SavaTheAggie

Full Gallery (includes work in progress photos) Chesapeake & Ohio H8 Allegheny class (2-6-6-6) articulated steam locomotive, the tallest, widest, heaviest steam engine ever created. By herself, the H8 weighed a staggering 724,500 lbs; with her fully loaded tender she topped out at earth shaking 1,066,100 lbs. She was capable of producing up to 8,000 horsepower, the highest ever calculated on an articulated steam locomotive, greater than even Challenger and Big Boy. In fact, her massive boiler, the largest ever installed on a locomotive, was large enough for the boiler of the Big Boy to fit inside. She was named after the mountains where she worked, pulling mile long trains of 150+ coal cars up and down the Allegheny mountains, but was also capable of pulling long troop trains at speeds up to 60 mph. She's built in a massive 10-wide, and yet she's more than likely still in scale with most 8-wide MOCs. She's fully track compatible, capable of navigating turns and points using a floating design inspired by Benn Coifman. If you're attending Brickworld, she'll be in attendance, too. --Tony

Thanks to pink flowers at the Houston LEGO store Pick a Brick wall, I finally found a (what should have been somewhat obvious) non-winter use for my white leaf pieces. --Tony

Sava Railways Garratt Type Double Porter Class (2-4-0+0-4-2) Steam Locomotive (say that three times fast). Gallery This is my latest steam creation, a Garratt type locomotive. Unlike traditional steam engines, the Garratt type is actually two locomotives sharing the same boiler. Each locomotive carries a tank of water, with one carrying a fuel bunker, and slung between them is the boiler and cab. I built her over a mere 2 days, inspired by the Train Challenge #2 over on Flickr's LEGO Trains group (build a 2-4-0 steam locomotive), though we've decided that while it's a clever entry, it bends the rules a little too much. To my credit, however, Garratt locomotives were frequently called "double" of their traditional wheel arrangement. So if a standard 2-4-0 is called a "Porter", a 2-4-0+0-4-2 would be a "Double Porter". I also had a handicap imposed by my lovely wife, who decreed I was not allowed to spend any money to finish this locomotive. As such, I was forced to work with what I had on hand, and I think I did a decent job. As I've built her, I fear she is too small to power, even with Power Functions, but I plan to build a powered boxcar which should help with that. --Tony

I finally got the parts in the mail to complete the dark blue versions of the kits. They can now be found in my Bricklink shop. --Tony

Alot more common than you'd think. Just search "B Unit" on brickshelf. I've built one, myself. A rarity, but not unseen in LEGO. http://www.flickr.com/photos/doctorsiniste...57604974781835/ (based on the Dora railgun) Also http://www.mocpages.com/moc.php/12871 http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?f=147579 http://www.flickr.com/photos/23168122@N07/3324425836/ http://www.flickr.com/photos/25681217@N04/3474542591/ http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?f=236399 http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?f=4947 http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?f=223670 And don't forget the Camelback Steam engines. http://www.flickr.com/photos/savatheaggie/3279162208/ --Tony

Perhaps I should put a call out to all the attendees to bring all the coal hoppers they have to stage a big photo-op. :) Thanks. No, she would hang out horribly over the curves had I stuck with the original articulation design, fixing the rear driver set to the boiler and articulating the rest. After all, she's some 58 studs in length, she'd have never cleared anything, and probably would hit any train on an adjacent track. She's designed so that she pivots on her forward driver set and her rear truck, with the rear driver set floating out from underneath her in turns. The rear driver set is drug behind the front set and is tiled to insure smooth transitions. She only slows down a little in simple 90 degree turns, though long S curves slow her down considerably. --Tony

Thanks much! Yes, it took quite some time, I did a lot of research, spent some time in photoshop with real photos, and more time in LDraw coming up with mock boiler designs. I'd imagine I actually spent more time planning her build than the actual build itself. You and Benn Coifman. Curse you, Cale! Curse you and your little coal hoppers, too! :) I do have plans to make a few coal hoppers, as I have so little in the way of rolling stock, but they'll have to wait till my bank account recovers from this and Brickworld. --Tony

