zephyr1934

That is a great little MOC and the color scheme looks sharp. Aside from the updated parts that looks like it could have been a set from 1992 (though your selection of hand tools is nicer). LT12V beat me to the punch, but I'll say it anyway, that that background is fantastic too. Did you use the spring suspension too?

I've heard that James built most of his models only in virtual form and this certainly looks like the sort of problem you only run into when you actually start building from digital designs. You are probably going to have to disrupt some of the interior detailing, e.g., by using a 1x4 arch to span where the pin needs to come in. Or 1x1 plates + 1x4 plate +1x3 plate to do similar. Or you might be able to use the HE trick, a pair of 2x2 round plates to clear the pin hole while keeping the studs above. Fortunately, except for the small impact on the interior appearance it shouldn't be too hard to fix.

Looking good (and if there are elements in there you want to change, well this is just version 1, that's the great part about lego)

Wow! Can't wait to see the results. Have you already set up a time table for which trains to stop at which station (grin)

I too would guess 4 PF train motors to pull the lot. I have an ABA + 8 car North Coast Limited set, but the cars are about 10 studs longer than the Super Chief cars. A couple of things you should keep in mind with your build, 1) an IR receiver will only power 2 PF train motors, so you will probably need two IR receivers and two batteries. The two IR receivers will be a little difficult to keep in sync given the fact that the train controller only goes "increase/decrease speed" rather than "run at speed 2". It can be done, it just takes careful attention. 2) My NCL train is already beyond the limits of lego magnets, I had to supplement the magnets with rare earth magnets. If you go out to 10 coaches, you might need to use some form of hook for the first several cars (simplest would be a technic beam with pins) 3) I think the red train bases all have 1x2 holes in them, whereas the PF train bases have 2x2 holes for wires. So to run the PF wires through them you might have to modify the old train bases or build up your own frame using plates. The latter is probably better anyway, because you can feed the wires to the back side of both motors without the need for a pole reverser switch. 4) Speaking of where to put the motors, it will be a lot easier to hide the wires if you put the motors in the B units, also making it easier to put two motors under a single unit. You will also likely want to put some weight over your motors. Either lego boat weights or a bunch of pennies/small change) Looking forward to seeing your progress.

Difficult yes, but you can get close... (click here for more inspiration)

Cough cough...

Welcome to the super steam era! She looks fantastic and I'm looking forward to seeing it in real bricks.

Thanks for the kind words. Like the rods these were born of, "I would really like it if..." I was particularly tickled by how nicely the lantern turned out. That is another nice thing about this rapid prototyping, it doesn't have to appeal to thousands of people. Still, if these prove popular I'd be open to considering other hand tools too.

Wow, those little boxcars look great! Don't tear them apart... especially not the brown one. (I know I know, too many trains to build, too few parts)

A great build (look at all of that dark blue) with lots of neat details, e.g., the close coupling cars.

WOW! It is amazing to see all of those engines (i.e., sets of drivers) working together in the videos... and all with valve gear too. Unbelievable, you've built an engineering marvel wrapped in a gorgeous exterior. You've done a great job capturing the essence of the prototype too. The final photo where you reproduce the roundhouse crew shot (which is great in itself) really speaks to the size of the original. Usually such crew shots have the men across the top of the locomotive, along the running boards, and standing in front of the engine... but the triplex is so large that the crew did not even have to climb up to get everyone in the shot.

The rerelease of the metroliner, 10001, was aimed at AFOLs, who typically already had several power supplies. At the time the only way to get train parts was to buy train sets and most train sets had a power supply. As a result, you can still buy all of the parts for the power supply in new condition for less than the MSRP. In fact even the power supply set is averaging for about MSRP on bricklink right now. So if the power supply standing between you and a metroliner, I'd say take the jump. If you are not in a hurry you can probably find a used power supply cheap (e.g., via ebay). The super chief is a fantastic set. The one thing that has always struck me about it is how few people have made repaints. You can do so for a heck of a lot less than the sets are going for and make it in the livery of your favorite railroad. There are a few spots where you will have to update or pay a lot, e.g., the port hole windows on the engine (easy enough to replace with 2x2 radar dishes, 2x2 round tiles, or stickers) and the transparent macaroni bricks on the observation car (easy enough to replace with a more rounded observation car), but nothing too severe. As long as you do not care about side doors on the hood, you should be able to hide a PF battery box and maybe even IR receiver in a design like this or this with a 5 wide hood. Though in my case I filled up the hood doing the snot to make the doors.

