3D LEGO

THERIZE, Thanks for the clarification. You do what works for you. From what you shared, the second design you posted required some rework in order to make it work out but I think it was worth the effort. By the way, nice angle. It just needs all the rest of the things missing in the view to make it complete. 3D LEGO

davidroberts01341, Can you say turbine kart? With a jet turbine that size I am not sure what point the wheels serve except for moving around the shop. I seriously doubt they stay on the ground when that thing is moving. I sure hope the cockpit includes an eject mechanism but it looks to be more of the backwoods racing design - the minimum standard of safety with maximum power and entertainment value. Very well built. It conveys your humorous theme quite well. Though if I was a spectator I think I would invest in something flying to watch the race with seeing as anything less than an armored bunker on the ground is bound to get pulverized. Fences do not stop jet turbines. Thick, concrete walls might. Racing collateral if you know what I mean. 3D LEGO

LucByard, Massive, solid and designed from the ground to fulfill its intended purpose: land small space faring vessels and transports. (Not quite big enough for the bigger stuff.) I love all the detailing and aesthetics. As I can not see clearly from the pictures, what does the lettering in the four quadrants say? Truly worthy of any Blacktron II installation. Com: >Pad control, requesting permission to land.< Pad Control: "Pad is occupied... Who is this?" Com: >No, its not. Tell 'em the commander is in a hurry and he is not in a friendly mood." Pad Control: "... P, Pad is free." Com: >Thank you. ... Oh, and he says your pension survives another day. Out< Pad Control: ... 3D LEGO

Cecilie, Brilliantly rendered Starcraft II genus Ultralisk. True, it is a tad on the small size, we will call it a runt. Definitely not a Torrasque strain. Easily recognizable due to the four tusks and such. Props for the endeavor and effort as creatures can be a real pain to model in brick. When the pictures first loaded, I was reminded of this ridiculously funny fan art someone did and that made its way onto the Blizzard fan art page: http://eu.battle.net/sc2/en/media/fanart/?view=fanart-0137 About the team color, I will leave it at the Zerg have a keen interest biologically in bioluminescence and call it a day. 3D LEGO

marbleman, Only using water will be a definite advantage as the alternative uses paraffin wax which would leave a residue on your models. 3D LEGO

THERIZE, These are excellent models that you have designed. Lots of attention to detail. Given the limitations you have been able to achieve very good results. Easily recognizable rendition of a former railroad. Now the real question is... will there be a trail of black smoke? I have one question though and that concerns the roof of the passenger cars. Is it really that flat on top? I went looking for examples and was unable to find any good pictures. 3D LEGO

Bricksonwheels, You have designed and built a beautiful rendition of the ALCO 4000-class 4-8-8-4 articulated steam locomotive for Union Pacific. I like how you used the scale and smooth surfaces to your advantage in order to use studs for things like stay bolts on the firebox. Am I correct in assuming the coupler is of a larger scale model type? I love the characteristic Boxpok drivers and the simple yet working drive train. From the videos and pictures I would safe to say it is plenty powerful. The lighting adds that nice finishing touch to the model. Seeing as it is #4014, I am sure it will not be long before someone at Union Pacific Railroad takes note of it. (They are only rebuilding #4014 as we speak.) My one critique concerns the front and the use of the cowcatcher part. That kind of design had been long phased out and the Big Boy had a very rudimentary, solid version that does not protrude very far. I do not know if you tried alternate brick-built versions or not but perhaps you could. (For one it would allow you to include a coupler up front.) 3D LEGO

Meisterschnorrer, 35 wagons is nothing to be ashamed of. Even given extra weight there is an eventual limit any locomotive will reach. Regarding my two questions, the first was how well it climbs hills. Were you able to test that all all? If so, by how much was your pulling power reduced? The other question about the shaking exhibited by the model: my thought was that it may be caused by a combination of the low weight on the front/rear drive trains and forces from the drive train. But from what you have shown and have described, it handles large loads quite well. 3D LEGO

marbleman, Avid life-long train fan, yes but actual engineer, sadly no. I do spend a fair amount of time learning about various things. My train searches have taken me all across the globe from the rack-railway locomotives of Brazil to the Bo'Bo'Bo' electrics of New Zealand, through the land of the narrow gauge Garratt locomotives and across Russia via the broad gauge network. One area I have become acquainted with more recently is China. But I keep searching and blending ideas in my sketches. 3D LEGO

