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4-10-4 type steam locomotive "Red Demon" + Pan-American Limited - real world train MOC
Murdoch17 posted a topic in LEGO Train Tech
The 4-10-4 (four leading, ten driving, four trailing) "Rainhill" wheel arrangement was so named after the Rainhill Trials of October 1829 in Rainhill, England of which the famous Rocket was the only entrant to complete the Trials. The Rainhill type was designed in 1927 and built in early 1928, though it was originally called the "Gigantic" type, but the planned Centenary of Steam celebration sealed the deal on the naming of the type. (Unfortunately, the plans for the potential celebration were postponed in July 1928 and finally cancelled one day before the Stock Market Crash of 1929.) The steam locomotive prototype of the 4-10-4 Rainhill type was painted a dark red and gray color-scheme with a light gay box on the tender and was sold by Baldwin Locomotive Works in 1928 to Brick Railway Systems, but due to technical teething troubles and because of it's unusual color scheme was nicknamed the Red Demon. The engine worked the trans-continental route on the "pan-American Limited" passenger train from New York to Los Angeles, with the Red Devil or one of it's type worked the portion west from St. Louis to Las Vegas. The Red Demon original engine (number 7957) worked this route from 1930 until being bumped to freight duties in early 1958. The engine then worked freights with it's thirty-nine brother's in diminishing numbers until this one was sidelined in 1971, the last of it's kind. The Red Demon was pulled out of the mothballs in 1973 for potential use on the 1976 American Bicentennial train but politics intervened and Texas and Pacific 2-10-4 number 610 got the job instead. After that, the engine's future looked bleak until the "Save the Red Demon 7957" Committee was formed which raised enough money to restore the engine to working order by 1978 and has kept the engine indoors and in tip-top shape ever since under the Red Demon Incorporated moniker. This company uses five former Brick Railway Systems-styled coaches on fan trips, but they are wholly owned by Red Demon Inc. The tender features the name of the railroad (Brick Railway Systems) on it's side, with a light at the rear and a ladder to the top deck. In reality, there was no 4-10-4 type of steam locomotive. It was strangely skipped over in the age of steam... none of this wheel arrangement were ever built. The name Red Demon was chosen because the 4-14-4 type of Soviet Russia was the closest analogy to my loco... except mine works fine, while the Russian one never did much as it spread the track, ruined switches and pulled the freight cars' couplings apart due to it's raw power. The second reason for the name is the Red Devil, a heavily modified South African 4-8-4 engine with a gas producing combustion system and many modern improvements. That cape gauge engine worked beautifully, but was mothballed in 2003. As of 2018, however, the Red Devil is again puling fan trip trains in South Africa! The three regular coaches, all in the same color scheme as the engine. The Pan-American Limited's observation car. The whole train. Comments, Questions, Complaints, and Suggestions for the future are always welcome! EDIT: 12/8/22: There really is a prototype for everything! I designed a 4-10-4 steam locomotive in 2019, thinking it was a complete work of fiction, as no class had been built to that wheel arrangement. Turns out, I was partially wrong - no class had been built, but one had been designed by Baldwin Locomotive Works, as seen in their online archives! It was a three-cylinder beast drawn up for a road called The Monon (otherwise known as the Chicago, Indianapolis, and Louisville Railroad) back in 1928 - not very far off my fictionalized backstory year of 1927 as written by me in 2019.... spooky, right? -
1980's-style Red and Blue passenger train and 4-6-4+4-6-4 (Double Hudson) Garratt steam locomotive
Murdoch17 posted a topic in LEGO Train Tech
The look of this train was partially inspired by several 4.5v and 12v-era sets, such 7715 / 7818 for the color scheme and 7740 along with it's supplemental sets 7815 and 7819 for the general look of the coaches. Some parts of this train (the coaches) have already been built from about five years back, while the loco is still a WIP for now. This steam locomotive was slightly inspired by the Rhodesia Railways "15th class" that was used in what is now Zimbabwe. This 4-6-4+4-6-4 Garratt type was 74-units strong and was built by Beyer-Peacock and Company starting in 1940, and after WWII from 1947 to 1952 in seven total batches. You can read more about this specific loco class on Wikipedia. My LEGO MOC version is 'fueled' by oil, whereas the real-world 15th class was coal fired. This is one of the reasons why I said it was "inspired by" and not