SavaTheAggie

I'm late to the discussion, but this is why I so heavily favor tender driven steam engines. Many of my steam engines have issues with their drivers lifting off the rails in inclines, and one of them actually frequently derails if the track isn't entirely level. Steam engines, in general, just have too many wheels. As far as power functions itself - no problem with inclines. You just have to use the right size wheel for the right size gear set, and having two motors instead of one helps too. There's plenty of power available. --Tony

Thanks much, all! Start to finish it took about five months, but several weeks of that was spent looking for the money to buy or waiting on parts. I worked on it for a few hours every night, when I had the parts, but it wouldn't have gone nearly as fast had I not sorted the majority of my collection beforehand Thanks for the kind words. The east end (the rear of the building) was the part I was most nervous about building, but I have to admit it turned out pretty good. There's a lot of floating bricks in it, though. Something I had hoped to avoid, but couldn't. Very high praise indeed, thank you. --Tony

It would seem the stars are not aligned for me this year. No Brickworld in my near future. This thread can be deleted/locked. --Tony

Full Gallery The Cathedral of St. Francis of Assisi A fictional cathedral based on two real churches - The St. Patrick's Cathedral in New York City and Chartres Cathedral in France. The basic floorplan and most of the features are based on the neo-gothic style St. Patrick's, whereas the more classical gothic style such as flying buttresses and the asymmetrical towers are based on Chartres. The Cathedral sits on eight 32x32 baseplates, and breaks apart in four baseplate pair sections. It features a full interior, swinging bells, "stained glass", plenty of interesting SNOTwork, and resident minifigs. --Tony

The last few months have been a real roller coaster for us. To make a long story short my certainty of attending Brickworld this year dropped to almost no chance, and now I'm trying to make a new effort to go. I had such a good time last year, and I've built so much since that I would love to bring and share. I've spent the last four or five months working on a Cathedral that I had ever intention of showing off at Brickworld. To help spur me on to attend this year even more, my ability to attend Brickworld 2011 and even 2012 are near zero, as my wife and I are currently expecting our second child and leaving my wife alone with such young children for a week, or trying to drive with them for three days both ways, would be disastrous on my marriage. ;) Unfortunately due to the uncertainty of my attendance the person I was going to drive up and room with has backed out and made other plans (I don't blame him), so now I'm roommate-less. Nothing like a little pressure... --Tony

You Eurobricks folks are entirely too thin skinned. If I cared half as much as you do about all the horrible things people say to me, I'd never be able to leave my house. It's an April Fool's prank. Enjoy the day. --Tony

Well done. I've been following it on Flickr for some time, and as I said there I'm very envious of your matching steam engine and cars. I really need to get working on my own, perhaps this will serve as sufficient inspiration. Great work. --Tony

Full Gallery Turn your wayback machine dial back to 2004, to when this MOC was new. This is the Temple of Formeathan, a MOC I built for my online illustrated story, The Chronicles of Ikros. I was going to build a large mountain for it to sit upon, but I've decided to go another route and reclaim the parts. Modeled in the style of a Greek Temple, the Temple of Formeathan was built in honor of the dragon Formeathan the Stormbringer, another MOC of mine, after his death in my story. The main statue upon the roof is Garalt, the main character of the story, who reawakened Formeathan and helped defeat his evil sister, Tel'Karak Zrahl. --Tony

I think one of the reasons why LEGO hasn't released a tunnel set, even if it was some stand alone set of arches, is because LEGO tends to like to have sets that are idiot proof. Unfortunately, trains tend to take up more room in curves, and there's no telling a kid "don't put the tunnel on a curve", cause they won't listen. So you'd have to make either a very wide tunnel (using more parts) which wouldn't look as dramatic or nice, or lash it down to a baseplate (which would require more parts than stand alone arches). We spent about an hour at a TexLUG event studying my Polar Express because several members were thinking about making a tunnel on a curve. Long story short is we decided curved tunnels stink. :) --Tony

I have resisted doing it in the past, but Paypal has pecked away at any reasons I had for not upgrading my account. As such, I've now done it and can now accept Credit Card funded Paypal payments. Thanks for looking! --Tony

Sava Railways has unlocked the company vault, and four of the Sava Railways steam engine blueprints can now be purchased at SRW Locomotive Works. These blueprints are of an American 4-4-0, a Hudson 4-6-4 with Henry Dreyfuss inspired streamlinging, a Consolidation 2-8-0 (2007 model), and a Pacific 4-6-2 (2007 model). They are available a la carte, or as a single collection at a discount. 10% of all SRW Locomotive Works sales are donated to RAILBRICKS. Visit SRW Locomotive Works today! --Tony

