Locomotive Annie

Thankyou for your advice Frank. I do want to have people on my layout and it would be nice to be able to use minifigs. With some of my larger scale models I used Playmobil figures (am I allowed to say 'Playmobil' here?) which were a lot of fun, but I don't want to start pushing the proportions out that far or I might as well stick to 15-16mm scale and be done with it. I must admit my part built 4 wheel carriage is looking reasonably nice at 8 wide, so I think I might have a go at converting a MOT loco into an 8 wide single Fairlie as a test piece and if that turns out alright as well I'll stick with 8 wide and not look back.

Hello everyone, I'm very new to brick built trains despite having been a railway enthusiast for as long as I can remember. When I was younger I was into scratchbuilding railway models in the smaller scales, but recently I've been working in 15-16mm scale on 45mm track. I was aware of the Lego trains line of sets, but it wasn't until I discovered the on-line pictures of Carl Greatrix's work almost by accident that the scales fell from my eyes. After years of measuring and cutting out and sawing things and soldering and gluing & etc to make models the idea of being able to make railway models to a good standard by a 3D jigsaw puzzle process (if I may call it that) that requires nothing to be glued, or screwed together or soldered is a revelation. I would like to make models of the locomotives, carriages and wagons that were used here in New Zealand during the 'Small Engine' era circa 1890-1910. Most of the locos I want to build are small boilered tank engines of British origins and the track gauge is 3ft 6inches. Having found out a little about the mysteries of 6 wide and 8 wide & etc I've been experimenting with a 4 wheel carriage based on the MOT coach because it's reasonably close in appearance to the type of carriages I want to build. I could see right away that 6 wide wasn't going to be any good for NZR models on L Gauge track, so I tried 8 wide which is much better and I could now at least have an aisle between the seats inside the carriage. Only now I'm wondering if 10 wide would be the best choice in order to obtain the best proportions between model size and the track gauge. If I do that I'm definitely going to be moving beyond minifig scale which doesn't worry me so much, - only I don't want to set off on the wrong foot with building my trains as I ultimately want to build a small 1900s layout with all the usual railway buildings, houses and so on you would've expected to find back then in the district where I live. Am I just being a complete newbie here? - worrying too much before I even start to build anything (sigh).

You can say that again, Vincent Meeuw's steam locomotives are absolutely outstanding.

As a life long railway enthusiast and now Lego and brick construction set newbie I want to see track, especially straight track and points/switches become more available as an over the counter purchase. And I would like to be able to buy individual passenger carriages and goods wagons. Some good SNOT early 20th Century steam locos would be good too, - especially tank engines. Hi-speed modern trains don't interest me at all and I don't buy them unless I'm planning on buying them at discount to mine for parts for another project. Folk might complain about makers like Enlighten, but it seems to me that they are selling what brick train enthusiasts want. Track packs, individual passenger coaches and wagons, and individually packed locos at an affordable price..

Didn't London Transport have some ex GWR locos that were painted in their red livery? I really enjoyed seeing your 1400 class as I've got a big soft spot for tank engines.

As a newbie starting out with brick built trains I found track to be the biggest obstacle. Englighten and Banbao track packs are cheaply and readily available here in New Zealand, but I wouldn't have a clue where to buy Lego track outside of a set. Enlighten point/switch packs are available for $NZ14 which is waaaaaay cheaper than anything I've seen on Bricklink. Surprisingly some cheap plastic non-brick trainsets are to L gauge. I do some 16mm scale railway modelling as well and I would buy cheap trainsets to break down for parts as I only have a small hobby budget. Not being aware of L gauge at the time I was very much puzzled by the odd track gauge in a couple of trainsets I'd purchased. I'm going to make use of this track too, the larger radius curves are just too useful to ignore.

That is a beautiful steam loco. The more I looked at the photo the more cleverly thought out details I could see. Thankyou for posting the photo of your first attempt too, seeing photos like that one are really encouraging to a new chum like me.

The LGauge link is interesting and even though The LGauge link is really interesting even though I'm not especially into Nth American trains. Thanks for posting that