Dutchiedoughnut

A load of bricks are on their way to my house :). Lets see how things turn out in real life! Meanwhile, a locomotive is a bit lonely without cars to haul. The first one off the production line is an 8-wide (due to the footplates and the wider part) LMS brake van: Oh noes! It seems that a robber made its way onto the train! (I needed to check it's high enough for a minifig and randomly grabbed minifig parts)

The wheel arches seem to be more pronounced in the real model and I think they connect to the equipment box in front of them? A very very nice model of the locomotive and boxcar :)

Yeah, just last night I realised that the large drivers on the train engine would make this a high-speed steam engine... that wasn't supposed to happen ;). For this engine I'd prefer medium to low speed and high torque. So after I test the drive line I will replace the train engine with a medium motor. There are lots of places to hide a 3-wide motor in this model and I'm even considering inside the boiler :P. But most likely it'll be inside the firebox or coal bunker.

Last set of pictures. I think I'll move on to bricks for the chassis at least to see if it'll go around corners. This is the chassis exposed. Now I'm worried about the spacing of the drivers - will have to see to know if it'll work. I'll go do a test with my existing trains. I might swap the flanged and flangeless drivers around to make it go around curves easier. Obviously the model is missing most of its valve gear and the cylinders are missing. I'll figure those out when the model runs nicely. Srbandrews, that's a nice looking tank engine. I'll keep an eye on how my model takes bends. I think the pilot axles pivot as close to the front driver as I can get them. That's what you meant right? On with the good news. I've managed to fit the stairs for the doors. Those are mounted near the second-last set of wheels. I´ve also lowered the roof by 1/3 of a stud to make it look a little better, and I've added a headlight. The rear buffers are also in place.

I will have to see it "in the brick". The front steps won't pop off as the whole lower running boards articulate. It's a big compromise I had to take to make this work. The 1x3 slopes just sit on flush plates. Mine is about 36 bricks long, a little bit longer than the Lego factory locomotives. I am not using an M motor, but a train motor. The wheelbase between axles 1 and 2 is 1 stud shorter than that of axles 2 and 3. I don't view that as a compromise because the 4mt 2-6-0 actually has its rear axle set further back. I'm most nervous about it going around bends. In LDD it looks pretty good but it's my first steam locomotive ;). I'll also upload a picture of the locomotive in a curve so you can see the articulation.

Well, I intend to use the locomotive with mixed traffic - both freight and passengers. For freight I can see how the battery box could be hidden, but for the passenger coaches it's more difficult. There are a few other things to consider - the battery box adds a significant amount of weight to the locomotive. Weight translates to traction, so I'd like to keep that with the motor if possible. Also I hope to run the locomotive stand-alone without any carriages. At the moment I've placed the IR receiver in the boiler rather than the coal bunker. It's more hidden than I thought, so I am pretty happy about that. It doubles as a structural support so that is all good. The coal bunker would be a nice 2nd option, but it is 4 wide at the moment. The IR receiver would be on show like the battery box in the red freight train. I did try to fit the battery box in the coal bunker which looked kind of all right, but the cab had to be redesigned and it lost the two rear-facing windows. Those windows are rather characteristic for this locomotive (i think!) so I have to think of another option. I might just use a 9V battery in the coal bunker and cover it up with coal... Barduck, the chimney is now upside-down and it looks a lot better ;). I will upload pictures later of the locomotive.

Yes. I'm guessing that the extended parts selection only contain red items, maybe because the automated ordering system won't work for them. I recall reading something like that. My normal library doesn't contain power functions or train wheels. At the moment the drivetrain is looking pretty good, and I've managed to squeeze in the battery box and train motor at the expense of some of the proportions. I really don't like how fat the firebox is so I am going to seek a different solution there. The IR receiver doesn't have a space quite yet, I hope I can get it in the boiler so I can use the dome part as a dome in the boiler.

I'll look into that :). The chimney area is the most complex part at the moment because there are a bunch of right angles and 1x1 bricks to support... but im sure I can get that to work somehow ;). I've also began building the undercarriage and there is an update to the front of the locomotive. This shows off the details on the boiler a bit more as well. The buffers should be added obviously, and the wheels are going to be in black - LDD shows them in red for some reason. I don't mind too much. I should say that I'm looking at Bricktrix's 4mt for inspiration - credit to him for an amazing model!

Hi everyone, This time i'm sticking to Lego only ;). I have had the idea to build a Fairburn tank (similar to UK's 4mt tank) and yesterday, I've put those ideas into LDD, and now I can show you what I'm thinking of. It's 7-wide at the front and 7 1/3 wide at the cab. The overall length is going to be nearly the same as standard Lego loco's... well maybe a little longer. My freight loco's are 32 studs long and the Fairburn is looking to be around 36. I have been playing with the boiler size. It's either 5 1/3 in diameter, or 4 studs. I'm going with the 5 1/3 as you see here, because I can stick a lot of details on and around the boiler where I can't with a 4-wide boiler. I've moved the front so that it's in the center of the boiler (it's out of center in the screenshot) and I added a hinge. It looks like I'm not going to end up with a model that's a true representation of a Fairburn locomotive... but I don't mind as it's my first stab at it. Any comments are appreciated, I'll go work on the drive train and the power functions later today.

