Rotundus

Hello Fellow Brickers... In the waning days of March, I started on a project that would teach me a lot about a recently acquired hobby of mine... LEGO. Over the intervening months, after a lot of false starts and "close, but no cigar" moments, I have finally produced a model that I can call completed. Although I just said that it is now done, I'm sure that if I stare at it long enough I will discover something new that needs to be either added or fixed. That just seems to be the way of it with MOC's. Anyway... On to the photos: (Sorry about the lousy photo quality. I do not own a "fancy" digital camera and had to rely on my ancient "flip" phone.) SP GP-30 Mark-II by Ronald Clark, on Flickr A "Builders" photo... SP GP-30 Mark-II railfan view by Ronald Clark, on Flickr ... And a railfan's view. As you can tell from the photos in earlier posts, there was quite an evolutionary process to this build. After completing it the first time it didn't take me long to notice that there were a few things that I should have (and could have) done to make this a better model. As previously lamented, the Bloomberg trucks were the largest sore spot, followed closely by the general state of the undercarriage. Basically, everything below the chassis plates! Thus was born the Mark-II. SP GP-30 bottom by Ronald Clark, on Flickr It is rather easy to see from this photo why I was so unhappy with it... no details at all. It just looked wrong! I had decided that the key to the entire problem lay in the size of the wheels. (LEGO train wheels are just too small, right?) To solve this I contacted Zephyr1934 and asked him if he would be willing to produce for me a wheel with the proper proportions for my model. He agreed. The rebuild was on! While I waited for the new wheels I proceeded to redesign the whole thing. First up, a "spine and bolster" frame, followed by new "porches", coupler pockets, and MU hoses. Also with larger wheels in the works, I could now move the fuel tanks outward to better match the prototype. SP GP-30 M2 - better by Ronald Clark, on Flickr Much better! Using some spare bricks I mocked up up a truck so I could check clearances. All looks good so far, right? Well... almost. This next photo shows one of my many "oops" moments. The technic disk and pulleys were fine for the diameter of the wheel from tread to tread, but I had forgotten to take into account the flange. Oops! SP GP-30 M2 - early chassis-truck dev by Ronald Clark, on Flickr Hurrah, the new wheels have arrived... SP GP-30 Mark-II wheel size comp by Ronald Clark, on Flickr With the new, larger wheels now in hand the Mark-II's Bloomberg truck design could move forward in earnest. As you can see in the photo there is a BIG difference in the diameters... 3 studs for Zephyr's wheels as compared to 2 studs for the LEGO wheels. Let me say right now that without Zephyr's help with the wheels, this rebuild would not have been realized. THANK YOU. SP GP-30 Mark-II Bloomberg by Ronald Clark, on Flickr Much closer to the prototype now. The bigger wheels allowed me to enlarge and open up the truck design and include the wheels themselves as part of the detailing. The locomotive carbody was not neglected in the Mark-II rebuild. While the chassis was separated from the rest I took the time to replace about 90 or so bricks that made up the sides of the long hood with 1x6x5 panels. Also replaced were the handrails. No, they are not one piece. I had several skinny, long antenna pieces that had become broken, so I used them to join the tubing of the handrails. Maybe its not a purist solution, but at least its LEGO. The last thing to be done was mounting the road number up above the cab. You have to let people know who's coming after all. On a side note: Before the rebuild the model weighed 1070g, now it weighs 1098g... And I thought my re-design was going to be lighter! SP GP-30 Mark-II f by Ronald Clark, on Flickr Perhaps I should get off the tracks. A big thank-you to all of you who have made suggestions and voiced opinions. All were considered and many were incorporated into my model. Again, a huge helping of my thanks and gratitude goes to Zephyr1934. His "most excellent" work on the wheels and the custom stickers have really brought this locomotive to life. WELL DONE, SIR!! Well... Thats all for the EMD GP-30 (SP #5010). I hope you have enjoyed this build as much as I have. Happy bricking! There are a few additional photos on my Flickr page... Here is the link https://www.flickr.c.../140523717@N03/ One final photo for you all... SP GP-30 Mark-II lr by Ronald Clark, on Flickr See ya...

