Murdoch17
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Everything posted by Murdoch17
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A 1952 western, "The Denver & Rio Grande" was what I watched on Amazon. Featuring plenty of Colorado narrow gauge mountain scenery, and a spectacular "cornfield meet" train crash.... the historical accuracy (or lack of it) of the literal war between the Santa Fe RR (called San Juan and Pacific in the film) & Denver and Rio Grande over the Royal Gorge route is about on par for most Western films of this time period, such as that Alamo film that I can't quite recall the name of. (AKA practically non existent.) In all, I give it a good train film rating of three out of five cabooses, (cabeese?) because it was saved from a lower score by the stellar steam action.
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Actually, I have two of those baseplates, they are just in use with other space-related projects, @Black Knight The whole "Moon Mover" freight train for my space layout, with the revised diesel streamlined loco powering it. What do you think? Oh, and By the way: pictures are updated in the first post. -
Thanks, but that was taken from Marvel's set 76177 (Battle at the Ancient Village), as seen below: I just basically recolored and modified it a bit to have Blacktron 3 colors.
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Well, after almost a month in Bricklink hell*, here it is: the canopy has been finally added in all it's glory to the Glencoe train station. Well, actually, it isn't really a s good as it could be. The parts for the middle connection (a 7-stud long Technic rod) are actually just a hair too short. Thus, I reinforced the roof at every other length with black 2x16 plates.... because otherwise, it'd practically be two halves standing near each other and not one whole. So, in short: it works... barely. Inside - or should I say, underneath - the three-and-a-half track long canopy. *I got shipped someone else's parts order about two weeks back, just got what I ordered finally yesterday after sending the other package I got (accidentally) on the way to it's final destination about five days ago. This project is finished once again... until something else to change catches my eye. But until then, it's D-O-N-E.
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This dragon was designed as a prototype biological-machine hybrid for scouting out in space for objects of unfamiliar origin in Blacktron 3 territory. It used a recently-discovered dead race of space dragons' DNA in combination with robotic technology to quickly achieve this goal. As the DNA was degraded significantly, and the robotic tech tried and tested, it was felt to combine the two would provide a failsafe option in case a suddenly aware cyber-being became a reality: a over-ride of the nervous system by a massive electrical pulse, which would kill it dead by it's own power source. (basically, a kill switch) This code would be given by a super-secure signal delivered via hyperspace to wherever the creature was to kill it in three minutes of becoming aware. (This would be considered a mercy killing by Blacktron standards, as the being in question would be confused and in pain from cyber implants and lack of knowledge of this time / place after it's race had been wiped out.) The first 13 prototype cyber-beings developed were deemed unworthy of being used for various reasons, such as overloading of fusion core upon primary boot-up. The 14th version, called DRAG-00N (after going alphabetically through the first 13 letters before arriving at prototype "N", plus the two number spaces for possible future firmware upgrades.) was finally approved for further tests by Blacktron High Command three Earth-years (and millions of stud-credits spent) after starting the project. The entire BT3 high command wanted to be there in person upon full boot-up, but decided not to, as it was bad luck in there eyes to be there in person after so much failure. Hologram representation would have to suffice. It was a very smart move, considering what happened next. The DRAG-00N, upon final boot-up, became aware within seconds, and, being so firmly entrenched with it's technological implants, deleted the fail safe from it's memory banks in the first minute, before it could even be sent out by the high command. While the creature killed everyone in a 12 mile radius of the laboratory where it was built / born, (It was still too unsteady to kill everyone by flying around yet.) the high command scrambled to get it's codes secured. They had realized the being would slice communication channels to anticipate any strikes against it... Needless to say, they failed to do that quickly enough, and in addition, it armed the planet's missiles and reactor core against any intruder coming near the planet for as long as time still marched forward or the planet's system existed. It then left the system it was born in, but scorched everything living on that sorry rock before doing so. It flew to the next system over, which happened to be controlled by the Unitron Security League and destroyed several worlds for everything resembling life above cockroaches. (By this point, the Blacktron Commanders had been informing anyone who would listen about it's rouge robot, and trying to stop retaliatory attacks against THEM for something they technically had no control over.) It decimated everything in it's path to the galactic core, leveling worlds