SteamSewnEmpire

PF. I've been reading a lot of negative stuff about PU and its battery life, so I am going to make an effort to spend every free penny on PF motors and battery boxes for a while so I can build up a little stock. This particular loco is powered by two of the large motors. The IR receiver is behind the large grille at the rear (signals can be shot down through the train wheel/fan on the roof). The battery box is sunk slightly into the fuel tank. There's nothing inside the short hood because I had to use a double SNOT technique to get the brake wheel to fit perfectly. I left room for wiring for lights on both ends as well.

Thanks. I shortened the body by one stud. Still debating on whether the hoods need to be a plate higher.

These come in a lot of different variants (they are actually the MLW near-clone of the ALCO RS-11, which is doubly weird because MLW built a few RS-11s, too!) with regards to fan/exhaust placement, where bells and horns are located, whether they feature chopped or high noses, and even the shape of the fuel tank (there's a big, angular version, and a small, box-shaped version). I decided to go with CP since it would be easier to build.

Where? All I see a bearing wheels and big boy wheels.

That would work, but I started parting it out, and pretty much every piece currently in BLO is unavailable in that color - steps, the rounded parts for the snowplow, the SNOT bricks, etc. It's just not a common color. It's fine. Regular yellow doesn't look horrid: Ultimately, though, attractive as the BC Rail color scheme really is, I don't believe it can be done. There are parts problems with olive green (AND sand green - which isn't right at all). Were I to do this loco, I would almost certainly have to be CP... which is a shame. I love CP, but this ^ is the better look.

Yeah, it's called Flame Orange or something like that in LDD. Unfortunately, it doesn't look as if the clips (the things that would hold, say, the railings on the sides of the locomotive) come in any variant of yellow other than the traditional color. For such a common part, it's actually rather shocking to see how few colors it has ever been offered in down through the years. So, again with the question: is standard yellow sufficient? (I truly cannot tell). And would dark bluish grey be better for the undercarriage than the current black?

It's a sunshade. Almost all of them had them. I want to say that they were an aftermarket addition made by the railroads, but I could be wrong.

I agree with you that it can be done, just probably not with the articulation the way it is.

That or wrap stickers around it.

It appears as if the clips (like 4085) are available in neither flame yellow or cool yellow. :P 1) How would regular yellow look? Like, how 'off' would that be, in your opinion. 2) Similarly, do you think the underframe should be DBG instead of black?

Hmm. When I finish eating, I'll poke around on Bricklink and see how out of reach either color is.

Is cool yellow more plentiful?

Thanks man.

It looks like part of it is one of the Harry Potter locomotives.

Pretty sure there isn't enough Olive Green - let alone Flame Yellow - in the world to do this, but oh well. Would require some stickers.

I mean, I've been utilizing bogies to disguise the size of the smaller wheels... but wheel size is also sort of the starting point for scaling (at least for me). When I start measuring a model's bogies, I begin with the wheels, but frequently find myself having to go back and make changes because things were off from the get-go. It's just frustrating :(.

I'm working on another diesel right now, and - once again - I am butting up against the unavoidable truth that there are no decent wheels out there (either from Lego, or - as far as I know - independent sources) for projects like this. The stock Lego 57999s are fine for cars, but almost all diesels utilize a larger diameter wheel. The problem is, if you shift up to something like Shupp's mediums, not only are the wheels then slightly too large (or, more accurately, the flanges are so large and visible that they wind up making some models look cartoonish [where the wheels are really exposed - I love Shupp's stuff; I buy from him a lot]), but you run into the problem of what to do with the gigantic flanges. I find this problem less of a headache with steam locomotives because drivers don't need to turn, running boards can be used to hide the flanges, etc... but, with diesels, there's just no overcoming it. My question is: if someone (not me) were to design a medium or sub-medium wheel with a smaller flange specifically intended for use on larger radius track... would that work? I know the big flanges are necessary to keep the trains upright on the very tight Lego-brand curves... but once you get up to, like, club-sized layouts, would that still be a problem?

Not a clue what you're talking about. But, hey, you do you, guy.

I wasn't being critical of zephyr1934, but rather the original, lazy design of the model. Thanks for getting snide, by the way. And you really hit the mark, too, because I never contribute anything on these forums. Bravo.

It's a step in the right direction, but, IMO, the locomotive is an irretrievable design to begin with because of the center wheels not being connected. I've always been a firm believer that there is a solid line between "I can accomplish this believably in Lego," and "Lego does not give me the correct tools to accomplish this, so I shouldn't try," and - to me - the crocodile is just a bridge too far with regards to the latter. I'm glad that people are satisfied with the locomotive and improving it. But until all the drivers are properly coupled, complete with the unique 'walking' component, it's a failed design (by Lego).

No big. Not like you could see people through the windows, anyway. You should do an F40PH to go with it.

Lovely. The windows are fantastic. How many pieces is it?

This is exceptional. Is there room for passengers?

I have no intention of building this. I was just bored and started messing with the cab shape, then decided to finish the thing. It's probably not as "flowing" as it should be, but, then again, it's Lego.

Alright, worked on this for about 20 minutes. I think it captures the shape decently: And here is the file: http://s000.tinyupload.com/?file_id=30604395172345361241 Obviously, you're going to have to mess with the internals to make it suit the needs of the model, but the shell - at least - could potentially help.