zephyr1934

To my eye it looks like an SP GP40 trying to emerge in the style of the Maersk only with the gray baseplate and the large gray tile with studs (grin)

Actually, most of those were originally narrow gauge steam locomotives in the wild (search for "Disney" on this page). On an odd tangent, Disney has... or at least used to have very strict grooming rules for their employees in the parks... except for the old timer railroaders who were running the steam engines when I went to the park in the 1990's... they were right proper scruffy and seemed to be enjoying their retirement jobs.

Hey Steve, I love the idea and applaud the potential collaboration with ME. I hope it will be profitable for both parties and my 9v steam engines would love some R88 action (they are pretty jealous of my PF trains on the ME track). Though even with collaboration, doing a Kickstarter would be a great way to make sure that there is sufficient market demand out there.

Continued excellence, keep it coming.

You've incorporated some neat details that I haven't seen in any MOCs, e.g., I like the various pilots you've built up and the nose door is a nice touch. Now here's another option for the trucks- leave out the middle wheels altogether. It doesn't look like you can see them behind the truck frames.

Oh, yes, I know what you mean about not being able to set everything up at home. And I must say, "Doh!" that's right, I remember that you have some insanely detailed trains (e.g., your Flying Scotsman)... yeah, that makes it a lot more difficult to simply swap batteries in and out.... Could you do a temporary loop at home for R&D and test the endurance to avoid unpleasant surprises at a show? In any event, looking forward to seeing your new trains.

Ah, okay, I have two heavy passenger trains that are probably like yours in terms of weight and drag if not heavier, e.g., my North Coast Limited. Those trains are both powered with two PF train motors and a single LiPo PF battery. They are heavy enough that even with a pair of rare earth magnets behind the engine that the train will sometimes pull off if I am not really careful with the speed. I believe I can get at least two hours of run time out of them without recharging... maybe even 3 hours. In this case I found the IR receiver to be the most limiting factor, it cannot deliver enough current. So if I pushed too much power by running too fast the train would stall for a second or two until the receiver cooled down and then come back on at the same power level. So the engine would rocket off without the train, hit the very next curve and take off like a kite. I went with an SBrick because it can deliver at least twice the current of the IR receiver without problems. Compared to two IR receivers it is only about twice the price. It sounds like you'll need to do some experimenting to find the solution you like. Assuming you are able to move the train all the way around your layout with two PF train motors and one IR receiver you should be good to start, the rest would be fine tuning. To this end, probably start with a single battery box and a single IR receiver and only augment as needed. Rather than building a second motor car, why not design it so that the battery box can be easily swapped out? That way if you are not happy with the battery life you can do a quick battery change and probably do so for less than any other two-battery solution. If you then find the IR receiver is limiting (which should only happen in extreme cases) then potentially add a second IR receiver to the same battery to see if that solves the problem. If so, either stay there or consider an SBrick. In any event, just be careful that you can reach all parts of your layout (otherwise, you know that the batteries will decide to die under that mountain in the far corner that you cannot reach). Now here is another complication about heavy trains. My aforementioned trains slow down A LOT in standard lego curves. The motors can only deliver so much power (and that is with a lot of extra weight on the engine to improve traction). When using R44 curves the trains will only run well on layouts that are close to square. So the train is always in roughly the same number of curves. Otherwise, if it can sometimes run straight and sometimes be in two curves that will cause a lot of problems- slows greatly for the curves so you need a lot of power to get through them, then the train speeds up way to fast when it straightens out, and then derails as it enters the next curve due to the speed from the power that was necessary for the previous curve. If you run into this situation, then you'd probably want 4 PF train motors powering your train so that you can maintain a more constant speed in and out of curves (you'll have a lot more power at a given speed so the train will slow less in the curves). But here you'll need either the SBrick or two IR receivers... and quite possibly two batteries. Of course large radius curves are another story. Both of my heavy trains are quite happy to run at full speed in ME R88 and R104 curves with the IR receivers. When running on the PennLUG extremely large radius curves built out of straight track segments the IR receivers did not like all of the extra drag caused by all of the trucks constantly changing directions at each rail joint and so the IR receivers would stall.

