zephyr1934

Oh, no problem, there's no "right way" to build with Lego. It stops being play and starts being work when you stop building for yourself and you start building for others.

Amazing work, especially the tricky gentle curves. They look great

Looking good. In case you are open to unsolicited suggestions, the grills on the prototype seem finer than the full plate gaps between the ladder rungs. What about using good old profile bricks? Oh, profile bricks date to 1991 while red ladder plates date to 1980 (and !@#$% BL moved the ladder plate from "Plate, Modified" to "Ladder").

Maybe create the illusion that the mountain was unavoidable, with a flat wall on one side (as if this build were sliced from the rest of the mountain) and a river on the other side.

That's brilliant! I've often pondered how to get a good diaphragm for lego trains and you've found a great solution. Though it would take some engineering to ensure the adjacent car ends do not get too far apart on a curve (can be done, but does not happen automatically). Punch a few 5.8mm holes at 8mm apart center to center and you can even hold it in place using studs. Which would be handy for connecting and removing the diaphragm when putting cars on and off the layout.

Don't worry, your secret is safe with me. That's an awesome part, I hope your model brings it back into production.

Excellent work, can't wait to see it in real bricks

It simultaneously looks very accurate to the prototype and also like something out of a strange scifi movie

Early on in this endeavor I think Michael had praised the spring loaded flanges of the 9v motor and sought to mimic them and presumably use traction bands on the treads. I bet that proved a lot more complicated to implement. At any rate, he has been metal on metal for several years now.

If they release an equivalent to the L motor in whatever the next gen electronics might be we could still power trains legally (grin)

That's a crazy prototype and a good rendition in bricks. Only one suggestion, the photo on your link https://dewi.ca/trains/2009/panama/mule0.htm shows the underframe is dark gray.

Is that Fabuland roof pieces?

Amazing!

Some nice micro detailing with jumper plates and clips for grill features! But why the 2x2 tile on the front instead of a pair of 1x2 tile with grill?

Clever trick with the awning on the rear of the cab

That's like a page out of the 1971 idea books 241 and 242, amazing!

Great build and I hope this makes it (I'd buy two). The 1x2x3 windows work well, too bad this part isn't available in light blay Actually, with the short frame of the locomotive it looks more like the earlier EMD TA to me (woops, EMC, but who's counting the rivets?). Interestingly, Rock Island even had a dome obsv. for a little while in 1970 (see here... though unfortunately the pictures are not working... I hope the domemain isn't down for the count)

I too have a fondness of the old days when it was difficult to get through the doors. I'm not joking about the fondness, but as I look back at the sets from the time, the 1x2x3 door next to the proto-minifigs is kind of funny. But from the perspective of a kid with an imagination it worked. Oh, you've got the scale completely wrong then (grin)

Very nice! And the streamlining on the nose with the rounded corners is the touch of flash the little critter needs!

It's got lots of great detailing in it and some clever build techniques, it's a neat MOC. The main issue is that with anything except 8 studs between tracks that curves and switches become difficult. So as a stand alone model that only exists on one baseplate there's no problem, but if someone incorporated it into their layout it would not be simple plug and play, that's all. The second issue is if someone builds 8+ wide the track spacing might not be good for their trains. These two issues might decrease some folks interest in buying the model. If it doesn't get picked up this round, converting it to work with the common rail spacing might increase its chances in a future round.

Even better, the PFX Brick can also speak IR, also has an optional extension cable so you can bury the brick inside your model and only have a little LED-like IR receiver bulb poking out.

Amazing!

Yes, generally the lego train wheels and/or trucks wind up being too large. I think usually people just ignore it, but there are probably a few who work around it, e.g., cheating it with skirting on an auto rack build As for shows, there's no single universal size/height/etc.. Typically width is the first issue, then length, and only after that comes height. I'm sure you are familiar with the 6/7/8/wider debate. I'm old school 6 wide but 8 seems to be the most popular with AFOL. Folks with R40 curves will build shorter (lengthwise) than folks with wide radius curves. Etc. etc.. And as you build more your style will evolve. But if you are concerned, BMR is about as standard as you can get these days so sticking to their dimensions (and extra tall trucks) your builds will flow well with many others. Of course one way to be certain your train will look proportionate at a show is to build the whole train.

Funny that "cannon" and "windows not strong enough" should come up in the same post. It might be an urban legend but I recall hearing about the rail safety administrators building a cannon to shoot dead turkeys to test windshields. Of course the first test shattered the window and embedded the turkey in the back wall of the cab. When the engineers came to inspect the scene they said that next time the technicians need to completely thaw thaw the frozen turkey before testing.

Excellent!!