idlemarvel

Very good, at first glance i thought it was an O scale manufactured model. Do you have any more pictures on Flickr or elsewhere? How does it run with the Circuit Cubes motor? I imagine you need to run on wide radius curves not R40? Thanks for sharing.

I thought I would have a try at a 4-wide loco. The loco I chose to model was one of my favourite Rhaetian Bahn locos, a Ge 2/4. (from Wikipedia) The scale I chose was based on the track gauge; 4-wide track is 22.5mm gauge which when compared to standard gauge 1435mm gives a scale of 1:64, otherwise known as S scale. The dimensions of a Ge 2/4 are: length 8.70m = 136mm @ 1:64 or approximately 17 studs width 2.65m = 41mm @ 1:64 or approximately 5 studs height 4.05m = 63mm @ 1:64 or approximately 7 bricks Here is the model, basically sticking to those dimensions. It was made mostly with parts from a Crocodile. It's actually 4 studs plus 2 x tiles wide (38mm) which is a bit narrower than it should be. It doesn't look too bad with a minifig. It runs fine on R24 curves due to the ball and socket joints for the pony trucks. I am too old to ever say never, but I think it would be virtually impossible to motorise this with Lego components, even if you put the hub/battery in a trailing car. The pantograph is a bit of a cheat. The light-blue-grey bars which form the frame of the pantograph are normally 3L but that looked way out of scale, so these are 2L which does not exist as a Lego part. I found that the pin used to hold track pieces when shipped in sets is basically a 4L bar with a cap at the end. I took a razor saw to four of these, cut off the cap then cut the remaining 4L bar in half to make 8 x 2L bars. As a "by the way" I found a way to ballast the Lego R24 curves. I really need some 1 x 2 red-brown tiles! Finally I made a coach for the loco from a 40518 set (the 4-wide Intercity train) by using the pieces from the driving car to double the height of the coach. To make it run on curves you would need to mount the bogies on 2 x 2 turntables. It was an interesting exercise to make a 4 wide model, and I think I have captured the essence of the prototype. It is a challenge to provide any level of detail. If you think about it, the "granularity" of Lego, about 3mm (width of plate) translates at 1:64 scale to about 190mm or 7 1/2 inches! However I do like the look and feel of rolling stock this size, and if I could find a way to motorise it I would be happy to work in this scale. Having said that, it would be a whole lot easier in 6-wide. If you built it the same way, 6 wide plus 2 tiles or 54mm that would give you a scale of about 1:48 which in turn would be a length of about 22 studs. With that length you could get a more realistic number of side panels, and operating coupling rods rather than dummies. It would be a doddle to motorise using the standard Lego train motor.

My two Lego City trains slow noticeably around R40 curves so that's going to be more noticeable with R32. I haven't tried it but I imagine they would stall on R24 curves at lower speeds.

Very nice detail and great colour match to the prototype!

Stand alone couplers are also useful as buffers are not always round, and narrow gauge railways often have one central buffer because of the shorter radius curves they encounter.

I'm sure I've seen (magnetic) couplers without bumpers/buffers. I'll have a look on BL. Or perhaps you mean they already have but you want them to make new ones. Sorry if I have misunderstood, blame it on me being a newbie. EDIT Here: (#2920) https://www.bricklink.com/v2/catalog/catalogitem.page?P=2920

Yes thanks @XG BC I agree smaller wheels would look better, especially as it is meant to be a narrow gauge loco. I could get some of the smaller Big Ben wheels but for the time being I'm happy being a "purist" and living with the compromise. As I get more experienced I may broaden my horizons! Thanks @zephyr1934

Good idea thanks I think I've got one of those somewhere

Nicely done @Selander

Thanks @Murdoch17 much appreciated. Your suggestion for the brass trim on the steam domes is excellent.

Thanks, and good point. I think trying to fit a technic hub in a 6-wide train would be a challenge, but it would be very useful for directional lighting and two motors etc.

Thanks for the explanation @Lok24 and you didn't have to shoot me! :-) Using that number bb0892c01 there is a new one from a UK seller for 23.50 GBP which is half the Lego RRP of 44.99 GBP which is pretty good saving! If I'd known about this a few weeks ago I could have saved myself about 100 GBP. Lesson learned.

Following demands from my grandson, I have had my first go at a steam loco. I visited Austria in 2017 and went on the Zillertalbahn from Jenbach, and was pulled by No5 Gerlos which is a Uh class 0-6-2 tank engine. I quite liked the look as it was a bit more chunky than the more common U class locos found on Austrian narrow gauge. Anyway here is the prototype (my photo) ready for off at Jenbach in 2017: And here is my model. It has a standard hub and a Technic large motor inside: This is how the motor and hub are organised. The cab sides hide the hub, and the side water tanks hide the motor. You can just reach the hub on/off switch through the cab windows. I need to tidy up the colours behind the wheels and to try and hide the cog wheel but I'm not sure how at the moment. The bodywork is a plate too high which I think I can fix. I would like to put some "brass" trim around the steam domes, what is the nearest colour to brass anyone? I must get around to making something for these locos to pull...

