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The Frisco 1522 loco is a 1926 oil burning 4-8-2 "Mountain" type, (4 leading, 8 drivers, 2 trailing) that was made surplus in 1951, donated to the Museum of Transportation (in St. Louis, Missouri) in 1959, and restored to working order in 1988 by the St. Louis Steam Train Association (SLSTA) for it's excursion career. It's new lease on life lasted until 2002 when rising insurance costs made the engine enter it's second retirement, which will be probably be forever. When the engine was running in it's second career, the SLSTA had four train cars (one of these MOC's is a fictional fifth car to beef up the train's length) in it's excursion support role. They carried parts, tools, merchandise to sell, and crew members not on duty. After re-retirement of the 1522, most of the cars were eventually sold to Milwaukee Road 261 organization and were renamed and repainted into a different paint scheme more suited to that group. This may not be the best interpretation of the Frisco 1522, but it seems to be the one of the few I've seen built out of Lego. The model you see here has been my dream ever since I was 5 or six years old and rode behind the steamer on one of it's last public trips. (I don't remember much of the trip, but I do remember the sense of awe and respect for the power of steam after seeing the loco pull past us on it's journey back to the museum and into what looks to be permanent retirement.) The rear of the (newly remade in 7 wide) locomotive. The cab walls on both model and real engine have the name of the railroad (Frisco) on it's side, while the number of the loco (1522) is on the tender sides. Inside the cab. I chose the classic printed slope with the knobs and gauges seen here a throwback to my first train MOC from the early 2000's. One half of this baggage car (named 'Black Gold' after a train the 1522 used to pull) housed tools, spare parts, lubricants and a fire hose or getting water for the loco, among many other things. The other half (usually closest to the engine) had the souvenir shop with shelves and tables for fundraising merchandise selling. The car is now repainted and named 'Golden Valley'. It has been used with Milwaukee Road 261. The 'Firefly' was the crew car. It was also named after a train the 1522 used to pull. The car has been sold to be used with Milwaukee Road 261. It sits in storage currently. This coach is NOT based on any SLSTA car. It was added to the train to beef it up to normal amount of five passenger cars. It is named 'Meteor' after an actual Frisco train like the others just to look accurate. The diner-lounge 'Chouteau Club' wasn't owned by the St. Louis Steam Train Association (SLSTA), but by a private individual who was a member of the club. It now is stored / owned by Illinois Transit Assembly in Madison, Illinois, sidelined by side sill rust. The 'Bluebonnet' was a business car and brought up the rear of the train. It was also named after a train the 1522 used to pull. The car has been sold to be used with Milwaukee Road 261. It has been renamed back to it's first name of 'Milwaukee' and repainted into the proper colors for that railroad. The real engine is publicly displayed at the Museum of Transportation in St. Louis, Missouri. The Lego model of the loco is sitting on the front of the loco, just above the cowcatcher. This official Frisco 1522 website gave me invaluable info and pictures of the excursion cars and the loco itself. This page in particular was very helpful in getting the window amount / spacing / 'look' of the excursion cars right. NOTE: Yes, I had a thread made in 2016 for the loco only. That thread was last updated in 2017, and I didn't want to mess with the moderators by bumping it. Thus, this new thread was created. I hope that was ok! EDIT: 11/26/25: Revised real world photos added with fifth passenger car and remade 7-wide steam loco + tender. -
Built by General Motors (GM) / Electro Motive Division (EMD) in 1939, this is the diesel that showed the way to the future, signaling the start of the diesel era. This particular engine (FT 103) was originally owned by Electro-Motive as part of a four unit demonstrator. After proving diesels were the superior to steam by way of a whirlwind tour of a whole heap of railroads, it was later sold to the Southern Railway and the lead A unit was eventually placed in the Museum of Transportation in St. Louis, Missouri where it resides today, under cover and out of the elements. (the other three units were scrapped before they could be preserved, sadly) My MOC is heavily drawn from the 2002 LEGO set 10020 - Santa Fe Super Chief. As that loco is a F7 from the same basic design as the earlier FT, not much had to be changed on the body outside of window placement and a few other things. The roof however, was completely revised to use the same design as 2013 LEGO Inside Tour set 4000008 - Villy Thomsen Truck. This was due to the needed parts as used in 10020 not being available in black in quantity. The rear of the locomotive. This model was first designed by me in 2013 in a very crude way (as seen on my Flickr here), but was heavily upgraded and modified over the years until finally being built last month when the final part - the windscreen - was released. The inside features the engine and control cab, and the roof is removable. Here is the real loco circa 2018, with the FT B-Unit from the Roanoke Transportation Museum behind the original A-unit. (This B-unit was at the St. Louis museum from 2015 to 2020 as part of a loan, but has since returned to Virginia.) Thoughts?