Thanks! No, currently it has three 9v train motors installed - two under the tender and one disguised as a 3 axle trailing truck. I have plans to create a Power Functions tender to go with it, though, so I can run it as either PF or 9v. When I build it I'll also build a 3 axle non-powered trailing truck to replace the existing one. Thanks much! You know, I don't really know how I choose. I guess, really, it all comes down to how unique or special the trains are. If it's rare, special, or different I want to build it. That's probably why I've been tempted by a Shay or a Garratt class steamer for a while. Thanks much! She's 10-wide, but that is most likely to scale with all 8-wide trains. The Alleghenies were THAT big. --Tony

Chesapeake & Ohio H8 Allegheny class (2-6-6-6) articulated steam locomotive, the tallest, widest, heaviest steam engine ever created. By herself, the H8 weighed a staggering 724,500 lbs; with her fully loaded tender she topped out at earth shaking 1,066,100 lbs. She was capable of producing up to 8,000 horsepower, the highest ever calculated on an articulated steam locomotive, greater than even Challenger and Big Boy. In fact, her massive boiler, the largest ever installed on a locomotive, was large enough for the boiler of the Big Boy to fit inside. She was named after the mountains where she worked, pulling mile long trains of 150+ coal cars up and down the Allegheny mountains, but was also capable of pulling long troop trains at speeds up to 60 mph. There are still a few tweaks I'd like to make, but most of them are minor and won't make THAT much of a difference, visually. More pics will come after Brickworld. Please visit my Bricklink shop to make that happen! (Three more custom steam engine kits coming soon!) --Tony

Forgive me, I was wrong. You can cut the wire and attach it directly to the battery, but not THAT wire. You'll have to cut a PF wire. Apparently the old 9v system uses only two wires, and it sends the power through those two wires. The PF motors run off power that is sent through those two wires, so when you hook up one to the other - it works. However, it seems the IR receiver uses the other two wires on the PF cord to operate, which is why you need the empty battery box between the 9v regulator and the receiver in order for it to work - it simply makes contact between the one pair of wires and the other. How you'd do it, though, is still beyond my expertise. --Tony

I finally got around to dressing up the original locomotive, the #805, in the Dark Bluish Grey skin that three of these kits I'm selling offer. Here's a picture: --Tony

I don't know alot about electronics, so cutting wires, etc. is just not I can help you with. I can tell you it won't work, to the best of my knowledge, because the IR controller REQUIRES a specific signal be sent through it, along with the power from the PF battery, to allow it to operate. So hooking an IR receiver to a 9v LEGO power source or directly to the battery simply will not work. However, I can give you a pure 100% unaltered LEGO solution for controlling a 9v metal rail train with the IR Power Functions equipment. It's a little convoluted but so long as you can hide the wires in a building or under your train table you'll be peachy. The original 9v train equipment uses a 9v regulator, including a wall wart and an electrical track hookup. The Regulator takes electrical power from the wall and transfers it to the rails, powering the 9v motors. The PF batteries only put out 7.4 volts so they're probably not enough to run 9v motors through metal rails efficiently or with the same amount of power. However, with a little trickery, in theory, you should be able to remote operate your 9v trains Here is the setup: 1. The Wall Wart plugs into the wall and into a 9v train Regulator set to full speed. 2. The 9v train regulator is attached to a 9v/PF adapter wire (available from S@H). 3. The 9v/PF adapter wire is attached to an empty PF Battery box. This will add the necessary signal in the electrical current to allow the PF IR receiver to function. 4. The empty PF Battery Box is attached to an PF IR Receiver. 5. The PF IR Receiver is attached to a second 9v/PF adapter wire. If you had two loops you could use a third 9v/PF adapter and attach it to the other IR plug on the Receiver. 6. The second 9v/PF adapter wire is attached to the 9v track hookup. 7. The 9v track hookup is attached to your metal rails. 8. Install the 9v receiver in a building easily seen from the majority of your layout, or at least from an angle from which you usually operate your trains. 9. Use the new PF train remote to operate your trains speed from where ever you wish. The added bonus here is that because the IR Receiver is hard mounted to the layout and not the train, things such as tunnels and tall buildings are no longer an issue. I've not actually tried this, but in theory it should work just fine. --Tony