Well that is weird, thanks @Lok24 I was just going by the Lego shop item number. https://www.lego.com/en-gb/product/technic-hub-88012 As a newcomer to all this, how do you get to know that 88012 is a set not a part? Or will you have to shoot me if you tell me? Is there an equivalent part number for the standard hub 88009? Thanks

Thanks @Lok24 This was really aimed at UK buyers. I could only find one seller on Bricklink, in CZ, selling for nearly 20 GBP. None of other sellers were in UK, and their prices were 27 GBP upwards, and you have the potential headache of shipping and import taxes. I'm sure there are more choices in the EU, unfortunately we (UK) left.

Thanks @Paperinik77pk The pantographs are just a red version of the Crocodile pantographs, with a simpler current collector. Thanks @XG BC Yes, as I mentioned it was almost made for this type of box loco!

Currently new offered for £21.99 + £2.89 postage for UK buyers, see here https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/233609481151 Even less if you buy more than one. RRP is £69.99. I have no connection with this seller. There are other sellers with similar prices. I bought one just to make sure and it is the genuine article, sealed bag, put batteries in, connected it to powered up app, it upgraded itself and then ready to go. I tested it with lights and train motor no problems. I think they are a bit big for a loco unless you build 8 or 10 wide, but for a ground mounted hub for light signals and point motors this is great value as it has 4 ports (and built in sensors).

That is all really ingenious and despite all the space saving measures to hide the motor and battery box it is a very attractive loco. Well done!

Very nice modelling here. I particularly like the passenger set and the green German e-lok, but they are all very good. I'm new and thought a lot before starting on which width to build to. I have found 6 wide to be more than challenging enough, and scope to be realistic enough that the locos are recognisable, and just as importantly affordable!

Thanks @Feuer Zug Thanks @LEGO Train 12 Volts I'm not sure MOCs are ever final! The general appearance is okay to me so it will do for now. I have to remind myself to actually run trains occasionally not just start building the next one! The number of ventilation grills / windows along the side is not right, but there are lots of variations in the prototype class - some have grills below the white band as well like the one on the picture. But I've never been a fine-scale modeller so the compromises you have to make with Lego suit me fine.

Thanks @Brickwolf pity the cups (item number 3899) don't come in black, or rather they do but very rare and expensive :-( Thanks @zephyr1934 I think I've got one of those in black, I'll give it a go. The connection is a bit weak but I can lift the loco off the track without the motor block dropping off.

This is my first attempt at a MOC modelling a real loco. The prototype is an Austrian railways OBB class 1245 standard gauge Bo-Bo e-lok, some of which are still running today on preservation lines. There are plenty of pictures on Wikipedia and I managed to find a dimensioned drawing on the Internet, although it is a photo of a drawing taken at an angle, which skews the drawing. This model is 6-wide, so to keep the width, height and length in proportion I have built this to a scale of approximately 1:55. Although it looks a bit "top-heavy" the driving wheels on these ancient e-loks were 1.3m diameter, much bigger than modern locos, which means that the height of the loco below the bodywork is proportionally larger. http:// Construction was fairly straightforward. I used a loco cab piece to get the angled windows (part 2924a), unfortunately because that piece is 5 bricks high, it does fix the height of the body rather too tall, but it seems to me this piece was almost made for this loco. The doors are set back by half a brick. I have made the unpowered bogie look as similar to the powered bogie as possible. The steps are attached to the bogies because in the model world track curvature means it would be impossible to fix to the body as they would clash with the need for the bogies to rotate. The trickiest bit was moving the powered bogie half a stud forwards, so that the steps on the bogie aligned with the door. I built a recess so I could offset the bogie supports half a stud. I think the resulting model is recognisable as the prototype, at least within the confines of 6 studs wide and R40 curves.

Thanks @M2m fortunately I had already done that and the true 4.3.11 has been installed successfully.

Thanks for the tip @Calabar, I'll reinstall the true .11

I'm new to all this but FYI I just installed LDD from the official Lego site and it is version 4.3.11 (and Brick version 777 whatever that means). The page had links to the BrickLinks offering. LDD installed with no problems on my Windows 10 laptop, with some message about not having access to some online resource, but it didn't seem to matter, When I started it, it said it couldn't find the Flex licence so you have to manually navigate to the install directory to find the .LIC file. Once that was done I could load an .LXF file i had downloaded from Rebrickable and run through the build steps, which was the reason I wanted to install LDD in the first place. I haven't tried to do any design work with it.