I stumbled on some of your WIP photos of this model and was impressed then, but it looks even better completed. Not only is it easily recognizable, you've got a lego model that could easily be mistaken for a conventional model railroad car. You've squeezed a lot of detail using some clever new (to me) building techniques in a relatively small space. I didn't think the tile bricks with grills would look so good but it really works well. This is fantastic MOC. For all of my impure lego thoughts (and even a few painted parts) I personally would not paint an entire model. Getting unpainted lego to look so great is a massive challenge, if you painted it that would hide a lot of your meticulous creation... I personally like to leave an exposed stud here or in your case a standard lego color there to show that it is the real deal. Ultimately though, it is in the eye of the builder, so ponder it and then do what you prefer. If you keep thinking about the paint maybe build up an 8 stud long test section of the wall to paint and see how you like it. Otherwise, if it stays unpainted and it is a mix of old and new gray, perhaps find a fluorescent light that highlights the differences between the two colors and then standardize it to be all one or all the other color.

In general I believe you are not supposed to connect batteries in parallel, otherwise any uneven voltage level will result in one battery attempting to charge the other one. If instead you tried to connect the batteries serially (e.g., in the AAA battery pack you get 9v by summing 6*1.5v) when serially connecting two PF battery boxes you would instead get 2*9v=18v which is too much for the PF motors. So as others have said, make two separate systems. I would think that putting the motors in separate engines with one on red and the other on blue but both on the same numbered channel would be the way to go. As per earlier posts, both on the same color output will wind up with them being out of sync if one misses a "increase speed" command. You can match it by hand though if you have one on red and the other on blue, you just have to listen and watch to make sure they are not too far out of coordination (I suspect it would be okay if they were off by one speed step since either unit would already be overwhelmed without the help of the other). Alternatively if you had a large locomotive you could use an SBrick that allows you to set multiple outputs (potentially on multiple SBricks) to the same level, but that can get expensive really quickly. Getting back to your original question, pulling a long train, have you thought about using XL motors instead? You might have to hide them in a boxcar, but that shouldn't be too hard to do. I've pulled 50+ cars with this unit (plus a few weights to help for traction). It will pull the magnets apart first, then pull the cars off the rails on the curves before it runs out of pulling power. The battery lasts for at least two hours... probably more. The train does run very slow though.

Makes total sense, and still looking great

While this build is up to your own usual exceptional standards, there are still a lot of exceptional details that are new to me, e.g., the brick built platform (curse you, now I can't wait to get my hands on a large quantity dark red version of those bricks... well... okay, I wanted a large quantity to begin with but now I want more). And really insane is the small twist you used on the 1x plates to make the bricks pop. Great work all around.

There are instructions for a few good steam engine designs in the Railbricks steam instructions gallery and many more tips in the magazine itself. Even if you never build any of those there is a lot of food for thought. Expanding on Duq's suggestions, yes starting on a design by someone else is a good place to start. When you build your own, it is easiest to start small, perhaps an 0-6-0 so that you do not have to worry about making pilot or trailing wheels work on tight lego curves (perhaps the hardest part of any lego steam locomotive). No matter what you attempt, when you get to your own MOC build the mechanicals first, make sure your design can make it around any curve, bumpy track or switch you'll want to put it through. Try both directions through any curve, etc.. Once satisfied, then figure out how to add the boiler, cab, etc. above.

What an excellent piece of work. Though if you want to show off the locomotive you do need to extract it from the equally well done landscape. Using strictly brick built techniques it would be hard to do better. There are only two things I see. First, perhaps a half plate offset on the cheese bricks on the nose so they line up smooth. Second, if you didn't care about being able to put minifigs in the cab you could do a brick built set of windows to replicate the fact that the green line splits the cab windows (e.g., replacing the black 1x2 tile next to the cab window in this MOC with green and black 1x1 tiles... an earlier version of the cab build can be found in the REC reveal of RB2). Don't get me wrong though, these suggestions are minor. Meanwhile, is it built to run or is it built for display? It does look like there could be room to fit PF in that 6 wide hood, but that would require reworking those fantastic trucks.

Oh... ouch ouch ouch. Even if the 6 wide is being retired, it is still painful to watch a lovely model like that get scrapped. Couldn't you just pull the prime mover out and donate it to a park somewhere along the right of way? (grin) Are you are having problems when the train goes through curves to the left, or is going counter clockwise around a loop? And/or when choosing your gearing for the trucks, the motor torques the entire truck to the right as the engine moves forward? A quick summary can be found here. Though that discussion was why you will likely have better performance running your steam engines clockwise (rather than counter clockwise) around a 9v layout. The 9v track have a little lip at the joints where the wheels can climb the rail. I think the problem has been reduced on the plastic track, but maybe not. A similar problem arises in how you choose to transfer power to the wheels. If the central axis is spinning clockwise as the train goes forward it will push the front axle of the truck against the right hand rail and it will hit the small protrusions at the rail joints. Rebuild your truck swapping the location of at least one bevel gears and now the central axis will have to turn counterclockwise to go forward, thus pushing the leading wheel against the left rail, away from the protrusion at the rail joints (see in "Clockwork" in RB 7 for more info).

