scruffulous

As my collection of Victorian Railways rollingstock grows, I had to have a guard's van (that's a brake van or caboose to you non Aussies). Z vans were a classic feature of the Victorian Railways from the early 1900s to the 1970s. At one stage there were over 700 Z vans, but they were rebuilt and recoded, many to ZL (the L stands for long-shank couplers, which were installed to reduce harsh slack action). This particular ZL van had a wood frame, three axles, and planked sides. Prototype

Yep, it's yellow tube held on with string.

I'm not sure what you are trying to say here. No paint has been used on these, and there are only a few stickers.

I've finally managed to complete a Victorian Railways locomotive...three of them actually: These were used for suburban goods services in Melbourne. The locos with the steeple cab design (there were only two ever built) came into service in 1923. The box cab design was introduced five years later. They were known as "elec locos" up until the only other class of VR electric loco (the L class) was introduced in 1955, after which they were classified as "E class". In later years these locos were known as "electric chairs". I've entered these in the E is for Electric competition on Flickr. Prototypes.

You could always use the fibre optic cable from Exo-Force sets to carry the light over the extra length rather than pay for extension cables and an extra set of lights.

Thanks all for the kind comments.

Here's the latest addition to my collection of Victorian Railways rollingstock: This Victorian Railways hopper was coded "X" on delivery and was used for cement traffic, but was eventually recoded to "J". The first hoppers of this type initially carried pulverised brown coal for steam locos (coded "CK"), then bulk flour (coded "X", "FX", and "FJ"), and finally cement (coded "J"). At the end of their life, some were used to carry dry locomotive sand. The pipes were for pneumatic discharge of the cement into road tankers or storage silos. Prototype.

Thanks lightningtiger. Actually I do live in Victoria...Melbourne even. So now you're probably wondering why I haven't made it to a MUGS meeting...it's just that the planets haven't aligned to allow it. Who knows, perhaps next weekend :)

Here's another addition to my collection of Victorian Railways rollingstock: In Victoria, grain was transported to large inland terminals (Marmalake and Dunnoly) using GY wagons and was then transported to the ports (Geelong and Portland) for loading into ships using these GJF hoppers. More on flickr.

I agree. Whenever I do a BrickLink order, assuming finances permit, I get two or three times the number of bricks I need so I can make multiples copies at a later date. ...or if LEGO releases a new part that provides a better solution, or LEGO produces an old part in a colour you need, or you change your mind...basically, for me, the answer is "probably never".

And yet another version: The main changes from the previous version are: Retained the type 2 handles, but changed their position and orientation slightly. Used Brick, Modified 1 x 4 x 1 1/3 No Studs, Curved Top to allow the top handles to be positioned closer to the edge of the tank. Slightly different stickers. Flat top on the filler dome (thanks bricktrix). Different lever handbrake. I'm pretty happy with this now, but further comments still welcome.

For a PF/RC rail crossing, you could use the brick-built technique highlighted in the Running off the track entry on the RAILBRICKS blog.

Yep, I've posted pics of a new version over on Flickr. I'll probably work on one further version once I have some comments/feedback.

Thanks, but I need a loco before can post a full train. All I have at the moment is a rail tractor. I'm working on something that should help, though. I made a light box by cutting large rectangular holes in three sides of a cardboard box and covering them with tracing paper. I also inserted a curved white card floor/back. For lighting, I illuminate the tracing paper sides with three desk lamps containing 18W energy efficient "cool white" spiral lamps (equivalent to ~90W incandescent lamps). The main limitation is the size of the box...I'd be lucky to fit two wagons in there, let alone a full train.

I had the pleasure of seeing one of these IRL today. I took the kids to the Steam Trains for Kids day held by the Victorian Goldfields Railway, and glimpsed a WT wagon in a siding as we pulled into Muckleford station. I was surprised by the coincidence of seeing a WT wagon, given that I'd just made a MOC of one. At the end of the day I wandered up to have a closer look (and take this photo) and I realised it was exactly the same wagon (i.e. 192 WT) from the 1978 photo I'd based my MOC on! An unbelievable coincidence.