Murdoch17, It has a nice quaint, English countryside feel to it. Though I am torn between the forced entry through the station building and the prior side ramp designs. The expanded building is a much better fit. 3D LEGO

bmarco, I figured as much. Thank you for letting me know. I will add that to my notes. 3D LEGO

bmarco, If ~2 studs is what the difference of 30cm (11.8 in) between the ES 64 U4 (ÖBB class 1216) and the ES 64 U (ÖBB class 1016) comes out to in your scale, go for it. But that does seem a bit much. 3D LEGO

Thor, My apologies if it confused you. It was my cheeky way of acknowledging your unique part usage for a well thought-out design of the lamppost. 3D LEGO

Beck, They disappeared with the scrapping of the Milwaukee Road 3kV DC system and discontinuation of the electric freight operations by Conrail on the North-East Corridor's (Former P.R.R., later P.C.) 11 kV 25 Hz AC network as well as scrapping of their own sections. B.C. Rail's 50 kV ?Hz AC Tumbler Ridge Division came in the early 80s with none other than GMD/EMD equipment. (Ironic that the one pushing electric freight was them.) Driving by the old, formerly electrified Milwaukee Road mainline through the valley on a regular basis is a sad reminder for me of what had been. (On the topic of electrics, check out the renderings done as part of a study by the Schiller Institute: The Worldwide Strategic Importance of the Intercontinental Rail Corridor Connections Between the Eurasian and North American Land-Bridges ) Back on topic: Up for the dual, single axle challenge I see. It can be a real pain though so make sure to play with prototype frames to till you have a working design that you are satisfied. Having built one myself, they are very LEGO curve and switch unfriendly. Make sure to test on S-curves as those can be the real killers. Also have a look around as a few others have but such configurations albeit shorter. ME Models R104 rails will help a ton here. A few refrigerated wagons would look good in your consist. Actually, you may have already saved yourself a lot of time by choosing to go with a bogie-mounted coupling as you have depicted. And functionality is nice but it is not always practical. 3D LEGO

bmarco, Decals! That must have been a project in and of itself. But the end result was well worth the effort. (I am sure an all white body saved money too.) In your comparison shot I noticed your first Siemens Eurosprinter "Taurus" is a little shorter. Did you decide to lengthen it when you set about to build another one? Or is the prototype actually longer? 3D LEGO

bmarco, Fantastic locomotive. Having looked it up I found that all these locomotives use the same frame and drive train with minor adjustments and changes to the body. That must have helped a lot in designing each one as I am sure you reused the frame and running gear. As a matter of inquiry, how are the running characteristics of the articulated Bo'Bo'Bo' design? I ask as this is the third one you posted. I realize that the grand curves in the video skew things a bit so how does it fair on straights and through actual curves? (Too bad someone didn't have a Eurotunnel Class 9 on hand to compare to - fixed verses articulated Bo'Bo'Bo' designs.) 3D LEGO

Thor, That light pole, definitely of a differential type! The walker suits have a very gangling feel to them yet the users seem well versed with their inherit functionality. I get the impression that this is a place where one can never have a big enough gun or thick enough armor. 3D LEGO

Beck, Very well done. I noticed some of the design choices you made when building your open flat car. It looks quite a bit sturdier than the two I built. I will have to remember that for the future. Your freight wagon looks to very robust and well thought out. Its a pity that incorporating their inherit functionality is next to impossible. At least they look good. If you wanted a used look, then you could use dark grey instead of grey, tan instead of white. The Bombardier TRAXX AC3 very well done as well. Alas the side ribbing prohibits most detailing other than stickers. (I would hate to have to be one of the guys who gets honor of putting on vinyl decals on the real thing.) But the coloring is easily recognizable as being Railpool. I wish we still had electric pulled freight here in the United States. The last closest was BC Rail. The only other things are some isolated coal carriers and the Iowa Traction Railway and its little vintage locomotives. *Goes away to look at pictures of heritage electric locomotives. "Why did they all have to go away?" 3D LEGO

brickbuilder711, Indeed! (Que missing sunglasses wearing smilie.) But hey, even if no one brought a train to run, you at least put it out there. A large percentage of the model railroading community takes a hands-off approach with their displays. While it does preserve the display from errant hands it still is susceptible to distracted engineers... That being said, being open and welcoming of guests does much to instill a greater love for something if given the opportunity to participate. Who knows, you could be inspiring the next Cale! I have personally thought about the same thing as well. I am sure any kid would die if given the chance to drive a train. 3D LEGO

