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jtlan

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Everything posted by jtlan

  1. jtlan
    Greetings Train Tech, I'd been looking to build something using the Lego narrow gauge track for some time. Eventually, I settled on building a "single Fairlie" locomotive: Fairlie locomotives have their driving wheels on bogies, allowing them to negotiate sharp curves, which makes them useful on narrow-gauge railroads. Most of them are double-ended, with a double-ended boiler and two powered bogies; this model is loosely based on the "single Fairlie" Taliesin of the Ffestiniog Railway in Wales. The entirety of the boiler was built with SNOT, and connects to a 1x6 technic beam in the cab (the connection point is the seam at the very front of the cab). The model was party designed in Lego Digital Designer, and partly done by just messing around in real life. It features a detailed backhead, something I haven't put in any of my locomotives before: Of course, after building a locomotive, I figured I should have some rolling stock to go with it... The crate on the flatcar is from 4563 Load N' Haul Railroad (with the tractor in John Deere colors). The boxcar was essentially built around a 9V battery box and an old 9V motor, and provides power for the entire consist: Full Brickshelf gallery here (once moderation finishes). Let me hear your thoughts!
  2. jtlan
    The 9V motor is mostly plastic gears, so lubrication isn't strictly required. That said, if you want to lubricate them, a silicone-based thin lubricating oil is probably the best choice.
  3. jtlan
    My sister's cat, actually. She (the cat) really enjoys watching trains.
  4. jtlan
    Worse, disagreement over the output voltage could damage one or both of the receivers. Hooking the output of the two receivers together is a Bad Idea. One option might be to attach a small mirror somewhere on your loco to reflect IR signals that are coming from the other direction. You could also try raising the receiver's lens out of the loco a bit, but I suspect even then you're probably limited by the transmission range on the IR transmitter.
  5. jtlan
    Jupiter's drivers are only 63", so I think that either the L drivers or XLs would be appropriate, depending on the scale you want to shoot for. "Early" American locos had smaller drivers, with the size of the driver increasing as the size and power of locomotives increased in an effort to get more speed out of them. Engineering drawings: http://cprr.org/Museum/Books/Jupiter-119_Appleman_NPS.html
  6. jtlan
    That's not guaranteed; if only one of the receivers misses the signal they will run at different speeds and you won't be able to fix that. Better is to but the PF motor on each loco on a different channel; there's still the risk that one of the receivers will miss a signal, but at least now they can be independently ratcheted back up. This mechanism also lets you "enjoy" a realistic double-heading scenario, where you have to carefully match speeds...
  7. jtlan
    Ah yes, the Leader. commanderwolf built one years ago. I've been wondering if it's worth revisiting... I feel like the same technique used on the model of the Q class should work here, or at least something similar. You'll probably need to use Big Ben Bricks XL drivers for the drivers, but they don't come in green. The problem is that no equivalent part exists in LDD, and the simulations thereof don't give an accurate idea of where the actual drivers will scrape in real life.
  8. jtlan
    Can you post a picture of a locomotive that has this modeling problem? Aside: I'm not familiar with some terminology. Is there something particular to the locomotives designed by Bulleid that makes them not have this problem?
  9. jtlan
    This might be a bit late, but a final thought on how you might get the "enlarged smokebox": Rather than make the smokebox larger, a similar visual effect is created by making the boiler slightly smaller. Note also that if you make the cab 7-wide you preserve the visual detail of the cab being wider than the splashers. I feel like a lot of the visual oddness in this model comes from the fact that the frame is a couple plates too tall, but there isn't much we can do about that, as the splashers have to be entirely above the wheels...
  10. jtlan
    155mm/plate (387.5mm/stud or ~15in/stud) scaling drawing, if you're curious how I checked dimensions: Full size.
  11. jtlan
    LDD file on Brickshelf. Hope it holds up. One of the other nice things about moving everything in is that the splashers are now set inwards from the cab wall, which they are on the prototype.
  12. jtlan
    I'll post it when I get back to my other computer. Nothing too fancy there, it's just the 1x2-1x4 bracket on a 6W frame instead of a 7W one.
  13. jtlan
    Well, Brickshelf appears to be back up, but just in case: 6W at the splashers, 7W at the cab, and (7 studs + 1/2 plate)W at the footplate. Now with no gaps under the splasher.
  14. jtlan
    My previous post contained a solution that achieved that, but Brickshelf is currently down. I'll respost it somewhere else.
  15. jtlan
    That's the problem there. The new train motor is very fast, and with the heavy 6AA box on top of it, it's quite likely you'd tip over on curves. Normally, people use the train speed remote with the Power Functions receiver to control their trains. However, if you just want to run in a loop without changing speed, it might be worth it to just use the old 4.5V motor that came with the set.
  16. jtlan
    Seconded. The 6-wide boiler is way too large. If the smaller boiler feels too narrow I think it's a matter of the footplate being too wide, rather than the boiler being too small.
  17. jtlan
    According to this old catalog I have, $29.99 USD. It was also available in blue, green, brown, and grey.
  18. jtlan
    Sadly, conductive rubber usually isn't very conductive. Could you put ordinary O-rings only on the non-pickup side of each truck?
  19. jtlan
    Here's sort of what I was suggesting -- the model is 6-wide at the splashers, but the cab is 7-wide and the footplate is (7 + 1/2 plate)-wide. There's small gaps under the splashers, because I'm not sure if I can move the brackets in to cover them without colliding with the flanged drivers.
  20. jtlan
    He could SNOT the 1x4 axle holder in the boiler?
  21. jtlan
    Something's been bothering me about the proportions of the locomotive for a while, and I think I figured it out: It's too wide. Specifically, it's actually 8-wide at the footplate now, and the splashers are at 7-wide. Consequently, the footplate looks too wide relative to the boiler. If you can move everything in slightly, such that it's 6-wide at the splashers and the edges of the footplate are closer to 7-wide, I think that will improve things.
  22. jtlan
    I was about to comment that it needed to be 1/2 a plate lower, but you figured it out. Looks like it's coming together nicely. Have you tried something slightly thinner for the smokestack? Maybe the barbell piece or a small tire wrapped around a 1x1 round brick. It also seems like the 2x2 round with tile on top would be a closer depiction of the steam dome. The 1x1 round tile is not available in dark grey either … but it comes in "pearl dark grey". List of available colors (under "lots for sale"). I ran into this problem before, wound up just using 1x1 round plates.
  23. jtlan
    ??? I was referring to the tiles on the buffers... There's probably some interesting SNOT going on to get the dish exactly centered (1/5 stud offsets, etc); similar tricks have to be done on 4W boilers. Can you show me what's behind the smokebox door?
  24. jtlan
    Looking good! Mad props for the use of the flower piece for valve knobs. I'd probably use 1x2 cheese slopes instead of 1x1 to cut down on the lines showing on the boiler; You can turn on the "Outline on bricks" option in LDD (under "preferences"), which gives a more accurate representation of what the model will look like in real life (because it enhances the lines between bricks). Also, I hate to break this to you, but 1x1 round tiles are not available in black. Maybe try this piece instead?
  25. jtlan
    7W is notoriously tricky to build in. However, I think it produces pretty excellent models, and it's a good choice for British locos and rolling stock in particular. You could SNOT the whole boiler, using 85080 to build a round boiler, but I'm not sure how you'd do the smokebox end. Using curve slopes to build up the rounded shape of the boiler makes sense to me. Related: It might also make sense if you use the curved slopes (93273 and 11377) for the "wheel wells" (not sure what that part of the locomotive is actually called) rather than the cheese slopes you currently have there.
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