Locomotive Annie

Hello everyone, I've just realised that I forgot to introduce myself here. Ever since I was a wee kiddie I've been keen on trains and railways. I come from a railway family as many of my aunts and uncles were employed on the New Zealand Government Railways (as it was known then). My Mum worked as a porteress during the war and her father. my grandfather, was an engine driver. My other grandfather was a carpenter at the railway workshops, - so as you can see I couldn't really avoid becoming keen on trains Lego and brick built trains are a very new thing for me as up until now I've been a scratchbuilder working in wood and card as well as with brass and steel. When I was younger I worked in finescale to 4mm scale (P4) and then later on to 'S' scale. I collected tinplate '0' gauge trains for a while and then decided to take a step up to the garden gauges working in 16mm to the foot scale. I really enjoyed working in 16mm, but after suffering a relapse with this illness I live with I found that handbuilding models was getting too difficult for me. Then I stumbled onto Bricktrix's photo album on-line and my eyes were opened. Building good and accurate railway models from Lego, - who would've thought it! In a word I was hooked My aim is to build a layout which represents a rural station yard circa 1910 such as would have been found in the district where I live. Progress is slow at the moment, but I have made a start on building a loco and a typical passenger carriage as well as accumulating more bricks and planning out the layout. I've learned a lot from lurking around and reading everything I can on the forum and I hope to be able to contribute in my own small way once I get my hand in with building brick built railways.