Unfortunately I don't have access to the machine that has the nice and easy program installed on it that let's me find out for sure, and LDraw can't handle multipart models for parts lists. So I did a quick and dirty part count using the different multiparts in LDraw and came up with an estimated 340. --Tony

I would happily ship to Australia. Since the sets are unassembled the only real issue is making sure the box I pack the set box in is sturdy enough to survive the trip intact. The 4-4-0 didn't really have its own thread, I lumped it into a thread with several of my steamers when I first joined Eurobricks. However, it does have its own thread in the B/S/T forum, where I am selling copies of it. --Tony

Thanks everyone. All of the other photos of the train are currently private, but I will eventually mark them public along with finished pictures of the locomotive once I get her dressed up in stickers. I've built her to attend Brickworld (thus most of the secrecy up till now), though I'll need to sell at least three of my custom sets before I'll be able to make it. The only other real photo of her that's public is this one: --Tony

Howdy all, I'm currently trying to sell a series of custom steam engine kits in an effort to fund my trip to Brickworld. I've finally got three of the six kits in my Bricklink store for sale. These three sets are accented with Dark Bluish Grey instead of the Dark Green of the original MOC locomotive (pictured). The other three sets will be Dark Blue. Each set is individually numbered and comes unassembled in a custom box, which includes an instruction CD, certificate of authenticity, and custom stickers. The three locomotives are numbered #901, 903, and 905. A picture of a sample kit can be found here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/savatheaggie/3500129660/ Here's a video of the original powered train in action: Look back in my store in a few days when I am able to list the Dark Blue locomotives. http://www.bricklink.com/store.asp?p=AggieSava --Tony

So good to see my new steam engine playing well with others. --Tony

I've built both a 4-4-0 and a 4-6-0 and the cow catcher is always an issue. I've never been satisfied with the standard brick-built solutions I've seen just about everywhere. Perhaps what I've done will inspire you. Both use custom lengths of flex tubing, though obviously the 4-4-0's cowcatcher uses a lot more. --Tony

That's one of the reasons I've never considered building a tank locomotive, at least up until now. I have been considering building a Garratt class locomotive, which technically is a tank locomotive, which would use the PF elements. Probably something in the 2-8-0+0-8-2 range. However with my current build I'm not entirely sure how much I'll want to build a big articulated locomotive afterward. I'm afraid I can't tell you, I don't own 7750 nor any of the wheels therein. They look like they'd be pretty close, though. --Tony

And now it's gone, before I got to read the story. --Tony

Good review. It's a great set, I own one, but it's got one major flaw. Well, I don't know if *IT* has a flaw, or the 10014 Caboose does, but either way, the Caboose cannot clear the pedestrian bridge. We learned this at a TexLUG meeting when we sent a train at full speed through with disastrous results. --Tony

That's awful slick, I don't see you haven't many issues at all, then. --Tony

Unfortunately, unless you use some of the new flex track, you won't have to worry about making turns with the cannon - LEGO only makes one radius of curve, and you'll need two to make it take any curves. --Tony

I am, presently, using 28 small wheels, 22 Medium drivers (Flanged and Blind), and 38 Large Drivers (Flanged and Blind), not counting the wheels currently on my yet to be public work in progress steamer, and the wheels bought and reserved for my other steamer I may never build. I say "too many" because of my wife and how often she rolls her eyes when I say I need more. So far there are $222 worth of wheels on my public steamers. --Tony

The small PF train wheels are on LEGO S@H PaB, too, last I checked they were running about $0.50 a piece, so even cheaper. --Tony