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In 1948 the Whitcomb Locomotive Company of Rochelle, Illinois built this 65-ton industrial switcher, model 65-DE-17-A for American Steel Foundries - specifically the Granite City Works (of Granite City, Illinois) as their locomotive number 8. The diesel has a B-B wheel classification, cost $49,775 when new, and was built with two Hercules, 4 cycle, 6 cylinder diesel engines that each produced 240 horsepower, for a total of 480 HP. (These were later replaced with 200 HP Cummins engines, giving it 400 HP.) The loco has a top speed of 41 MPH and was donated in 1980 to the Museum of Transportation in St. Louis by American Steel Foundries. My unpowered LEGO version is 7 studs wide with both the front and back ends being identical. Is this the front, or is it the rear? Nobody knows for sure! Thoughts?
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Both of the models featured in this thread together. This 2-10-0 'Decapod'-type freight locomotive was built by Baldwin Locomotive Works in 1918 under contract with Imperial Russia as part of an 1,200 strong order. Needleless to say, after the Communist Revolution the last 200 or so locos were not deliverable. Twenty of these orphaned engines were subsequently purchased by the St. Louis - San Francisco Railway (also known as the 'Frisco') - including this loco, 1621 - and modified from Russian 5 foot gauge to the standard 4 foot, 8 1/2 inch gauge, among other changes. After working on the Frisco for many years it was purchased by Eagle-Picher Industries to haul lead ore to it's smelting plant in Oklahoma, before eventually being donated to the Museum of transportation in St. Louis, Missouri as a static display in 1961, where it still resides today. The 1621 also has a operational sibling (1630) you can see / ride behind at the Illinois Railway Museum in Union, Illinois. My LEGO model of the 2-10-0 is 7 studs wide, and is not lettered for Eagle-Picher like the real engine is currently. I have instead chosen to label it how it was before the recent remodel, with the only road name visible being Frisco. Truth be told, I borrowed a lot of the design for the 1621 from an earlier loco of mine from this same museum, a 2-8-2 lettered for the Chicago & Illinois Midland. I stretched out the engine's frame, added two more drivers, removed the rear pony truck, and revised the tender and cab quite a bit. (The boiler is brand new however!) The rear of the engine. Sadly, this will most likely be my last loco using small drivers, since Big Ben Bricks is closing / going away at the end of this month... and before anyone asks, I refuse to use 3D printed parts! A view inside the cab. This is a LEGO model of an St. Louis - San Francisco Railway (also known as the 'Frisco') wood-sheathed caboose from 1942 that used to be at the Museum of Transportation in St. Louis, MO. Not much about this rolling stock is known (or at least I can't find any info!), as it was scrapped in place in 2012 due to being totally beyond saving. This model is an approximation of the former caboose based on pictures from when it was scrapped and pictures of other Frisco cabooses from the 1940s, as I've been unable to find pictures of this specific car in it's glory days. NOTES: The 1621 steam loco MOC has spurred the re-model of it's stablemate, 4-8-2 'Mountain' type Frisco 1522, into 7 wide with some accompanying upgrades. Keep an eye out for this revised model, coming soon! Thoughts?
