zephyr1934

You might want to pick your favorite station and start with that for inspiration, e.g., visiting your local station or perusing over photos of a distant station. Pick a station on the scale you are planning on building (e.g., based on number of tracks or number of trains per day). You could then set out to model that specific station or use the features as inspiration for a made up station. Obviously you can't capture everything, so pick the features that appeal to you the most and condense them down to fit the size of your build (most lego station builds are compressed versions, e.g., real platforms can often accommodate 10+ coaches while only the largest layouts could fit that many coaches on a straight track segment). Oh, and of course peruse MOCs and borrow great ideas that you find there.

It is all looking really good. I like the gray boilers. For the Vanderbilt tender you might want to consider the new triangular tiles to get rid of the studs on the side: That caboose looks like something Cale would make, very nice. As for a restroom on a caboose, next time you are around a real steam engine look for one there too (grin) nature finds a way. Any plans to build these in real bricks?

It is always interesting to see unusual prototypes, the MOC does a good job capturing the original.

Looking good!

I think that grew out of lengthy Duplo train discussion thread a few years back, with the jumping off point being about here.

I have some push 4 wide here. This thread was a good one about motorized 4 wides, but the the photos seem to have been wiped off the face of the internet. There is a brief bit of 4 wide motorization here. Here are a couple more, thing one and thing two

Trans yellow + blue rail on light gray posts would be smoking

My guess is that we will get a PUP rechargeable battery that fits inside the same box, from the early photos it looks like there are guideways for something like that (I don't have one yet). I hope I'm wrong though, it defeats one of the benefits of the rechargeable battery box by not letting you build it inside a model.

Okay LT12V, I am starting to suspect that you simply do not sleep. You continue to make such great MOC's one after another. Another beauty, do you often have the opportunity to take large numbers of engines from your collection out for display at shows? I was going to say something similar, the one glaring problem with your MOC is that the prototype is so dirty. (oh... I guess I did wind up saying something similar) So looking at the light gray sawed off axle pin on the counterweight, if you wanted black for it to blend in with the rods, you could use a black axle pin. The traditional two long in black are getting pricey, but with two cuts you could convert one of these cheaply. Or if you wanted it to be dark gray to match the pins in the wheels, you could cut down a technic axle with stop.

Welcome Addiie, I've heard a recommended slope of 1 plate per 16 studs, but regardless, slopes of any significant height are difficult. In your limited space you might need a spiral, at which point it would probably be easier just to move the trains by hand. If you really want the trains to be able to change levels and none of the above works for you, you could always think out of the box, e.g., a rack railway (putting these between the rails and use a cog below the engine to climb/descend at a controlled speed) or an inclined lift where cars are pulled up a steep grade by a cable. In any event, before you start building your layout you build up a few test cases and see if you come up with something that works for you.

that looks like it has several of our questions answered (though not all good)

Congratulations, your toys no longer need you, they can play quietly on their own (grin) I'm guessing they will be sending out motors rather than the "engine car" but it should be interesting if they are sending out the car.

Yet another thing of beauty! Like all of your locomotives, a fine work of art that looks like it belongs in an LGB catalog. I love that comment, "this time the goal was to design a simple locomotive for uncomplicated operation." I guess it is all relative, grin.

The green scheme looks fantastic, great job doing a NS style heritage unit for the NP. I really like what you did in that first version. There are probably enough different parts in dark green and sand green to build it, but you would need to change the design (e.g., the turn table bases used as fans do not exist in dark green, but you could use technic disks, or BBB train wheels, or ... and I don't think there are grill tiles in sand green). Actually the NP passenger scheme is one of the few that did not change much between 1940 and 1970 (there were small changes like how they were lettered, and a few variants of the white stripe on the locomotives and observation cars). I spent way too much time researching it for this project. If ever a NP heritage unit were made, I bet it would be the green scheme (e.g., when ATSF revived the warbonnet they used the historic passenger scheme... so I suppose there are already a few BNSF heritage units out there, grin). I also love the NP freight scheme. The "pine tree" nose was the longest lasting scheme on the freight cab units, but I don't think it was ever applied to road switchers, or if it was, it did not last long. The F-units were actually originally envisioned strictly for freight use by EMD as an alternative to the E's that were lower traction but higher speeds (the middle axle on the E-units was unpowered). NP and GN found that the F's were far better suited for their mountain grades and used them for passenger as well as freight (as did many other railroads). It was not until the third common version of the F-unit (F7) that the road switcher was introduced (GP-7). By which point NP had a fleet of freight FT's and F3's, as well as passenger F3's. Originally the NP road switchers had a curved line between the red and black, e.g., as I modeled in this GP-9. I think it was simplified in the late 1960's to be more straight on the ends (as you have modeled). That probably makes more sense for an SD70 in the freight scheme. You could probably get the red stripe up the nose too.

Oh wow, is there any detail that you missed out on? Quick, clean and effective slope on the back side (the electrical elements back side, use of the back of the panels for texture, etc, all great)

So the one on the left looks better because the change in color breaks up the yellow wall, what about the one on the right with light or dark gray profile bricks instead of the yellow? The one on the right looks good because the gray/yellow boarder is straight and the tiles on the left design make the appearance a bit choppy. If you don't have enough of the grill bricks in dark gray, you could test the look out in LDD before you buy the bricks. You could also consider printed bricks to add something without the cost of custom stickers.

Looking good (I like how you got the number boards in there and all the tricky curves on the nose/cab/windshield), and I'm looking forward to seeing the Eagle

Yes, someone posted one controller connected to 3 different boxes. So as long as train A is on one output and train B is on the other on the same channel, you should be fine. Or you can switch between up to 5 channels. However, AFAIK at the moment there is no official lego means to add sensors or integrate the PU trains with PF or mindstorms

Thanks Mr Hobbles! Very exciting stuff that you and JopieK are up to

Brilliant, and upon seeing it, it is such a "why didn't I think of that". You need a sleeping mouse for your Christmas Night though. My first thought was that they came from a clone set (they copied a lot of the train parts), but those sellers at least know that it is a rare part. So I would guess they came out of the model shop (the lego builders can get small injection run in other colors). Sometimes extra parts leak out.

Excellent point. You should drop BBB a note and ask about them. He might even have some of the prototype parts on hand.

You can borrow my living room for as long as you like (grin)

Looking good, a faithful take on such a ubiquitous locomotive.

Wow! You never cease to amaze with your builds. As is the norm of your high bar, the locomotive is stellar, and this time around the coiled steel is simple but brilliant.

Great work getting all of those tough angles and curves. Lots of little details (I don't think I've seen that wiper blade design before). Opening doors and complete interior is over the top