Nice video, thank you! I've bought the set myself today as a treat for my birthday :). I have to say I love the US-style locomotive a lot more than I thought I did, and there was a special offer which included a train station, additional tracks and points for nearly the same price as just 60052. There's two things of note about the loco. The doors are suicide doors. It's a quick mod to change them to normal doors and then the handrails make sense. More importantly the response to IR commands is really dodgy as the IR receiver is hidden quite well. I crashed into my 7939 almost straight away because i didn't have the proper angle to command 60052. I think this is a very nice candidate for that bluetooth S-brick ;). Or, a nice mod would be to expose the IR receiver a little more.

I'm loving the red loco so much I'm thinking of buying the set off Ebay. Then again, I don't really care for the carriages. Hmmm...!

I think the 2-track version looks more Lego-ish and concentrated, I like that :). If you want to stick to what would happen IRL, then you will need 4 or 5 tracks before three plafforms will normally be used (the island platform can serve tracks 2 and 3). It's Lego anyway, and if you stick to 2 tracks with 3 platforms you will have a lot of room for other buildings around your station. Maybe you can add a post office section since trains used to have mail cars?

That sounds like a bad connection somewhere in your wires. Perhaps dust between the RF motor plug and the IR receiver. If it happens again, undo these and clean them, then put them back together. It might also be a broken wire (you blowing the dust off the wheels will have moved the wires and restoring their connection) in which case you might be able to fix the wire in a working position with some lego. In any case, I wouldn't touch the loco while the problem is gone ;).

I'd suggest picking up power from more points on the train. If this is build into the motor itself, you could hide a train motor in the rear most carriage. This also saves you if you manage to stop the train completely on a dead point, a capacitor won't really save you there. You can also modify one of the carriages to clean the track for you. Here is the sort of carriage I have for my h0 track: Edit: You can use two capacitors (one forward and one reverse) and select them using diodes. It's a bit more complicated than just using a capacitor though... did you try getting the biggest non-polarized capacitor?

Anything with a turbine wins my vote! The Acela sounds good, although I´m not sure 60051 would be the best point to start from. How about the uk´s Silver Jubilee train?

Well, I can see the picture now! That's a very good-looking machine! Designs like these make me want to go 8 wide for my models ;). I love the design of the bogies, they look amazing with the snowplow and all! If you want to use a battery on board without the battery box, I'm thinking of using just a 9V battery which is a lot smaller of course! Im not really sure how to adapt the PF cables although I think I've heard there are modified cables for sale.

Wow! I'm working in "tiny" 1:45 ;). It looks awesome and massive! (can't wait to see the tracks, carriages, station, tunnels... kidding ofcourse!)

Hmmmm. I'm not sure. As a decal, for sure. (just sticker it on). But as a 3d model it's hard because I think it would be too delicate. Every wall would be the minimum thickness for a part, I think. If I do go to standard Lego, the train profile would be something like this: The roof looks pretty much perfect compared to what I've drawn so I will work on doing standard Lego there. The lower half of the train isn't that perfect though. The 3-wide bow is far too much for what I want so I will have to dive into LDD and check for other parts ;).

Google knows, too! http://www.brickshelf.com/gallery/dutchtrains/8-Wide-NS-Trains/Mat-54/Hondekop-786/p1011971.jpg

LOL, I love that note! I'm also partial to a couple of british rail experiments - the BR 18000 and BR 18100 gas turbine loco's. But their historic relevance is little to none and they won't grab the attention of anyone who's unfamiliar with their background.

LOL! Well, I need the studs on top to mount stuff on the roof (i just didn't include that in the model). Some other stuff is missing too such as the interior and the underbody. I plan to do those when all the other bits are done. Other than that, the roof seemed to miss out on something.

I love his trains! It's the general direction I want to go in, but I do like the application of the 3d printer and well - experimenting with it. My aim is to have as few 3d-printed parts as possible, but use them where they are required. So I'm a bit on the fence about the sides of the steam railcar. If I make them flat and apply the yellow lines as decals, I'd run back to regular lego for most parts (not the windows). I guess I will have to try both so I'll build a section with 3d printed recessed parts and a section with more standard Lego parts and see which I like better. I did get round to doing the power bogie, trailing bogie (which I like a lot) and the autotrailer that goes with the steam railmotor. Power bogie - in reality this drives the steam railcar. In Lego it doesn't. The trailing bogie. It's based upon the standard Lego PF train motor with spoked wheels. There is a 3d printed part around it to replace the standard Lego one. And finally, the autotrailer coupled to the steam railcar.

I can only imagine! The Class 23 Baby Deltics (which would seem to fit better in Lego scale) was withdrawn for maintenance costs. According to Wikipedia, the big Deltics were replaced by HST's after about 15 years of service... Appareantly they were run with minimal maintenance until they broke down! Anyway I suppose we're getting a bit off-topic.

Is the battery drain any better? I'm concerned about that because if the batteries are dead after 10 minutes, its a sure sign of a short circuit or at least a drain somewhere in the system.

A NS 1200 is nice, but I dont think it is as famous as the Deltic. For me, the bizarre engine used in the Deltic is very appealing as well. (bizarre in a good way!). In the UK, it was the first diesel engine that was as powerful as the biggest steam engines so at long last these could be replaced... I'm not sure about the historical significance of the 1200. I can however confirm that 1200's are still in service as one of them passed my station when I was waiting...