zephyr1934

That is a massive amazing build. That is a crazy amount of detail (bending all of those virtual pipes must have taken hours). Great renders BTW, I hope to some day see it in real brick. Without wandering too far off topic, do it! And then post a new thread about it. These submissions are inspirational.

Looks amazing and wish I could be there to participate. I look forward to seeing a show report during/after the event.

Congratulations! You have just won the "most baffling locomotive" award for this month. (grin)

You are simply too kind to your minifigs. You keep this up and they will start asking for weekends and holidays off too (grin) You are dragging me down the rabbit hole. The more I look the crazier the loco becomes. Looking at the cross section schematic in the German book and comparing it to both the photos and the external schematic on this UK page I referenced earlier, it appears that the "cutouts" are for water tank filling (#15 on the German schematic), which suggests to me that there are tanks on both ends. I am starting to suspect that the horizontal series of rectangular indentations on the lower right end of the locomotive is on the right end of either side when the viewer is facing the locomotive (hence, all the photos you've found appear to be the same side, because the sides are asymmetrical in the same way on either side). These rectangular indentations might correspond to #11 in the German schematic (a pre-heater?) but if so, it is on the the wrong end in the schematic (left instead of the right, but maybe the graphic designer flipped the image before adding the labels? I've seen other images flipped in reputable books before). Whatever those rectangles are on the right end, it would preclude the side steps to reach the tank lid above. But it would make sense if there was a single tank on either end of the engine with access lids on either side and perhaps even having the tanks on both ends connected by a pipe so that one only needs to fill the tanks from one location and thus, only one set of side steps (on the left) and the tank lid on the right only there for backup, ventilation, and servicing. It would also make sense to have the top of the water tanks only half way up to keep the center of gravity lower, in which case, having the fuel above the water tank would also make sense. The images on the UK page show the rectangular hatches on the roof, 3 on each end on each side. While the German schematic appears to show the interior of three turf bunkers on the right and exterior doors of three bunkers on the left.

Impressive engineering to get such long cars through the R40 curves

It is clearly designed to run comfortably either direction. The thing that threw me off is that the end you show looks like it is "tender-ish", with the foot cuts in the side. Digging more (here, here, here, and an interesting top view of a model here (finding a top view of a rare loco is always the hardest part)), it sounds like it had turf bunkers and tanks "at either end" suggesting both ends were tender-ish. Here's a view from the other end: I still think it would be worth seeing how it looks without the ladder. Yes, it is front and center, but if you can't get close to scale inclusion can be as bad as exclusion. Why not pop it off for a second and see what you think? It might look completely wrong without the ladder or it might look a bit better. As for the S2, I forgot that there are two different ladders in that image. I was trying to highlight the bottom side of the sand green hinge brick on the boiler, but the black ladder on the tender is from this family of ladders,

Okay, now you've got me digging, I found a photo of the nose... actually maybe that's the rear...? (you really nailed those unusual smoke deflectors and the subtle asymmetry of the prototype) It is all a matter of individual design, but did you try it without the ladder too? Another idea would be to do a ladder out of jumper plates and door rails, Or use the bottom of hinge bricks,

He heh, it is great that you let the grad kids play, that is the nice thing about lego, it's kid tough. And heck yeah, don't show the chaos they've left behind. At any rate, I just like the thought you put into the layout and also all of the automated switches, etc. It is a well thought out track plan. I totally understand where you are coming from with the detailing. There are some amazing scenery builders out there, but I don't even have time to build all the trains I want to build. So my permanent layout is just have a simple rectangle.

Oh man, so sorry to hear about the fire, that must have been horrible. Great to see you've already started covering new ground with your lego works.

Your other recent build of something that looks like steam but isn't is a nice complement to something that is steam but doesn't look it. The sand green looks great and the build is impressive (even if you don't use any special techniques).

What a fantastic build of a very unusual locomotive (great nickname though, grin)

Excellent MOC! And even in these little snippets your layout is fantastic

There are a few already, including some wedges and this new piece, But more are needed

I would never get any work done in an office like that (grin)

Wow, amazing stuff. He should get on the lego convention speaker junket. It is stunning how few people developed so much of what we call classic lego (train, space, castle, town). This time around there was a shot with a lot of monorail builds,

Yeah, I spotted that on LUGBULK too, it could make an easy end piece for a set of well cars, but you would still need a brick built solution for the shared trucks.