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This train features the following items from the Museum of Transportation in St. Louis, Missouri. Almost all of them are from one track at the museum, with the two cabeese being the exceptions. They are (from L to R, back to front): Wabash streamlined caboose Burlington Northern wide-vision caboose Monsanto nitric acid tanker Union Refrigerator Transit Lines / Milwaukee Road reefer car American Car and Foundry 70 ton two compartment covered hopper Union Tank Line triple dome railroad tank car Van Dyke frameless railroad tanker Chicago and Illinois Midland 2-8-2 steam loco 551 Now let's see them a little closer up, and with their real world counterparts! Wabash streamlined caboose This streamlined Wabash caboose model is based off one at the Museum of Transportation in Saint Louis, Missouri. I don't have many details about the real world 1952-built caboose's service history... All I know it was that, after being retired by the railroad, caboose 2847 was eventually bought by a suburban homeowner and stored on his property for almost 20 years. It was donated to the Museum in 2013, where it still resides today. Rear of the caboose. (I don't have a picture of this one with the real deal... yet) Burlington Northern wide-vision caboose Built in 1969, this Burlington Northern caboose (originally built for Northern Pacific) was the home away from home for the train crew and also served as the office for the conductor, who is in charge of the freight train. The cupola atop the car is the 'watch tower' of the train. When it is operation, the conductor or brakeman sits in the cupola watching to see that the train is running satisfactorily. This specific sub-type of Caboose is called a wide-vision caboose, which was a type that became prominent after World War II, when taller than usual freight cars became common. The new extra wide cupola allowed the crew to see around these obstacles. This caboose was last used in 1983 after a very short service life of just 14 years. It was replaced on modern trains by the FRED (Flashing Rear End Device) with the conductor's office being relocated to the locomotive cab. You can find the real-world version of this caboose at the Museum of Transportation in St. Louis, Missouri. the rear of the caboose. This one was still in the process of being repainted. Note the missing BN logo and reporting marks. Monsanto nitric acid tanker The real version of the freight car that inspired this MOC was built in 1940 by American Car and Foundry for Monsanto. The 8,000 gallon double-hull tank car was designed for hauling concentrated nitric acid, which is extremely corrosive. The inner tank is constructed of an aluminum alloy which is protected by an a cushion of air and steel outer shell. The car was donated in 1961 by Monsanto Chemicals Company to the Museum of Transportation (in St. Louis, Missouri) and you can actually walk through the car via the access hatches at either end. Union Refrigerator Transit Lines / Milwaukee Road reefer car Built by General American Transportation Corporation for Union Refrigerator Transit Lines in 1948, this car is a steel bodied reefer with ice bunkers at each end. These ice bunkers 10,400 pounds of chunk ice or 11,500 lbs. of crushed ice. In the winter, charcoal heaters could be placed in the bunkers to keep the cargo from freezing. Fans are located in the floor at each end to circulate air and keep the temperature even throughout the car. Typical cargo would be fresh fruit, vegetables, or eggs. The car was owned by Union Refrigerator Transit Lines but leased to the Milwaukee Road, which is why that railroad's herald is on the sides of the car. This specific car's real-world counterpart was donated to the Museum of Transportation in St. Louis by General American Transportation Corporation in 1975. The LEGO version of the reefer car is my own design, and the doors actually open on this one! American Car and Foundry 70 ton two compartment covered hopper Built in 1960 by American Car and Foundry, this two compartment 70-ton capacity steel covered hopper was used to carry bulk items which needed protection from the elements. Cement, grain, dry chemicals, and plastic pellets are examples of typical cargo. This car's real-world counterpart was donated to the Museum of Transportation (in St. Louis, MO) in 1993 by ACF Industries. The Lego MOC version was shortened and modified from instructions for a very similar version inspired by one built by Pullman Standard rather than ACF. I found those instructions on this very cool site here. Union Tank Line triple dome railroad tank car Built by Union Tank Line in 1936, this triple dome tank car (UTLX 3882) was typical of most built until the late 1960's. Each dome is the entry and fill point for a separate compartment which is emptied at the bottom. All three compartments were equipped with steam heating pipes to enable the car to haul thick liquids needing to be heated to flow easily, such as tar. Donated in 1983 to the Museum of Transportation in St. Louis, Missouri by the Union Tank Car Company. Van Dyke frameless railroad tanker This Van Dyke patent frameless tanker (UTLX 14387) was built by the Union Tank Car Company in 1910. The 6,500 gallon petroleum car is an early attempt to build a tank car without a full-length underframe. Short frames at either end attached the tank to the wheels and couplers. The tank itself was constructed of heavy steel plate in order to absorb the movement of the train. The stress caused by this movement cause the tank to flex, loosening the rivets and causing the contents to leak. This problematic design was eliminated by welded seams on modern tank cars. The real car this MOC is based on was donated in 1952 to the Museum of Transportation in St. Louis, Missouri by the Union Tank Car Company. Chicago and Illinois Midland 2-8-2 steam loco 551 Here we see my LEGO model of a real-world steam locomotive, Chicago and Illinois Midland 551. Here is the info on that real engine: This 2-8-2 USRA light Mikado-type locomotive (number 551) was built in 1928 for the Chicago and Illinois Midland (C&IM) to haul freight. This most likely was coal most of the time, as the railroad was owned by Commonwealth Edison power company to get coal from it's southern Illinois mines to it's power plants nearer to Chicago. This loco is the last surviving steamer of that railroad, and it has resided at the Museum of Transportation in St. Louis, Missouri since 1955. The rear of the loco. Inside the cab. Sorry this one is such a crappy pic, there was a crowd of children coming and I was trying to keep them out of the shot. This train constitutes my last Museum trains for a bit.... I've almost run out of things I want to build from there and am trying to pace myself. Thoughts?
