Locomotive Annie

Even though I haven't started on building the Kotanga Tramway itself yet I've been doing some thinking about the motive power needs for the tramway and while the 'R' Class Single Fairlie and the 'Improved 'F' Class 0-6-0 (see earlier postings) will be fine for the heavier tasks I could see that there would be a need for a smaller tank engine that could do general shunting, act as a banker in a pinch, take a coach down the logging branch for the school run and generally be a handy loco about the yard. I followed no actual prototype being only guided by the idea that I wanted a small tank engine of British origins built 8 wide that would have been built in the last decade of the 19th Century.. There's still a few small details to complete, but essentially this wee loco is done with regard to her final appearance. I'm going to make a custom smokebox door for this loco, then there's putting on the rest of the cab handrails, fitting siderods and making some decals. Possibly I should put a second safety valve on top of the firebox too. Still trying to decide if the three tramway locos should get names or just make do with numbers. They will be getting 'Kotanga' on the side tanks so I'm leaning towards numbers. The 'Improved F' will be No:1 (what else!), the Single Fairlie will be No:2 and this wee loco will be No:3 Despite having a pile of Lego shovels do you think I could find one for the fireman to hold for the photo. If he looks embarrassed it's because he's actually holding a broom which isn't a terrible lot of use when it comes to getting coal through the firebox door.

I went ahead and purchased some of apvos's traction tyres as I would like to give them a try. True enough about the price, but still way better than the NOS ones on Bricklink.

I'm seriously impressed to see how all the PF parts were shoe horned in. The way the motor and drive is laid out in the loco is a neat piece of engineering.

Absolutely amazing to see Bricktrix's GWR loco alongside a finescale 'O' version. The man is a Lego god who builds incredible scale models.

Clever work alright. Is that point/switch a stub switch?

Thank you I had dismissed bicycle tubes as a source of traction tyres, but then I was thinking of ordinary roadster bicycle tubes and not the skinny racing tubes. Now all I need to do is go to a bicycle shop loco in hand and ask for, 'A racing bike tube to fit this...'

Thanks Peterab, - I did have some luck this afternoon in that I discovered that the rolls of bin bags I buy from the supermarket are secured with a wide black rubber band that is almost the right size to act as a defacto traction tyre. Fortunately being somewhat of a hoarder I had been keeping these rubber bands in a small jar in a cool dark store cupboard in the laundry so I think they might do until I find something better.

I use the later versions of the 12volt motorblocks (bb12vc) as they suit the small late 19th Century locos I like to build and I don't fancy trying to cram PF gubbins into these small steam locos or having to tow thinly disguised battery wagons around on a permanent basis. This is all very nice and lovely only I'm in need of some new traction tyres and I don't really know where to get them. I've seen them once and a while on Bricklink, but the prices for them are a wee bit frightening.

'O' is 32mm gauge, Lego is 38mm gauge. Close, but yet so far unfortunately. Re-gauging to 'O' would be possible, but the standard Lego motorblocks couldn't be used as they would be too wide and you would have to build your own chassis and mechs from Technic parts or use 'O' gauge ones which aren't cheap. The garden gauges such as 'G' gauge on 40mm track would be possible, but weight is the big issue here. I worked in 16mm scale on 45mm gauge track for a while, not using Lego, but scratchbuilding my own locos and rolling stock. In this size models definitely have weight, inertia and rolling resistance which would make Lego trains in this size very heavy and in need of powerful mechs to push them along. Even with building as I do in 8 wide there is a noticeable weight increase over a similar model built in 6 wide and while I did consider 10 wide it only took one experimental 10 wide coach built in Lego to make me change my mind. Those Lego trains built to run on HO track look awfully nice though. The coach and the loco look very convincing, though I think the tender is a wee bit oversized and needs to be coupled closer to the loco.

Thanks medib :) New Zealand Railways coined the name 'car vans' for this type of conversion on older coaches. Mostly they were used on suburban trains, but yes they could be considered to be a form of combine.

I've done some further work on the red car-van and now it's much more like I want it to be. The roof is much better in grey and the change in profile is an improvement too. Changed out the thick and heavy end verandah posts for something better and put brake wheels at both ends. The final touch was the ventilators above the windows. I'm not sure what I'll do about the oil lamp casings on the roof just as yet, but they will be going back once I sort out how to fix them. It's on the list to build another coach of this type, but without the van conversion. I'll need to order some more of those old 7026bc01 windows though. The end of the goods van you can see in the picture belongs to an item of rolling stock I'm having a love-hate relationship with and it's highly likely it will be pulled apart and rebuilt yet again as I'm far from happy with it. Not content to leave things there I decided to try some mods on the green 10015 coach. Green is a colour that I don't have all that much of, though in the end I managed to scratch together enough bricks to mod one coach side and alter the clerestory roof. The verandah end posts were changed as well, but I couldn't find another two black ones so brown will have to do for now. Once I find some more three spoke steering wheels I'll add brake wheels to this coach as well.

Oh that is a beautiful loco shed and well worth the hassle of gathering all the parts together from far distant lands.

I would go for the LNER Garratt too. The South African Garratt is a magnificent beast, but it would be a lot harder to build.

