sed6

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This is fantastic! Are the door handles roller skates?

I don't know that I care if they are included. I'm happy to see almost any train released from lego. Thinking outside of Lego's offerings and more about MOC's...I've built my trains both with and without doors. In some instances they are a nice detail, like my in my 1900's loco and cars in others like my new EMD F7 they just wouldn't work. I also did a reskin of the 60052 cargo train locomotive into a CSX SD40 in which I removed the included doors to achieve a more realistic scale look. For me it's mostly a scale thing, a size thing and a color availability thing. If they look right, fit right and are available in the color I want then I'll include them in my MOC. I'd imagine the thought process is much the same at TLG when they are designing trains.

Wow, that is fantastic! I hope the show goes well. Keep us updated with some pics. I think the small clocktower is my favorite single design element. Is that original? How'd you make that gold border? Is Snottengen a real word or location somewhere?

Isn't the easy solution to this to simply remove the yellow throw lever? That's what I did on my layout because of the tight turns and long engine overhangs.

I like the clear roof! Can I see some pictures of how you did that?

How about the re-railer at the end of the track? Would anyone use that? I remember my old n-scale crossings had a re-railer built into them.

Excellent tip! I did just this and it worked for some axle/bearing combinations. For most it did not, probably because of tolerances. Eventually it became too big a hassle to keep the parts hot or frozen and I resorted to the hammer for the rest.

To clarify the cutting of the tabs, and to address how to do this without cutting the tabs... Looking at the picture above, the tabs are circled in red. Without the bearing mod the axles are trapped under the tabs to keep them from falling out. You can see with the bearings installed the axle wants to sit at the same level as the tabs. The tabs will the pinch the axle and prevent it from spinning. There are two solutions, cut the tabs off like I did or trim down the green areas. If you don't want to cut the tabs off, you'll need to lower the axles another 1mm or so to get them under the tab. This can be accomplished by trimming the two spots circled in green. Those are the two spots the bearings rest on. If you can trim those two spots 1mm down so the bearings rest lower, the axle will be lower and not pinched by the tabs. There are potential problems with that method. Trimming those two green spots down 1mm exactly isn't going to be easy. In my mind the only way to do it would be with a router and a jig of some sort. If you go too deep with that cut the truck could be ruined for this mod. Edit: I don't know if ruined is the right word. I'm counting on those shelves in green to be at the right height to hold the bearings. If you cut the green shelf too deep I suppose you could just move the bearing to the right depth and use glue and luck to hold them in the right place...

Indeed a press would have been great! As for mushrooming, not really. The lego axles are hardened so any mushrooming wasn't noticable. The tabs need to be cut because of the depth the axles need to sit. The bearings make the axles about 1.5 mm closer to the track, causing the axles to be pinched by those tabs and not spin, so they need to be removed. Their is a way to do it without removing the tabs, but it's a lot more work with more room for error. I bought the bearings on ebay and then the seller doubled his price after I ordered mine. However I included a screen shot above of three other sellers selling them in different size batches. Glad you all like!

I just finished a marathon session of adding approximately 160 bearings to my rolling stock. I am positively blown away by the results! It took hours and hours to do but cost only about $35 and the result is cars that seem to glide over the rails. I used the standard MR52ZZ bearings that others have used. They measure 2x5x2.5mm. These fit the older Lego 1.98mm axles with the pointed end, the newer 2.00mm axles with the blunt end and your custom .078 inch (1.98mm) music wire axles. I used all three types for this project. Variances in tolerance will sometimes require a hammer to tap the bearings on to the thinner axles, but the thicker ones require quite a pounding for each. I drilled a hole in a board to the correct depth to help seat the bearings when hammering. I used the yellow brick to verify the correct depth on each end and the jig ensures everything is centered. The hammering DOES damage the bearings! Don't be fooled. BUT, it doesn't matter. My cheap Chinese bearings went from icy smooth to "spins very well" after hammering. My cars now roll for yards with just a flick. A few (2-3?) bearings were destroyed; they became notchy and wouldn't spin freely after hammering. So off they came and into the trash they went. At less than $.20 each I could afford to toss a few. I never plan to reverse this mod, nor sell these parts so I don't care about cutting those two tiny tabs off. That said, this mod could be done and could be reversed without removing those tabs. If anyone's interested how let me know. I also used a tiny drop of thin CA to hold the bearings to the truck. That prevents them from popping out and from shifting left or right and rubbing against the inside of the truck. Did I mention I'm thrilled? I can now pull all my cars, at once, around the tightest curves and switches with a single train motor. Three of my engines have twin train motors specifically because they needed the traction provided by four driving wheels. I'm guessing that my battery life will improve also. Now I can start designing longer trains and adding more cars! Hope you like.

That makes sense I guess, the 8 wide and longer mentioned confused me.

Interesting topic, I wonder how swapping sides provides anymore clearance?