You just need to sell the idea to your 2 yr old and with an absolute majority is there anything your wife can say about the living room? (Yeah, I know, you live an a benevolent monarchy, but it would be worth keeping a straight face long enough for the grins). Seriously though, nice design no matter what the age and a great activity.

That is looking great (the window pane for the ladder is a great touch). As for the underframe, when in doubt, look at a few model train cars for inspiration (or even better, the real deal if you can find it safely) and then replicate the general feel.

Stop it! Stop it! Stop it! You're making the rest of us look bad!... Well, the last point might be true, but in all seriousness, keep it coming. Your rollingstock is top notch and I find each new car or locomotive inspiring. Great work! PS, what are you using for coupling, Lego? LGB? ???

That is a great diorama, lots of detail throughout. The tunnel entrance might be my favorite bit (after writing this and looking through the other comments, I see I'm not the only one), but there is so much to like in this build. All of the retaining walls are great, the inclusion of the overhead wire (so difficult to do on a full layout), the small construction site, and generally great use of the three dimensions.

Excellent layout, there is a lot going on in a small space. Your shop buildings are fantastic, the river running through town is great, and overall it has a good "to scale" feel. The detailing is top notch.

The changes look good, though another thought comes to mind, if you can't make the PF plug hide under a panel, maybe you could build something one plate above to hide it, e.g., a 2x4 plate or tile held on by a 1x2 plate on top of the PF connector. In this case you could use four 1x2 tile with grill on top of a 2x4 plate of the same color to make a radiator or something similar.

Could you do the fence cheaper using antennas? I personally like the old station front with the new platforms (and definitely on the side rather than at the end of tracks, this station seems too small to be a stub terminal). It has the feeling of a long used rail line that has been updated. While a lot of stations were bombed out in WW2, many survived or were rebuilt. I would think that smaller stations like this would be more likely to have survived. Could you do the posts in yellow using this part? As for saving money... ha ha, you could never build something that large for cheap. But yes, avoiding a lot of expensive parts will still be worth the effort.

I would have to agree with davidzq. That is part of the challenge of building in rare colors, you need to improvise. So in this case, replace the "1x1 dark blue with knob" with a standard dark blue 1x1 brick. Then one stud in from the outside of the car put a different color 1x1 brick with knob. Use a 2x2 plate on the bottom of your window stack instead of the 1x2 plate. It will work just as good and will be a lot cheaper than buying the 1x2 brick with knob (that will probably be an expensive part if it only comes in the Dr Who set). If you do an interior you could even work this in as part of a bulkhead between the seating area and lavatory. Personally, I prefer solutions like Tenderlok's though, you can do it between each pair of windows for greater strength, but I don't build interiors. Since you are doing 7 wide, you could use 2x2 corners to brace the windows against the inside walls (eliminating the need for the brick with studs on the side) and then use some plates on the inside, below the window line, to hold the windows together (doing the same function as the 2x6 plate in his image, except doing so under the window line). As for what parts are available in dark blue, you can use the "colors" option on bricklink to see what parts come in a given color, e.g., here's the selection for dark blue. Looks like the 1x2x2 bracket came in dark blue, but it is pricey and not many are available.

Ooo, ouch, that hurts just to look at. could the wood in the crate be treated with a chemical that attacks the metal in the rails? I would think the source would be more than simply high humidity. My club stores the 9v track in a trailer that sits in the open sun and weather, our 9v track seems to do fine, never had a problem like that. Meanwhile, I've learned the hard way to be very careful with erasers that I use to clean the track, I left one in storage sitting on a baseplate, a few months later the chemicals in the eraser had melted part of the baseplate. PS, please do post photos from your show in a new thread.

Greetings new friend, while indeed there are all sorts of interesting bits in old threads like this, please do not bump an old topic just to add a small comment or ask a quick question. Few of the readers will remember the original discussion and it just becomes confusing for the regular readers. If you have questions for the original poster you can try sending them a private message. You can also start a new thread if you have a related topic that is not a direct continuation. Of course if you do have a substantial follow up to an old thread it is sometimes appropriate to do a bump like this, e.g., "I finally built this and found...."

Oh wow, an excellent station, great work and it is neat to see the evolution of your design.