Search the Community
Showing results for tags 'milwaukee'.
Found 2 results
-
EP-2 "Bipolar" electric locomotive - Milwaukee Road - real world MOC
Murdoch17 posted a topic in LEGO Train Tech
Confession: I have been wanting to build a Bipolar for a long time, about six years. Longer than the Daylight or my Aerotrain models have been around, even on my computer, and longer than most of my 80+ strong fleet. Now, after years of waiting and thinking, designing and re-developing: it is here! But first, here is what it's based on: The Real life inspiration: The LEGO model of this engine is sitting on the side of the real locomotive. Real life inspiration: From 1919 to 1962, the Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific Railroad (known as the Milwaukee Road) had these five General Electric-made behemoths pulling trains under the wires on two sections on the Pacific Extension, pulling trains part-way on their journey to Seattle or Chicago. They were called the Bipolar's for each of the locomotive's 12 motors had only two field poles, mounted directly to the locomotive frame beside the axle. The motor armature was mounted directly on the axle, providing an entirely gear-less design. These locos were so powerful they could out-pull modern steam locos, and what used to take two steamers took just one bipolar. However, after a disastrous 1953 rebuilding by the railroad's company shops (who had no clue how to work on a electric loco) the engines were prone to failures and even fire. And so, in 1962, four of them were scrapped with the lone survivor, numbered E-2, towed to the Museum of Transportation in St. Louis Missouri, where it has sat silent even since. LEGO Model: This model was inspired by a 1999 version of the engine built by user legosteveb. I recreated the actual orange, red and black color scheme used on the loco when it emerged from that 1953 modernization program, but it was too expensive. So, after looking around I decided to use the paint scheme the Milwaukee Road used when the engine was donated. This yellow and red scheme was inspired by the Union Pacific and was adopted very late in the engine's career (mid-50's). As both sides are the same except for the headlamp color, I decided to take only one picture of the ends. As you may have noticed, the LEGO version has two "floating" third axle bogies that were inspired by Anthony Sava that allow the engine to float over switches and curves easily. The engine runs beautifully over the little bit of track I have access to, but due to my lack of a layout and tables at the moment, (I've been forced to pack it all up for now) I couldn't get any pictures of that taken. Here is Steve's original model from 1999. Comments, Questions and complaints welcome! EDIT 8/17/18: Well, it's taken about six years of planning, designing, and redesigning, but it's finally on it's way to the real world. The Milwaukee Road "BiPolar" electric locomotive has been ordered as of the 12th in the form as shown. (minus the blue letter overlay I added in MS Paint, of course!) Keep your eyes peeled for real life pictures! EDIT 8/20/18: Real world pictures added! -
From 1919 to 1962, the Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific Railroad (known as the Milwaukee Road) had these five General Electric-made behemoths pulling trains under the wires from Chicago to Seattle. They were called the Bipolar's for each of the locomotive's 12 motors had only two field poles, mounted directly to the locomotive frame beside the axle. The motor armature was mounted directly on the axle, providing an entirely gear-less design. These locos were so powerful they could out-pull modern steam locos, and what used to take two steamers took just one bipolar. However, after a disastrous 1953 rebuilding by the railroad's company shops (who had no clue how to work on a electric loco) the engines were prone to failures and even fire. And so, in 1962, four of them were scrapped with the lone survivor, numbered E-2, towed to the Museum of Transportation in St. Louis Missouri, where it has sat silent even since, as seen above. The slightly stylized LEGO version of the locomotive was inspired by a 1999 version of the Bipolar electric locomotive built by user legosteveb and by a digital-only design by @Sunder. With this updated, more curvy model, the classic orange and red scheme was impossible, and so as the yellow and red of the previous model type. Thus I was forced to invert the red and yellow to the fictional scheme seen. (The black number boards in front and rear should say "E2" in printed 1 x 1 tiles.0 The loco frame is split in three sections as per the original engine. The front and rear section can pivot slightly to make the engine go around curves. Since the last uploading of this model, the wheels have been re-arranged into two groups of seven (they are joined near the end of the frame, with the exact middle section floating freely between the two ends) and the body of the engine has been extended for a total magnet-to-magnet length of 70 studs. The model should perform well on R40 curves / switches, as this picture attests to it's flexibility.... though until it's built in real life, it will remain untested. The newer model is only 1 plate higher than the previous version, with the same length and width. As you can see, it's my longest single locomotive yet designed with 14 axles total. (I'm not 100% sure my articulation attempts in all the boogies and the frame were enough to work on standard LEGO track, but I guess I'll just have to see when it's built in real bricks latter this year!) The passenger train, and the rear car in particular, were inspired by the Milwaukee Road's Olympian Hiawatha service from Tacoma, Washington to with the rearmost car being a Beaver Tail observation car, which were out of service by 1961. (you can read more about these odd-looking cars here on this Wikipedia page.) Actually, I'm not sure the Beaver-tails were ever used all the way to the West Coast on the Olympian, but since it's LEGO, who really cares! That's all I have done for now, and as usual, questions, complaints, comments and suggestions are always welcome! (real life pictures coming to this topic as soon as possible, but the LDD file for the whole train is available here at Bricksafe)