A 10015 MOT green coach that I'd purchased off Bricklink arrived yesterday so I put it together which I really enjoyed doing as I haven't touched any of my Lego for the past month due to being ill. After putting the green coach together the Lego itch was well and truly wanting to be scratched again so I started to think about coaches for the Kotanga Tramway which is based on several of the private and local body operated tramways that operated here in New Zealand. Starting with the MOT coach design as a basis I worked towards trying to capture the appearance of the older NZGR steam era coaches with their closely spaced small windows (7026bc01). This type of coach was known as a 'Gumdigger' as they were commonly used on the trains that transported the Kauri gum diggers into the gum fields of the northern part of New Zealand. In later NZGR service the window spacing was altered as the close spaced windows tended to weaken the coach body, but I decided to leave mine in unaltered condition. As I worked I also decided to build a coach that had been converted in the Kotanga Tramway workshops to be a useful car-van type coach and those red 3644 doors were spot on for the non-standard converted appearance I was after.. The jury is still out on the roof and I'm still making up my mind whether to convert it from 6 wide to 8 wide or not, but overall I'm reasonably happy with the result. Please forgive the awful photo, this is the best one of several attempts. The green 10015 coach will fit in with the Kotanga Tramway just fine as it follows the basic appearance of the Wellington & Manawatu Railway coaches that were later absorbed into NZGR service even if it is a bit of a shortie. I've already modded the ends of the clerestory roof (Ooooo shocking!) and I may do a little more to it yet.

Yay MOT 3741 and 3742! Always perfect for all your locomotive haulage needs And back to the topic, - I really like this boxcar design and I can see myself building a couple for use on my own layout. A really useful design IMO.

That's absolutely amazing. I would have thought that was a prototype that's impossible to build in Lego, but you've done it and done it so well too. Comparing your loco against the prototype photo and seeing how well you've captured the details and proportions is a cure for sore eyes. Brilliant.

A very nice start to a layout, - the river is a great feature and looks good with how you've given it depth below the layout's top surface.

It's because more straight track is needed on a decent sized layout than curves and the set boxes never have enough of it. It's a simple supply and demand situation really. Because I'm well known for making use of clone parts I could state the obvious, but I'll be a good girl and I won't

I really like your layout kc2dc. Lots of interesting things happening all over.

Everyone knows that LEGO bricks that have been packed together as a set at the factory possess a mysterious aura of completeness that can be detected by a true initiate of the Secrets of the Brick. Seriously though if I have a genuine old set I do like to keep it together and not mix its parts in with anything else.

Nice, and you got it to work out nicely as a 6 wide loco as well.

Yes I know Matt, when it comes to LEGO New Zealand is at the very ends of the earth. Living in a rural area like I do I can spend the cost of postage from overseas in petrol to actually get somewhere that keeps a decent range of LEGO. The local shops here in town only order in a small amount of LEGO around Christmas and what hasn't been sold just sits gathering dust on the shelf until Christmas comes around again. These days I pretty much buy all my LEGO in from overseas and no longer bother with the local distributors.

Well I went and did it Peter because I've just purchased a 7898 set on Bricklink. It's not in a box and it's not in sealed packets which kept the price down, but it is complete and has its instruction sheets. I will fit that second RC motor I have in the spares box because I think it's a good sensible move to give the loco some more haulage power.. I like the RC battery system and I would be reluctant to give up on something that's so easy to change out. It might be possible to use the RC baseplate and battery holder with the new PF system too, - though I do realise that the RC circuit board would have to be removed as it's not compatible with the PF system. The other thing I'm wondering about is changing the gear ratios of the RC motor so it isn't so fast running. I shall have a wee experiment with what I have in the spares box and see what I come up with. If I can't do anything about the gear ratios loco No: 7898 will go on the passenger roster and haul the varnish instead of long trains of ore hoppers. My grown up children were puzzled when they saw what I've been working on lately. 'But you hate diesels Mum,' were their comments in a nutshell until I pointed out that I was building nice electric locos with pantographs and not horrible nasty stinky diseasels. Here in New Zealand electric traction was famously used on the West coast of the South Island on the line to Greymouth because there was a very long 8.5km tunnel that was not really suitable for steam haulage on the heavy coal trains out of Greymouth. Electric locos tend not to suffocate their crews and it's these locos used for haulage through the Otira tunnel that are inspiring me to go electric. Unfortunately by the time I was finally able to visit Otira the English Electric Class Ea and Eo locos had long gone, but the overhead catenary wires for the old 1500v Dc system were still there. Fortunately one of the Eo class of 1923 has been preserved (photo). And three Ea class (built 1968), later reclassified to Eo, are still in service hauling suburban trains out of Wellington. The remaining two members of the class are in storage pending preservation. The similar English Electric Class Ec (built 1929) worked through the Lyttleton tunnel at Christchurch. Ec7 has been preserved in working order. As you can see it's not going to be exactly difficult to make a LEGO 7898 loco look like either an Eo or an Ec class (Ea's have a different shaped cab front and don't have the terrific big headlight) so I can play trains to my heart's content, though I suppose this means that my layout will now need to have a tunnel......... Before the purists start jumping about let me say that my original 7898 loco will remain unchanged and the actual MOC or MOD locos will be copies made using parts obtained via Bricklink and more than likely will have reworked motor blocks as well. I'm not a vandal you know and I do know how to keep my heritage LEGO separate from the loose stuff in the storage crates.

Good to see some 'down under' MOCs. I particularly like the hopper wagons as they look very similar to ones that were used here in New Zealand.

Hey Mark thanks this is all really good to know and answers a lot of my questions. Btw I have absolutely no interest in the passenger train and would only accept one if it was being given to me for free! I didn't realise that the 8866 RC motor was higher geared as I've never had one apart, but now I know the difference I can make sure I only use them on something like a single unit railcar or something of the sort.