KvadratGnezdo

This 100%

Good one

I'm just going to say that LEGO for some reason cant get their poop together when it comes to steam trains. First the gigantic Hogwarts Express and now this toyetic nonsence. Star wars guys tore Lego a new one when it tried to sell them a playset as a UCS, this is basically the same. Like come on, this thing doesn't even have a smokebox and the proportions are all wrong.

Hello everyone, I've recentlly installed stud.io's latest update and suddenly it stopped working as usual - it now takes way longer for my files to open, random parts from the parts library aren't loading (when dragging them from catalogue, it looks like I'm not dragging everything, but the workspace grid seems to react as if said parts actually were there), multi component parts like magnets, wheel and frame assemblies are not loading completely, for example magnets load without their plastic frames, but retain their connection points somehow. The worst thing is - I cant even delete stud.io from my device now - the process crashes right at the end. Can anyone explain what the heck is going on?

Yep, as far as I know parts of the fleet were made in Sweden, Germany, Poland, Hungary, Czechoslovakia and Romania as well as the E class "Russian decapod" built in the US. Another interesting fact is that all trophy Br 52s were renamed ТЭ - which stood for "Trophy equivalent to Э class"

Some more renders and I've made a depot for this thing) On this picture the tender car is mounting an extended oil tank To some the colour palette may seem christmas-ey, but the red/green/white/tan was the prevalent paint scheme for the Russian empire and USSR when it came to railroad infrastructure all the way until the late 50s.

Update time, yaaaaay, so I've finished it a while ago, but here it is - the last of the E class mods, the post-war Er class. With this one it's like hopping from the start straight to finish. Despite looking very similar to the standard E, the Er is a very different machine in terms of it's composition and mechanics. In real world Er class had a better smokebox and boiler design, weight distribution, steam re-usage, onboard electrics, tractive effort, cab view, ventillation and many other improvements. As most late soviet steamers, a lot of Ers were converted to use crude oil instead of coal or wood as their main fuel source. The standard tender also had it's improvements - the tender's fuel storage volume had increased almost twice and later was replaced with the oil tank as shown on my model. Another standout feture for many Ers is the top roof superstructure which helped to better ventillate the cab, save up on using the electrig generator for lighting and also hepled to spot potential aerial attackers, which was really useful for running military convoys and armoured trains. Additionaly, the Ers were also present to test and work changes, implimented by the MPS during late 40s and early 50s: wide acceptance of the SA autocouplers and the buffer removal And now for the model: And the swinging cab action - ladders and other underside cab detail is actually attached to the frame and moves along with it

Coming back after a lot of stuff was a bit hard, but here we are. The today's topic is an internationally overlooked engine. but an important one nonetheless. The E ("Э", "Echo", "Eass") class was a mainline freight locomotive produced during the last years of the Russian Empire and into the early Soviet period. In design philosophy it's closest counterparrt would be the famous Br52 - it is a technologically streamlined steamer, designed for wide scale production (and it was wide as E class is considered to be the most numerous steam engine class ever), meant to be used during wartime. Almost all E class were made in a decapod configuration and were generally lightweight as they were supposed to navigate not only the mainline, but the hastely built railways during the war and the rather gaudy byroads during peacetimes, which meant the engine had to be short with 6 of its 10 wheels being blind for better turning capabilities. The first model I've made was based on E-2432, currently a monument, but still - a rather rare example of a pure E class without any modifications (so rare, that most E classers you will find online and IRL will be either Em, Eu or Er) And here's my model: On most picks of the class you will probably see it coupled to a normal tender car (нормальный тендер) - a contemporary design, meant to be used with a wide variety of steam engines, both passenger and freight ones, many modifications exist, but the model is based on the default one - without the raised sides, extended bunker and oil tanks. The model is fully motorised, also I've made the cab frame to be able to swivel in order to mitigate the overhang created by standard lego track. This is all for now, I will slowly update during the week, I've almost finished my Er model, then I will make some more contmeporary rolling stock and maki this into a real MOC somwhere closer to december.

So yeah, as usual I have disappeared leaving nothing in my wake and now returning as if nothing happened. This way, while probably mimicking someone else's dad, I've had a chance to vent and get more inspiration to do the stuff that I do even though now I probably have diverted a lot from the stupid chart I drew a couple of years ago. I'm not saying that I'm leaving or anything - far from that, but the release schedule will be way less thematically consistent. As such, having finished my little rambling, I present this thing as a teaser of a probably extensive article about the class 24 steam engines and their very special place both in history and in hearts of people who care about them.

