zephyr1934

I'm going to follow the master Bill Peet and use the windows and door to be the face. The windows will be stickers, the nose a simple doorknob and the mouth will be 1/2 plate lines at the bottom of the door (via the basic offsets started with the sketch in my last post). I've tweaked the mouth so that if you look at it from one side it looks like Katy is not happy (it isn't quite a frown, just a flat line) and from the other side a nice smile. I'll get pictures of that soon. I still do, the rhymes and the pictures are amazing. And while the pictures are cartoonish, they are still realistically detailed in their own way. Does this mean Katy eats people!?? You have just destroyed my world (grin) Meanwhile, returning to the build experience, with the arched roof being critical to this build, I had to get something that worked. This required more physical component mockups. After a lot of trial and error I came up with a solution that I am quite pleased with, Ignoring the top brick on the right (that allows me to just build 1/2), what do you think compared to the prototype?

Oh my, this is looking complicated. Any chance you've got example photos of the prototype?

That is a great little prototype, and very much in line with your recent 4 wide work

That looks really good, and echoing F.Z., I like how you used the windshields to "bend" the windows.

Maybe the crocodile will be the reverse of when the Super Chief was discontinued. It disappeared from the US markets long before it did so in the European markets, presumably based on how long it took the existing stock to sell out.

Oh no need for apologies, you got it quicker than I thought but that's all part of the fun. The strangest thing I find about this competition is that there seems to be more talk about it over here than there is on the flickr group. Maybe that's because the forum format allows a continuous thread on a given model. That was just me being silly, there is one more deliberately hidden Easter egg, but it will only make sense when I reveal the model. (assuming my plan comes together) This post is guaranteed to bring a smile. As I mentioned previously, with just a door and a pair of windows for a face, Katy is amazingly expressive, with various features serving as a "mouth" at different times throughout the book. I'm planning to make the caboose 6 wide and the door 2 wide. That does not leave much space to work in the detail of the mouth. All of this leads to another one of the three main components of my design process, offline brain storming. I hit a problem in the digital world, go back to the real world, and many hours or days later I'll get an inspiration to solve my problem. Of course I might be at work or somewhere else that I can't really pick up the digital model. So I find a scrap of paper to scribble down my ideas. In this case I need to move the bricks 1/2 plate up and 1/2 plate to the side. With the wide array of brackets and side studs on bricks I've gotten pretty good at doing a single 1/2 plate offset anywhere I want it, but doing two at a time can still be tricky in a tight space like this. So this bit is the insight I had a few days ago for doing Katy's smile, it will fall in a 2 stud wide opening bounded by tiles. I've since incorporated it into my digital build with further refinements. It isn't done yet, e.g., by changing one of the vertical black plates to red I think I can tweak it to give different expressions depending on which way you look at it.

That's brilliant!

Thing 1, I am about to start my post over in flickr, so anybody reading this thread please keep the answer secret for 24 hrs. Let them scratch their heads for a day. Then, if you are really nice people, let Hod Carrier out me there too (he did it so well over here). Thing 2, Hod Carrier, next time you order rods (or whatnot) from me, remind me and I'll give you a free oil can, lantern or stepbox for knowing good literature when you see it. Thing 3, I can't imagine that Bill Peet's fantastic book, The Caboose Who Got Loose, has been translated into other languages, the rhyming is so critical to the magic of the book, that starts, "When Katy caboose rambled down the train tracks, the engines were steamers with puffing smokestacks. She was a caboose who disliked being last" (highlights added for bits borrowed in past posts). I also mentioned a round about relationship to Disney, Mr. Peet was an animator at Disney for about 30 years, starting in 1937, and then went on to create a whole collection of children's' books in a second career. With just a door and a pair of windows for a face, Katy is amazingly expressive, with various features serving as a "mouth" at different times throughout the book. I'll have a post about working on her smile after I catch those Flickr folks up to speed.

Why whatever would make you say such a thing?

Thanks for the tip, when I have a chance I'll replicate this thread over there.