I'm. a woman of slender means who likes building with Lego, but with surviving on just an Invalid's pension I can very rarely afford genuine Lego unless it's either cheap second hand or if new heavily discounted. I'm really keen on modelling railways in bricks, but the only way I can do this is by buying Enlighten's train series, - though just recently I've put a couple of Banbao's trainsets on layby with the intention of mining them for their trackwork, motor blocks and control systems as I'm only interested in steam era railways. The rest of the Banbao bricks will go into my storage bins for future projects; - and yes I do know that Banbao uses a different brick sizing to Lego, but it's easy enough to work around that. The main reason I buy Enlighten's train series is that they sell individual coaches, goods wagons, locos and track packs and I can easily purchase them locally at a price I can afford. Yes I know they are frank copies of Lego's past train series, but the simple fact is I can't buy any of the Lego originals now unless I go chasing around on Bricklink buying them brick by brick and most probably spending far too much money doing it. Actually it might surpise some Lego zealots that some of their passenger coaches are Enlighten originals and not clones/copies at all and they are extremely good value too. Sluban make a train series too which is an Oxford copy. I don't care much for any of the rolling stock designs Sluban offers, but I do like their steam loco. I have two on the water at the moment that I ordered directly from China. I used to be heavily into wargaming at one time until I made the personal decision that I didn't want to be involved with anything that even resembled warfare. And yes I played Brikwars and found it to be better and cheaper than buying proper 'serious' wargaming models and then having to individually handpaint them all. Something the clone brands do very well is military models and military minifigs. Most of my military trucks and armor were by Cogo, though I did have a Banbao tank and two Kazi armored cars as well. Banbao's helicopters are better than anything any of the other makers do and that includes Lego, I ended up with three Marine helicopters, an Attack helicopter and a Medivac helicopter before I flagged wargaming away. All my brick military models are broken down back into bricks again, but I kept my Banbao Medivac helicopter assembled and on display because it's just such a nice model. Yes I will admit that some of the copy/clone makers don't make very good bricks, but I quickly found out which makers to avoid. Ligo should be avoided, misshapen bricks are commonplace, the clutch is rubbish and the plastic used is variable in quality. Their minifigs are poor quality as well, the plastic is brittle and they can fall apart just standing around. Kazi can be a mixed bag, - the two armored car sets I purchased were actually very good, but a battleship set I purchased when I was considering trying some naval warfare rules could only be completed by substituting a good few of the Kazi bricks with Cogo ones. I find Enlighten to be generally pretty good. On the railway series models I've been building lately the clutch has been really good and once put together there's no problems with anything falling apart. Their minifigs are Ok, but tend to lack variety. Their detail printing is good though and they go together well and stay together once assembled. Cogo make good bricks, but the design of some of their models can be a bit strange at times. I will still buy certain Cogo sets just to mine for their bricks. Generally I used Cogo's military vehicles as a basis for customisation because their sets contained some really useful parts not found in Lego sets. Cogo copies other makers Minfig details and designs. Cogo military minifgs have equipment that looks very Bestlock like as an example and one of their jeep sets has a minifig who has a nose (He's the only one mind you out of all their military set minifigs. I used to use him as an officer). Their horses are very nice and look much better than Lego ones. Most of my cavalry ended up with Cogo horses. Sluban I find can be good in parts, but can be strangely inconsistent in the general design of their sets. Occasionally I've found miscast bricks in their sets and parts can can be oddly distorted sometimes. Sometime ago I purchased a large Sluban pirate ship set and was only able to complete it so it wouldn't fall apart by building in a lot more support pieces into the hull than were called for in the instructions. Their minifigs aren't anything great to write home about either, but the detail printing is usually alright. Banbao is generally pretty good, but sometimes a brick will be found in a set that has little or no clutch at all. Mostly substitution will solve the problem, but I have had it happen with a special or unique brick that's essential to keeping the model together in one piece. Banbao bricks are slightly taller than Lego bricks and the studs are taller as well. Banbao bricks work ok with the old style Bestlock bricks, but need a little creative technique to get them to work with Lego and Lego clone bricks. Banbao minifigs are ok and I've never had any problems with them. Lego is very expensive here in New Zealand and there are no dedicated Lego stores. Toy shops and chain stores in the main centres will carry a range of sets, but often without any great sense of imagination in the selection they offer. Local shops around where I live will buy in Lego around Christmas and the unsold leftovers remain on the shelves for the rest of the year with no more being ordered in until Christmas comes around again. At the moment I can readily buy both Enlighten and Banbao from traders here in NZ who keep a good stock and range of sets on the shelves. The prices are really good too and after placing an order I usually have it within a couple of days. As I'm starting on building a town I've just purchased a couple of Wange villa sets to see how they will work out. I fully intend to modify these to suit my needs, but the way I see it getting 755 bricks and a large baseplate for $NZ36.00 is a darn good deal even if I might have to throw one or two bricks away because they don't fit right. I will comment though that most clone/copy makers of bricks operating out of China aren't too clever about getting the brick count in the box correct. Once or twice I've had a surprising amount of left over bricks including some that are plainly not meant to be a part of the set. Two or three left over is fairly comon as is being one or two bricks short, but I can't say it's been a big problem as I own a considerable amount of bricks already and can normally find replacements fairly quickly in my storage boxes. The way I see it I'd much rather pay a quarter to a third of the Lego price for brick construction sets and risk the odd misshapen or missing brick than pay the Lego price and end up with a lot less bricks for my money. It's not a difficult decision to make really.

What an amazing layout! Everybody seems to be very busy doing something and there's so much traffic on the roads too. Thankyou for sharing your video and pictures they are very inspiring.

Even though I'm no fan of diesels in general I have to say your little red diesel shunter is very nicely proportioned indeed. I love the rolling stock too.

Wow! - what an amazing station. Please post some more pictures if you can because I'd love to see more of it.

Wow! That BR01 locomotive is amazing. Make sure to read the PDF which tells how he did it.

Yes I love the black and white kitten set, - I will be keeping an eye out for those. Some years ago I studied Iaido so the Friends karate school set will be on my list as well.

Wow, 12 wide on L gauge track, - that would be so amazing to see. I suppose there's no chance of seeing any photos of his locos at all? I've seen photos of the Puffing Billy line before and always thought it was amazing. I haven't visited it myself yet, but a relative who did was kind enough to bring me back a copy of the preservation society's magazine.

