Search the Community
Showing results for tags 'railroad'.
-
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? -
This VIP / railroad executives' train consists of several different late 1800s / early 1900s vehicles in a variety of color combos. I did the because I got tired of making a few passenger cars for one train all in one or two colors, so i decided to go with every color scheme I could think of that would work on a train from this era. Because of the multiple color schemes used, I dub this 'the amazing Technicolor train'. From front to back, right to left: - dark blue 4-6-0 steam locomotive + tender - tan / brown baggage coach - dark tan / tan sleeper - dark red / dark brown dining car - sand green / dark tan observation car This early 1900s / late 1890s-era dark blue 4-6-0 steam loco is modeled after the bones of the engine in set 7597 (Western Train Chase) from the Toy Story 3 line. I stretched out the frame slightly to include a third driving axle, added a loco tender of my own design, along with new pistons and new studs-up boiler. Rear view of the engine, which is numbered '9'. (To be honest, this tender design I made has been used quite a bit for my early steam locos... but if it ain't broke - don't fix it!) Inside the cab. The tan / brown combination baggage / coach is for my railway executive's train. This car's purpose and paint scheme is actually inspired by a car owned by the (fictional) Wasatch and Nevada Railroad in the 1975 Western / thriller 'Breakheart Pass', based off the novel of the same name by Alistair MacLean. This dark tan / tan sleeper car was great fun to design. Figuring out a good color scheme while playing off the other three cars in the train and deciding on the fancy woodwork near the base of the car were the highlights! The dining car. I already had the dark red in my collection, but the trouble was deciding on a good secondary color. Eventually (after much thought) I realized dark brown looked best for this car, and thus this model was finalized. This sand green / dark tan observation car was based off the same source material as the baggage car, which is the film Breakheart Pass. In the film, the car was named 'Fairchild', after the fictional Nevada Governor played by Richard Crenna in the film. As to why Abraham Lincoln is standing at the back of the car even though he is actually long dead by the early 1900's, I have but one answer: because I forgot to take him off the model before taking pictures! Thoughts?
-
Hi all, I've recently come out of my dark ages and decided to get back into Lego trains! One thing I've always found fascinating is mountain railroading. I remember looking for the old railroad grades in the mountains on family trips to Colorado, and I enjoy reading about how they were constructed through the mountains. (The Denver, Northwestern & Pacific's standard gauge line over Rollins Pass is pretty incredible). This project takes inspiration from a Denver and Rio Grande Western Line between Buena Vista and Leadville, CO as well as the Yosemite Valley railroad in California. I'm planning on creating five sections for this. The railroad will pass over the river at some point (still playing with a couple ideas!). It won't be a full loop, but I enjoy making dioramas. With the space I have available, I can add a lot more detail to a diorama display. Two questions for you guys: 1) Getting the slopes to line up is pretty tricky. What's really tough is making the supports line up to brace the upper mountainside. Has anyone made any references for these kinds of things? I was thinking of making some basic models to really figure out how to line things up. I was hoping to avoid going into calculating LDU's and such, but with all the angles, it might be necessary. 2) Has anyone made wide radius curve L-draw files (R56, R72, R88)? I searched the forum and found links for the ME-models library and R104 Bricktracks on Lgauge.org, but I found the ME models ones to be kinda finicky. Let me know what you think! I played with a couple different methods for detailing and attaching the trees and grass, etc so I'm open to feedback and to other ideas as well! I plan on updating this thread as I finish the other modules. Thanks! River_Canyon1_3 by Mark, on Flickr River_Canyon1_2 by Mark, on Flickr River_Canyon1_1 by Mark, on Flickr River_Canyon1_5 by Mark, on Flickr
-
Does anyone ever combine their LEGO bricks with scale electric trains? I’ve found them to be compatible for track structures for 1/87th scale systems as well as structures such as elevated rail stations and bridges I’ve also used Legos as the base for a moc up of a section of track in Columbus, Ohio where a derailment occurred back In 2012 for something I was doing
-