Getting the topic back on track, I find it interesting that the crocodile locomotive is not currently included on the US retiring soon list. I gather that it has shown up on European lists, no?

Now if I had been 2.5 months later, my steam elephant might have made a big splash in this competition, but there is that stinking Aug 1 cutoff. !@#$% I hate you BMR! (how's that for brown nosing the judges in a competition where you are judged in part based on how good the story is). So anyway, back to my project at hand. Although I am being cagey, I'm not trying to mislead. So to be clear, my MOC will be a piece of rollingstock and it is standard gauge, but it dates to the golden age of steam (hence the title of this thread). The picture of the trucks was just a quick assessment to see if I can space two full trucks one stud apart. The final build will probably have ball bearing wheels with a custom "truck frame" similar to this one, only shorter. While many people might know this prototype, it probably is not widely known and I suspect few out of the US are even aware of it. It does have some roundabout ties to Disney though. My design process cycles through digital building and then offline brain storming. When the build is really tricky, like this one, I also have to do physical component mockups to make sure a given idea will work. It is already looking like this build will have several physical mockups to get all the angles. The most daunting feature of my prototype is the fact that it has a wide arc that is open on both sides. I personally think that is really hard to do in Lego at the scale of a 6 wide train, and that is the biggest reason why I've never attempted this model. Here's my first attempt at the structure of the arc. While I like the gentle curve, I'm not so happy with the indents, it looks too much like a watchband, so I am continuing my search for other solutions. Next time around I'll show you a glimpse of the brainstorming.

The build is amazing given the limitation of mid 80's parts and the renders are great.

Yeah, I'm surprised they haven't come by and posted the announcement here in EB. From the text in the announcement, it looks like they JUST finalized the competition and haven't circulated it widely yet. It was pure dumb luck that I stumbled on it when I did. Which gets to my core strategy of winning- DO NOT TELL ANYONE about it (grin), I hate being last. In all seriousness though, the more the merrier, I'm using my thread to spread the word as much as anything else (all the details are spelled out in the competition link of my first post). The stuff I've seen folks produce in the past years for this competition is just amazing. WaHaHahaHaha! My evil plan is afoot (not to say that it is "a foot," more that I've... wait, you've got me monologuing again!). So far I've only given two obscure hints of the subject and you'll have to put up with a few more cagey posts before I start to come clean.

Preamble This thread is about my submission to the 2021 BMR OcTRAINber competition. Part of the competition is the design process and that is reflected with the slow build up and development in the thread. It is not until the third page that you see the final results and in fact the the thread starts with the specific subject murky and unclear. Now that the final build has been built and photographed, I'm adding this brief preamble to show you where this is all going, The full gallery can be found here. The original post now follows... ================================== This past weekend, while diligently not doing one of the more than a dozen things I really need to be doing, I stumbled on the BMR OcTRAINber competition. It is rare that I can go from concept to build in 6 weeks and as noted above, way too many other things on my plate (I'm still working on my train for BW 2020). But they are talking small... I can do small... the promise of small has sucked me in as I saw the words of inspiration in the post. Yes, while I usually sit out of the OcTRAINber builds because I can't move fast enough, I will attempt to MOC a prototype that I've always wanted to do but have dismissed as being impossible to do well. It might not win, but I'm hoping for a few "that's neat." I will leave you guessing on my chosen subject for a little while as I begin the design process, but photos will leak out. Often the first step of any design is simply checking to see if it is mechanically sound. Huzzah! My incredible vision will be able to handle R40 curves. Ultimately none of these parts will appear in the final build. One thing is apparent from this little leak, it is clearly not a steam engine.

You've done an amazing job with this MOC... though are you sure this is your first MOC? It looks like you must have been doing MOCs for years (grin). Do you have a flickr account with more pictures?

