KvadratGnezdo

Considering the fact lego stuff tends to be disproportional by design i tend to use a standard lego man figure as a measurement unit while counting his height as about 1.8 meters. Making 3 or 5 stud wide tracks is a pain so I try to find compromises - this hobby is not exactly fit for rivetcounting. So, basically, I try to make them in scale with lego minifigs.

NGG part 3 PEAT! So, if you know what that stuff actually is, you can skip this part and go straight to the models (but I'm not forcing you to). And now for non-skippers: peat is literally a tipe of flammable mud - cheap, replenishable and can be found in most swamps across the world. Before USSR and Russia were dependent on oil and natural gas to keep their economys going - there were major energy shortages after the WW2. Imagine this - you are in post-war USSR. You have no money, most southern coal mines and oil rigs fell victim to scorched earth policies employed to slow down german advance and disrupt their supply chains. And siberian oil fields aren't much of a thing even to this very day so you need a placeholder. And there you have it! Peat! It is easily flammable, quickly replenishable, lies almost on the surface of traversible soil, is plentiful and not very dence. So you build an entire industry around this natural resource all across the country with your agricultural program not being a disaster like collectivisation, invasive killing weed, evaporating seas or trying to grow corn in a middle of a literal desert (more on that later). And then the 90s happen - almost all of the industry you've built goes bankrupt, 80% of established facilities are not properly conservated and you are left with hundreds of square kilometers of easily flammable dry soil under the hot sun. And then the "Infernal" 2010 happens: Now to the 2 new things I wanted to show. The workhorse, bur earlier TU4 is considered the first of the universal diesels to recieve hooded design with the cab being moved to the side. A truly useful engine, produced in the hundreds, cheap, tough as nails e.t.c. Most of them nowadays are either scrapped or exist as museum pieces with some continuing their work in a rather miserable state of disrepair. There is not much to say about this thing really - it participated in two failed agriultural programs and was pretty good at what it was doing. Many variants exist but most differ in terms of handrails, windows and lights configuration and the tipe of exhaust pipe being used. Also some of the earliest TU6 units had almost the same overall design as TU4s which makes figuring out what exactly are you looking at a bit harder. TU4 as is with painted over windows and a fresh paintjob overall Lego form with variants: And now, the peat wagons. Peat hoppers class TSV-6 are a family of narrow gauge hoppers intended for carrying peat collected by peat harvesters over to the powerplants where it was used as, well, fuel. All cars share the overall scheme and most of the components necessary for their propper work, but vary in the quality of materials used (from steel to wooden planks) as do most freight narrow gauge wagons. Interestingly enough, despite being made to haul relatively lightweight peat hauls these units with propper mods and probably siding cuttings could be utilised as gondolas and what's even wierder - these weren't classified as hoppers from the start, but as gondolas. Wierd. IRL Metal one (at the back) and wooden one (at the front) That is all for now, tomorrow's update will be just different trains, and an easter egg that nobody will get. As a bonus - self propelled vacuum peat harvester: Looks like something from cnc

Thanks!

Canonical sausage

NGG Part 2 Logging freight part 2 - the utilities Basically a logging railway won't run with just logging cars - everyone needs supplies, heavy equipment and fuel (or other liquids for that matter) so for every narrow gauge railway a certain number of freight cars was dispatched. Usually these were: boxcars, flatcars and tankers. There are hundreds of variants but this time I will stick to the 60s and later era for refference as anything prior is a dark forest full of wierdness and mysteries. These wagons were produced by the same plants and on the same production lines as wide gauge rolling stock and thus they have inherited a certain number of parts and mechanisms that were originally made for larger wagons. Also it shoud be noted that for every officially made boxcar there would be one made by combining a flatcar with a toolshed (but that is what we generally love them for). Flatcars. Even the unofficial models usually resembled or were based on the next three universal models: light skirtless PLM-10, medium logging flatcar LT-14 (which used to be stripped and used as regular flatcars for a long time that is why it's mentioned here) and standard class 233/43-1-- with folding metal skirts. There is nothing special about them really, well, aside from the unofficial motto "carry all from tractors to coffins". Also, some of them were modified to be used as break vans and it looked something like this: Yeah, it stops halfway and then it's just naked frame. And the lego forms, from smallest (PLM) to biggest (223): Boxcars are just more of the same - most are wooden or converted from 223 flatcars by local handymen and some still have original metal plating. The ones mentioned here are the goods variant as there also exist firefighting variants, army mobilisation variants, grain hoppers and so on and son (more on those later). The base model is called 219S, the metal one, but other similarly called 219s exist, but they differ from the original one as they were made with cheaper materials and components to reduce maintenance cost. Boxcar nesting doll Firefighting 219 variant - it even says so on it's side + overloaded and "modified" LT-14 at the back Lego version And lastly (at least for today) are the tankers. Tankers are boring as they are least fit for field mods and lack of maintenance, so there is only a single designated tanker class - VTs 20 "Sausage", which did quite well when it came to transporting liquid goods and this is why it's boring. My take on it features a reinforced "mod" frame and additional broken ladders (as there was info of such variants existing without any actual pics). Take this one with a grain of salt - a more canonical "sausage" will be shown next time Yes, that one. Bonus pics: updated TUs and a small freight train: Next time: PEAT! and sausage