Thanks guys. Yep, it's cut flex. I shed a tear every time I cut some, but it comes in really handy. Yes, these wagons were low. I'm not sure why, but I guess the chassis couldn't support more than 2000 gallons. They were known as water trucks (hence the WT designation), and were usually used for carrying water for locomotives or firefighting. Normal water tanks were usually used for carrying potable water, although water trucks were also used for this purpose in times of drought (and designated DW for "domestic water"; the taps were also positioned higher to avoid sludge).

Thanks guys. Glad you like the louvres. It's a fairly brick-intensive (i.e. expensive) technique, but I think it was worth it.

Another addition to my collection of Victorian Railways rollingstock. These WT water tank wagons were used to transport water to stations in drought prone areas where there was no permanent water supply.

I've been slowly building up my collection of Victorian Railways rollingstock, and this is the latest addition. These U louvre vans were originally built with narrow doors, but at a later stage they were fitted with wide doors and blanking was added to the bottom to avoid forklift damage. This MOC was produced in response to feedback on an earlier version, with the key changes being: - Colour change from reddish brown to dark red - I tried to break up the "louvriness" by adding hand rails on the ends and by blanking the bottom of the doors (thanks for the suggestion gambort) - I changed the wheel brake and added the brake tie rod (thanks for the tips Brickhead). For anyone interested, here's how I did the louvres.

While I was building this VR B Class loco, I was able to make a freestanding (i.e. not on baseplates), irregular loop of track with 3 studs between the rails. The curved rails were slightly stressed when placed 3 studs apart, but not overly, and with judicious positioning of curves and straights it was fairly easy to create a loop without inducing any further stress. As you note, the real challenge is the points...

Yes, I'm in Aus and hoping to be at Brickvention, and yes, if I'm there you will get to see the MOC in the brick. I guess I better go and register.

Yes! It runs around normal track curves no problem...check out the video.

New photos and a video up on Flickr...now I'm off to the beach.

Thanks everyone. The "stickers" are actually waterslide decals. They are extremely thin, which makes them difficult to apply, but has the advantage that they can conform to the contours of the grille bricks. There are 6 wheels mounted on two bogies. The sides of the bogies conceal much of the wheels, so it is not really apparent that the centre wheelset floats from side-to-side. The Fastline locos arrived in the UK in the middle of this year, so I guess they are 66/9s (i.e. the low-emission class 66 variant). I'm hoping to take some shots (and perhaps a video) tonight. I'm off to the beach tomorrow, so tonight is my last chance until Christmas... It did take a long time...50 hrs is probably a reasonable estimate, perhaps a bit more. Most of the time was taken in designing the bogies...your comment on those is insightful: the wheelbase length is close to the limit for standard LEGO curves, and it does labour slightly when negotiating curves. It occasionally derails, but I think this is related more to the bogies not pivoting smoothly under the chassis rather than the long wheelbase. I'd love to see a bogie design that includes wheel turning geometry...I wouldn't know where to start. I haven't dealt with the coupling issue...attaching couplings to the body will be problematic because of the overhang on curves, but attaching them to the bogies would mean the end-plate would need to pivot with the bogies and would look terrible on curves. I'll probably just keep it as a standalone loco and continue to ignore the coupling problem (I don't have any rolling stock for it to pull anyway!).

I entered this MOC of a Class 66 in the 66 in 6 challenge over at LEGO Train MOCs on Flickr. It occurred to me that I should also post it on Eurobricks given the huge number of 66s operating in Europe. A couple of notes about the build: It is 7 studs wide and ~58 studs long. It is powered by power functions. A medium motor drives the leading and trailing wheels on each truck, the centre wheels float. The IR receiver is hidden under the (transparent) inertial filter (?), and the rechargable battery sits in the fuel tank. I'm hoping to post a video of it in operation as soon as I can get some spare time to build a loop and film it.