What if Lego created a line of road baseplates with train tracks embedded in them? What type of sections would everyone like to see? the ones I can think of now are: single track: straight segments curve segments Junctions crossings slopes. Double track: straight segments curve segments junction segments crossover segments crossings slopes. general: sections where track is are either red or green in color for public transport only sections where track is are same as rest of street for mixed traffic Sections where there is interlaced track should be included such as special points and other areas for such track there should also be areas where the tracks transition to normal LEGO rails as well
-
I originally got this basic model from a page on Bricksafe by user @sed6 as seen here. I revised the freight door to be movable, changed the roof color to dark red from black, building color to sand green from tan, plus I added a "cast iron" heating stove and it's chimney flue to the model for late-1800's period look. This station will go along with my western stuff on my layout as seen in this topic here. The platform side of the station. There is plenty of outside seating on both the left and right sides, yet they are still under the roof awning to be protected from rain. (three seats per side) The model features the separate entry doors to the station premises for cargo and people on the both the street and track sides. Inside we have the freight area (on the left) and the passenger area (on the right) with a connecting door between the two. The passenger section also has the heating stove which currently is keeping the coffee hot. (or is it boiling the water for tea?) This part of the station also has three inside seats for weary passengers and a cash register for ticket dispensing. The station is modular, and comes apart in four sections: - Left platform end - Right platform end - Station roof - Station building I was originally going to build the Disney station in blue, but the projected price was out of my budget, so I settled for this one. This is is just as good, if not better, because everybody's got a Disney station now, but nobody but @sed6 has one of these custom depots. (and mine is different from his to boot!) - Real life pictures to come: December 25th, 2019.- Real life pictures added, 12-16-19! Thanks for stopping by, and if anyone needs bigger versions of these pictures, they are view-able at my flickr feed. Comments, questions, and suggestions welcome!
-
While I was at my dad's house yesterday, I took some pictures of his just-finished grain elevator model with a rake of four set 4536's (Blue Hopper Car) and my Bluebonnet Santa Fe F7 diesel A & B units. (Full disclosure: He originally was inspired by these instructions I suggested to him for the grain elevator not long after creating this topic.) He just took the basic concept / look and RAN with it, making it much stronger and more modular than before. This modular format makes it easier to store in a custom wooden box like the ones behind the Grain Elevator. Inside these boxes is where he stores his modular buildings / train tunnel. The American flag addition to the building's design was my @Roadmonkeytj's idea, and was relayed by me to my dad for building. It is seen on both sides of the building. My dad revised majorly the shed where the hopper cars dump their grain load, making it much stronger in the process. This was entirely of my dad's idea: this four-point joint makes transportation easier, leaving the elevator building section on a 32 x 32, and most of the grain storage blocks on a 16 x 32 size base-plate. Pretty cool, huh? The model was inspired to-be-built by the Alton, Illinois, riverfront grain elevator, as seen above. Unfortunately, the letters were not a possibility due to not having enough silos / base-plate space to spell it all out. As usual, comments, questions and complaints are always welcome!
-
Good evening, everyone, Since I promised you in the last topic to design more international models besides german models, today I would like to present you the model of the "Hall-Class 4900" of the "Great Western Railway" from Great Britain. The "Hall class 4900" were tender locomotives, which were built between 1924 and 1943. A total of 259 units were built and the locomotives were used for passenger and freight traffic. The locomotive with the railway number 5972 "Olton Hall" achieved special fame. It is the locomotive shown in the Harry Potter movies, which was specially repainted for this in the well-known red coloring. The model consists of approx. 1090 parts, is approx. 66 studs long and about 10 studs wide. A Power-Functions L-motor can be installed in the boiler. The IR-receiver and the battery box find comfortably place in the large tender. Most of the decals or printed components correspond to the original LEGO parts. Furthermore, the model is equipped with numerous striking details, such as the piping, the chassis or the detailed cabin. This model is also a little bit of a premiere, because for the first time not only LEGO standard components are used, but also railway wheels in XL and M by Big Ben Bricks. I also tried the Bricklink Part-Designer for the first time. Currently the manual is available in two different versions. One as GWR "Hall-Class 4900" in dark green and one as "Hogwarts Express" in known red. I hope that you like this version in particular, because there are already some versions, even directly from LEGO. Praise and criticism are very welcome. Kind regards Martin Further pictures in the flickr-folder or on our homepage -