and entire systems in it's wake using it's seemingly-endless Atomic fire breath. The only thing that was thought of to give ALL systems regardless of political orientation a fighting chance of mounting a galactic resistance to their new menace, was a lone, very old Astro-bot, numbered 33 and owned by Classic Space Command. Thirty-three was awakened, and sent on an intercept path, using all possible hyper-speed to reach the Galaxy Core all in 10 minutes. There, it met it's opponent in the field of battle, above the black hole that sits smack dab in the Galactic Core's very heart. The dragon stuck first, and managed to tear off a panel on the front of ol' 33. The robot managed to get in some good shots with it's laser-eyes, before the dragon starting to use it's atomic breath at close range. This had a devastating effect on 33's weapons circuitry, and almost killed the robot on the spot. Thankfully, backup arrived in the form of several fleets of varying allegiance, all bonded by the goal of killing DRAG-00N. It was a fierce battle, with several capital ships destroyed or made immobile. One Spyruis cyber-slicer frigate was thrown into the black hole itself for trying to hack the cyborg's implants by said cyborg. Eventually, a hail of fire finished off what 33 had started: the beast died with a final act of vengeance on it's attackers: it initiated the meltdown countdown of it's fusion core, which would kill everyone in the vicinity, including the assembled fleets of most of the galaxy's forces. The Astro-bot then threw the burning hulk into the black hole, which then took the brunt of the explosion when it finally died. Astro-bot 33 went on to be fixed up and completely overhauled, but not before the assembled fleets gave there unanimous congratulations to the giant robot in the form of a treaty to mark the day, the 3rd of May here on Earth, as "Galactic Robo-Savior" day. Blacktron command even commented, saying it would destroy all materials within the dead planet where the cyborg was born concerning said creature, once it was deemed possible to do so... rumor speculates, however, that some extra copies of parts of the being's cyber-mainframe were removed from the lab it was born in before final boot-up for placement with "top scientific personnel" for future study. No one alive today knows the whole story on that... or do they? NOTES: Yes, this model is build-able, and it will be built soon. The model is missing parts, I know, it just doesn't have them in LDD. Also, the robot is missing some panels, as they don't fit in LDD... which won't matter when it is build in real life. Speaking of the bot, it's a Classic Space version of Build Better Bricks' Iron Giant with the head of the previous @hachiroku version of the model's head added on. (consider it a mashup of the two Iron Giant models) you can see more screenshots of the 'bot here at this thread for all my Classic Space models. Any thoughts?
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There is a use for almost everything with LEGO studs on it in building... Good to know the pods are useable too, and fantastic work on the Modern building. It looks a bit sci-fi too, like it wouldn't look bad on a Lunar / Asteroid city!
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I finished another vintage train... it's not Western per say, but a Depression-era WPA (Works Project Administration) dam building materials train, to bring electricity to rural areas of Colorado, New Mexico, Kansas, and Oklahoma border-area by damming up the river in Boulder Cliff Canyon to make a power generating plant and lake. The WXYZ Railroad used vintage late 1800's RR equipment to bring the rail cars to the future dam site. Please note, the loco is a modified and backdated @SavaTheAggie build while Charles Pritchett designed the loads on the depressed center flatcar for his train book. I merely modified them (quite heavily). I added the screenshots of engine No. 9 (seen above) and it's train to the first post. I still need to take real-life photos of the private car and 4-2-4T. (Plus, it is likely the 4-4-0 and freight train will be bought next, as it's the cheapest of the remaining three trains.)
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Look everyone, it's Vy'ger from the original Star Trek movie! Jokes aside, I love the details in such a small space. It is simply going where no MOC has gone before.
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Thanks! My mind is still singed with the ELECTRICTY! song from School House Rock, @Karle. Conjunction Junction, how's that function? I got three favorite cars That get most of my job done. Conjunction Junction, what's their function? I got "and", "but", and "or", They'll get you pretty far. "And": That's an additive, like "this and that". "But": That's sort of the opposite, "Not this but that". And then there's "or": O-R, when you have a choice like "This or that". "And", "but", and "or", Get you pretty far. (I finished the lyrics of the first stanza for you @JWBDolphins ) Thank you @zephyr1934 for your suggestions! I like the cars all being the same length,(as in the music video) and the words are already SNOTed together by being held in by brackets set a full brick back from the edge of the car... that and the resulting brace-work is what makes them so heavy. *UPDATE* Three hundred and sixty-five parts found so far for this 1014-part WIP train.(625 parts still to find / order) It shouldn't be too long until it's done.
