someguy

From looking at your flckr account I am curious as to where you would use the R104 curves? Speaking for myself, I would not order that large a radius curve if I only had that amount of space shown in the pictures. If I had a large open area where I could easily fit r 104 curves I would. Lego is certainly one of those things where you have to ask yourself if the expense is worth the fun you will have with it. That said, I would see how fast your trains go and how far they can turn before you order new curves. If your trains can negotiate R40 curves at full speed and can turn on R40 then I would get R40. I recently upgraded my lionel track from O27 to O52 (with banking) so I could drive my trains faster, and for me it is totally worth it.

Amazing engine! Need a video of it running! Any chance you'd show how you make those axles on the tender look so cool? I am building a custom engine of my own and REALLY want my tender to have those axles!

Awesome. Now I can move my never going to exist 10,000 brick only track LDD file to this blue brick program!

Very nice. I'd buy one. Know a friend who would probably buy 4!

Im jealous and I want one lol. Looks awesome. For me personally, I feel it would be ok going slow since its a shunter. You have the fast big engines and then you have to have fun with the slow small engine too.

Alright so a while back I built myself a lego big boy steam locomotive and that was a lot of fun. Now I am making my own custom designed lego steam engine and have some questions. I plan on using Big Ben's Bricks extra large flanged drivers, will these fit on a lego PF train motor? The motor on the right is what I plan on using. I simply want to put 4 XL drivers on it with custom connecting rods I plan on buying. Are the axles far enough apart to fit two XL drivers on there? I checked measurements and im just not sure. Also, if the above works, I just might end up putting FOUR PF train motors on my engine. Two sets of driving wheels and 2 under the tender. Is that overkill (will I ever need that much power?) Traction should not be an issue. I plan on placing two battery boxes directly above the driving wheels plus I will buy steel/lead weights if needed. What is the best way to apply white walls to BBB XL drivers?

Wow that locomotive turns fast! Looks GREAT. Really like the drive rods and valve gear assembly. what motors do you use and how many? I am currently building a "Big Boy" 4-8-8-4 and wondering if 4 medium motors is enough.

thanks for the comments. will probably end up using it very little just because I'm too busy with class and work atm. but to be honest building this out of Lego is so much cheaper than buying a Lionel version. about it taking curves, I found some videos on youtube that have the same pivot point as mine does. but I think its the same engine that I got instructions for anyway. (plus, I am sure I can fix something up for larger radius curves real easy, ) maybe take a couple of wooden boards and choose some radius that fits my layout. say 50 inches. clamp it together with some glue and screws, draw 2 lines for inner/outer curves, take a drummel tool and carve out the center, band saw off the excess on the inner/outer sides of the rails, sand, cut notches for plastic rails to fit in for entering/exiting the curve. about which rails to run it on, I have no clue about that. all I know is that I have some grey colored track with metal rails that I hook a transformer up to. I do know the one I built is not powered through the rails though. and here are some more pics on imgur. this isn't my train, but the base is all the same. http://imgur.com/t0bt9s6

got instructions off the internet for this, have changed a few things to, in my opinion, make it better. (you probably wont be able to see the changes) made some cars similar to Strasburg RR cars (I hope) tried to attach some pictures but all of them were too big to attach, so here is an imgur link. http://imgur.com/Q9tIqlD,C9l9O5C,ZBSFxbS,U5LTfX7,lISKi0Y,nHXf3gq,aoGMcVX,04e82Wa,8wgaALj,rISciWp,ikFy5TI 1) the engine 2) all the pieces 3) gears on the motors, the instructions had small gears on the shafts coming from the motors, but I switched that around. this way the motors have to do less work to move the train farther. 4) some pieces like this one I could not get to fit properly in the program, but am confident the will fit once I actually build it. if they don't fit, iv got a sander. 5) 2 passenger cars 6) decided not to use magnets to connect the cars. plan on moving the cars closer together, WIP. The pieces on top are still a WIP. 7) sample of the stairs and trucks/wheels, the wheels will be axles removed from the Lego truck assembly. 8) no, the aesthetics do not rub. 9) found this online, essentially what my gearing looks like. 10) someone elses trains, just for size comparison. 11) Compare that guy standing there to the lego fig in # 10 I plan on buying Big Ben Bricks for leading, driving, and trailing wheels. http://www.eurobricks.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=34413 Read this thread about the wheels earlier. If I plan on having 8 to ten cars of similar size to my 2 current passenger cars, will I have to worry about wheel slip? The tender is going to be changed as well, lengthened a bit and with possibly an electric coupler since the rest of the train will be a pain to hook up. also, what do you think so far?