AlmightyArjen, You are right. I am not sure how I missed that. I blame it on Arnie, no the cosplayers, no... THE TRAINS! I blame it on them for distracting me. 3D LEGO

Rijkjavik, In most instances where heavy tonnage is involved they have long abandoned the buffer and chain coupling. For one it is severely limited on tonnage rating. Two it is actually quite dangerous. (The introduction of the Janney or knuckle coupler, IE the AAR coupler, made great strides in drastically reducing railway fatalities in North America. Before they used link and pin.) China uses the AAR coupler as its average train tonnage is much higher than in Europe. Heavy tonnage in Europe uses the Wilson/SA-3 or AK69e and its successor C-AKv, couplers. (LKAB Malmbanan and Ofotbanan ore lines - though they trialed the AAR coupler for a time as well, and DB Cargo (Formerly DB Schenker) coal and iron ore trains.) marbleman, I am glad you like it. The red version looks just as good as the blue one. Though as you have seen from your poll, more people may be familiar with the dark blue of the Orient Express. The former Trans Europ Express trains which traversed Europe had a tan and red paint scheme but they may not be as well known. (Deutsche Bahn, one of the participants in the T.E.E. had a few other variations on this theme: tan with dark blue, tan with teal and a third... tan with yellow or orange. And of course there is the legendary tan with purple of the Henschel-Wegmann express train.) Sadly, most paint schemes got kicked to the curb once the stainless steel carbodies became common in the United states. They are slowly making a comeback but with more... I am not sure what the best way to describe it as other than stylistic as they are not modernist, designs. All that aside you have done a really good job with melding the features of two different styles into your own design. It is a fun, rewarding process, the like I have been doing a lot of lately in my sketchbook. 3D LEGO

AlmightyArjen, Well done. Though I kept waiting to hear some intercom announcements for the station or platforms regarding all the trains. I love how your gourmet coffee shop is "The Coffee Chain". Lights, people, automation, ... mass transit (I had to think about what to call it.), shopping, entertainment and of course, trains. Lots of trains. Typical main station schedule there: local trains, regional NS trains, high speed SNCF TGV service and who ever runs the red one, distance trains (T.E.E. Rheingold!), a freight train (I will overlook the continental thing...) and a vintage historical special train. Is that wheel slip I hear?! 3D LEGO

marbleman, Beautiful creation. I dub it the Pearl of the Orient (Or whatever you want to call it.) Its a wonderful blending of older wood body wagons and newer, first generation metal ones. Plus the yellow glass panes only add to it. The contrasting color of the red-accented QJ to the royal blue striped tan coaches goes very well together. If you wanted it more uniform, then I suppose you could swap out the royal blue for red. (Though if you did something like that I would re-dub it the Iron Dragon of the Orient.) And your window construction is spot on. 3D LEGO

brickbuilder711, You are a brave soul to send those EVOs at speed into the wishbone. Not that LEGO gives much in the way of options but that wouldn't matter anyhow seeing as space is a premium for your display. Truth be told, s-curves are the real killers to long stuff. They keep derailing my Bo'Bo'Bo'Bo' testbed. At least all the rest of your rolling stock makes it through without any hassle. They look really good by the way! And I love all the railway crossing tidbits. I wish you best of luck with the event. +1 for the bring your own train advertisement. PS: Will we see a Charger in the future? 3D LEGO

Meisterschnorrer, Together, you and Efferman have designed and built a truly magnificent electric locomotive. But its not all show as it proves itself equally strong in pulling power as well. (This answers my inquiry about that from a while back.) Watching it creep along, no matter the load is a testament to its well thought out mechanical design. I could see this very locomotive making its way up the Gotthardbahn (Gotthard line|route.) pulling something like you have depicted past the SBB Be 6/8 or maybe... even the SBB Ae 6/6. Okay, that is a stretch as the crocodiles were not known for speed. But this has me thinking: how does it handle gradients? As far as tractive effort goes, I think lack of significant weight may prove a problem when pulling really long trains or even up gradients. It does seem to shake a bit but that appears to be a result of LEGO track and the geometry you used. Or is there another reason that you could elaborate on? 3D LEGO