I have a red one I think I've seen it in normal green, blue, black, and several other colors (possibly dark purple). Because you can use 2x4, 2x2 or even 1x2 curved slopes the number of possible colors is pretty large. I think one of the criteria to be a set is whether the model will have appeal to non-train heads, and to do so for AFOL's around the world. So there are some really great prototypes that will never become sets. But that is why we MOC

The brown bridge is REALLY simple, a layer of 6x plates, then a layer of 1x4x3 panels, then another layer of 6x plates (being certain to offset the seams, so 4x6, 6x8, or 6x12 the best choice) and then a layer of track. The black bridge has a bracket on every tie. This one predates the modern brackets, it used the brackets from 1979, which you can see in this view. But I would imagine any contemporary bracket would work. Then it is nx6 plates, with a mix of brackets (1x2 and 1x1 in this case), tiles, and plates for the surface.

If you KNOW you are going to build this and you are going to get the track, I'd suggest you get the wheels and enough track to start prototyping the frame. There are so many nuanced things that complicate frame building (e.g., pilot truck clearing the cylinders). Of course you are doing the right thing by asking questions to make sure it is even feasible before buying anything. If that is the case, perhaps rephrasing the question to be about the wheels in general, "Using XXL wheels with a spacing of 6 studs axle to axle (5 studs center to center), what is the tightest curve any of you are able to run on?" If this is your first steam MOC and you don't have any parts yet, you might want to start with something simpler first (L wheels) and keep this for your second steam MOC.

In that same picture there are two red train bases sticking up from the table, the flat one looks like it is at least 34 studs long (similar length as the split level). It is hard to tell for sure how long it is, but the two holes for the power leads look like they have a 6-8 stud spacing, while all production flat train bases only have a 2 stud spacing. If you then look at the 4558 prototypes on the wall, you will see that many of them have 6 windows+ 2 doors while the production set only had 5 windows + 2 doors. For example, compare the middle car on green and white variant (that had previously been shown publicly) on the far left to the longer car on the train above it. The aspect ratio of the windows on many of the cars seem wider than the 1x4x3 of the production windows too.

You've found your people Reker1000000. There are several builders around here with amazing 12v layouts and others who are building fantastic MOCs in the classic 12v style and parts palette.

I actually had the Rocket on my long list of things I think Lego might produce but then decided probably not because there's no way to motorize it using standard lego motors. I think the ability to motorize a train is a requirement. The Daylight is not on my list because it is a 4-8-4 and I don't think lego would go beyond x-6-x. My list is of things I think Lego might do, NOT what I would like to see. The Rocket and the Daylight are both great prototypes that work in Lego and both have been done exceptionally well in Lego by AFOLs. As for the EN, if you change colors and use other windows it isn't too bad to MOC it.

I think ScotNick is just asking to add the metric equivalent, so the bottom row would read something like: 64.8" (1.65 m) | 60" (1.52 m) | ... Are European drivers typically measured in m or mm? Also, a few of the cells in the bottom row are missing the double quotes denoting inches (#13, #11, #6)

It just keeps getting better and better. Nice touch with the rope to the bell and I just noticed the use of the wing plate on the cab roof.

@Mr Ogel thank you for sharing with us non-German speakers. The article mentions more articles reflecting on the 30th anniversary of 9v in the coming year, please post back when you see them! Wow, that is an amazing article and the photos are unbelievable. So Torben applies to be a Lego designer in response to a newspaper ad when is 25 and 4 years later winds up in charge of designing the 9v system from scratch in a team of 3? That was a completely different world. Lots of interesting tidbits in the photos (all links from the original article in the first post). Take a look at the brown rails in this photo with many prototypes Look at the giant metroliner in the top and many color variants of the design (the Dutch variant on the bottom is particularly striking) More color variant prototypes, get a load of the gray one on the bottom And maybe the best of all of the behind the scenes photos, the beautiful steam locomotives across the top, an official Lego KOF on the middle shelf, and a bunch of 8 wide on the bottom shelf!