an exact duplicate of a 15th class. However, the front unit does features a prototypical streamlined casing, and the rear unit partially does too. This LEGO model can take some serious curves (much more than what's shown above!), but that's what you get for building a Garratt: it's one of this type of locomotive's strengths. This picture just shows off the articulation points of my MOC, but technically it could split a switch* and still work just fine with the front engine on one track and rear unit on a second one! *NOTE: Don't try that with a real-world steam loco! The doors on the cab of the loco are supposed to be the 1980's ones with blue print on the lower half. Another missing print is on the oil tank hatches, while number / letter tiles go on the front and rear units. (The front unit gets the numbers, while the rear section gets the letters saying LLR, which stands for LegoLand Railroad.) This baggage / passenger car is called a combine which is short for "combination". All the doors can open on this train, even the sliding ones shown here. The three passenger coaches are identical in every way. The observation car, the rear-most coach on the train, features a platform for sight seeing. The steam loco is still being parted out using pieces from the previous streamlined electric engine and from parts from my collection. Until it's done this is a WIP thread, but suggestions / comments / questions are always welcome no matter the project stage. Drop your thoughts below! -
Six wheel steam tank loco (grayscale color scheme) with 1920's commuter passenger train
Murdoch17 posted a topic in LEGO Train Tech
The 0-6-0T (T standing for Tank) steam engine seen below was inspired by this English 0-4-0T shunting loco made by Block Junction. I made the loco look a bit more American and gave it a grayscale color scheme so it could be owned by my fictional version of the real-world Wabash Frisco & Pacific 12-inch gauge ride-on steam railroad. The loco gives me a 1920's commuter-engine feel, so I hooked it up to four, two-axle commuter cars which were created by using this tutorial made by @Pdaitabird here to build the coaches. I heavily modified the coaches by enclosing the entry doors area and adding inter-car connection doors. The loco is a 7-wide six wheel model, with (working!) outside pistons. Big Ben Bricks medium wheels will be used for the driving wheels, with two being blind, and the remaining number will be flanged. The engine will feature the letters WFP (standing for Wabash Frisco & Pacific) on the tank side, while 771 will go on the cab walls. The rear of the tank loco, showcasing the coal bunker and inside details. The four-wheel baggage car. The are two commuter coaches. The observation car, designed to give a little class to the workday commute with a rear platform at the rear of the train. This train will go alongside the shark-nose diesel loco with mainline passenger train and the (as yet unbuilt) 4-8-4 steam locomotive that will pull the Conjunction Junction freight train on my layout. What do you all think? Comments, Questions, and Complaints welcome! -
Sharknose diesel units + 4-8-4 steam engine with Meramec River Runner passenger train
Murdoch17 posted a topic in LEGO Train Tech
The whole Merrimac River Runner passenger train, headed up by Baldwin RF-16 "shark-nose" A +B diesels number 3701 with assistance provided by 4-8-4 "Northern" steam engine number 2980. The name of this train is a play off the Missouri River Runner, a real train that Amtrak runs from Kansas City to St. Louis. The Meramec River is a body of water that runs next to the real world 12-inch gauge Wabash Frisco & Pacific, so I switched the name to the Meramec River Runner. Never mind the fact the Missouri Pacific used to run on the roadbed the WFP now uses up from the 1850's until about the 1940's, when it was rerouted to it's current alignment and abandoned the old one to the eventual WFP use from the late '50's to today. These Baldwin diesel RF-16-like locos were inspired by set 10020, (Santa Fe Super Chief) for most of the basic body work and and fellow Eurobricks user @Legownz for the knife-like Sharknose front end. (Thank you for that ingenious design!) The cab and booster units feature no interior details because I have no need for such items on my layout.. that and retrofitting all my trains with inside details would be quite costly. The rear of each of the locos feature doorways to the next engine compartment, and / or the passenger train itself. 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. 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 complete tender. The coal tender will have the letters WFP 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 is all the interior the whole train features. Combination baggage and passenger car three identical passenger coaches for the train The observation car of the Meramec River Runner. (This car is to become fully enclosed soon, with a wraparound rear window provided by two of this piece.) Any thoughts, comments, or complaints? EDIT 5/11/21: Added 4-8-4 steam loco to this post. Real life pictures coming soon. -
