ColletArrow

Doesn't she look fantastic! The level of detail around the whole engine is frankly insane, especially between the smokebox and bufferbeam As for wheels, I'd say you need at least (and for standard R40 curves, at most) 2 flanged axles fixed to the main engine; with only one flanged axle fixed and the rest blind or pivoted, there's nothing to stop the whole thing turning on the spot and instantly derailing. The best way to figure these things out is to build a simple, skeletal mock-up of your chassis, with all the wheels and pivot points you expect to use; fine-tune that skeleton until you're happy with how it runs through your desired curves, and then design your loco on top. You're turning out these magnificent machines at an alarming rate. As you're building digitally, do you check part colour availability, or just use whatever looks best?And I'll be disappointed if you don't look at British locos in the future. I can't remember seeing an LMS Beyer-Garratt, LMS "Big Bertha", or Gresley W1 "Hush-Hush" in LEGO form yet, and by the looks of things you've got the skills to make that happen...

That's easy; just replicate the original precisely! All wheels flanged, with the front and rear trucks on double-pivots (see Emerald Night, and every two-axle LEGO truck ever) in order to make LEGO curves. This is possibly one of the few LEGO steam locos that doesn't need any mucking about with strange pivot systems or blind drivers, so why not take it!

Just as everyone else has said, a very good replication of an... unusual prototype. I think the wheel formation lends itself to being built in LEGO quite nicely, as you've proved!

Alternative, slimmer suggestion: [heresy] cut the ball ends off to create a 1L axle with stop [/heresy] and replace the 1x6 link with a standard 1x6 half-liftarm between the crank and the 'stop'. @Daedalus304's rigid-tube suggestion does sound interesting, since the clutch on the sockets of these cranks is pretty bad even when new. Make sure you get the right ones though, some variants have a slot rather than a hole. I had to hold my custom-1Ls in with blu-tack to get them to hold, doubling the heresy! And can I just add what an unusual idea putting coupling rods on trailing wheels is in the first place, I don't think I've seen that before.

I was thinking "what a clean, compact model"... then I read you've squeezed full PF in there and not used a 9V motor, and I'm very impressed! I think this would look very fun trundling around any layout, good work.

What can I say? You've built a beautiful rake of coaches, and it looks stunning behind that beautiful locomotive! Very well done.

She looks fantastic and perfectly at home in those photographs! Neat colour scheme and clean lines, yet crammed with detail and unusual shapes. Good work!

At first, whilst stationary, the smoke looked a bit thin against the pale background - but then it started pootling around the track, leaving out neat little puffs smoke behind it... She's absolutely stunning.

Those two plates have made all the difference, to my eyes at least. Well done. I wonder if a splash of SNoT building on the "newer" model could get the buffers a plate lower onto their little corner skirts. Might be worth a try.

I knew you wouldn't be able to resist, it's why I tried not to be too specific and get it wrong! Of course, I learnt all this AFTER I put bi-colour directional battery-powered LEDs in a OO class 37... Anyway. I love the curves (especially along the lower body) and all of the little diesel-y details, but I'm not 100% sold on the nose; I think for the given width, it's a tad too tall. Now THAT's what I was hoping for! She looks perfect in that render, fresh out of the workshop.

Correct, 10 points! And since you asked... Early diesels didn't have headlights at all, only the illuminated headcode boxes; the positions of headlamps in the steam era were used for train identification, and the 4-digit headcode superseded them (with over 1 million possibilities instead of 10). Eventually displaying the train reporting numbers on the trains themselves died out (although the same codes are still in use today), so "domino" blanking-plates were inserted into the boxes until they were removed and proper headlights fitted. I think! Don't quote me on any of that, I haven't researched it at all. For the model I think it means the earlier two-tone green loco shouldn't have the additional low headlamp, but the later blue one should. Both can have red tail lights sunk into the headlight bricks above the buffers (great idea with reinforceing those by the way!). I'm looking forward to seeing one of these beasts in real bricks, all lit up. They should be fantastic! And if you add PF, why not look into sound and light control with a PFx Brick, and maybe the smoke generator too...

Is it easier or harder to model in these older styles? I suppose it depends on your subject! I love your work on this model, especially the doors and other small details. The buffers look excellent but fragile. Your headlight observation seems correct by the way, and I like both the headcode and "domino" blanking-plate noses. Neat work overall, as usual! I enjoy your unique building style and ideas, and look forward to whatever's next!