At least it is better than the previous ones

NGG and something about critters Honestly, I was really afraid of passing this milestone in terms of my MOCs because it was honestly a chore, but a fun one at least. So. Mining equipment, the underground one. This was probably the least amount of fun in this entire project. Why? Because there is a literal ton of these things, they are constantly modified, reconfigured, renamed just because they are built in a different factory, some of them are virtually identical but are still considered different models just because of a gauge diference or the pattern of contact sockets for the battery. So, I will cheat a little: I didn't make every single possible one, just limited myself to the most common archetypes and body layouts for these things. There probably should be a small history lesson, but there is nothing to talk about. Human make slab with battery that power motor. Slab pull minecart. Done. This is essentialy part 1 of this madness, where only mass produced vehicles from CIS or ex CIS country will be included, while the various one-offs, earthmovers and imported ELs will be left for part 2. Part 3 is just minecarts. Most of the models present usually are pretty basic, but include Multiple Unit System plugs, can be made both blast and spark-proof (in case you don't want an entire coal mine to combust, melting both people and the equipment in the process) and also can feature a variety of different cab designs or none at all. So, on the pic below are: AK, ARP, ARV, ADS, AM, ARV and ERA series locos. In a later post I will connect a different picture with model names added. For the Octrainber people: probably counts as micro critters *jiggles* P.S. render dump for these comig soon.

Thanks

A BIT OF INTRODUCTION Well hello. So octrainber 2021 is a thing and that's great! Although at the beginning of the month I've suddenly went on a shipbuilding tangent (check my flickr page for the results), that would mean me completely not noticing that it was time for the building challenge. To be fair, this years theme overwhelmed me at first for a number of reasons: firstly, I prefer my Russian/Soviet rolling stock. Why? Because even at this day and age it's really out there for most western people, lumped together with Сhinese and Hindu vehicles into this pan-asiatic mess that no one dares to properly translate and/ or keep track of. Second reason is generally derived from the first: due to NGG being it's own thing and planned economy to some degree being very prevalent to my homeland for the last 150 or so years, the peak of small scale vehicles just came and went unnoticed, because standartisation is a thing. Most of the experimental vehicles were mostly huge mainliners and you can read about the elsewhere, small scale shunters with intersting design were the TGK and TGM lines and I've made two of the most unique ones last year. So no narrow gauge, no small shunters and also I wanted at least some documentation on the stuff I was building. So then it hit me - coke quenching industry. No matter the part of the world - it was the cause of very odd and interesting vehicles, so I've decided to look there. THE EK SERIES Elektrovoz Kontaktniy aka Contact Electric locomotive was a series of electric vehicles specifically developed for industrial purposes. Why was (and is) contact put into the naming - easy, because these vehicles didn't need to have batteries to store their electricity which was one of the two ways to power and electric shunter. This time it was used becuase the rail network of each individual factory was not that big to make servicing the contact wires an expensive issue, and because batteries at the time tended to last way shorter and were prone to constant problems with heat and capacity leaks. Smaller vehicles could be fitted with batteries but here it was not needed and making a twin-system loco was proven to be a terrible idea: VL26 (nicknamed "Scheiße") electric heavy shunter which used both the contact network and batteries. Then it was up to me to decide which model to... well... model. Out of the three more or less known types, those being 13, 14 and 15 I chose the 13. Because 15 is just visualy boring and doesnt look as tall as the two other ones, 14, the one in the first picture could fit, but the cab was kinda boring and the whole loco felt just too boxy, so left was model 13 - the one with rounded hoods and most cab windows. Schematics of the 15 and the 13: EK15 is longer by 1.5 meters and, unlike with the 13, you can clearly see the contact pads underneath. The main function of these is to move cars loaded up with coke from the oven to the coke quenching tower. The interesting bit is the coke, which, during the entire process, is heated around 1100 degrees C, so both the engine and the cars are meant to withstand higher heat levels, than their mainline colleagues. BUILDING: So here is the summary of my first thoughts of this in an easy to understand graphic form: So, yeah, fast forward a bit and this is what I got: As you can see, I, ve mostly used the photo from the previous picture as a refference (which is notable with modified windows and side ladders which were only one way on the original).This model is easilu motorisable thank to it being (basically) a giant shell inside of which you could probably fit a 9V motor unit or a 3rd party battery piece connected to PF or whatever else small motor. More renders later,