I wonder if my design will help anyone who's trying to build 4 wide? Because of the gearing it does run a little slow, but I solved that by running it on three 3.7v 10440 lipos instead of six 1.5v AAA batteries. Now it speeds right along.

Good call on the new parts for certain areas. Curious what the total cost was?

Glad you all like! Here's an updated shot of the nose with the x1471 decal applied. You'll note that the lettering of X1471 and the yellow striping in the flying shield should be white, not yellow. That is a limitation of printing at home, you can't print white. I tried shades of gray but they didn't suit me.

Thank you. Yes 6 wide, plus the hand rails. I've got the LDD uploaded for you and linked to in my first post. I welcome anyones comments or criticisms.

The EMD F7 was the SD40-2 of its day, the first true "common" diesel locomotive; thousands were built and could be found powering almost any train. When production had ended some 2,366 F7As and 1,483 F7Bs had been produced by 1953 just four years after the locomotive was first cataloged. According to an article by Don Strack, published in the November/December 1991 issue of "Diesel Era: Volume 2, Number 6" the, "base price on two cab units was $161,000 and the base price for two booster units was $147,500." This was also the first instance of the Electro-Motive Division's new General Motors Diesel (GMD) subsidiary filling orders. Read more from this article about this historic loco on this site. My model was inspired by the Union Pacific 1471 and 1476B pictured below. It was really the only photo I could find of a UP F7 A/B pair. My initial inspiration came after recently obtaining sets 10020, the Santa Fe Super Chief, and 10022, one each of the dining, sleeping and observation cars. I can see why they are so coveted, each is beautiful!I set about to modify 10020 in several ways to make it look better. I decided on the UP scheme because my dad left me his LGB scale UP loco when he passed (just like his LGB BNSF that inspired this build, here). I modified the sides and doors to more closely resemble the F7a and F7b units (which I'm presuming the 10020 was based on). While the windows are not round (yet) the vents between them, the doors, the grab rails, plus the square sand fill doors are all details I tried to capture more accurately than set 10020 did. Plus the battery box and fuel tank underneath look better. I decided to add twin train motors to the a-unit to propel it because my trains are heavy, my curves are tight and one motor just doesn't have the traction necessary (power yes, traction no). The PF receiver blends in nicely on the rear and the middle fan on top acts as a power switch. Seven of my eight locos have a concealed power "button" accessible from the outside, the Super Chief being my only one I have to remove the top on. Speaking of consistency between locos, my BNSF and CSX have a distinct side window look with the two vertical tiles. I'm considering that same look for my UP. The taped up windows look okay, especially from a few feet away, and while I like the slightly more detailed or scale appearance, the tape looks unfinished and I'm not sure it is necessary. I also applied minimal detailing on the inside. The b-unit got an engine you can see thru the windows and the a unit got a hint of an engine hidden in amongst the wires. The lettering and numbering I did myself on my inkjet printer using Testors decal paper. They are applied wet then they dry nice and smooth. As usual I'll share my LDD file for anyone who wants to examine, build or modify my design. I'll upload that soon. Here you go. https://bricksafe.com/pages/sed6 Hope you like! Edit: just realized I didn't print the X1471 decals that go by the headlights for the nose! Also in the pic above the stickers peeling off are actually just static cling stickers, they work well enough but show some bubbles and don't handle tight radius curves like on the nose. The final water-slide decals are applied in all the above pictures, except this one.

I'm curious what the boxcar weighs. I just built a boxcar that's 10.8 ounces and wonder how that compares. Anyone able to drop one on a scale for me? Thanks!

I found that funny too! I also used his stickers on my BNSF Loco and was happy both times. I like this loco so much I might build an unpowered dummy version to pull behind.

This is definitely one of my simpler builds. It's nothing more than a reskin of the 60052. I chose the CSX scheme primarily because of the prevalence of blue and the excellent sticker set from The Sticky Brick for $8. This is my first re-skin attempt and it feels a little like cheating after the dozens and dozens of hours that went into my BNSF and my 4-4-0. That said, my goal wasn't something original. Rather I wanted badly to improve the toy scale looks of the original loco. In all it about 150 parts and ran about $15 including new side panels. Here's a link to the file on bricksafe if you want to build, modify or inspect my work. Hope you like! My Bricksafe Files

Anyone planning on 75222 Cloud City?

Time for another update. I recently got the bug to make a container crane to handle the containers on my Well Cars. Of course then I'd need a semi to haul them around. The semi driver and crane operator are not thrilled to be working while their coworkers slack off back at the office. As always my LDD files are on my bricksafe page for you to view. Hope you like!

Fantastic train! I can't wait to get my log cars built now!

@XG BCI don't think CRS belongs in the title of this thread. Custom Rail System is a coin termed by another member here referring to a monorail track design. CRS has nothing to do with these coaster tracks.