legoman666

Very clever nose design. Sucks that those wedges have the knockouts for studs on their sides. They kind of ruin the sleek look.

A plain black Minifig head is about 1.5 studs diameter. Looks good! Get an L motor in there and start hauling a serious consist!

It lets me go over unpowered track sections, like ME Models curves. I just keep my straights powered.

I've done some experimenting with capacitors and super capacitors. Regular caps weren't even worth the effort, they only get you about 1/4s of run time if you lose connectivity. Of course, picking a larger cap would lengthen the run time. I've tried 2 different super cap configurations, one was 100F, the other 10F. 10F is plenty, but caps are tricky to use, they are seen by your power supply as a dead short (they have very little internal resistance). So you need a way to limit the current to them. Also, their voltage decreases as you use up their stored power, so you need a voltage regulator. So now you need not only to fit some caps in your loco, but also a current limiter and voltage regulator in addition to your motor controller. I have 4 locomotives built this way using custom power pickups, they work well. The one with the 100F system can go for about 2 minutes with no track power, the 10F systems can go for about 30-40 seconds.

Looking pretty slick! When are you going to convert to 7 wide? :)

Love them all. I'm totally going to steal some of the details for my own tankers and gondolas. How many of each did you make?

I feel like European trains get more love here. And while technical builds are always great to see, European locomotives don't do much for me, so I understand. Anyway, looks great!

Yeah, it's in the works. Zephyr is supposed to be working on it for me :)

Haha, it's just a sticker i need to take off still. The two L motors are geared up to 5:3 to almost double the speed. I weighed all of the gondolas, the ones like the one with the RAF sticker are 385g each and there are 5, the ones with the door rail ribbing are 470g each and there are 4, the others are 465g and there are 12. The locomotive clocks in at 1203g. So the rolling stock is 9385g, or 20lbs. And yes, everything has bearings except the locomotive.

4 (gap between wheels) + 2 (1 stud for each wheel) + 2 (trim for each wheel) = 8. I'd love to get it slimmer, but it's impossible building this way. Could maybe get it to 6 studs + 4 plates wide by using plates/tile on their sides. Fuel tank is 8 because irl it looks wide. When I made it 7, it looked too small. Less accurate but more pleasing to the eye. Thanks! This should explain it better:

Basically done? Might try to get more greebling above the trucks. Light blueish gray wedges above the front windshield are not final.

The bricklink fairy came today. Railings! A fuel tank! More railings! A nose! The headlights above the windshield will probably be modified. I don't like them.

Correct. The wheels like to fall off of the c02 variant. The c01 is what you want and are in every 9v era train set. There are no separate part numbers listed for the axle or wheels. If it's any consolation, the c02 wheels and axle will fit in the c01 axle holder.

http://www.bricklink.com/v2/catalog/catalogitem.page?P=2878c01&idColor=11#T=C&C=11

Sure can fit in more detail with 8 wide. Very nice, some inspiration for my own sd70ace.

I think medium blue is closer to the real life color. And besides, I have almost no sand blue :p It's a real locomotive with a one of a kind paint job. Just Google 'UP 1982', you'll turn up hundreds of results. Glad you like it! Hopefully will be able to finish it up this weekend, a Bricklink parts order just shipped that should provide the parts needed to complete it. Still have to incorporate my super capacitor system too. I have it zipping around the track right now using PF components just haphazardly sitting on top of it. I'm trying a different gearing ratio; still have to see if it'll provide necessary torque.

Been working on this for a few weeks now. Main bottleneck is my lack of medium blue brick. Why did I pick this unit? I'm a masochist. Lego's medium blue and dark blue match perfectly. 54 studs long, 7 studs wide. 0.7 studs/foot. Will raise the roof 1 plate. Also need more cheese for the nose (obviously). Need a handful more pop can lids for the bearings. Tried to keep this area under 7 studs tall, I failed.

http://www.bricklink.com/v2/catalog/catalogitem.page?P=3700&name=Technic, Brick 1 x 2 with Hole&category=[Technic, Brick] and http://www.bricklink.com/v2/catalog/catalogitem.page?P=32000&name=Technic, Brick 1 x 2 with Holes&category=[Technic, Brick]

bummed that the kickstarter didnt make it. Any update on those 3d printable tracks with the groove for HO rails?

The wheel sets from the 9v era are the ones you're after. It also helps to make a washer to put between the Technic brick and the wheel. I take a piece of 3mm flex tube and slice a piece off as thin as I can. This will prevent the rear of the wheel from rubbing against the Technic brick. I think some of you must have ordered from a different seller. None of my 150+ so far have had enough variance in diameter that I noticed it was easier or more difficult to slide the axle through. The real difference I noticed is that the 9v era axles are about .05mm smaller than the RC/PF ones (I measured them with calipers). The 0.05 makes all the difference in the world although the newer style still fit.

Looks great! One complaint, American trains don't have buffers.

There are a few photos of 3d prints on the Kickstarter page already.

My "diy PCB" showed up yesterday. The letter said there would be 2. There was 1.

Someone on Facebook said the same. I just ordered more myself, hopefully some crap PCB doesn't show up instead.