Nexus Force / LEGO Universe - 2-8-4 + Diesel streamlined space trains MOCs
Murdoch17 posted a topic in LEGO Train Tech
These two trains comprise my space-train fleet for the Nexus Force, one streamlined passenger train, and one generic freight train. You can see more the Nexus Force stuff in this thread here in the Space sub-forum. It features a modular base, trucks, crawlers, and several spaceships, along with the mini-figures. (human or otherwise!) The Moonlighter train is owned by the Nexus Force, and is a retro-futuristic stream-liner mix of old-school steam technology, but with hyper-modern safety features designed specifically for use by 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.) Thus this makes it a space train! Unlike the slower Earth trains, the Moonlighter 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-away'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. They are numbered 200 through 210. The Nexus Force logo on the nose of the Moonlighter streamlined casing, (near the smokestack) and the rear of the observation car, while the engine's number (207) goes under the cab windows. The two forward tanks are for oil, and the rear tank is for water. The engine is equipped with a water scoop (like on the old New York Central steam locomotives) for refilling the water tank on the fly. There is a ladder from the tender-top deck to the coupler level behind the engine for access to the trailing passenger cars, and two ladders on either side of the steam loco for entry into the enclosed control cab. Three of these passenger cars go on the Moonlighter, with two before the dome car and one immediately after it. The recessed panels are the platform doors. One of these vista-dome cars goes in the middle of the train. (You may have noticed there are no exterior platform doors on this car. I decided not to add them because they didn't look good with the dome.) The rear observation car is currently missing it's rear curved windows, but it will have them when built IRL. The Nexus Force logo goes on the rear of this car, as previously mentioned above. After 45-ton locomotive 2011 has arranged a freight train in the Nexus force spaceport's yard, a electric main-line loco has arrived on scene to pull it's train to the some 500+ miles distant city of St. Nicklaus. This larger locomotive is numbered 99, and is running with a mobile armored cannon unit for the journey ahead, as it runs through some areas that could be ripe for an ambush by enemy forces, as you never know where the Maelstrom might have agents in deep cover or have planted ambushes alongside the line. A train was derailed and attacked last month in Avalanche Canyon by pirates, which is why the railroad is taking no more chances while it's position is being currently fortified all along the route. The other cars being pulled are: a flatcar carrying Commander Bob's 1960's sports car (going for it's yearly tune-up in town), a fully-loaded gasoline tanker, bathtub gondola with ice boulder load, and a bay-window caboose for the train's rear-end crew and a few more soldiers... just in case! This orange and white electric locomotive was inspired by the preliminary version of set 60198. (2018 Freight train) The inside is accessible via the removable roof sections. This model was inspired by this armored train MOC, that was itself inspired by the movie "Castle in the Sky" and it's armored train therein. The road vehicle model is partially inspired by Lola the car from the TV show Agents of Shield. (although this one doesn't fly) The sports car doesn't have great off-road capabilities, so it has to be trucked in on a flatcar to the remote space base. This fuel tanker is filled with gasoline or diesel fuel for use in the space base's land vehicles. Usually two or three tanker cars are sent into the base every couple weeks for refueled the on-base supply. This bathtub gondola is filled with ice boulders that have frozen ancient lifeforms trapped inside. The Nexus Force is sending them to a specialist laboratory off-world to have the DNA decoded and the beings themselves studied. Due to height clearance issues in St. Nicklaus city, regular-height cupola caboose types are forbidden. So, the bay window type is used instead. This moon base-like space base model is where the Moonlighter travels to, and was inspired by set 60036 (Arctic Base Camp), with a rooftop shield generator partially lifted from set 75098 (Assault on Hoth) and a sensor array inspired by set 76157 (Wonder Woman VS. Cheetah) The base consists of eight separate, interchangeable, modular sections, all of which have opening roof / wall sections for ease of access. These sections include (but are not limited too): a common bunk room, a spaceship control tower, a fusion generator, communications room, break room, and several more. As you can see, I joined the base to the rail-line with a short siding for freight deliveries, and for the servicing of steam locomotives on services such as the Moonlighter. -