Introducing my latest custom parts for lego train enthusiasts: a long spout oil can and a kerosene brakeman's lantern. Lego built steam engines have been around for decades. Until now, however, the minifig engine crews have lacked the right oil cans to reach all of the reservoirs when lubricating the locomotive. Meanwhile, the conductor and brakemen can finally give clear hand signals at night... More photos can be found here. As with the rods, the gray parts are a little grainy. For the detailed shots in the folder I do not think the full sized photos do not do the parts justice, I shot them in my low light basement and then tweaked the contrast so that the shots generally look "normal". Unfortunately this photographic tweaking also highlights the grain. I would say the thumbnail photos are more accurate of the part appearance. I am in the process of fabricating these parts in black as well and they should be ready in about a week. Black does not have any grain to it, but it is a matte finish. These parts are fabricated at the same time that I make the steam locomotive rods. The gray parts are now available for $2.49 ea in my bricklink store (look under minifig utensils). Assuming black fab completes successfully, I will be adding those soon.

Echoing Cale, email all of your lego train buddies and tell them about this opportunity. The huge sweeping curves on the PennLug layout are incredible, but even at that radius the fact that the curves are built out of straight track segments still creates a lot of drag. The constant radius curves like ME Models are proposing are the best way to go (sure PennLug is twice as wide as ME, but if ME gets off the ground now, they might get to insanely large radii curves in the future). I think Lego might be right that hyper-detailed train AFOLs are a niche market and our demand will never compete with Hero Factory, Chima, etc, but our demand is large enough to support specialized suppliers like ME Models... as long as we are willing to vote with our wallets. This is a great opportunity to get wider variety of track elements (both PF and 9v). As per my own effort with custom wide radius curves, I am building R88 curves and they make a huge difference, e.g., the exact same train: before (R40) after (R88) The wider radius curves also wind up saving straight track, e.g., R88 will save 6 segments of straight track for each 90° curve, while R104 will save 8 segments. Even if you are happy with the tight radius lego curves, another reason to support this effort by ME Models is simply the straight track. You can get a better selection of lengths, probably at a lower price than lego (PF or 9v).

Looking good. If all you want is a solid light, I'd suggest pulling the IR receiver out and just power the light from the battery. Meanwhile, for those interested in flashing things, using lights and sounds lights from 15-20 years ago, you can build a flashing fred, e.g., here. Though it would be cheaper to avoid PF altogether and use the old style battery boxes and electrical connectors for that design.

It is neat to see the progression you are taking with this excellent model

Looking great!

No problem. As for that beautiful steam engine, that was the work of LT12V.

All of my ideas have already been taken, but at least I can add a little context. If you like historic US trains, then definitely the Super Chief (that is if you have deep pockets). If you are more into US freight, then BNSF and TTX. If you like European trains better, 4564 the rail runner can't be beat. Or somewhat location ambiguous, the metroliner is a great set (4558 or 10001)

Not to be a bad influence on you or anything, but here's a thought, and another, and another, and another, and another, and with a little digging you can get to the minifig scale one in this set too. I'm sure the instructions are available at lego customer service and you'd have to do some modifications though.

Definitely not an easy nose to do in 7 wide. If you stick with the cheese bricks, try to work in a 1.5 plate offset between successive bricks on the same slope, instead of the 1 plate offset you have on the bottom and 2 plate offset on the window. Lego used that trick on the nose of the Maersk loco and it looks like you are using it for adjacent rows as well.

Of course with any lego model there will be compromises, but when faced with them your choices have been good. As for miniland trains, there is a good article in Railbricks 6 and it looks like they are 21 wide (at least the train on the cover).

Hi Wolfcraft, welcome to Eurobricks and thanks for the kind words. Yes, they have a matte surface and they are a little grainy. If you look close at them you will definitely not mistake them for lego. However, they do a good job blending in, so often you will not notice the slightly rough surface. I personally think it is more pronounced in the photos because many of the shots in my brickshelf pages are larger than life (and I'm not a great photo editor, but don't tell anyone, okay?). The nice thing about this rapid prototyping is that there is very little setup cost for the first item. So it is well suited for special requests. I have fabricated over 60 different part designs for the rods and bars, many only once or twice for special orders (want a half stud offset, asymmetrical rod? No problem). Everyone is going to want a slightly different spacing. Another nice feature with the rods is the fact that I can go much longer than the standard 7 long half thick technic beam. The down side about this rapid prototyping is that there are very few economies of scale. I am able to absorb the setup costs by fabricating many parts at a time, but that only goes so far and the prices are high because that is what I need to charge. However, at this price, I definitely want you to be happy. So use your judgement. Oh, and note that my store only lists the most common parts. If you want something else, just send a message either via EB or BL messages and we see what is feasible.

This build is incredible. Sure, the prototype is very boxy, but you still have so much snot detailing going on to slip all sorts of extra details in. Great job with so much attention to this locomotive.