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This is *almost* a Disney train - Linus the 2-4-0 steam engine is from "The Brave Locomotive" that was started by Disney animator Andrew Chatsworth before he got hired, Bill Peet wrote "The Caboose who Got Loose" some years after being let go from Disney, and Conjunction Junction (part of "School House Rock!" educational TV series) was created by ABC, which is now owned by Disney. What am I talking about? Keep reading to find out! Meet Linus the Brave Locomotive, and his driver Henry! (from Andrew Chatsworth's animation on Youtube as seen here. ) I decided to make this 2-4-0 out of LEGO after watching the short over and over, as it's an inspiring tale and very well done animation-wise. I did make some changes to Linus' design from the cartoon, such as adding a number 2 to his tender and cab. I also borrowed heavily from the 2019 Disney train and 2010 Toy Story Western Train Chase sets. (Linus is actually missing one part - the smokestack from the Orient Express. The stack seen above is a stand-in and will be replaced at some point.) The rear of the engine. Sorry for the color issues with some of these photos, it's because my phone camera doesn't like taking pictures of blue objects.... no idea why. On September 29th, 1973, a new School house ROCK (link to wiki page for those unfamiliar with what that is) music video was played for the first time alongside your regular American Saturday morning cartoons such as Scooby-Doo, old Rocky and Bullwinkle show episodes and maybe some Johnny Quest. This new music video featured a diminutive stereotypical train conductor, two hobos (one fat and tall, and one small and skinny), and a train with words on it... not just any words, but CONJUNCTIONS, as the name of the video and location is Conjunction Junction. This train is shown in order above, with comments about what it could possibly be carrying in the fictional ROCK-verse. The first two (NOT + THIS) are obviously Boxcars. The BUT tanker (most likely hauling Butane) and THAT boxcar. Finally, AND (which is possibly a refrigerated goods wagon) plus an OR (ore) hopper. All together, these train cars taught (and entertained!) generations of school-age children and some older adults about Conjunctions, and other videos taught about American history, the environment, math (multiplication tables up to 12 but skipping the number 1), science, money and even early home computers! (among MANY other subjects) All of them can be found on Disney +, as Disney owns ABC, which is who made the original music videos. Heavily inspired by @zephyr1934's MOC of "Katy" from the classic children's book "The Caboose who got Loose" by ex-Disney animator Bill Peet. Zephyr's version can be seen here in his own topic. I didn't want to use stickers for Katy's eyes like what's being done by the original builder, so I decided to use the eyes from set 43186 (Bruni the Salamander buildable character) from the Disney Frozen II line . I also added a actual mouth, as just the two eyes without something between them looked kind of odd, most likely because of the specific eyes I chose. The MOC I based this on used a different method for the mouth using a lot of SNOT-work.... I used a brick with 2 studs on the sides and two quarter tiles to give her a open mouth. The roof has also been modified, and a different stove pipe added compared to what the original MOC has. However, what's a freight train without someone or somewhere to tell it where to go next? Enter the railyard dispatch center, which is not just any old building: it's the Conjunction Junction dispatch office as seen in the education cartoon series Schoolhouse Rock "Conjunction Junction" episode from September '73. I've made some changes to the original cartoon design, such as adding a removable roof to the building (for getting access to the inside details), and placing a water tower nearby for thirsty steam locomotives. The tower top rotates a full 360 degrees with the water pipe, allowing the engineer to pull up, get his loco full of (imaginary) water, shove the pipe away, and move on. Also, there is a dilapidated boxcar behind the water tower for the Junction's two resident hobos. Inside the openable building is a typical furniture for the 1930-'50's time period which I think the cartoon takes place in. This includes: - corner desk with telephone, a railroad oil can, and lantern, plus two chairs - oil fired heater / stove - time clock next to a day-at-a-time calendar showcasing a exotic locale - potted plant, just because! EDIT 11/28/23: Added Katy caboose and Linus - the brave locomotive to the main post, which has been completely redone! Thoughts welcome!
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@MY1 They just changed their forum to another version. Rebrickable (main site) is still in the same old place it's been.
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To answer both @BrickMatit @Seaber at once, the station has a waiting room because in my head-canon it ISN'T serviced by just Hogwarts Express. Lady, the magenta engine from the Island of Sodor / the 2000 Magic Railroad film, can pull into Hogsmeade, as her magic lets her travel there from her own time / place either normally, or through the magic railroad. The engine pulls two coaches these days, based on my interpretation of Henrietta. (as usually pulled by toby the tram engine) Lady has a schedule to keep, and services the Hogsmeade station once a week at a regular time, around Noon on Wednesdays. As for the ideas for the roof, it's hard to do a plate roof in LDD, due to the angle tool being kind of bad at it's job... it's just way easier to do it this way.
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Thanks @Tube Map Central, the new pictures of it are now in the first post.