Thanks much. As I recently posted in this forgotten thread, the bridge can hold quite a bit: http://www.eurobricks.com/forum/index.php?...st&p=661690 Thanks much, and thanks for moving it. Thanks much. I've chronicled my bridge design process here on Eurobricks in this recently posted forgotten thread: http://www.eurobricks.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=34972 As for the module itself, it, too, is chronicled in the Flickr gallery. The bridge took longer than the whole layout, but then again the layout is just a vehicle for the bridge, anyway. I probably won't keep the module together too terribly long, it'll give me an excuse to build something better. I do plan on moving the bridge to 16x32 baseplates so that when I go to Brickworld I can set it up by itself more easily. And thanks for the front page post. Thanks much. I used to ignore the little details, but I've learned it really makes a difference to take the extra effort. Thanks much. I couldn't have done it without the Houston LEGO store's Pick a Brick wall ;) Not to mention a certain person who sent me a boat load of parts to get the bridge built. I'd like to eventually replace Matt's steel truss bridge in the back with an overhead truss bridge of my own, which would allow for a taller permanent aspect to the layout. Thanks much. I like to take pride in my MOC photography, I think it really allows the details to be fully appreciated. I've considered my own home layout, but at the moment I don't have the room in which to put it (without sacrificing the space I'm using now). The troll was actually added as an easter egg for people to find at the show, so I don't really plan on doing anything more with him. Thanks much. It's a labor of love collecting all those leaf pieces of those trees, but it sure has paid off. --Tony

Looks darn right purdy next to the rest of them. It would make a good set all put together. --Tony

Nicely done, Blogged! I found this MOC on Brickshelf, and while I'm not a fan of diesels something about it caught my eye. I am very impressed how well you've incorporated the RC Train base, I never saw it in there till I gave it a much closer look. Well done. --Tony

For me it depends on how "local" you're talking about. Early on, I guess you'd say I was "average", because I prefer American style locomotives, but nothing from any specific region of the US. Lately, however, I'd say I'm "high degree" (which is what I voted) because I've begun focusing my building habits on the Texas State Railroad and the locomotives and equipment they run. That isn't to say I'm totally against building another style/type of train (I've been looking at a British design), but I foresee a lot of TSRR stuff in my future. --Tony

I've taken some video of the bridge on our layout this weekend. I've uploaded them all to Flickr, but I've cherry picked them a bit and put them together for YouTube. Thanks much. I might have to redo ravine walls (and the whole ravine), the biggest complaint the TexLUGgers had was the lack of a back wall, though I'm not sure I have the parts to do it. --Tony

The problem with old locomotives like this is that the drivers are very far removed from the pony truck, and there isn't anything under the boiler in the original locomotive that would allow you to hide the connection. The solution I came up with for my 4-4-0 isn't perfect, but has served me well over the years. http://www.flickr.com/photos/savatheaggie/...57600864085687/ The pony truck simply floats under the boiler in curves, pivoting and sliding under the smokebox. --Tony

Thanks much! I was a little concerned about the walls when I first built them, but I'm happy with them now. Of course it was all an excuse to use my new trestle bridge design. --Tony

Not too shabby. Unless you've based this off of a real prototype, she seems to be sitting far too high above her drivers. I also think if you're going to have a large red headlight, you'll need to bring the color red further into the design. The domes, the cab, the roof, all of them could use some red to tie in the headlight. Back in their inception, little western styled 4-4-0s were frequently the victim of gaudy paint schemes that added to their overall charm. It looks like you're using a flash with your photography? If so, don't. MOCs never look good with a flash compared to taking the extra steps to not have to use it. --Tony

For the upcoming TexLUG display at the Healthy Baby and Child Expo in Houston, and to make use of our club's new MichLUG designed train tables, I decided to build a sunken display module featuring my new Trestle Bridge design. Photos of the whole module: Full Gallery The display features dwarves, foliage galore, and even a scout camp. However, the scout camp is only a shadow of its' future self, as several other TexLUG members will be supplying the rest of the camp at the show. Of course why call it Eastwood Ravine without a reason... Credit for the DeLorean design goes to Tim Gould. Steel truss bridge owned and designed by Matt Sailors. --Tony

I suppose I could toot my own horn and suggest a nice, simple classically styled western steamer with a nice passenger set. It looks pretty good chugging down the line. A whole bunch of basic slopes and some strategically placed panels and plates. --Tony

You are aware, aren't you, that the Toy Story train is based off a child's toy train from a cartoon-ish movie where everything is stylized anyway? --Tony

I built a segment of my third bridge design last night, and I'm very happy with it. It's got a good height/part ratio and looks really slick. It's taller than the original version, while containing the extra elements of the taller version without being too excessively part intensive. And for those who are curious, I took a picture of a strength test I performed. I won't be able to start building the full, final version of the bridge until I get the terrain built, but I'll take pictures when I get it done. --Tony

Just a little update. I've begun working on a larger version of my trestle bridge. While the resulting prototype was a success, it's proven too parts intensive to continue, so I will be going with a shorter design to save on parts. It should end up being somewhere between the original design and this one. --Tony

If only it were that simple. Sure, I can match LEGO colors digitally, but the way a printer interprets color data is nearly unique between printer models. One printer may print green lighter, one may print yellow with more orange. This is why clear stickers are preferred by many, but I just go with the method that doesn't require me to buy a specialized printer to get the results I want. --Tony