This is just perfect

Just a thread where I will rarely (maybe once a couple of months) post my MOCs of stuff I see from my room's window. Generally no huge stuff, probably am going to end it all with a Volgo-Don class MOC but very much not so soon. Meanwhile the builds currently present are: MS-3 (project 82180) trash collector also known as riverdozer, riversweeper and or lottery cruiser. A total of 3 units were built in the 90s and are all still in service, regularly cleaning the capitol's main water artery. MS-1 and MS-2 slightly differ from the MS-3 in terms of equipment storage. The livery and markings constantly changed on this thing; Shlyuzovoy class (Gatewayer) pusher tug, one of the older ships that can be currently seen even next to center of the city. Most of these were built in the 1960s but survived to this day with a lot of subclasses and individual mods performed on every single one (usually in terms of changing the windscreen, wiring, powerplant, onboard electronics locations and so on...). Sadly, unlike with the MS-3, it is basically imposible to find any interior photos so there is none of it in the MOC itself.

NGG and the veterans of the industry Narrow gauge electrics are not as uncommomn as one would think. Even before the 1950s when the mass electrification initiatives took their place, lightweight electric engines were already operated, but rarely seen by the broad audience. Of course, I'm talking about industrial shunters. Before the centralization initiatives many factories across the USSR were already operating an unknown amount of vastly different vehicles. Said arrangement of engines was made up from imports, scratch-builts and field conversions. An average example of such vehicles were usually two-axled with wooden cabs and motors taken from mass-produced equipment, these were not fast, nor really powerfull, so when the post war planners finally looked at what was going on it was decided that something had to change. So, discussed upon in the late 40s and put to work in the 50s was the KP lineup of electric industrial vehicles. The basic idea of the line was to introduce cheap, but reliable arrangement of locomotives to fill the gaps and improve working conditions wherever possible. An interesting detail of the whole thing was that the initiative was not intended just for narrow gauge - wide gauge locos were designed in parallel with the smaller ones and as a result. To be more precise KP is not a serial codename, rather it indicated the weight class of the vehicle to differentiate between mining locos, narrow gauge and broad gauge, but seeing as these were developed under the orders from the same team and at roughly the same time many people just list them as a group. IV-KP broad gauge engine Today's subject will be the II-KP-2A class (second weght class industrial engine with 2A sometimes indicating it's gauge being 750mm). These were primarily commisioned to replace earlier mentioned factory frankensteins and also be refitted for tram gauge and used in cities as service and towing vehicles. Many modifications exist, most notably 3A but they are basically the same in terms of visuals so I didn't bother with changing how cab controls look (as if they are really visible on the rendered images). Last of these were seen at the Tekeli quarry together with previously mentioned PEU2: And now for the models:

Thx.

We are talking about actual monorail. The one in Moscow actually. Nobody likes it and it's basically just a tourist trap/ money laundering project built in the 2000s. The so called "Luzhkov's disaster"

NGG and that one memed about engine of an unknown quantity Ahem, to my great delight it would seem as if I am running out of electrics to build which would probably mean a little break once I am done with all the major post war ones. Afterwards there will be a post about the charming information black hole that is PV900 cars with a throwback to the times I've talked about ChS11. In terms of whats left on the electrified side - two engines from the 50s, a german accumulator thingy that gave birth to the K series and some other mining scrap nobody has heard about ever. And for full disclosure, yes, there will come a time when I will build the monorails and they will probably be shuffled back to the end of part 1 ( aka post ww2 era) which may or may not finish in a next couple of years. Finishing with that tangent and moving on to the subject of talk: Section 1 forever parked in Proletarsk (Tadjikistan) PEU 2 and a problem of overengineering a local issue PEU 2 is what happens when the planning office gets creative and the engineers have no real understanding why they are doing what they are doing. The task itself was pretty normal - create a narrow gauge vehicle with more pulling power than previous models and the standard stuff about reliability, easy maintenance and other stuff crucial to the soviet heavy machinery identity. And some wise (not really) guy came up with an idea - why not just copy the grownup trains and not make the whole thing a two-section engine which at the time did not seem as that much crazy of an idea - broad gauge mainlines were dominated with multisection monsters ( search up VL85 multiunits aka "points-killers"). What's next? Visibility! How to solve it? Use that one highly controversial cab design used on the TE series for maximum downward field of view, which actually was a good idea considering that a lot more people could be standing on or crossing the track right next to the moving train. Not wierd enough? Not a problem! Let's also mount SA-3 autocouplers on it to make it seem like the world smallest 2TE116. How much of these things were really made is a bit of a mistery because everyone knows about unit 1 which was supplied to Proletarsk and split in two with the second half being transported to Tekeli, but factory journals mention mysterious units 2 and 3 also finishing construction. Most probably a mistake, but a lot of people hoped it wasn't. So why was it split up? Easy answer - too long for shunting operations, a single section was enough considering that with economy on the decline the amount of work also declined, Tekeli yet again had loco shortages so the second part of PEU2 was sent there to work with PEU1's and other older vehicles. Nowadays both sections are in a pretty rough shape: the Proletarsk one broke down in 2010 and the second one followed soon in 2016, leaving this unjust world together with the last operating II-KP-2A ( more on that later). Further fate currently unknown. Lego models then: As was intended and pretty amazingly engineered With cars As promised - twin PEU1 with SA-3