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Well, bad news @Pdaitabird @Tube Map Central, I already have most of the tan parts already pulled and don't have the income to try the dark orange, with cool & regular yellow being also out of range.... sorry. But tan w/ brown boxes are sticking around. The Railway name will now be LRTS because that'd just based on the available letters I have here.
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would tan work @Tube Map Central? I've recolored just it to tan and brown because of expensive yellow parts, and I agree with you, it will be too bright.
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The engine seen below originally came as a generic British 2-6-0 from the Block Junction website, to which I added two extra leading wheels and a new paint scheme inspired by that found on London, Brighton, and South Coast Railway locomotives around the turn of the 20th century. But wait, you say, there were no 4-6-0's in that time period on that railway, or even ever painted in that scheme later on! I know that, consider this a experimental one-off that was a hushed-up trial in superheating. (or something similar they were trying back then) Anyway, a group of close friends and business leaders bought the one-off loco from a backlogged scrap dealer in the early 1930's and preserved it. (These people later became the LEGO Rail Transportation Society in the late 1940's, saving more and more rolling stock and locomotives before saving a to-be-torn-up branch line during the Beeching Cuts of the mid-1960's.) The engine was repainted to LBSC colors somewhere in that time, and re-allocated it's old number X1, designating it as a experimental engine. Over the years, the engine was restored to working order, and had it's troublesome super-heater removed entirely and replaced with a better one. It now runs as a mixed-traffic loco, puling tourist passenger and freight trains alike, just as it was designed to do in the late 1890's / early 1900's. The letters LBSC will go on the tender walls, while the engine will feature X1 on it's side. The block junction page I bought the original 2-6-0 from is seen here. Close-up view of the three passenger coaches, from which Annie and Clarabel (from The Railway Series / Thomas and Friends) contributed their designs to the look of. …and here is a close-up view of the guard's coach, which features a compartment for luggage and the guard himself. (That's a UK version of what we call the Conductor here in the States.) NOTES: Now, I know the coaches are a bit short in height by a single brick (or is the loco to tall?) but otherwise it looks odd if I change it to be taller / shorter. Any thoughts, comments, or suggestions? They are all welcome!
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Thomas the Tank Engine - MOCs of locomotives and rolling stock
Murdoch17 replied to Murdoch17's topic in LEGO Train Tech
Thomas is getting an upgrade.... ....and Annie and Clarabel are along for the ride! Coming Soon! (ish) -
It's a rainy and cold evening in Scotland, and you are on the Hogwarts Express as a first year student. You have noted other students have changed from street-clothes into the black robes with the crest of your destination on the front: Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. You do the same, and then notice the train slowing down, and finally coming to a stop at a small station marked "HOGSMEADE" on a wooden platform sign. You don't want to get too wet in your nice new robes, and feel a bit lost in the hustle and bustle of older students departing and railway staff getting luggage off the train and onto the platform. You spot your trunk on the platform and detrain. It's raining less hard now, and a slightly portly-looking, very tall man in a beard and fur-lined coat comes down the platform shouting above the steam engine's noise; "First years with me!" He leads you and about dozen other 11-year old's away from the nice and neat (and warm!) station down to a series of boats on the water's edge of a huge lake not far from the train. He leads each student into the boat, and then boards the lead boat himself. He taps the oarlock of his boat with his umbrella, and all the boats move away in sync by themselves. You are then astounded to see a huge castle, perched on rocky cliffs on the other side of the lake, lit up by hundreds of candles under the moonlight of the clearing sky. The man then shouts out to everyone assembled in the tiny boats; "Welcome to Hogwarts!" (small note: This movie concept art was taken from the Harry Potter wiki sometime in 2015. It is NOT mine.) I have converted and combined this Hogsmeade Station from two different versions found on Rebrickable, and made it my own using pictures and guesswork. This design is supposed to go well with set 76388 - Hogsmeade Visit - (or my Winter Village MOCs) but of course, in the official Harry Potter canon it's on the other side of the lake from Hogsmeade proper. (But I don't listen to canon!) The entrance to the employees-only ticket counter area is on the side furthest to the camera, while the nearest door is to the passenger waiting room. The model has two rooms under the removable roof, featuring seating from the Disney train set. One one side is the ticket office, with a cash register / ticket window and a sorting desk for tickets / packages. The other is the waiting room with a few bench seats w/ individual arms and a bulletin board. Starting amount of parts: 1,185 Parts found so far: 657 Parts still to find: 528 Over half of the parts have been found so far. (I've also started taking apart my Disney-inspired station for it's pieces, so that has made a dent in this project, with more to come as I start on the ground floor of that older MOC.) EDIT 4/15/24: Sorry for the REALLY late update, but I've finally gotten started on building this in real bricks! (only took three years, but whose counting?) It should be finished sooner rather than later. Thoughts, comments, suggestions, and complaints are always welcome!