This modular Victorian-era train station was inspired by set 71044, Disney train and Station. It now has a chimney flue featuring two fireplaces, freight area with dual sliding doors, and three loading platforms under a large canopy. The street facing portion of the station should have the year 1891 on the studs above the two main doors. (This was the year the 100% fictional station was built.) The large clock on the tower is gone, replaced by a smaller version above the main door to the platform, while the word GLENNCOE (a slight misspelling of a real Missouri town... the real town only has one "N" in it's name.) goes above the right hand door, as this is the name of the station and the town it serves. Also in that general area of the model, you can see I removed the second floor balcony, as I thought it looked better being replaced by a window. The upper floor features the station master's office with desk and telephone, along with a much later addition than 1891, a computer to track train movements. The lower floor features the cargo depot with opening mailbox, and passenger waiting room with ticket desk. Six public waiting chairs are also included on this level. The station comes in several large, easy-to-take-apart sections: -tower roof -second floor hallway roof -second floor -first floor Train track 3-way switch designed by 4DBrix, printed by OKBrickworks. It works like a charm, and is used on the station as a funnel for trains to be switched to the proper platform. NOTES: This real-world picture of the REAL Glencoe station is from 1910. It no longer exists as a building, and this is the only known photo I could find, taken from the Facebook group, "Missouri railroad depot's and structures". (I had to ask if anyone had seen a picture, and this was it.)The rail line passed through there from the mid-1850's to the mid-1940's, when it was moved to it's current alignment, and the old one abandoned to nature. However, a little 12-inch gauge ride on railway now calls Glencoe home, as it has since the late 1950's. This station (and any of my LEGO trains lettered for the Wabash Frisco and Pacific, the name of the small 12-inch gauge line) are a tongue-in-cheek tribute to the rail line that has had such an impact on me growing up.. and still inspires me today! EDIT 5/4/21: Added real life pictures of the canopy and updated train station to this post. I also changed the formatting a bit. Some pictures of the inside details remain to be changed over to the newer style. (I.E. with the canopy showing, not the old singular platform) As usual, comments, questions, and complaints are always welcome!
-
This through-truss bridge design was originally downloaded by me (I don't remember the name of the original designer who created the bridge) from the LEGO Factory / Design By ME page in 2010-ish and was never built in real life due to questions about it's strength. I came across it again while looking at my MOCpage account's older files and made it into the version seen above using newer parts and a longer frame quite a while ago. (and as to those original questions about it's strength: It's built like a safe, yet I can pick it up with a single finger by the top.) More recently, I revised the deck where the track goes to be able to take the RC track up and be able to put down 9V down more easily. (We run 9V trains at shows in Gateway LUG.) In short, the track is now more easily removable to become 9V, 12V, or even a road bridge. The bridge fits any of my trains, and should fit all official LEGO trains except for double stack containers such as sets 10219 (Maersk Train) and 10170 (TTX Intermodal Double-Stack Car). Comments, questions, and complaints are always welcome! UPDATED 5/29/25: Sorry for the six-year bump, but this model has been torn apart to be made double track! Here we see how it will look when finished, as viewed in LDD. ...and here's the current progress on my double track revamp of my Western truss bridge. Most parts have arrived, but one of the orders is still out... not sure when that's gonna arrive. Thoughts on this new development? EDIT 6/29/25: Sadly, this project is dead. I tried to get it together and couldn't manage it (something was wrong with it), then I had to move and the box of parts got dropped outside. So this upgrade isn't happening. sorry everyone!
