, I took some pictures of his just-finished grain elevator model with a rake of four set 4536's (Blue Hopper Car) and my Bluebonnet Santa Fe F7 diesel A & B units. (Full disclosure: He originally was inspired by these instructions I suggested to him for the grain elevator not long after creating this topic.) He just took the basic concept / look and RAN with it, making it much stronger and more modular than before. This modular format makes it easier to store in a custom wooden box like the ones behind the Grain Elevator. Inside these boxes is where he stores his modular buildings / train tunnel. The American flag addition to the building's design was my @Roadmonkeytj's idea, and was relayed by me to my dad for building. It is seen on both sides of the building. My dad revised majorly the shed where the hopper cars dump their grain load, making it much stronger in the process. This was entirely of my dad's idea: this four-point joint makes transportation easier, leaving the elevator building section on a 32 x 32, and most of the grain storage blocks on a 16 x 32 size base-plate. Pretty cool, huh? The model was inspired to-be-built by the Alton, Illinois, riverfront grain elevator, as seen above. Unfortunately, the letters were not a possibility due to not having enough silos / base-plate space to spell it all out. As usual, comments, questions and complaints are always welcome! -
St. Louis' Eads bridge (modular double track three-arch train trestle) - real life MOC
Murdoch17 posted a topic in LEGO Train Tech
Here is my final design of the St. Louis bridge, commonly known as the Eads bridge because of it's designer, James B. Eads. It uses Indiana Jones roller-coaster ramps for the arches, which looks pretty cool. The bridge is nine tracks total in length and 19 bricks high from base to track. (This means about fourteen bricks of clearance between arch top and floor, so some small ships could pass through!) First, a little background info from Wikipedia (which is also where this picture came from): "The Eads Bridge is a combined road and railway bridge over the Mississippi River at St. Louis, connecting St. Louis and East St. Louis, Illinois. The bridge is named for its designer and builder, James B. Eads. When completed in 1874, the Eads Bridge was the longest arch bridge in the world, with an overall length of 6,442 feet (1,964 m). The ribbed steel arch spans were considered daring, as was the use of steel as a primary structural material: it was the first such use of true steel in a major bridge project. The Eads Bridge, which became an iconic image of the city of St. Louis, from the time of its erection until 1965 when the Gateway Arch was constructed, is still in use. The bridge crosses the St. Louis riverfront between Laclede's Landing, to the north, and the grounds of the Gateway Arch, to the south. Today the road deck has been restored, allowing vehicular and pedestrian traffic to cross the river. The St. Louis MetroLink light rail line has used the rail deck since 1993." This is a rough representation, as it is missing a lot, (I.E. no car deck, missing tunnel under downtown, and lack of the East St Louis ramp approach.) A close-up view of the arches of one of the three identical spans. The bridge as separated out for transit. Here we see the modular connections for transporting dissembling the bridge for taking to shows and such, along with the older deck (the dark bluish gray line) for when the bridge was single track. The modular component of the bridge's design also makes it a LOT easier to carry as the whole bridge with the three sections weighs about 10 pounds total. 4/12/19 BIG UPDATE: Real life pictures / text updated to reflect the newly remodeled bridge. (it now is double track!) Comments, questions and complaints are always welcome! -
So these aren't brand new, but they are my most recent builds. Sufjan Stevens is an indie artist who makes all kinds of awesome music, here are some of his album covers in Lego: Clicking on the photos should take you to the flickr album :) Here is Asthmatic Kitty, his record label, tweeting about them
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This model was inspired by the Siemens SD-460 type light rail vehicles used by Metro Link in Saint Louis, Missouri. They are usually two sets used on every train, so just imagine a exact duplicate of the train above connected to the train you see. Basically it's four cars with only two walkways and four cabs, though only the outer two are ever used on the line. Also, the two cars with the inter-car connection are supposed to share a Jacobs bogie underneath the walkway. I didn't use one because it would cause problems storing the train in my boxes IF I decide to get it. the walkway. I didn't use one because it would cause problems storing the train in my boxes IF I decide to get it. The side of the model. The first set of pantographs on the far ends of the cars are used as ice cutters in cold weather (though they can be used in an emergency for power collection) , while the second, inner pair are actually used as the electric pickup points. This is not my map, I got it off Google. It is used by Metro Link on it's trains to show the stations used by the Light-Rail system. The Metro Bus routes are not shown, as their are too many routes to show on this type of map, though the metro buses usually use the routes of the old streetcars. The train is supposed to feature the "M" logo on it's front and rear ends, but their is no printing on the logo, which is a blue square with a red circle inside, which has a capital "M" in white located inside the red circle. (I used a black 1x1 plate because it stood out more.) Anyone wanting to read more about Metro Link and their plans for any future extensions and such should visit their wiki page here: https://en.wikipedia...ink_(St._Louis) EDIT: forgot to add the LDD file: http://www.moc-pages.com/user_images/80135/1453843587m.lxf
