SteamSewnEmpire

I'm going to assume that for 10-coupled it's: none-FLANGE-none-FLANGE-none But is that correct for all scenarios (even ones where there is no lead truck)? And what is the best arrangement for 8-coupled? Is it better to lead with the flange? Trail with it? Go FLANGE-none-none-FLANGE...?

Unfortunately, Lego severely limits us when it comes to steam locomotive parts - IMO, way, way more than they do most other themes. Frankly, I believe these restrictions to be bordering on the absurd - we've had Lego trains chugging around for... what... 40 years now? And we still only have ever seen two sizes of driving wheels produced? That's lame - highly lame, especially when you consider the number of other specialized pieces that have been made (like, for example, buoyant boat hulls, of which there are something like 10+). This is why I almost never complain about people using custom pieces in their trains - because we've been crapped on and ignored by this company for far too long, yet still manage to constitute a sizeable sub-interest of AFOLs. Like, just as another example - why is there only one magnetic coupler offered? And why is this magnetic coupler so limited in supply that you have to virtually break the bank to assemble one train? This is the reason you see so many people using after-market connections between cars - because Lego asks too much, and offers too little. Bully for the community for thinking outside the box, says I.

Here, this is a better solution. It requires a 1x1 bracket piece that I don't have in LDD, but does exist. Otherwise, it's sound.

I just threw something together - I don't think it looks much like the original, to be honest: The problem with those particular trucks is that they have that really visually distinct "two parts" look to them, and I just have no idea how to replicate that in Lego without making them like 9 width. Honestly, were I to build the thing for real, I'd probably give this element another crack and try something different.

I feel like some of the awards go to the people who are better at promotion - like framing their model properly, rendering, staging, decals, etc. - than to the actual best models (this isn't a universal sentiment - most of the winners were just 'the best' period). It's one of the reasons I don't enter. And that's not to say "haw haw, I'm actually the best but I ABSTAIN." Rather, it's that I just can't compete when it comes to the little details. I design - I don't photoshop (in fact, I can't even render anymore on this PC). And I doubt I'm alone. Besides, the prizes would be of little use to me. I don't own a single Lego locomotive - track wouldn't do a person such as me much good. Grats to the winners. The Hush Hush was particularly nice. That's a really complex shape.

Two of my favorite greebling parts :p.

I don't see any Bullied Firth-Browns there. They look like this:

None of those photos work. I suggest an image hosting site like imgur.

Somebody needs to design and offer the Bullied Firth-Brown boxpok drivers in a size other than simple XL (and it appears they aren't even offered by shapeways anymore). That size is fine for some, but you really need to go much bigger to represent the drivers on the pacifics that featured these wheels.

One question, though - did the Bulleid's actually have a slightly wider gap between the rear and middle driver than the front and middle? Because I can fix that relatively easily - I just couldn't decide if I was seeing things or not. *Edit* here it is with the front wheel pulled back slightly:

I had to do one of these eventually - they're just too weird (I wish the survivor still ran). I'm pretty pleased with how this turned out - I managed to just barely squeeze two opposed L-size PU motors into the locomotive, so she'd be a real blitzing lugger if built. It also comes in at ~1,000 pieces, so like the IRL Q1, this version is quite economical.

Is Studio 2 new? If so, is it any more user-friendly (in terms of part grouping) than the original? In answer to your question, I know that 'a' studio had custom wheels, so I would assume any new version to have them. All my locos are done in LDD, however.

Lifted the loco one plate, and also redid the dome:

Thanks!

This is one of those situations where nobody seems to know exactly what color these things actually were, other than some loose notion of "greenish." My suspicion is that in actual service, seeing as they were hauling about 90% coal in revenue service, they were probably effectively black, and were I to build this one, I would definitely lean that way. Also, the drivers are too small because they are stand-ins for LL-sized customs... so they'd be just *slightly* bigger on the real deal (these engines, like those run by the Boston and Albany [which they were almost functionally identical to] had only 63" drivers, as opposed, say, a Pere Marquette Van Sweringen model with 69" wheels). It's not a big difference, but I tend to design my locomotives from the wheels-up, so they determine my scaling (and I'm anal about this sort of stuff, too :P). As far as the actual locomotive is concerned, I just find something appealing about the look of these beasts - they're almost simplistic at first glance; as if the designers were chasing a kind of semi-streamlined look. Obviously, the thing wouldn't have won any beauty contests, but I often feel like the most interesting engines are kind of on the ugly or ungainly side.

Late to the party, but this is great. I love how realistically minimalist it is. One of the mistakes modelers (and not just in Lego) frequently make is clutter up a vignette like this with too much stimuli. This, on the other hand, looks very real because of how spartan it is. Excellent work.

If you're bored, this auction site for brass locomotives is a good place to view weird prototypes. Fair warning: he deals in a wide variety of engines, including stuff from Germany in WW2 that's prototypically painted (so if certain emblems are banned in your country, I guess don't go there). Still, it takes a very long time to scroll through everything they've ever sold, and there's a ton there I'd never seen before.

Normally - 99 times out of 100 - I wouldn't post a thread like this. But I stumbled onto this one-off loco from late 19th Century Bavaria, and figured there might be an audience here for this kind of weirdness: That's a 4-2-2-2. And no, your eyes are not playing tricks on you - the center wheel is lifted. Apparently it could be raised or lowered to provide extra adhesion during starting, in somewhat similar fashion to the booster engines on tenders and some rear bogies during the middle half of the 20th Century. But why someone didn't just stop about halfway through the design phase of this bird and say "hmm, this might be a little complex for the mechanical department" is just beyond me. It seems as if the Royal Bavarian State Railways were pretty guilty of making this kind of 'build first, ask questions later' decision more than once. But, having said all that, I just love the steam-punk aesthetic of this thing - it's like it's ripped right out of some 90s Final Fantasy game. I'm not sure if this would be possible to build in Lego. By necessity, the smaller driver would need to be flangeless, and probably the primary driver, too, since I cannot imagine being able to give the lead truck any kind of play with all that hardware impacting the motion.

Well, I'm poor. Plus, I'd look over on the shelf and see something that I didn't design that's in a theme I feel like I'm pretty strong in, which would probably make me feel a little bad every time I looked at it. Look, I wish the project all the success in the world - truly. In the least, it means more train parts (hopefully) circulating out there. But I just can't get into 6w again - I like details too much (and I'm sure the 9 and 10w people say the same about my scale). *Edit* Also, the movie's just creepy. The book is fine - the film is a terror.

I mean, it's definitely on the toy side of things, but it looks decent enough. I think I'd be on the fence on whether to buy - not because of build quality, but simply because it's not in my scale.

Wow, that's superb! How did you do the stack?

This was such a struggle to finish... not because it was particularly difficult, but because I just lost all interest about three quarters of the way through. The driver is intended to be blind. While it is powered, I don't intend it to actually pull the train (the front two wheels are motorized, instead). Either way, it would be a really, really weak locomotive... but, then again, I'm not sure what else could be done. Also, were it to be built IRL, the tender would actually be all black, with green stickers for the colored portion. However, since I can't really convey that effectively in LDD, I just went with a green top so it would match.

Considering that this has a lot of the nuts and bolts of a steam locomotive, I'd really like to see your take on a narrow gauge steam engine. You always produce really first-rate stuff. Maybe something Malaysian again like this?:

Thanks. I couldn't get the angle on the roof right any other way.

Nice car.