Ferro-Friki

Now that’s a stunning train! The color scheme makes it so warm and cozy, it almost feels like the engine and coaches were made for each other.

Did you at some point doubt this engine deserved a post?? It’s gorgeous! Seeing it run is a pleasure, and the detailing is stunning. I actually like the arched window on its side, I can’t think of any other way to capture the look.

Yet another amazing model! I’m loving all the angles and tilted planes, they’re subtle yet they elevate the whole thing to another level altogether. And the nose just kills me, it’s soo good! Great posing by the way ;) Renders at eye level and gorgeous curves make trains look even better.

Hang on, this should be in General Lego Discussion, right? Sorry! I can't seem to delete this topic or move it somewhere else though :/

Hey everyone! I have some questions about Lego’s online pick a brick store. I’ve been designing MOCs on Stud.io for some time and I’m familiar with Bricklink, so I assumed that the color names they use were pretty much universal for Lego bricks. Until I decided to check out Lego’s own pick a brick store on their website and I found out they used completely different names for colors. Right now, I need a lot of magenta bricks and the Lego store doesn’t recognize that name for any of their colors. The closest match I’ve found is called “Bright Purple” but I have no idea if it’s the same as magenta or maybe a similar color like dark pink. I also need pieces in bright light blue, but I have no idea what Lego calls that color, it may be what they call “Light Royal Blue” but I’m not 100% sure. Does anyone know which Bricklink color names match Lego’s? Besides, Lego’s pick a brick online store seems to sell bricks that according to Bricklink don’t exist in those colors. Is this true? Maybe I’m just checking the wrong colors since I can’t tell which is which. Also, from what I’ve seen, Lego’s prices for individual bricks are, mostly, more expensive than the average new Bricklink brick. Is this also true? I don’t have much experience sourcing bricks for MOCs and I’m trying to be smart and find the best prices, when is buying individual bricks from Lego more economical? Is it once you order enough to get free shipping?

Thank you! I may or may not have borrowed the minifigure skis for the pantographs from your DB E9… Thanks! I had no idea that there were similar units in Portugal, or that anyone else had recreated it in lego before. After looking his CP 3500 up (great as always), it’s fascinating seeing the differences and similarities as well as similar design choices and parts usage.

Thanks man! I tried to give it my all and see what came out, I'm glad you like it! Now I'm tinkering with the original color scheme and the alternative Rodalies livery. With that and the 451 version I'll have an update soon.

Thank you! Unfortunately, as much as I'd like to have it in my hands, this train would be absurdly big and expensive... It would measure almost 3m long! Luckily for me the series 450 has a smaller sibling, the series 451, which is basically the same train but cut in half. It should be very easy to design, since I would just have to add a cabin on the end of one of the middle coaches. If I end up building this train it would be the 451 version. Okay, I’ve just looked the IC3 train up and I did not expect to see a familiar face. We have those units here in Spain too! (I’m pretty sure they’re the same) They’re labeled as the series 594. They weren’t as loved when they got here though… Apparently their AC systems were not suited to the Spanish weather at all, and its passengers were basically cooked alive! But I’m pretty sure they have that fixed now.

Thank you! I really had to think outside the box to make the bricks behave the way I wanted instead of the other way around. One of the details I'm the most proud of are the doors, which have a half a plate thick frame on the sides made with brackets that makes them pop without standing out too much. The bogies were one of the first things I built, since I wanted to avoid lego's prefab RC motor covers at all costs, which pretty much forced me to build the whole train in 8-wide instead of the 7-wide I'm more used to.

Hey everyone! I’m happy to share with you a little something I’ve been working on. It’s one of the commuter (cercanías) trains we have here in Spain. I’m the most familiar with the units in Madrid, so that’s what I’ve tried to recreate. They’re nicknamed “El Buque” (The Ship). I can’t seem to get a reason why they’re called this, my theory is that they wobble like a boat does, and the single round window on the coaches reminds me of a ship as well. The 450s are some of the oldest trains in this service still around, and unfortunately, they will probably be retired relatively soon. There aren’t that many left running around Madrid, so they’re the least common ones you’ll find pulling into the station. As you can see they're double decker trains, and if I’m not mistaken, they were the only units with two floors in the country until the arrival of Ouigo’s Euroduplex. And to be honest, employing double decker trains for commuter services wasn’t that good of an idea, since each car only has a couple of doors on each side but twice as many seats, getting off and boarding at rush hour at a crowded station is a pain, so it’s probably for the better that they retire these units. Funnily enough, despite being old and a bit clunky, these trains are the fastest in the cercanías services, reaching 140km/h. Although they have a terrible acceleration, so they take a long time until they get there. And since they’re stopping and leaving constantly their average speed might be the lowest in the cercanías fleet. To be fair, in my opinion, these trains are perfectly good and reliable, the thing is that they just aren’t suited for the services they got designated to. In the outskirts of Madrid, where the distances between stops are much longer and there aren’t as many passengers to clog up the doorways, they really get their chance to shine. These trains used to be pulled by a regular locomotive, and on the tail end coach they had another cabin from which to control remotely the locomotive at the other end when traveling in the opposite direction. That way, there was no need to uncouple the locomotive and shunt it to the other side or employ two engines on either end. Later, in an effort to modernize the fleet, they got rid of the locomotive altogether and fitted the coaches on either end with all the necessary components to make the train run by itself as a single unit. The transformation wasn’t all the way though, and in a way, the unit still behaves like a conventional train being pulled and pushed at the same time by two locomotives that happen to be able to carry passengers too. You can tell at simple glance by the fact that both motor-cars carry their pantographs up when running, since there isn’t a high voltage line connecting them like modern units have. All in all, I find this train with all its quirks very interesting and loveable in a way, even if it’s begging to be put out of its misery… Which is why I tried to recreate it in lego! :)