Emerald Express passenger train with 2-6-0 "Mogul" steam locomotive - real world MOC
Murdoch17 posted a topic in LEGO Train Tech
In my fictional universe, the train starts at Chicago (Illinois), with stops at Springfield (Illinois), St. Louis (Missouri), Memphis (Tennessee) before terminating at New Orleans (Louisiana). The 2-6-0 "Mogul" steam engine & it's four car train is painted in dark green, thus giving the train it's name the "Emerald Express". The train consists of 1 baggage / passenger car (also known as a "combine"), two passenger coaches, and one observation car. These train cars were inspired heavily by instructions made by @TJJohn12 for his Retlaw Combine car and passenger coach, as seen here. The model has been remade by me to be four studs shorter, six studs wide (instead of eight), and no longer for use in a Disney theme-park setup, as it instead plies the rails of my 1920's - to 1950's setup. These cars now come with new inter-car connections and inset entryway doors. (plus the rear platform on the observation car) This Mogul type loco was originally made from set 79111, (Constitution Train Chase), with some features of TJJohn12's MOC of the E. P. Ripley locomotive (seen here) from Disneyland and set 10194 (Emerald Night) for good measure. This model has been through many versions since it was first built in 2013, but I think it's as close to perfection as I will get with the chosen brick-based medium. It pulls the Emerald Express of dark green - colored train coaches as seen in the other pictures. The sides of the steam engine's tender features the letters BRS, standing for Brick Railway Systems, which is my fictional railroad company. This combination baggage and passenger car (known as a combine) relies heavily on techniques taken from Retlaw baggage car built by TJJohn12. The two identical day coaches have inset doors I designed myself. The observation car of the Emerald Express. The rear deck isn't the best, but it works using the parts available in dark green... a not too common color in some brick varieties! EDIT 11/5/16: Added newer engine pics and ldd file for engine and tender as (removed) EDIT 12/9/16: Put in pictures of version three of the engine, with the placement of the domes on the boiler revised and the headlight moved to atop the boiler. EDIT 7/23/18: Added revised pictures of the locomotive to the thread, although I have by this point taken a wheel set off the engine to make into a 4-6-2, not a 4-8-2. Alas, I need to take the pictures again, and update the thread. It should only take another year or two... EDIT 6/25/2020: Added newly revised coaches, engine and comments on said models to first post. Real world pics coming soon(ish)! EDIT 7/7/2020: Added new real world pictures of the completely updated four car train. Comments, questions, and complaints are always welcome, so please give feedback! -
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! -
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)
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Everyone remembers the 9V Train's sub-theme "My Own Train"... or if you don't and are wondering what I'm talking about look here on Bricklink for a list of all the sets in that theme: http://www.bricklink...ing=124.315.694 The passenger aspect of this sub-theme is covered by this set, #10015: Passenger Wagon. (seen in this stock Bricklink photo below) Also, I might suggest you look at -R8-'s 2011 Reviewer's Academy review of the set here on Eurobricks: http://www.eurobrick...showtopic=59018 Everyone loves a classic, and the set deserves the affection if gets. However, it really lacks variety if you have a whole train of these running around. I asked myself these questions: Where does the baggage / mail go? Where are the end tail lights? Why am I talking to myself? Thus, I built my own version, which I plan on getting in real life soon (if not next): I went ahead and added inter-car walkways, giving it less a 1870's feel and more a 1910's look, plus two sliding doors for the combination baggage / passenger car. A small rear platform for the observation car was added, as were 1/2 stud recessed doors for platform access. These coaches are also build-able in tan, dark purple, reddish brown, white, black, and red. They are to be pulled by engine #4613 around my layout: (EDIT: 7/22/14: Updated the photo of the engine to a more recent screenshot... now I just need to take a real life photo!) What do you think? Comments, questions, and complaints welcome!