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Description from the Museum of Transportation's website on the real vessel I based the towboat off of: The H.T. Pott was the first Missouri River towboat with a welded steel hull instead of a riveted hull. The vessel operated out of Kansas City, Missouri on the Missouri River. It is named for Herman T. Pott (1895-1982), a distinguished river transportation executive and entrepreneur. The groups of barges that are moved on the nation’s rivers are called “tows." The boats that propel the barges are “towboats” even though they push the barges from the back instead of pulling them. The H.T. Pott is 58 feet long and 15 feet wide, and it has a “draft” the amount of the hull below the water line of 6 feet. You can walk the decks of the H.T. Pott. You can see a picture of the real towboat on the Museum's website here. Notes on the LEGO model: The name of the vessel, HT Pott, will go on the studs just below the roofline on the bridge. Besides the lettering, two white brackets and four black curved plates are missing from the digital model. Also, a printed-cloth American flag will fly at the rear of the craft off the second level. The rear of the vessel, with flagpole and ladder to upper deck visible. I plan on putting this 1930's towboat and my 1880's Proud Mary steamboat on the depressed-height table holding my Eads bridge, to give a stereotypical view of life on the Missouri / Mississippi Rivers, both distant past, and more recently. (as the towboat worked the Missouri river traffic from '33 up until the middle 1980's.) Now, you may be asking yourself "What good is a towboat without something for to to push up / down the river?" This was the existential question I asked myself today, and the answer I came up with shortly thereafter was "not very good". So, I set about building something quite commonplace if you live near any of the major rivers of the mid-western USA: a pair of un-powered barges! (I think they usually use them for grain and silica, among other bulk goods, but here they are empty, mostly because like the towboat model I made, they have open bottoms.) These type I see a lot here in Saint Louis, and are of the modern variety... although I'm unsure how long they've been using this design, to be honest. It seems to be two barges next to each other, but in actuality, they are one big barge. I did this because less parts are used this way. I will eventually have two of these ancillary models hooked onto my tugboat / each other with 5-long LEGO chains. (these are not in the picture) The HT Pott is few bricks less in height (and more than a few studs shorter in length) than my 2019 sternwheeler steamboat MOC, the Proud Mary (link to it's topic). Side note: The two being near each other like this isn't exactly an anachronism, as there were a scant few steamboats still plying the rivers when the HT Pott was built in 1933. (Granted, most steamboats had seen better days and were on the way out or retrofitted for cruising duties by then, but it's still accurate!) Thoughts? EDIT 6/2/22: added real world pictures.