It was still impressive in digital form, but seeing it brick built is even better. Gorgeous engine! It hurts knowing this is what lego could have made.

It looks great! I can't wait to see it built irl. Keep us updated!

I usually find these huge American locomotives a bit samey, but hey! I had no idea they came in gorgeous liveries like this. Absolutely amazing model, kudos!

I still can’t get over how good the nose looks! You did an amazing job at capturing the shape of one of the most iconic and reliable European high-speed trains. Now that I examined it a little closer, I have a couple of nitpicks. Have your considered separating the magenta stripe from the gray one above by one plate and making the lower magenta stripe two plates tall? I know it would mess up the brilliant way the stripes bend downwards at the front but I think it would look a bit more accurate. Also, only the second and second-to-last coaches have a pantograph, the third and third-to-last ones only have a “hump” that I guess serves to meet the height difference to the adjacent car in a more aerodynamic way. By the way, have you thought about designing the cafeteria car? I know it looks pretty much the same way the other coaches do but with different window and door placements, I just love the way you can tell what goes on inside from the look on the outside on trains like this. They also have some of these trains running in China with a blue stripe if you want to add another livery to the collection. Those are just a couple of things that slightly bug me. As always, impressive train! I love to see what you show us next time.

Astonishing train. All those SNOT techniques at the front perfectly flush against the slopes make it a pleasure to look at. I like the brick-built logo, but I’m not familiar with it so maybe I don’t notice the difference that much. The old livery is more interesting in my opinion, but the current silver one is still quite elegant. Also, I’d love to see how you recreate the bent sides of the train, it’s a feature I’m trying to incorporate into my trains too.

Absolutely adorable, both trains are amazing. I genuinely believe that the smaller the model the more impressive its execution is, even more if they can run by themselves! The cowcatcher on the steam engine is particularly striking.

It really is 7 wide! I guess I've just forgotten how to count that makes it even more impressive, I prefer 7 wide, even if odd numbers make it a bit more difficult to build.

I saw a video of this amazing model running in the Railway Museum of Madrid years ago and I still think about it to this day. It’s the first AVE Lego train I ever saw and I’ll never forget it. By the way, I just have to know, how did you manage to recreate the rodales shared between the middle coaches?

You’re totally right. There are many issues with my model, and the shape of the nose is one of the most noticeable. I’m fine with it though, this was a sort of “proof of concept” that allowed me to test the waters with stud.io and bricklink without using too many resources. Your s100 is very impressive! 8-wide models are always stunning. I find the cockpit windows particularly striking, and I have to admit that the original Renfe blue lining is iconic for this train. I’m not sure what’s going on with the underside of the nose in your design, is the hood that covers the scharfenberg coupling supposed to be open?

I’m so happy to see you guys like my MOD (I thought MOC was the only abbreviation lol). The nose is a step in the right direction, but it’s still far from spot on, it’s too sharp and pointy, the real train has a shorter and rounder nose. The same wedge slope from the Horizon Express could do the job well, but it’s too angular for my taste. Maybe some day far into the future I might redo the whole train from scratch (preferably 7 studs wide), then I wouldn’t be limited by the bricks from the original BlueBrixx set, particularly the inverted plane cockpit piece in dark bluish gray, which forces the nose to be longer than it should be. I might also attempt to capture the way the side walls of the train lean inwards at the top and the bottom, the way the walls are completely flat drives me insane, it’s just wrong. I’m so glad you brought this up! I had been feeling very disappointed with Lego lately, they barely produce any decent trains nowadays, and the few new train parts they produce feel like a downgrade (the new wheel holder). Besides, their prices are getting outrageous and they inflate them even more by filling the sets with unnecessary side builds or a stupid amount of minifigures. The latest HP train and the Fussball table are some of the worst examples. I’ve lost all hope I had on them, I can’t wait to see how badly they mess up the ideas Orient Express. Then I found BlueBrixx, and it honestly felt too good to be true, I kept thinking that there had to be a catch somewhere, but after some digging I found many satisfied customers out there so, I decided to test the waters by purchasing two coaches in dark green to accompany my 10277 crocodile locomotive (since Lego didn’t feel like producing any rolling stock for it…), and I was very pleased with the products. Sure, they’re far from perfect, by now we all know that the quality of the bricks is lower than Lego’s, but it’s still pretty good quality nonetheless, especially for that price! Also, their wheel holders produce too much friction, but after spraying the axels with some lubricant they run just as well as their Lego counterparts, I was able to pull the entire TGV Atlantique (before I modified half of it) with just one PF motor and a fresh battery box after doing that, although to be fair if you don’t want it to strain, you should use two of them. Like you said, what I like most about BlueBrixx is the fact that they make more realistic trains, even if they don’t have that many details, capturing the real proportions of the trains goes a long way. After buying the Express Train gray-blue I can’t look the same way at the Horizon Express again. Well that was a bit of a rant, wasn’t it? Sorry everyone, I just had to get it out of my system! :)