Just a thought... As the locomotive is in motion, take a careful look at the cylinder rod. From the look of your design, it seems as though it might be lifting up from the back. If so, it might need to be re-enforced on the top to prevent that. If you can, post a vid of the "explosion" in progress, it would be helpful in diagnosing the issue.

Have you tried "quartering" your drive rods?

I took another look at the fluting on the side. You might want to either extend or shorten the car by one stud to eliminate the stagger at the ends. Unfortunately this will probably result in a reduction of the structural integrity of the model. When faced with the same options, I have always gone with what looks better and just dealt with the more delicate walls.

Well... After a little more investigation, it looks like I may have given you some bad info. I looked at the 1x3x4 doors. The doors in your pics (1x4x5), are indeed available in light gray, although the price will likely be a shocker. As far as substitute for the macaroni is concerned... you may not need to, it's not as expensive as I thought. (And I haven't come with a good one yet.) The jumper plate doors should look fine from the outside, although they will likely look a little awkward on the inside.

Hello Dino... Your plans look pretty good. They should be some nice looking cars. It doesn't look like you have many expensive parts detailed in the pics. Having said that, the most expensive part I see are probably the doors... And after just checking on BrickLink, they don't look all that bad either, (under $1.00 (us)). Although... your exterior doors (w/window) doesn't seem to be available in light gray. The BL catalog says red or white only for those. Ahh... I just saw the clear 2x2 curved brick. That one might surprise you.

Entry E - 2 points. Cadillac Ranch is a very quirky place. Indeed it is a must see. This is an excellent representation of the place. Good luck! Entry B - 1 point. HVB Tower, Munich. What can I say... Awesome project. Both of these entries are very well thought out and creatively executed. I could have easily reversed my preference.

That's a first class build, Tony. Congratulations!

I think you've got a winner there! Here in the U.S. we know them as "Corn Pops". They were good snackin' while watching Saturday morning cartoons on the TV. (early '60's for me) Although we got to see a number of different mascots, we never got a train to go with them. You have a good looking model there. Any plans to motorize?

I think you have captured the look and feel of the prototype quite well. The proportions match up nice, and the colors look good, too. The only thing I can suggest is maybe looking into some stickers to give it that last little extra "POP". Nice work!

These passenger cars are very well crafted. The level of detail on the interior is exquisite. I like how you used the individual rooms as small vignettes, each with there own little story. Well done! I also like the color combination you chose, as well as the oval windows. (Thanks for the detail shot of those.) Good looking models.

I'll preface this by saying that I am not very well versed in monorail... But to my eye, the extra red plate gives an added balance to the model. I think the model is better off for it. Good MOD!

Having not grown up with Chuggington, all I see is a short eared St. Bernard puppy. Inebriated imagination aside, that is an interesting use of train wheels for the fans on the long hood, as well as the use of hinges to enable the sun visors over the cab side windows, And you're right Shrike, the number boards don't really do much for the model, although they do break up the the "slab" nosed look of the front. Overall I'd say that there is some pretty inventive use of the shapes available to us. I never would of thought of combining those pieces like that. As for the rest of all this... Humility has always been a winning approach for me.

Cute little caboose. Just shows to go you that it doesn't have to be big... Just functional. Nice work!

Once again somebody proves it doesn't have to be big to get the job done. Nice little loco, roost! That is one compact design.

Well done! Good use of scale. Very nice level of detailing. You've put more "brick built" detail in 7-wide(?) than I could in 10. Thank you for teaching me (yet again), that I need me some more skills. The windows look pretty good. you have captured the essence of them nicely. This is a fine piece of work! It should be an impressive model when you get around to building it.

Hey Zephyr... I know where you can get a lot of Dark Blay for those SP cars...

I like it! So... this was built for the LEGO narrow gauge track and works out to be 5-wide?

