zephyr1934

Hey, that looks like a great start. I do not like the sharp right angles of the tile on the rods though, could you get away with just technic half beams? Meanwhile, you definitely want to start building up a working physical model of the mechanism. When I say building up the the physical mechanism, I mean just that- get the moving parts where you want them and any potential conflict point (e.g., the base of the cab and the base of the tender), don't worry about color, substitute parts if need be, and do not worry about any detailing, boiler, or anything else that is not directly related to the mechanicals at this stage. You want to be able to make (relatively) quick modifications to make sure it all works. Whenever I start a new steam engine design I have one idea in mind and I shake out the final version in this manner to catch all of the errors I made in the cad build. I suspect there are several things that you will run into as you transition to real bricks. Looking at the image below, it looks like your wheels are not quartered (the wheels should be 90 degrees out of phase on one side of the locomotive with respect to the other side). I THINK that the last technic beam in your rod assembly (left most in the image) will flop around and not work right. Instead, remove that and use the pin in the currently middle segment to run between the bars representing the crosshead.

That is a great build and looks like the real deal... well except for the fact that it is missing two of the three rails (grin)

That looks like a fun little layout to operate and the various elements are all great (the depot, the cars and the locomotive).

Wow, that looks great, but yeah, that would be crazy to use that many bricks to raise up the entire layout. At some point or another I think I had seen non-lego switch motors mounted under the layout, but not pure lego like this. Perhaps you could raise your layout using wood risers or cut out holes in the table where the switches will go. You would probably want to add some sort of indicator to show which way the switch was pointing and which specific switch it is, e.g., a color coded lever or flag of some sort to convey both items. Presumably you would use long wires and perhaps a 9v train power supply for the final version? Oh, and do you have a manual override so that you can also throw them by hand?

That is a great train with so many delicate features. The locomotive is very unusual looking but the details are great.

That is a nice layout with a lot of opportunities. Several thoughts- I like how the outside track has a meandering feel to it, much better than the nearly right angles of the R40 curves. I like how you have a 9v loop on the inside, so you can also run legacy equipment. You might want to tweak the layout so that the 9v track has a continuous path to the engine house, e.g., connect the small siding on the left side of the 9v loop to the bottom track in the yard, then swap out the three PF switches that fall between there and the engine house with 9v switches from the outer loop... that is assuming the black shed is an engine house. Depending on how complicated you want to make your operations, you could add a second passing track to the outer loop on the bottom of the layout schematic. It would require reworking how you do the crossover now and might require a modified switch or two, but that is not too difficult to do with PF switches. The advantage of having two passing tracks is that you could run two trains on the outside track, heading in opposite directions. Not worth the hassle if you don't plan on getting that complicated though. Would the layout be accessible from all sides? A yard should be great fun, but remote uncoupling is a potential problem unless you explicitly include uncouplers at all locations of interest. Even then, I have yet to see a remote uncoupler that is so reliable that you do not need to occasionally pick up the derailed car. If you are going to wire up remote controlled switches, you might also want to include crossing signals and block signals in a longer range plan (don't build them now, but make sure you have access to do so if you want to add them later). Finally, roundhouses are fantastic, but they do take up a huge amount of space and brick. So before heading in that direction just make sure there is not something else you would want more given your constrains on space, track, etc. Looking again at your yard, one potential problem I see is that to access the main storage tracks you would have to be traveling clockwise around the mainline, pull into the spur track, then shove into the yard. Pulling out of the yard a train would have to reverse this sequence, first onto the spur, shove back on to the main to get out, or have a second engine pull it counter clockwise from the spur to the mainline. I have no idea how you could make it any smoother though, that is the challenge of any yard and might add to the fun of the layout.

What a great show, top notch. Your trains look fantastic and that must have been a lot of fun to go screaming into those grand curves.

It has been a long time since I've laughed that hard at a lego creation. All the more impressive to see what you have really put into this work.

You might want to check out Mark Bellis' monorails

The cars look great

You can just move the inside rail at least one stud toward the outside rail. I did it here on top of 9v rail for a dual gauge track. It creates a bit of a gap and you have to stagger the rails by one stud, but I think it works without too much stress.

Wow!

That came together very quickly and it is looking great and it has great motion with the pistons and all.

That is a great station with a lot of great details.

Congratulations on surviving your first show... especially with only two people to man it.

Welcome aboard Chochacho, and that is a great rendering of a Yellowbelly, especially if this is your first time at a steam engine.

Some nice angles going on that build.

Oh yes indeed, it is very accurate for any builder. Though now you know better than to have a conversation with that LUG member (grin)

That is a great build, you nailed both the look and the mechanicals are very impressive. Did you try the roof features in black too? I don't know what color they should be, but I would think that they should be black. Seeing the motor and gears through the window seems prototypical too.

That is enough to turn your head inside out, great work.

Indeed, fantastic locomotive and it is very neat to see the evolution (so quickly too).

Wow wow wow, great trains, fantastic layout, and the the addition of steam, sound and DCC is over the top.

If you have the track already, layout something, play with it until you get something you like, then measure it. If to large, reiterate. If you want to join the two loops with normal lego switches you will need another 10 inches but you can do better by modifying the switches into a crossover so that it is the same size as the loop if there were no switches.

If you went this route you could cheat it to add an overhang to get the remaining the 5 inches (128 cm) necessary for a proper double loop.

That was my idea... ah well, you know what they say about great minds... though that probably has nothing to do with me (grin). I'm waiting on parts and will be building it in real brick real soon.