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I remember when the original BNSF Lego set 10133 was delivered back in 2004 to my dad's house. (for him - not me, sadly!) That set, along with the complete Super Chief he already owned from two years prior, got me even more psyched for LEGO trains. Granted, I couldn't afford the set at the time, but now I'm 20 years older and have money - yet still can't afford it! Thus, I decided one day late in March to redesign the 9v Train set 10133 - Burlington Northern Santa Fe (BNSF) GP-38 Locomotive into the modern black / yellow / orange color scheme. It turned out nice in LDD, but then I decided to make something else from it's basic shape. I looked around, and saw an high-hood ex-CB&Q SD24 repainted into the Burlington Northern cascade green / black paint and fell in love. This MOC is the result of that love. Burlington Northern SD24 No. 6240 pulling a BN wide-vision caboose. The front end of the diesel loco, with the high short hood. The real BN loco number 6240 was scrapped long ago, but it lives on in my MOC. The rear end of the locomotive. I'm missing the trio of 'torpedo tubes' (air reservoir tanks) up on the roof, and I'm not sure if this bulge on the left side was on the actual SD24 locomotives.... but beyond that, it looks pretty accurate in my eyes. The cab roof comes off to place an engineer fig at the controls. The three-axle truck with the floating middle section is mostly my own design. I based it a bit off a much longer version seen in the Alco MRS-1 sold by Anthony Sava. Built in 1969, this Burlington Northern caboose was the home away from home for the train's conductor and brakemen. This specific sub-type of Caboose is called a wide-vision caboose, which was a type that became prominent after World War II when taller than usual freight cars became common. The new extra-wide cupola allowed the crew to see around these obstacles, but the life of the car was rather short, having last been last used in the 1980s when it was donated to my local train museum. You can find the real-world version of this specific caboose at the Museum of Transportation in St. Louis, Missouri. (You'll be seeing a LOT more freight cars from this museum some time soon, so stay tuned to Train Tech for when I post that thread!) The rear of the caboose. Thoughts?
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I found a builder named jwolfe7 a decade ago who made some instructions for a President's Conference Committee (also known as 'PCC') streetcar. You can see his work here, (including multiple different PCC liveries!) on Flickr, though the instructions link is dead. This particular car that I've constructed based on those instructions is a St Louis one, and is wearing the St. Louis Public Service Company paint scheme worn on PCC's from around the 1940s up until service was discontinued in 1966. This particular car is modeled after one at the Museum of Transportation, car No. 1743, which is operational there but needs some slight work. The LEGO version features two rear lights, one headlight, trolley pole, a accurate number of windows, plus some neat sideways building techniques. The rear of the streetcar isn't totally accurate to the real deal (I'm looking at you, rear window!) but it's close enough for me. Thoughts?
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This streetcar (alongside several others) was built in 1914 by the St. Louis Car Company for use by the Saint Louis Waterworks Division to transport employees and pull freight cars of equipment from the Baden Waterworks to the Chain Of Rocks Water water filtration plant near St. Louis, Missouri on it's own private railway line. These interurban streetcars were also used later by fun seekers going to the then-new Chain of Rocks Amusement park, which was near the plant. Over time, the cars got so full of park-goers, they doubled the ticket prices (to a whopping ten cents!) to deter the public... which did nothing to stop the torrent of people riding the cars! In 1936, the streetcars were replaced with buses, until in 1944 when World War II rationing of gasoline and tires forced the Waterworks Division to un-retire the trolleys until they were finally made permanently redundant on April 30th, 1955 - 70 years ago this month. Cars 10, 11, and 17 were then donated to the Museum of Transportation in Kirkwood, Missouri. Only cars 10 and 17 survive to this day, as 11 was in very poor shape and was scrapped shortly after donation, with a few parts saved, while 17 is in long term storage out of public view. Car 10, however, was totally restored from 1997 to 2001 and has been run at the Museum by trolley volunteers since then on the demonstration line. Sadly, in January 2025, vandals broke into the museum and damaged / graffitied this car plus a nearby PCC streetcar that also runs at the museum. These two will have to be repaired before they can run again and who knows how long that will take to complete. As such, I don't have my typical picture of the real world vehicle next to the LEGO model... but I do have an old book about the Waterworks Railway featuring the car on the cover, so I used that instead. This LEGO MOC of the 111 year-old Waterworks Car No. 10 has been made in tribute to the blood, sweat, and tears of the Trolley Volunteers who restore, maintain, and run this car and several others at the Museum. I must admit I was inspired by the cable car in set 10308 in several places while designing this MOC. Several differences from the real-world streetcar exist on this model because of issues stemming from this decision. Side view of the streetcar. I used eight XS wheels from Big Ben Bricks for this MOC, as using regular official LEGO wheels would have made it much too tall. The car with one of it's trolley poles raised, ready to depart on it's next journey. Thoughts on this MOC are greatly appreciated!