SavaTheAggie

An easier fix is to replace the 1x5 thin technic liftarm acting as the pushrod with a 1x7 thin technic liftarm. Of course doing both wouldn't hurt any. --Tony

I can't help with any ideas on clear stickers. I've been using photo sticker paper for years for my trains, seems to work out pretty well for me. I just use my father's nice inkjet and photoshop. Sure it takes a little doing to match LEGO colors, and I don't always get it right, but I've done it enough times now that I've got it down to an art. --Tony

Not only do BBB large drivers come in other colors besides black, as previously stated, you seem to forget Big Ben Bricks also offers medium drivers and small train wheels, all in multiple colors. --Tony

Typically, I use large BBB drivers for steam engines with drivers between about 55"-65", and medium BBB drivers for steam engines with wheels smaller than that. So with these new XL drivers I'll be using them for steam engines with drivers larger than about 65". Currently I'm looking at building a 5AT with my XL drivers. I briefly considered retrofitting my T1 for the XL drivers, since the prototype had something like 75" drivers, but I've decided against it - I'd have to do a lot of rebuilding to get them to fully clear all the articulation I built in. --Tony

It's a shame to see a Volkswagon bus pulling those freight cars, but I've never really been one to keep sets together, anyway. --Tony

The next installment in my Sava Railways Scenic Tours photo series: "Railfanning" Image is a link. As seen in the RAILBRICKS 2010 Calendar. --Tony

Thanks much! I haven't been able to order my copy of the calendar yet, so I'm glad to hear it turned out. I appreciate the kind words, but Elroy Davis deserves most of the credit for the calendar. Thanks much! The whole scene is just about as big as you see it, but as it just so happens I do have a photograph of the whole thing. It would seem the interest in my Scenic Tours is waning, either because there's no "wow" factor, or I've been posting them too soon after the other. Either way, I have but one more photo to share, and I'll do that next week. After that it'll probably be weeks or months until the other. --Tony

The next installment in my Sava Railways Scenic Tours photo series: "Painted Desert" Image is a link. As seen in the RAILBRICKS 2010 Calendar. --Tony

Thanks much! I wanted to do a winter themed photo with my blue locomotive, and the Toy Shop was the first thing that popped into my head as a good backdrop. It was a tedious wait till I was able to buy the set. Thanks much! I do plan to keep adding to my Scenic Tours, but they won't be coming as fast and furious as they have been lately. I took four photos for the RAILBRICKS Calendar which started this whole mess, so I've been sitting on them for months waiting to share them. I've got two more to share from the calendar project, plus one idea I'm going to try and shoot. After that... I have no inspiration, but I'm sure something will hit me. Thanks much! I've quite the collection of white leaves, I'm glad I've finally been able to use them for something. :) --Tony

I posted this down in the Train Tech forum, but what the heck. --Tony

The next installment in my Sava Railways Scenic Tours photo series: "Blue Christmas" Image is a link. Merry Christmas from Sava Railways!. --Tony

Thanks much! I've always wanted to give my Polar Express MOC this treatment, and I'm happy with how well it turned out. Don't worry about the Australian viewpoint - the Texan viewpoint isn't all that different. ;) Thanks much! It was a labor of love, especially with getting all the light effects from the passenger cars. I'm really happy with it. --Tony

Nicely done, especially for your first effort, and looks like it'd fit right in with other LEGO train sets. It will make a fine gift. --Tony

Thanks much! As I've said previously, this isn't a layout, but a diorama I built specifically for this picture. As such, any other pictures would be ugly because of all the holes I didn't bother to fill that can't be seen from the angle I chose. Thanks much! When I was taking photos for the RAILBRICKS calendar, I tried my best to avoid using photoshop whenever possible. Fortunately for three of the four photos I took, including this one, that was possible. I'll be setting up my next shot pretty soon, now that I've got my hands on the Winter Toy Shop. Thanks for the nod on the blog, I appreciate it. --Tony

The next installment in my Sava Railways Scenic Tours photo series: "Into The Frozen North" Image is a link. A heavily photoshopped version of an older picture of my Polar Express MOC. --Tony

Thanks much! This was a diorama I built specifically for this picture, so any other pictures of it would reveal how incomplete and full of holes it really is. Thanks much! It's handy to have all the trees I have on hand for TexLUG use. Thanks much! I'll admit I haven't been replying to too many topics, myself. Thanks! I'll be releasing another photo next week. Don't get too excited over the calendar because of this photo - it was "rejected" from the calendar. We decided each person involved in the project should have a month each, and this photo was an alternate. It wasn't used, so I'm releasing this one, as well as the other not used. The two photos of mine that were used I'll be releasing as part of this series, too, but much later after the calendar has a little age to it. Wow, high praise indeed, thanks! Again, this photo didn't get put into the calendar, so don't get too excited over it from this one. Thanks much! I like building organic stuff, but it also helps I have all these trees on hand. --Tony

The next installment in my Sava Railways Scenic Tours photo series: "Steam Through the Piney Woods" Image is a link. Texas State Railroad Locomotive #300 crosses a wooden trestle bridge through the Piney Woods of East Texas. --Tony