Warning: long post ahead! Go and get your cuppa first... This thread was supposed to be my 3-stage WIP-story and entry for the BMR OcTRAINber 2019 Technic Challenge. I was ecstatic when the theme was announced, trains+technic is exactly what I like building. Unfortunately, life conspired against me, and I have no access to my bricks this month. I can still enter the contest, but with an unpublished 3.5-year-old version of the model, rather than a new one as I would have liked. This also means the pictures and videos are far from ideal, since they were only taken for a personal record rather than a contest entry. Nevertheless, here we go. My subject: the British Railways Plasser Theurer "General Purpose Crane" GPC72. A fairly simple, robust and versatile self-propelled maintenance crane, they were often used for track laying. They could be coupled up and work in tandem to replace large track panels on double track lines, or work over one end lifting individual rails and components. For a whole host of prototype photos, visit Paul Bartlett's amazing site: https://paulbartlett.zenfolio.com/plassercrane My model V1 was built in March 2015. I had only recently acquired Power Functions components, and decided to have a go at building a decent, functioning rail crane. The result looks a bit of a mess, but worked rather well and proved the concept worked in LEGO. The two switches were used to operate the two m-motors, mounted side-by-side under the chassis. The nearest one is clearly connected directly to the winch spool, whilst the far one operated a gear train to slew the superstructure. The boom was raised and lowered manually, using the mini linear actuator - I'd ran out of motors and space by this point, and the switches meant this was never going to be a fully remote-controlled model anyway. Of course, it was a bit of a cheat. Power, propulsion, and speed control of the functions was provided by a "PF wagon". I could have built it into a Class 08... but I didn't. Overall, the crane worked surprisingly well and was great to play simulate operations with, but it just looked a bit... odd. I wasn't really satisfied with messy cables and the PF wagon either. Therefore, a year later, V2 was built. The functionality and controls remained exactly the same, but everything from the mechanism to the aesthetics was rebuilt from the ground up. And she looks much better for it! Slightly longer buffer-to-buffer and adhering to my now-standard 7w (perfect for British models), there's more space to fit everything in. The battery box is mounted sideways under the front bonnet, which makes it slightly too blocky for the prototype but it looks good enough. The motors are in similar positions to before, and the switches have moved to the rear bonnet. The IR receiver was the one component I didn't bother to hide, but the real thing has a fair amount of clutter above deck too so I wasn't too bothered. The boom is only red because I didn't have a yellow one when I took these photos! Use of this part over standard bricks allowed me to include boom extension as a manual function. Eventually I got a yellow boom, and replaced the over-sized pulleys with twice as many smaller ones. Note that the battery box had also been stolen for something else by this point! Annoyingly, these sub-standard photos and unpolished model must be my entry for "OcTRAINber - The Technic Challenge", since it's the latest model I've built and filmed. So here it is. But that doesn't mean this model doesn't stop there! I've been building several digital versions since 2016, culminating in V3 - the ultimate. This was what I'd hoped to get home, build and enter for the contest, but it's not going to happen until at least Christmas now. With cleaner (if blockier) lines, stronger motor mountings and another complete redesign for the superstructure, she's better than ever. I pondered fitting in a micro motor to control the boom remotely, but it didn't sit well, would prevent unlimited 360-degree rotation, and I can't find many sold in the UK. I did make sure this design allows easy replacement of the switches with an IR receiver though, and vice-versa. If some of the part choices seem a little odd, it's because I'm planning to build it from my existing collection of bricks - I hope to build this latest model, if there's time over Christmas. Until then, more photos and V3's LDD file are available at https://bricksafe.com/pages/Collet22/general-purpose-crane. Happy building!

I've spent today riding around Somerset on several of the prototpye, and your models are spot on. The newest digital model looks excellent; I'd have written off most of the features as too difficult to include ages ago! Even your underframe detail is smooth. As for the doors, I think I prefer the version with SNoT-ed plates to allow them to open without a huge gap, but I recognise that interrupts the lining. What you've gone for is just as good I feel. I'm still looking forward to seeing a train of these in real bricks!

A much better unit of measurement! A very clean and pleasingly (apparently) simple model; a train of these should look very smart, especially with the neat yellow waist colour scheme. I think the only addition could be custom info-panel decals in one corner, but otherwise they're perfect.

The further one looks good from this angle, but I suspect it's too thin side-on. The near one looks a lot sturdier, and probably offers more options for hanging things from. I presume you tried it, but could you use the rollercoaster pieces to replace the stack of window frames on the closer design? Both are ingenious catenary/signal gantry designs, and should look great with further detailing.