Thanks for the welcome guys When I was growing up and was only a kiddie they used to be called 'Chinese gooseberries', but then some marketing types got hold of them and renamed them Kiwifruit. Silly really......

Yes I'd forgotten about the Shays and Climax locos that had vertical boilers Hikaro. You're right though there are a lot of similarities. I had wondered about using some of the Jack Stone figures too. The figure in the photo arrived in a pile of 2nd hand Lego I purchased a while ago, but I know the range has some crew and mechanic figures that would be perfect for my railway. http://www.bricklink.com/catalogItem.asp?M=js022 http://www.bricklink.com/catalogItem.asp?M=cre006 http://www.bricklink.com/catalogItem.asp?M=js017 This loco is built 8 wide by the way.

I don't think guys understand how much we women are delighted by Friends. I'm well into middle age and have grown up adult children and I don't see myself getting tired of sets that have such a wide appeal to femalekind. And yes I like the new Friends minifigs or mini-dolls too. The classic minifig still has a place in my heart, but it's good to have girl figures that look like girls too. I've got no arguement against the popularity of LotR, when I was a teenager I read the book ten times through cover to cover and I've seen all the films at least twice and countless times on DVD. I have a custom built Lego Elf army too of which I'm very proud. Nobody is going to get tired of Elves and Hobbits anytime soon, only you also have to remember that women and girls aren't going to get tired of being female either so that now Lego has answered the demand for sets that appeal to us they would be mad fools to shut the line down.

The little pink bows on the helmets is the perfect final touch.

Olivia is already my favourite Friends girl and seeing this woodshop MOC has really started me thinking as to what sort of workshop I might build for her. I've already posted pictures of Olivia with drill and spanner in hand with the timber tramway locomotive I've just built, but plainly she's going to need a proper workshop if I'm going to have her involved with repairs and maintenance on my railway.

I absolutely love the trees and the flowerbed. I only purchased my first Friends set yesterday and already I'm finding myself wanting to explore the Friends theme even more.

Track is definitely the kicker. The first accessory someone who has purchased a Lego train set will be looking for is more track and if they can't get it easily the set will just end up on a shelf somewhere gathering dust.

Thankyou so much for posting that link I hadn't seen a copy of the train idea book before and I completely agree, - it's gold!

My plan was to hide the motor in the boiler and have the batteries ride in a 4 wheeled car coupled behind the loco. It was very common for locos like this one to have a crude wooden tender to carry slabwood which is what most timber tramway locos used for fuel. Once I get it working properly I will more than likely have a go at detailing the boiler a bit more with a pressure gauge, some extra handwheels and a few more pipes.

There were some fairly odd looking locos at work on the timber tramways here in New Zealand. Many were built in the tramway workshops using a boiler from here and a stationary steam engine from there. Chain drive over big coarse spockets made the wheels turn so they were very simple locomotives indeed. Generally they only travelled at walking speed, but could haul a big load over the rough and ready light trackwork used on the logging tramways. I put together this little loco over the course of an afternoon. At the moment it's unpowered, but soon I'm going to have a bit of a mess about and put a motor in it. In case anyone is wondering the tyre on the top of the chimney is meant to be the primitive type of spark arrestor that was commonly used on these locos.

A wonderful set, - I purchased two of them this afternoon and will now be keeping an eye out for other Friends sets.

Today I purchased Lego Friends set 3933 which is the one for Olivia and her science lab and workshop. I really am quite delighted by this set, - and yes I know I'm far too old to be considered a part of this set's target group, but if there had been Lego sets like this around when I was a girl I certainly would have bought them.