Without giving too much away too soon, the photos included in the first RAILBRICKS calendar were used with the intent of filling the calender with mostly as-of-yet-unseen photos. Some of the photos were taken previous to the project's start, and some were taken exclusively for the calendar. Some of the photos are from AFOL events, some were specifically staged. Apart from the cover, you've already recently seen at least one other photo from the calendar, but I won't say which one right now. The cover is a cropped, partially zoomed in version of one of my photos; the full version is included as one of the months within. No news as to a release date. Hopefully very soon. I actually worked on four photos taken exclusively for the calendar, but only a few were used, since this isn't the "SavaTheAggie 2010 Calendar." I will soon be releasing the extra photos as part of my "Sava Railways Scenic Tours" photo series. --Tony

Thanks much! I've already taken a few more pictures, I'll share them when they're ready. Thanks much! It was a little tricky to get the lighting just right on the second one, but I'm not entirely happy with it and it's lack of a morning sky. --Tony

I've gotten into a photographic kick lately, so I've decided over the next weeks/months/years that I'll be taking scenic or "pretty" pictures of my train MOCs. These pictures may not have any AFOL value insomuch as showing off building techniques, they're simply for the sake of being eye candy. Today I have two additions to the Sava Railways Scenic Tour. Each features my recent Texas State Railroad locomotive #500. "Train Wash" "Greeting the Day" Click on either image for a larger view. I thought about coming up with a logo to watermark the photos, but I doubt I'll go that far. But, I will make it a point to post them here when I release them if y'all are interested in them. --Tony

Thanks much! It was the best solution to articulation I could think of. Articulating her above her driver pairs would have made her perform ALOT differently. --Tony

Here's a YouTube video of the T1 in action: Or, if you'd rather, here's the same video on Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/savatheaggie/4104206103/ --Tony

I'm not sure either battery set up will get you anywhere close to 12 hours. The benefit of using the PF battery box as opposed to the rechargeable PF battery is that once the batteries are used up, you just put more in. The rechargeable PF batter takes a few hours to recharge (though if you had two it wouldn't be as bad of a problem). However the benefit of using the rechargeable PF battery is that it provides the same output of current to the motors up until the point it fails and the locomotive will just stop. The batteries in the PF battery box will slowly lose their charge, and so the train will slowly lose speed. Eventually it'll just be crawling across the layout before the batteries finally die. --Tony

Thanks much! When I originally built the locomotive, I thought the white pinstripe was distracting and too small to adequately build. Little did I know then how much that sort of thing adds to a MOC. Thanks much! And thanks for the mention of this and the #300 on the front page. She's certainly one of my more striking models; I look forward to when I find the money to start putting together the TSRR passenger cars for her. I make my decals "by hand" in photoshop, usually overlaying a picture (if available) of the real locomotive to make sure they're accurate. I cheated with the TSRR locos when it comes to the arrow head TSRR logo - I didn't recreate it, but rather took it from their website. I then take my decals and print them up on my father's nice fancy printer on "Do-It-Yourself Photo Sticker Paper" which I buy from my local office supply store, which happens to be Office Depot. It's darn expensive stuff - $2 a sheet (5 sheets to a package) but do they ever look nice. Color matching is done by printing out a test sample using the official LEGO RGB color values (available at Peeron), and then tweaking accordingly. Green is a notoriously hard color to match, since most printers don't actually have green ink - just blue and yellow. Thanks much! I never thought of the previous versions as "bad", I also think they've got a nice, clean feel to them, they were simply horribly inaccurate to what I was claiming them to be. Before I tore the original #300 and #500 apart, I built them in LDraw and put together instructions, so that I can rebuild them if I so choose. I may also make said instructions available for purchase in my Bricklink store. Heheh.... thanks. I don't know if I'd call it a viral marketing campaign... at least not until there was some evidence people were actually going over there because of me. The TSRR folks are actually very aware of me now. My first encounter with them was at the World's Greatest Hobby on Tour model train show in San Antonio this spring. And then later at their Railfest this fall I actually visited the site and spoke with some of their representatives. We've discussed some possibilities, but nothing I'm willing to talk about until specifics are discussed and plans made. Thanks much! We do it through lots of research, planning, and failure. And... sometimes a healthy dose of dumb luck. --Tony

Thanks much! And thank you for the kind words on the blog. I'm glad I've been able to do the #300 justice, as the original MOC was built as more of a throw-away sidekick to the #500, rather than a MOC in her own right. High praise, then, I hope I am deserved. Thanks much! I really don't see myself has having a great amount of talent, just a lot of experience. I spend a lot of time putting bricks together and seeing what works. I was originally going to keep the footrails as just yellow tiles (as per the original MOC), but because the prototype steam engine had black footrails with a yellow pinstripe on the edge, and because I was going to mimic the black topped, colored pinstripe footrail on the #500 (which is also on many other locomotives of mine), I decided to be consistent. Thanks much! I plan to build the other three steam engines owned by the TSRR as well, two of which I plan to give cheese slope boilers. I just hope they aren't looked upon as one-hit-wonders, since I've pretty much mastered the construction of 5-wide cheese slope boiler. I suppose if I find a suitable new technique between now and then I'll give it a go. --Tony