Oh, that is just the beginnig, there will be around 5-7 updates to this at least and thanks for feedback!

Thanks everyone!

"Did you want diesels? Of them lots I have" - probably MPS sometime in the 50s SO... I have been missing for a while but for a reason! I was collecting data on the most obscure things of all time that not many people dare to learn about: narrow gauge railways in lego form (8 stud compatible in my case). You see, if you are not from central Europe or NA you've probably rarely thought about how weird and obscure the world of narrow gauge railways actually is. So, without more of wasting your time - narrow gauge of the certified Empire of Evil .tm - USSR. In the Union AND later, Russia, narrow gauge was used when even the light profile wide mainline rails weren't usable due to landscape issues, nature of industry (logging operations and peat harvesting) and overall cheapness of the whole operation - the entire line could be theoretically quickly disassembled and then transported somwhere else/scrapped via normal automobile roads. Here I am slowly going to post the majority of *mainline* narrow gauge stuff that is generally known about, because again, obscure thing. Youth railway training center and TU2 mainline diesel engine with Pafawag cars TU2 and M62 sitting together and looking cute How it usually looks - probably TU8 with 4 PV40 wagons The workhorse(s) TU series (not to be mixed up with Tu tactical and strategical bombers family) decypher as Тепловоз Узкоколейный aka Narrow gauge Diesel engine. These numerous engines can be found all over the former Eastern Block countries and generally divide into two categories - passanger/training engines TU2 and multitask motor platforms TU4-TU8 "Loggers" aka "Farties". All are diesel with purely mechanical transmissions that can be observed on TU6 for Example. All but TU2 are dirt cheap, easy to maintain and produce. And this is exactly the reason most of them look like something made by orks from warhammer. TU4 looking relatively better than some of its kind. And now moving to my Lego interpretations. I've made a 6 stud wide static model of the TU6 engine in a multitude of liverys (there is a ton of them look it up). TU6 is a mainstay up to this day with some of these aging up to 40 years or more. This engine was upgraded to TU6A variant and is loved and cared about by enthusiasts when found. These were primarily used later during the Soviet period for delivering lumber and peat for and from corresponding facilities all across the country. They were equipped with a single buffer (more than most soviet engines at the time) and an added chain and hook coupling that connected directly to the buffer. The engines were one of the rare examples of russian and soviet trains not recieving outer safety bars along their frame except the long ones at the top. Their further mod the TU7 was a wierd testbed for modifications - using new coupling tipes, like the mighty SA3 and even more primitive hook and chain ones, wide gauge bogies which led to an odd TGM40 wide gauge shunter program and so on and so on. The definitive difference between TU6/8 and TU7 are the "underslung" tanks that are clearly visible on the pic below. Said wide gauge mod with SA3 onboard somwhere in Ukraine The Lego form - Youth center mod with added buffers and SA3 mod completely without any. The logging stock Logging flatbeds as says the "Forestry and Logging narrow gauge rolling stock sourcebook" were mostly comprised of class LT-22 and TsNIIMEDVE articulated flatbeds carrying weights of 22-24 tons each with the exception being class T-55 that could only hold twice less than that and combined stock. Flatbeds were made in gray, brown, black (state owned) and green (rented by state owned semi-private enterprise) liverys. Due to the passage of time, wierd customisations and poor maintenance most of them look like that now. And the corresponding lego forms, including a small logging train. That's all for now and I will probably rework the roofs.

