ALCO

Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! All the flex hose is quite laborious but the final outcome is quite woth it. Good eye! That is indeed an ingot on top of the light. Quite by accident but now my goto moving forward. I got on in my BrickLink order by mistake so I thought I'd try it on the light and I quite agree. It looks better than the 1x2 tile. Thank you!

I saw a few posts about folks wanting to see some more photos of the winners of the 2020 Brick Train Awards. I would like to present the regional winner of the Best Steam Locomotive category of the 2020 Brick Train Awards. Presenting the Chicago Burlington & Quincy 2-8-2 Mikado! A bit about why I choose to model this engine. I live long the "Racetrack" a stretch of triple-track mainline between Chicago and Aurora Illinois and wanted to model something steam closer to home to the Chicago Burlington & Quincy Railroad was the natural choice. I have a Big Boy, Emerald Night, Disney Train so I have smaller and very big engines covered. I need to fill the mid-size freight engine gap. While doing some research I found a CB&Q 2-8-2 Mikado that survived scrapping and that was actually in service! It was engine number 4960. A bit about the prototype. Engine # 4960 was among the last batch of Mikados purchased by the CB&Q. It was built in August of 1923 and part of the class O1-A. These were well balanced, easily fired, and well liked by their crews. They were replaced with diesels during the Transition era. 4960 was retired from freight service in 1957 and selected for the Burlington's Steam program which ran until 1966. During this time she pulled excursion trains around the Chicago area as the Burlington was headquartered in Aurora at the time. When the program was cancelled 4960 was sold to the Mid-Continental Railway Museum in North Freedom Wisconsin where she sat for a while. Fast Forward to 1981. The Bristol and Western Tourist Railroad was getting started and leased 4960 and restored her. 4960's time with the Bristol and Western was cut short due to bankruptcy. The engineer and fireman that ran 4960 went on to work for the Grand Canyon Railway but kept thinking about 4960. They convinced the GCRR to purchase 4960 where it she was restored and received a face-lift as well. 4960 was converted to burn waste cooking oil and periodically pulls tourist trains from Williams Arizona to the Grand Canyon. A bit about the build. This was a fun and challenging build requiring a lot of new techniques to accomplish the look and different aspects. I wanted to make this a functional engine that I could play with, but also a detailed engine that I could proudly display in my living room. This is a PowerFunctions engine and has 2 L motors in the boiler along with the receiver. The battery, naturally, is in the tender. I almost did not include the brick-built canvas curtains in back of the cab but @Roadmonkeytj really encouraged me to keep them, and I'm so glad he did. I really was not planning to submit this to the 2020 Brick Train Awards because i was waiting for decals and a couple parts to finish it so I submitted it as a digital build with a work-in-progress photo and a test run video. I was quite surprised to see that I won! See the announcement here at Brick Model Railroader. Now the fun bit, the photos! Render of the BTA Entry Questions, comments are welcome! Thanks for visiting! ALCO

Just the rails are injection moulded. They are not all one piece like Lego track or BrickTracks track.

Based on your prototype I'd say Sand Green. You will get a lot more compliments on the color.

Depends on how long the boiler is and how much you want either end to overhang the track. I have one where the king-pin is directed between the flanged axles on one set of drivers and the other set the king-pin is off the last flanged axle by one stud. This setup is more a function of how much an end will overhang vs. Drive-line placement. There is no right or wrong way. My wheel arrangement is f-b-f-b + b-f-b-f. This arrangement was selected to get the pivot points of the leading and trailing trucks as close to the flanged axles as possible. But depending on your prototype and design you may need a different configuration. Just. My $.02.

This looks good! I like your solution for the nose. Few thoughts here, I'd love to see the ladder rungs going up the right side in the front. For aesthetics, maybe the top row of grill tiles could be black. I have found for myself that if I can use a train motor, there is less fuss and fiddling to get it to run proper. I bet train motors could easily be hidden inside your highly detailed truck design.

I like the wheel guards!

What a beautiful world! Many sets from my childhood that I unfortunately no longer own due to the dark age.

@legonerd54321 just looking at your prototype and thinking the boiler might look too low. I wonder if you were to raise the boiler by a plate if that might help. Also, are you planning to have this handle r40 curves? If so you might want to check the clearance on the front wheel of your leading truck with the inside of your cylinders.

This is a really nice locomotive! I'd love to see this IRB.

What direction are you going through the switch? How far apart are the flanged drivers? Are the flanges hitting the guide rails?

To me it makes so sense to throw out MOC instructions because BrickLink is a trading platform. It does not own the inventory traded. So they cannot be liable for any intellectual property issues that may be present in some MOC instructions. Those would be the issues of the proprietor. I'm going to wait some time the. Re-add my instructions inventory again and see what happens.

This looks really nice! I too would live to see this in real brick. You have some talent there!

They said they were going to purge my store too. I think they are just making a blanket purge for liability and are trusting each store proprietor to challenge. I emailed them back indicating which part of their policy I fall under and that I should be excepted. They were quite prompt in replying that my store was approved.

It does not look like this one will have magnetic couplers... that's a shame.

I am also eagerly awaiting information when it will be released!

@ShaydDeGrai I agree with you. I think PU could be really cool with the right application. But for running a train around a simple loop of track, the capability is way over-kill. I am looking forward to experimenting with its advanced features but without an application its difficult to conjure a use for it.

Then the system needs to be easy to incorporate. I'm all PF since I came out of the Dark Age long after 9v passed. The equipment to power the track, pick up power from the track, charge on-board batteries including circuitry to protect from over charging and over dis-charging and controlling the train should be plug-and-play. I know all this can be done, there are people who have done it but if the "Holy Grail" of 9v track is charging up on-board batteries then it needs to be easy for someone who is not an electrician.

How are you going to sync the motors? The size of the driver wheels will cause the motor in the tender to have to run faster to keep up.

Thats a really nice looking Hudson! I'm assuming the motor in the engine is powering the lead or trailing trucks? It looks like most of the engine's weight will be on the drivers so whatever wheels you are using will not add much to tractive effort.

Thank you @Legopold I will check CV k to see which ones I have.

You can add those as custom parts to Stud.io. I'm not in a place right now to link to everything you need as I am traveling but can try to get to that later this week if someone else does not beat me to it.

@legotownlinz I agree with you. I would also love to see a wifi controller using 5Ghz as this band will have less interference and the range should be adequate for shows.

Welcome Matteo! 6wide would be the least cost but you would have to sacrifice detail. You could easily get started with 6wide by purchasing some of the train sets. 8wide can be much more detailed but also a lot more expensive. As for inspiration for Italian trains look at the trains running through your town or the nearest town with rail access. As for techniques there is a wealth of information here in this forum. Or you can find 3rd party instructions just to see how the builder did whatever it is you are trying to emulate. Hope that helps!

I'm sorry! I meant to tag @Legopold!