NGG and no obscurity at least for now And now it would seem that I've finally made it! Arriving at an important milestone is always fun so let's get to it. Until now most of the electric engines covered here (apart from EL and ChS) were really not that important in the grand scheme of things, being basically a bunch of experimentals and local level oddities, but not this time! Today's victim of my destructive attention will be the PEU series of vehicles, basically, PEU-1 and PEU-2. Again this one will be a two-parter. So what was the reason for the series to exist as a whole? Well, it was the end product of all previous tests and corresponding wierdness - true universal mainline electrics both well suited for hauling loads, shunting and sometimes even carrying around passengers. At least it would seem so. In reality their true purpose was purely as industrial freighters to be used on just two narrow gauge lines (both being located in Kazakhstan). The reason was simple - the two lines servicing the two huge mining comlexes were having a bit of a shortage in terms of minig vehicles: most of the rolling stock present was made up of really old (1950 manufactored actually) II-KP-2A electric locomotives which were still fine for the time (the last one broke down in 2016) but were showing their age as well as the fact that their components were not really manufactored anymore, so the unit pool kept shrinking. As a result the task was not that hard - increase the pulling power while adhering to the modern (at the time) body design principle - make a regular single unit electric loco, but smaller. PEU1 In terms of the vehicle itself there is not much to say about - it's a green or sometimes dark red box that did it's job and was kinda large (10 meters in length is very roomy for such a loco). They did not revolutionize the industry, nor were some engineering marvels - they just did their job and were mostly goof at it. Although some complaints rarely listed really anywhere were that the body design was not that great actually and I dont think that I should explain why having a single risen cab was a bit better for shunting over small distances, but that is as hard as one can critique these apart from the usual copper wiring shortage and/or price. But what's funny about them is the fact that PEU1s were pre-built to be used as a multiunit vehicle (which will come up sooner or later). But that's kind of it apart from the naming coincedence (again) where PEU1 the loco has the same index as PEU-1 amphibious recovery vehicle. The first out of 24 PEU1s made. Also this is the most numerous narrow gauge electric locomotive built by USSR. And PEU-1 with the crane module So here are some PEU1s, interesting detail - early versions have to Y-shaped pantographs but the older ones can be seen using the standard romboid. It is not really known how many of these are actually factory refits, probably, not much: Also despite my models depicting these with standard chain couplings, sooner or later the all were refitted with standard gauge autocouplers which is a bit odd. Part 2 - PEU2