Very nicely done! Your shared bogie design is quite compact. I like that the rounded ends will cut down (eliminate) binding in the corners.

That concept was considered and initially rejected (for the rebuild) since the idea of opening up the truck and letting the wheel become part of the detailing was so much more attractive to me. But... I think I will at least work up a trial build and see where it takes me.

dr _spock --> I opened the file with MeshMixer and it says 36mm in diameter. <-- Right. That works out to about 5s. Even if that includes the flanges, that would be 41/2' tread to tread... Just a bit too big for a 30-36" wheel. Good try though, thanks. ShrikeArghast --> I like the body a lot, but it kind of has the effect of dwarfing the trucks. <-- The trucks are actually two plates too small, (one above and one below the center line of the wheel). I wanted to make them bigger, but if I had they would have scraped the track. Again, the right size wheels would make all the difference. The trucks could be both enlarged and opened up for more detail, the fuel tank could be lowered to allow it to come out to the frame edge which would allow the small cylinders above them to be scaled more correctly as well. Eventually (sigh).

I believe that the trucks are supposed to be Bloomberg trucks. The "Garden Railway" wheels look interesting... With a little mod-ing they could be usable... But what are the dimensions?

The first thing I thought of for the wheels, Crispy, was indeed BBB's. But his diesel compatible wheels are the same size as LEGO, so unfortunately they were out. Anybody out there do 3D printing? I'd bet there is a market for a larger size non-steam driver. Benn, I will contact you for those tips in the future. Wait a minute... You do 3D printing, interested in another project? One of the nice things about 1s : 1' Nemo, is that a lot of the smaller things look a lot closer to the proper size than in other more traditional L-gauge scales. Here is one last photo... A size comparison with a well known model. (Sorry about the small size, but I didn't want to upload this to flicker and ruin the timeline of my photo presentation).

Hello all, Before I start, I'd like to thank all of you who have taken an interest in my project. The many photos and ideas posted by you all have been an invaluable source of information and inspiration. And now for all of you who have continued to check back in... Here's your reward. I hope you like it. For my first true MOC, I thought I'd build one of my favorite diesel locomotives, the EMD GP-30. I mean, come on, it just looks cool, right? Any way, I was looking for a unique prototype and decided that the GP-30 was just the thing. Only "all LEGO" solutions were used in creating this locomotive. Built in 10-wide scale, it is the largest model I have built to date. The model is 52 studs long (not including the couplers), 10 studs across the frame, and 13 bricks, or 16 studs tall measured from the railhead. This matches up well enough with the prototypes being 56' long, 10'2" across the cab, and 15' tall at the top of the hood/cab. Sorry, no parts count for you all, but I do have the overall weight... just about 21/4lb, (1070g to be exact). Now for some photos: (A tip o' the hat and a wink to all those who think they recognize a piece or two of the build.) First off, a photo of the prototype. Sorry, I don't own the photo, so to avoid any copyright conflicts, I included it as a link only... http://www.railpictu....1245634054.jpg Next up, the model... The Southern Pacific 5010 EMD GP-30... SP GP-30 lf by Ronald Clark, on Flickr SP GP-30 front by Ronald Clark, on Flickr Here are the cab and front porch details... SP GP-30 cab by Ronald Clark, on Flickr ...And the detail for the long hood... SP GP-30 hood by Ronald Clark, on Flickr A BIG thank you goes to Zephyr1934 for doing such good work on the stickers that are responsible for so many of the details on this project. Well done! Let's call this model v1.3. There are a few thing I'd like to address as my skills improve, among them: better looking trucks. (The one thing I learned over and over during this build was that I need more skills.) Also, if I can afford it, maybe doing something about getting some 3 stud diameter wheels. With bigger scaled wheelsets, the entire undercarriage can then be improved.

Beautiful prototype, even in black & white. Nice work on the rendered model. BBB drivers will look excellent on this. Good sense of scale vs. detail for 8-wide. It sound as though you intend to build this in brick form... Good luck. I can't wait to see the brick version.