@SDLgo9 If you are a fan of 7777 you definitely want to check out this thread with a massive gray era 12v layout

@jburgt There's an entire spectrum of build philosophies among the members here, mostly ranging from the purists who strictly use Lego bricks to very liberal people who will use 3rd party bricks, cut, paint, glue, and use all sorts of other four letter words in their constructions. There are some fascinating challenges to building if you limit yourself to strictly lego bricks, in fact there are even a few people here who will not use Lego bricks manufactured after some date, e.g., 1990 (I think most of these folks specify brick designs, but at least one case was literally after a specific date). There is no one answer, most of the members recognize the challenges under all of the different scenarios and can appreciate the skill even if it 'violates' one of their personal rules or could easily be worked around by relaxing a personal rule. I suspect personal background is the biggest determining factor- folks who came to Lego trains through other Lego themes are more likely to tend purist, and folks who came from other forms of model railroading are more likely to take a kit-bashing approach. One suggestion to you, for track you will be hard to beat bricktracks molded curves, TrixBrix is starting to mold curves too for some radi. Some of the TrixBrix printed geometry is also really tempting. And of course if you need 9v power, you can't beat the FX Track.

That looks really good! Lego on G is always neat to see.

While much of the requests in that video would be really neat, I doubt we'll see much of them. There are a lot of complaints in the video about things that Lego deliberately did, e.g., bundling engines with cars, straight track with curves, etc.. Trains are on the fringe. I do wish Lego would remove the buffers from the coupler, they can keep the long bar, just put one stud on the end so that people can add buffers or not. I still have my stash of 9v magnets, but when those run out I will either buy the studly trains magnets or I will turn to a knife to cut the buffers off. I do think it would be nice if one of the city trains came with a steam engine, probably a tank engine. I won't hold my breath, but I wouldn't rule it out either. Now there were two surprising cracks in TLC approach to trains last year. After the HE was discontinued, it did not look like we would ever get another AFOL train, the crocodile was a glimmer of hope that we will see more in the future (why couldn't they have done it in dark green??? !@#$% stupid choices of colors... or better still, rerelease it in a repaint, grin). But the big surprise was 40370, the GWP steam engine. If Lego can do that, it would be really neat if they did another train set on that scale but specifically aimed at AFOLs (i.e., in terms of build/design, not nostalgia)

Oh wow, very nice indeed, and as the others have commented, the windshields are utterly brilliant! Great job capturing all the small odd angles of the prototype, not an easy challenge.

Excellent! Be careful though, that's how most MOC builders start- improving upon the sets (grin). The Harry Potter train is also rich in potential for upgrades.

That looks amazing! (even if you did go off topic by 0.8 studs, grin)

Those are brilliant in their reliance on inexpensive parts. I suspect they would need some reinforcement to be practical though. Perhaps the 2x2 brick straights have periodic 1x2x5/6 bricks with studs on one side to lock them in to 2x plates for stiffness. As for the curves, with only a pair of studs holding them together that could be tricky. In this case, perhaps an old 4.5v curve rail could be used underneath for stiffening.

Yes, probably best to leave Michael to worrying about doing his magic with the hardware while the rest of us scratch our heads about ballast. The ballasting problem has turned into a neat little linear algebra exercise and conversion to/from polar coordinates. I'd take each each sleeper and expand it to a 4x10 plate to maximize the potential connection points. Split that into a grid 32x80 mm with steps every 4 mm for the full and half steps. Take the number of sleepers per 45° and simply rotate the 32x80 grid about the origin (at the center of the loop of track) in polar coordinates to each of the sleeper positions. Then for each intersection on the set of 32x80 grids convert back to Cartesian coordinates. Divide both dimensions by 4 mm and check if the remainders are within tolerance. That might take a couple of hours to code up. Yeah, if that makes sense to you then it probably isn't anything you didn't think of already. Obviously the simplest solution is to simply let the track float on tiles, with some blocking to keep the curve from sliding outward. But that might not be conducive to portable setups. I wonder what could be done with locking mechanisms rather than stud connections, e.g., the 2x2 plate (or tile?) with two studs or one of the many wedge plates with studless areas tied to the track, held down by an overhanging plate or tile that is tied to the baseplate below. Another thought is clip snot, with a little finesse, it could actually add to the "random" pattern of the ballast.