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Again, here I am with an new locomotive I will be ordering soon. Why, you ask? Because the old Garratt that led this train never fit in my boxes and broke-up majorly when I moved last year! In other news, this 7-wide loco began life as a 2-8-4 Berkshire type built by Plastic_Goth and purchased from Rebrickable a seen here. I upped the wheel count by another leading axle, (making it into a 4-8-4 Northern-type) and I then decided to imitate the famous South African Railways 'Red Devil' in color-scheme. The pistons are entirely my own work, as is the tender. More details can be seen here on the SAR Red Devil locomotive. I thought about adding smoke deflectors like on the Red Devil, but couldn't get them to look good. The rear of the engine has a slightly changed coal bunker side walls compared to the 2-8-4 Berkshire MOD I posted earlier in the week. The cab is exactly the same setup as the Polar Express loco. Any thoughts?
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Everyone knows about the Polar Express passenger train, but what about the other half of the railroad business: FREIGHT! Well, this problem is now solved with the "1231" Electro-Motive FP9 diesel cab + booster locomotives, along with boxcars for toy materials, hot cocoa tankers, coal cars (for naughty children and the 2-8-4 steam loco 1225), and flat cars with varying loads, this one being Santa's backup sleigh w/ reindeer! Any thoughts? More pictures of each car have been added to he first post.
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"I wanna know, have you ever seen the rail, coming down on a sunny day?"
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Slight update and bump: This steam engine began life based on my design of the Frisco 1522, a 4-8-2 Mountain type, which I had built into a 2-8-4 Berkshire for my Polar Express. I then saw a far superior model by @Plastic_Goth over on Rebrickable, as seen here. It was then purchased, and I added my own wheelbase to it from the pervious Frisco 1522-derived version as I try not to use those small friction wheels for the front pony truck, as it squeals too much. (as used by Lemon_Boy in his version) Then, I took the open bottom cab and added mine back in, albeit in 7 wide. I redid the tender to be seven wide as well, while shortening my passenger coaches by four studs. (I will put them on a 24 stud train-plate instead of 28 for each car.) this will give me nearly enough parts to add a firth car as a third identical coach. This diesel model originally was inspired by the EMD FL9 in the "Lego Train Projects" book from No Starch Press. I made it shorter and added a B unit, while changing up the color to Polar Railway green and red. I also make them into a regular diesel powered F-units instead of the dual electric / diesel powered FL9. Any thoughts?
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The @Electricsteam inspired 4-4-2 (as inspired by this thread here) has been downgraded to the new "Moon Mover" freight train, while I made a new 2-8-4 engine with streamlined shroud for the "Nucleus Express" passenger train. The new freight train, new passenger loco and a more extensive write-up for everything is seen above in the first post. This atomic engine is based off the 4-6-4 Mercury with "Bathtub shroud" (inspired by @Sunder and his retro-futuristic locomotives thread) full streamlining off the New York Central Railroad of 1930's Earth, but with only two leading wheels instead of four, and adding another driving wheel, turning it from a "Hudson" type 4-6-4, into a "Berkshire" 2-8-4 type steam locomotive. It features mandatory red (left) and green (right) directional lights and black / yellow bumblebee stripes for identification purposes. Any thoughts?
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Benny's Classic Space models - spaceships, robots, and buildings!
Murdoch17 replied to Murdoch17's topic in LEGO Sci-Fi
Thanks, and sorry for the late reply, @Samus Aran! Here is another update for the not-so-new year of 2021: This Classic Space version of Build Better Bricks' Iron Giant has the head of the previous @hachiroku version of the model's head added on. (consider it a mashup of the two Iron Giant models!) I made it into CS colors (black, light / dark grays and blue) with red and green light parts, and two yellow / black bumblebee stripe tiles. You may have noticed, the model is incomplete in places - some things just don't lineup properly in LDD like they do in real life. When fully assembled IRL, it should look much better though. The rear of the robot. The 4 x 2 slopes on the arms are supposed to have this print. The mouth now opens to allow for posing. The robot with Benny's 1950's car in it's hand. He looks hungry... (This model is next to be bought) -
@CMF-1138 I just upgraded the figures, as you can see below in the finished (minus the sign stickers) Neighborhood Trolley pictures... \ I hope it looks better now!