Thanks for the suggestion Hikaro, but I think I'd rather build larger on the standard L gauge track than use a narrower gauge. After having worked in 16mm scale I much prefer models with some heft and size to them even if it means a lot more bricks per model and increased weight. Hrw-Amen: I had a look at your locos on your Brickshelf page and I saw your large tank engine. Getting enough room inside a model for a battery pack is something I'm very much keeping in mind which is another reason why I think I'm going to have to build to a larger scale and use at least 8 wide as a minimum. Mark, thanks for your advice. When I first started to think about building Victorian era NZ railway models I guessed that 10-11mm scale was likely to be the correct size in relation to the track gauge. Obtaining a true scale top speed is not on my list as I'd prefer to aim for reliable slow running which is just plain going to look better on Lego track. Train lengths on branchlines at this time weren't very long with only three or four wagons or carriages at the very most. I had wondered about extending the legs on minifigs to make them look a little better with larger sized train models. For the 1900s it's easy to make a female figure taller by using a 2 wide slope brick to represent a long skirt, but with the chaps it might come down to surgery. Because I had a bash at Brikwars sometime ago I've got heaps of minifigs, - including some clone ones, - that I can convert into railway staff and ordinary townsfolk. I'll have a go at sawing up some clone legs and converting them into legs for taller folk. Something I do have is a solitary Lego Junior minifig which as it happens is nicely sized for what I'm aiming to build. Has anyone used these minifigs on their Lego railway layouts?

Thanks Zephyr I do actually have a fair few bricks as I've dabbled on and off with making various models over the past couple of years. It's just that I never saw them as being something I could build locos and rolling stock with. Lineside buildings yes, things that run on the track no. But of course I've now been proved wrong and it's a very pleasant discovery indeed. Something I have learned though is that I can have hundreds and hundreds of bricks, but still not have the one that I want The loco I want to build is a NZR 'R' class single Fairlie which was an articulated loco with a light axle loading that was used for branchline work where tight curves were par for the course. Sounds perfect for Lego track doesn't it? There was also an 'S' class single Fairlie as well that was similar, but had a larger cab and longer side tanks and was heavier than the 'R' class. I might build one of these too, but only once I've got a properly working 'R' class. Being able to rework and modify a loco quickly and easily to try out a new approach is delightful. I was having a play at getting some of the proportions right on a tryout 'R' class loco body tonight and I ended up being reasonably happy with what I'd done. In getting the cab right I used some bricks that were a bit of a make do in that they were two studs wide where one wide would have been better, but they are Ok for now. In the past I've tried to use various types of virtual design software and I've never been able to get the hang of it. Even with my handmade 'serious' railway models I've always been a work-it-out-on-the-job-at-hand type of girl so I guess I might just stick to what I know. The mysteries of Bricklink prices is something else I found out about. I wanted to use a particular type of brick in red for the 4 wheel carriage I'm building, - only I discovered it was $NZ0.50 each because it was rare to find in red, but cheap as chips in other colours. Far too expensive for making a coach, - or at least a red one, - but fortunately some of these coaches were painted brown back in the day so a brown coach it shall be as brown bricks only cost $NZ0.03.

Hi everyone, I've just discovered building that Lego is great for building railway models so I've joined Eurobricks to try and learn more about this fascinating hobby.

The track came from a Double Coin brand 'Amusement Train Ride' Item No: 2228 and yes it's made in China. No pointwork (switches) and according to the box the track makes a 14.5 ft oval. If you ever find one you'll know it immediatly because it's pink...... and what isn't pink is mauve My only defense is that I got it very cheap at a sale, - well I got two of them actually. It's a wonder I still had the box and hadn't buried it at midnight to hide the shame of having purchased something so tastelessly awful.

Thanks Dan. All the locos I want to build had 3ft 6 inch driving wheels so I think I will be alright with 8 wide. I really want to get the semblance of narrow gauge proportions with my models which is why I experimented with 8 wide first rather than try 7 wide. Amongst my 'G' gauge spares I have some driving wheels that are the same diameter as the Lego track gauge. If I was to build my locos to suit those wheels I would be building some big locos and using a lot of bricks which is something I don't want to do. It was the BBB wheels that helped to make up my mind for me as I think it would be just about impossible to model steam railways without them. I still like to do a little 'G' scale modelling and I was thinking that I might even try using some BBB wheels to construct a small 0-4-0 just to see how they would work out.