Sven J

@zephyr1934 & @sergiomonai: I think that insulating jacket was common not only in the US, but quite everywhere (though, in later years, at least German railways used glass wool rather than asbestos). However, on many European steam engines the diameter of the smokebox was larger than that of the boiler proper - just by the amount that the insulating layer added to the boiler diameter, in order to achieve a clean look. Having said that, on old Prussian engines the smokebox had a considerably larger diameter than the boiler even with its insulating jacket included. This was to gain more space for the superheater equipment, but later turned out unneccessary.

Hi Sergio, great to hear from you again! What happened to your previous EB account? Yes, I remember, and this is probably quite a flexible design with regard to different diameters. Problem is, how can it be closed at the front without gaps? Best regards, Sven

Great! Let's hope they continue to supply their European retailer blokbricks.nl. These days it's not easy for EU residents to order from the US ...

It's new and promising!

Bricksafe is just an image-sharing platform. Instructions have moved to my cloud.

Thank you! Well, I haven't tried yet. But I suspect that, at least for longer boilers, they may not suffice. I like to have as much stability as possible ;-) Thanks, but it's actually not my own invention to use the steering wheel this way. Several train MOCers have done so before.

I understood it exactly that way Problem is, when you build it like that, you don't have those long plates any more running through from back to front, so the whole thing might be more prone to bending. It's the steering wheel from the classic 3829 assembly, mounted on a 20482 round tile instead.

@zephyr1934 The solution you describe above is exactly what I had in mind first. But that 1/2-plate "steps" in the corners looked ugly. Then I had the idea to fill those gaps with neck bracktes and had to find some way to attach them... Btw: Here's the first real-life build that uses the proposed design.

@Shiva That should work, but I don't think it would be as sturdy. It's actually the sides that stabilize the design.

Hi all, sorry for bumping this topic, but I thought it might be of general interest. For an upcoming new steam locomotive, I needed a boiler with exactly 5 studs diameter. So I invented a rather weird design I'd like to share with you. Characteristic elements of this design are: the "backbone" made of Modified Bricks 4733 with Rigid Hoses (cut to 4.5L) running through; the relatively new oval 1x3 plates whose open stud holes are used to attach them to the ends of the Rigid Hose pieces; and finally the inversion of stud orientation in the sides, using the old hinge plates. The result is surprisingly sturdy. Best regards, Sven

Well, it was to be expected - nevertheless I'm sorry for you!

These are actually 3386 "Brick, Round 1 x 1 x 2/3 Half Circle Extended with Stud on Side". Stacking them results in the closest distance between open studs that is possible with Lego elements (6.4 mm). In fact, playing around with a pile of 3386 was what gave me the idea of building the SSKL.

@dimka_ya Thank you!

I can't really explain. 18 201 looks really good, 18 314 is ugly... maybe it's more a matter of proportions than of basic forms. And I don't like unneccessary ornaments (V200 with its two-tone paint scheme and that ridiculous chromed "V" at the front) and "cluttered" looks with lots of visible pipes and tubes and angles and edges - that's why I love Swedish steam locomotives with their clean, elegant design. Back to topic, I suppose... Thanks! No matter if it's formally "patented", I just consider it to be a question of good manners. When someone else has a good idea, I won't copy it without asking.

Thank you! More about the procedure for converting JS figures is shown here.