You know I do, I can't help myself! It great to have a hand in steering the design of your excellent models. I'll start by linking a couple of Wikipedia articles: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Railways_Mark_1 - the standard design of coach we're dealing with https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Rail_coach_designations - because nothing is actually standard. These codes get incredibly confusing and aren't necessary for building models, but I thought I'd include them anyway! Below is a diagram of a BR Mark 1 BSK (Brake Standard Corridor), i.e. a Guard's coach, that I've shamefully pinched from a google image search. The guard has their own compartment; it houses a swivel stool, handbrake wheel, shelves, and periscope mirrors to see along the roof of the train (I never knew about that last one!). The compartment also has it's own inward-opening doors, one in the compartment and one directly opposite; these are the only doors on a train that can open if it's stopped in a tunnel, next to a wall etc. Adjacent, and with a window in the wall between it and the guard's compartment, is the open area with double doors for luggage; you've modelled this area pretty much spot on. I don't think the barred windows are strictly accurate, but they look good so I'd keep them. I also don't think the window should have blinds, but if you like 'em, keep 'em. At least swap the windowed and non-windowed doors around; the windowed one is always on the left (looking directly at them from outside, both sides). It's clearly not possible to fit all of the doors and windows onto your model; selective compression is the order of the day, and you've done a fine job with that so far. Your overall train so far (CK + BSK) already looks very pretty; perhaps an SO ("standard open", i.e. no compartments) next?

I've been looking forward to this for a month already, and the theme is ab-so-lutely perfect for me. I've got too many ideas, I don't know where to start! It's pretty much guarunteed to be yellow though The no-digital-entries is going to pose an additional challenge to me, as I'm a student with no access to bricks at Uni. Luckily, I've planned a holiday at the end of the month, which will require going home first; it will be a challenge to get a model built (from a perfected digital model) and filmed in the short time I'll have available, but I'm up for it! Roll on Octrainber!

Absolutely perfect! You don't even notice the length discrepancy from that angle. I think it's the inclusion of the middle door that sets this model apart from other renditions I've seen. I'll have to try (digitally) building these myself soon!

Excuse me whilst I retrieve my lower jaw from beneath my desk... The precision and efficiency you've engineered into this system is amazing, and then you've added buckets of realism to the models as well. This is exactly what I like to see - models that not only look like, but function as perfectly as, the real thing. The train-positioning system you posted in a separate topic should be shown here as well I feel, it's a simple yet effective method for placing the wagons perfectly. Fantastic work all round!

She's looking pretty fine! My only critic now (and it's a proper nit-pick, sorry) is that it looks like you've added lights to the ends, next to the corridors. BR MK1s (or any other British unpowered coaching stock for that matter) don't have lights built into their ends; instead, a single red-lensed white-bodied oil lamp would be hooked on the end of the last coach by the guard. Easy enough to represent in LEGO with a white headlight brick or similar, with round trans-red plate. As for the (very nice!) double doors between coaches, I think any neutral colour works - brown, tan, grey etc. Can we have a picture of your updated interiors please? I'm looking forward to seeing what variations you can come up with next!

It's looking pretty good! The bogies look very neat, and the compartments are an inventive design. And it's all perfect in 7-wide, too! I'm afraid the end corridors might not work as you hope they will though; the material isn't flexible enough for the sharp corners, especially where you've lined up 4 next to eachother along the top, and they will probably foul and bind up completely on S-bends. Although I'm willing to be proven wrong! There's plenty of internal variation possible in a rake of apparently identical-looking MK1s. A guard's coach is a good idea; convert one of the inner compartments to a guards compartment (containing handbrake wheel, shelves, stool, flags etc), and the adjacent end compartment to an open luggage area with doubled-up side doors, and you've got a proper train. Other coaches could be built as opens, without compartments but seats and tables along the sides; or a buffet coach, again open with tables, and a serving bar at one end with store cupboard. And if there's catering, there should be a loo on board somewhere too! I'm looking forward to seeing what you come up with.

Excellent work! I forgot which forum I was on, and had to look twice before I realised it was LEGO! The whole layout should look fantastic.

Another fabulous looking engine in this style, perfected with the working headlights. I suspect you've got quite a fleet of these now, if they're all still assembled. And as a civil engineer I can't help but admire the job you've done with the bridge. Fantastic work all round!

@Leewan thanks for the extra picture. It's certainly an unusual build from LEGO, and bizarre there's no cab floor by the looks of it. My thinking is fix the rear "bogie" to the engine, and try a double-hinge setup for the front bogie. It would be necessary to bring the second axle (or should that be non-axle) in front of the cylinder block, which would be fixed to the engine as well. Would definitely change the overall look of the model, and not a simple mod by any means. Hmm.