Update: color scheme variations for ES! First one is Moscow Central Diameter (MCD for short). This one is the latest colour scheme for these trains. It is not really used that often as even nowadays such units are quite rare, when compared to the classic red-grey scheme shown previously. An interesting fact is that this scheme heavily resembles the unofficial "intercity" red-white-blue palette used on trains like Sapsan and Oriole. MCD Kestrel (top) and Oriole (bottom) Next one is also an interesting one. It's an Olympic variant in a transitory state - a couple of Kestrels were half-stripped from the back with the front stripe still remaining (I hated the Olympic mishmash anyway). They were used for a short while and then completely repainted. And the last one a.k.a. protoKestrel. Prototype was quite different in certain areas to the end result with most changes being made to its roof and colour scheme. No one really knows why this was cancelled exactly, but one funny rumor says that the resulting train looked too "French" which would damage it's reputation even more (with it actually being of german origin, lol).

Thanks! I like my studs though.

So, after a short while of being on this forum and observing a ton of super creative and outstanding MOCs like working mallets, articulated heavy equipment and that very special type of steam engines that look and feel more like actual scale models I decided to do something special too. For example, creating a thread dedicated (mostly) to commuter trains - most of them aren't glossy, giant or gold-plated, but they are the bulk of most short-ranged passanger rail traffic, so lets show them some love, as well as telling some stories or jokes about them. (Bas***s - no warmth in winter, no comfort during summer, no consience full year) And I'll probably start this thing with ES series (1-2) commuter "Kestrel" class. It was introduced in Rusland shortly after 2014 winter Olympics in Sochi, making this class one of the newest in modern history of RZD. And of course it is not really Russian. It is just a thicker version Siemens Desiro which eventually led to its unoficial nickname "Blood traitor" (along with Sapsan, EP20, Oriole and the rest of ES series). However only the first batch of ES1s were produced abroad and the rest including the significantly upgraded ES2 class were produced in Russia. This train commonly appears in 5 or 7 car variants but of course multiple units can be connected to improve capacity. Kestrel is operated on MCC (which pissed off freight-fans because most of the freight traffic was moved to the night schedule) and as a pseudo intercity train as it is not really fit for long distance riding. "Kestrel" aka cheeky aka fathead The model represents the MCC 5-car long train with full interior which took around 6,5K pieces to build (not counting the track). It being 8 stud wide also helped with making proportionate seats as well as the inbuilt toilet. This iteration is supposed to be a "stand piece" so it has a lot of overhanging stuff that greatly limits its ability to turn on rather sharp Lego curves, although modifying it to be a working model is not really that hard. Next day will probably start with posting more livery variants: MCD, Proto and the Olimpic. That's it for now!

This is just... something else. Love to see superheavys getting represented in Lego form.

This looks super cute!

This looks great!

My best guess would be getting rid of stock train bases and making new ones out of panels + technic panels. Then I would recommend changing stock couplers and replacing them with technic and/or older magnets.

Meh. (Grandpa mode on) Back in my days we used actual furniture and rubble to build stuff!!1

Finally, nukepunk that looks like it wasnt designed by IKEA!

Rolling stock in my case: the historical prototype (theta class) was and odd design from the start with 5 or so photos of it made from the same angle but transfering it to lego definitely made it even more goofy.

Thanks!

Thats awesome!

Me am back with roof adjustments, more accurate colour schemes and propper renders this time! The early model with MPS colour scheme and GOST orange warning markings. The later modified model in 90s-00s RZD livery.

I've made a google disk folder for these things https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1Rsua7OdfOtwoL1VczEbbX-Goqfiafg6J?usp=sharing

Thanks, I will try to do something with it.

Upgraded pantographs and additional radio equipment

For the second upload I decided to go with the Round Boi CHS2 "Cheburashka) as it was one of the more beloved brainchildren of the Eastern Block train engineering. Being the backbone of Soviet passanger trafficking it has acomodated a large number of fans (i.e. fanatics) and was one of the main pillars of modern russian transport fans. Although it did not acheive the diety status like the later 4th model it prooved to be reliable and relatively simple. With upgrades these machines did run on russian railways till the early 2010s and thus were never subjected to the atrocity that is modern RZD livery. Sadly most of them were either scrapped or disassembled for parts for their younger CHS2T bretheren. The MOC ( which is still in progress so crtisism is needed) has two versions with different liverys - the darker one represents the earlier version with a clear roof and a very funky antenna. The later mod has additional air tanks and isolators on its roof. z IRL prototypes: CHS2 "Cheburashka" aka "Chub" CHS2T aka "brick" aka "shorty" aka "stub"