Great train! I love the series 100. I do think that the 7 wide version is an improvement The gray stripe is essential to identify it as an AVE. When I designed mine, I used a regular cockpit window and then placed a bar holder with a clip in front of it to "split" the front window in two.

Hey everyone! I have a special MOC I’d like to share with you. It’s a recreation of the series 100 high-speed train set operated by Renfe. These were the first high-speed trains to run in Spain all the way back in 1992. They connected Madrid and Seville and to this day they’re some of the most common trains you can find on this line. To be fair I don’t think I can call it a “MOC” at least not entirely, instead it’s a modification of an existing L gauge train set you can buy, the “Express Train grey blue” (Clearly a recreation of the TGV Atlantique) from BlueBrixx. I split up the train and only modified half of it. Here you can see the modification/MOC compared to both the BlueBrixx set and the Horizon Express. The (irl) series 100 trains are very closely related to the TGV Atlantique, with some slight modifications, so back when I bought the BlueBrixx set I knew I had to modify it to turn it into one of these historic Spanish trains. I’ll be honest though, I don’t think this is a very accurate or complex model, and that’s okay, I didn’t intend it to be. Up until very recently all my MOCs were built out of scavenged parts from scrapped Lego sets. As you would expect, these MOCs were very limited when it comes to part availability, and it showed. With my inventory I would never be able to build big models with complex techniques and all the details I wanted to capture. It all changed with this train. Inspired by all the talented creators I look up to, I finally downloaded and learned how to use Stud.io. The original BlueBrixx design was a good base to start with, and when I was done redesigning it I only had to buy about half of the pieces. Then, I created a Bricklink account and after watching countless tutorial videos I bought all the pieces I needed. That’s why I consider this “test” model special. It represents a turning point in my AFOL experience. It’s just a precedent for many other more advanced MOCs to come.

It’s great to see another talented creator join this forum! I had already seen this amazing model on YouTube before, and I’m loving the fact that I get to see more of it. If it makes you feel any better, I’ve experienced that same frustration trying to recreate the single axle bogies (Fun fact: they’re officially called “Rodales”!). I gave up on trying to have a close coupling between coaches a long time ago, as good as it may look. In my experience, if you want to make a train with realistic proportions run around Lego’s painfully tight R40 curves you’re going to need at least a three-stud gap. So it’s great to see someone break my preconceptions. Letting the “Rodal’s” joints slide back and forth to allow enough clearance on curves is brilliant! Also, as another fun fact, did you know that the first two (irl) Talgo train prototypes (Talgo I and Talgo II) were unable to back up as well? So if your model can’t do it either it’s just capturing the authentic Talgo spirit. All joking aside, this model is absolutely impressive, the nose is stunning and so satisfyingly smooth. You have no idea how happy it makes me to see a brick built physical Lego recreation of this train. I’d have loved to see it run in person! There has been more Spanish Lego train models in the past few months than in what feels like decades, and I’m all here for it! Please keep us updated if you have more of this train to show in the future, it’d make me very happy. Also, thanks for showing interest in my Talgo “Rodal’s” design. These holidays I’ve had time to improve it and I’d like to share what I’ve got. Mainly I’ve made the whole thing sturdier, in fact, it may be too sturdy! Two coaches coupled together are almost indivisible. Although, to be fair, that can be easily fixed by changing the four dark bluish-gray Technic pin connectors with any other piece. I got the chance to build a single Talgo prototype coach to test the “Rodales” with it, and unfortunately the weight caused a new problem I hadn’t seen while testing with a skeletal frame before. When running on a Lego switch, while going straight ahead, if the “Rodal” happens to shift to the side where the rail is cut off it can derail. At low speeds it re-rails itself with a nasty bump and no other issue, however, at high speeds it could be a lot more troublesome. It’s possible that the 5,5 studs-long axle was either too far pushed in or not enough, causing the “Rodal” to run slightly askew. I’ll need to look further into it, though I’m pretty sure it can be fixed. ¡Saludos desde España!

Gorgeous train! They're are a sight to behold. Even if the nose isn't totally accurate it's still impresive.

Thank you all! It’s great to see you guys like this train set. The diagonal axis forces the two coaches on either side of the axel to turn on the same direction when running on curves, and on straight track it also locks the axel in place making it run straight without swerving to either side. It works pretty well from what I have tested, however, it tries to pull itself apart if you force it to drive through two consecutive switches, so it’s not perfect. Here are some close up pictures of a prototype I made. Yeah, I know what you mean, the real train has a much more flush and aerodynamic cockpit, I should revisit this model and make it more accurate.