NGG and resolving issues So, last time I posted here the I've touched on the subject of bodyshell design and more or less prominent narrow gauge electrics. This time I shall continue doing basically the same thing but with more interesting details. The hybrid trio from the previous post was a bit uneventful - two of the models looked basically the same (not my fault) and the only exiting part of their history was ED-16 randomly crashing into a truck, ED-18 was boring and EKu-04/ETu-04 were basically the same thing. And thus, I've decided to dig a bit deeper into history - to the point when narrow gauge lines stopped being an oddity supplied by local workshops and an odd steam engine building factory en masse aka late 50s. This time periond is notorious for centralizing all of the existing lines, more or less unifying the gauges from whatever down to 750, 900 and 1000mm and providing early ideas and experimental vehicles for the new era of small trains. The process was well underway from even earlier periods of time (TU-2 was already built in massive quantities but there was still much to be done). MDm-4 motorized unit - a vehicle of it's era (and it also looks like a Hollywood movie prop for эvil яussiаиs to ride on). Today's topic are two experimental vehicles EL-1 and EL-2. The story behind these two is rather plain and simple. They were supposed to be the testbeds, proof of concept vehicles to: (1) test light electric locos outside of factories and shunting yards; (2) decide which overall unit layout would be more useful for further development. Both of the locos would be built around pre-existing stock - EL-1 would be built around the chassis of SEP-2 experimental mobile generator and EL-2 would be based on already existing MDe-4 diesel-electric locomotive. The choice of testing units was more or less obvious - both the engine and the generator were created to test diesel-electric transmissions, so converting them to full electric would be no problem. Moreover, these two were meant for the logging industry just like their future EL incarnations. The results of them being used for a couple of years showed, that EL-2 was more promising overall and so SEP-2m was left out and at least a single unit has been preserved to this very day (although in a very poor shape). What happened to MDe-4? Seeing the success the loco was having it's components would be used as a base for further projects, which eventually led to stuff like PEUs and whatnot. EL-1 Lets begin with the EL-1 which was based around SEP-2M mobile generator and is the not-as-obscure-one. Like the basis for this thing still exists, there is also this neat schematic with all the components listed and at least I knew what colour it was. As you can see it was an assymetric vehicle with the pantograph being placed on top of the engine housing with the motor being placed inside of the modified cab part. It used standard narrow gauge couplings and was pretty powerful for it's size despite the pantograph's rather awkward position which was never seen on later vehicles. Fun fact: it has the same name as an el-1 jigsaw. Anyway: EL-2 aka the wierd one So what is known for sure about EL-2? It was built using the body of an experimental logging engine called MDe-4 (aka TUe-4 for some reason). It was on Krestetskaya narrow gauge line as a general use unit. There are many photos of the MDe-4 online and all of them are black/white, but no mentions of livery, dimensions and any sort of historical data. The best guess is that this thing existed somwhere in late 50s - early 60s and then was scrapped or disassembled without a trace. What's even funnier - because all of the photos were taken during the different parts of the day under different lighting it would seem as if the loco was constantly repainted. Oh well, i just used the standard red-green-yellow on the lego counterpart and because there were no EL-2 pictures at all, I created my version based around the centre-placed pantograph so take it with a grain of salt. And thankfully - it's as obscure as I will get, for now. Bonus renders: And a hint of whats to come:

NGG and the stupid rabbit hole that shouldn't exist Ok, once again I get back to this topic to share some knowledge about a topic nobody has ever asked about. And since the hardest thing about it all was me getting so high on nostalgia that it forced me to complete an entirely different project, I've decided that it was about time to get back on track *pun intended* and continue. This will be a two parter about stuff I never knew existed, why it existed the way it did and so on and so forth. Behold: the experimental hybrid powerplant engines and a plethora of unrelated vehicles that look just like them. The ED/TEU series. So we start of rather simple - with ED-16 and some background info. Honestly - there is not much of it. So ng diesels were used on routes which were considered temporary, low intensity or too intense for the local power grid to handle. Electrics were used on routes that were situated in terrain that directly messed with material supplys or on short factory lines that were cheap to electrify and maintain. But then some bright mind came up with a brilliant (not really) idea - combine the two and roll with it. Of course this idea did not appear from thin air - when some weird solution makes it this far it means there is an important enough reason. Said reason was - partial electrification. Supply lines were still recovering from ww2 and narrow gauge lines were not at the top of priority list of stuff to quickly repair. As a result it was decided to test a handful of hybrid vehicles created from already existing rolling stock. The first one was ED-16: a heavily modified TU4 with an extended bodyshell and a tacked on pantograph. This is the only photo of this unit on the Internet. It's service life went as follows: delivered to the Shatur powerplant as a reserve vehicle for the local peat quarry in 1958; crashed into a truck in 1961, was scrapped for parts which were used to create ED-18 and ESU-0 mobile generator. ED-18 and the mess around it: this is ED-18 This is ETu-04/EKu-04 and this is SEP4 mobile generator, notice anything? So yeah, the look basically the same and there is next to no info why that is or how these vehicles are related. My best guess - all of these were produced by DMZ around 1960 and so using almost the same bodyshells, bogies onboard controls and crew comfort items was logical. As a result people constantly mix these up and also there are next to no photos of them online either. What about ED-18? It's service life was better than that of it's predecessor - so much so that there were 3 whole ED-18s produced. The vehicle as it was was deemed successful but too copper hungry and later - underpowered when compared with purely diesel or electric models that did not need the extra equipment for functioning in two modes. TEU-1. Basically - ED-18 but better. It was transferred to peat harvesting at Nazia, but was used as a purely diesel engine. Current location and service history are unknown. Lego models: ED-16, ED-18 and TEU-1. Colours used are based off their text descriptions and technical drawings which may have been different during their service time. Next time: EKu-04/ETu-04, EL1 and EL2 as well as some different renders.

Another loco that I wanted to include with this build: EP2K