-
Welcome to the wonderous world of Yesteryears' view of the future! Where the moon is being colonized, robots are commonplace in our homes, atomic power is everywhere, and outer space is the new frontier! Here we see two Retro-futuristic trains together: the longest one is the "Nucleus Express" atomic-powered express passenger train, while the shortest one is the "Astrotrain" diesel passenger four-car train set, and the middle one is the "Moon Mover" diesel-powered freight service, with all three sporting streamlined Classic Space color schemes. ASTROTRAIN I already have a real-world Aerotrain LEGO model completed, and was fiddling around while bored when I came across this Classic Space version of the train from 2018. I had to take out the upside-down slanted coach windows because the parts don't exist in trans-yellow yet. I added different windows, red and green directional lights, and a bigger horn that looks like a thruster pod. I used black wheels instead of gray ones because they are cheaper and easier to find, but you'd never know that because I hid them behind SNOT'ed panels that look more like the prototype. Then, I deviated wildly from the GM Aerotrain and added a Baldwin Sharknose type-end to the front of the engine to make it even more unique. The classic space 4 x 2 slope from Benny's spaceship goes right below the headlight, of course. Also, as a side note, a 9V motor can be added to the engine for shows alongside my CS base / vehicles. (I don't own a 9V motor or track, but some GtwLUG members do and have offered to try out my locos wit h 9V power in the past.) The engine has been thoroughly made into a futuristic space locomotive... which wasn't too hard as it was already pretty forward-thinking designed originally. The roof is now removable, with seating for a driver and dual weight bricks for adding traction to the 9v motor. (when it has one for shows) As a concession to using trans-yellow as a window color, I had to remove the original slanted GM Fishbowl-bus style windows that were used on the original Aerotrain due to lack of parts in that color. The rear of the train has no coupler as it's "supposed" to be a part of one complete train-unit. Here we can se the original aerotrain working slightly at my dads. link to video showing Aerotrain in motion at Flickr Please excuse the pineapple couch, its my dads, as is the borrowed 9v equipment. The motor sadly only can pull three cars and at full speed only or not at all. But, it is a step towards having it run at train shows! (if anyone can help me figure out how to get the motor to move more than three cars, or add the video to my actual post, please respond below! Thanks to a suggestion by @XG BC, the locomotive now has weight bricks over the (potential) motor, so it should be ready for 9v power for shows next year. NUCLEUS EXPRESS PASSENGER TRAIN Heavily inspired by @Electricsteam's long-awaited Atomic Streamliner project, (as seen here ) I have designed my own Atomic-Age wonder for my "Moon Mover" fast freight service. It is, as is Electricsteams' engine, a fission powered turbine loco with 4-4-2 "Atlantic" wheel arrangement. This engine lacks the full streamlining of other locos, but it does have the nose streamlined. This allows for easier working on the nuclear powerplant that powers the engine's movement. Unlike the slower Earth trains, the Nucleus type of space-train is super-streamlined, and can go up to speeds of up to 180 MPH on it's special track, with super-elevated curves and a long straight-away over 101+ miles, all while using Positive Train Control (PTC) on the the mostly double-track mainline, where all vehicle crossings are flyovers and switches virtually non-existent once out of the city limits. Here are the three coaches for the Nucleus train. The inside of all the cars for this train look the same - three seats for each car. This dome car features spectacular views of Earth through it's car-width rooftop window. The rearmost-car features a large observation window. ASTRO-BASE COMMUTER RAILROAD STATION This commuter station will be the departure point for my two Classic Space trains. It features a very low floor with two accessibility ramps to get at the two train tracks - one run through and one stub end. There are two benches, two ticket machines, and a single double-sided analog clock. The manned ticket booth (for those uncomfortable or unfamiliar with the electronic machines) has a sign above it saying the train terminal's name, which is named Astro-Base. This is because it is located next to my Classic Space moon-base. Here we see the other side of the run-through track. OTHER STUFF The two identical doors of the space base has been re-designed to handle train tracks so the trains can enter and exit the walled-in base and the doors still open and shut. Atlantis City (located in Copernicus crater on Earth's moon, in XL shape and yellow on the map), the great domed wonder of the solar system, has a rail system to get people to work at it's outlying un-domed facilities. The interstellar transport hub of Reinhold is the next stop, and is the terminus for all the public passengers / galactic tourists. (The Reinhold crater is in green here) The following two branch lines are for specific crewmembers only: The Lansberg line is for power / shield generation over the city and surrounding land areas. It also was where the original city was located, before the original founders relocated to Copernicus Crater and founded the Great Glass City as we know it today. (Lansberg is in violet / purple crater) The Gambart line is for military personnel only, as it where the top brass pour over charts and make way for the latest improvements in "laser scanner" technology. (This one in the Blue with yellow rim crater) Potential new tracks could be laid to the planned 100,000 seat stadium in the older Stadius crater (barely visible near Copernicus crater) for Sportsball events. New tracks could also be laid past the space hippies encampment at Hortensius Crater (small yellow crater), but has been continually voted down by protesting neo-hippies, as it would bring bad vibes to their region by the loud construction vehicles just to get to the ice mines of the Mare Insularum. (No one has managed to get through to them that there is no sound in a vacuum!) (Photo from Google Earth, with railroad lines drawn and story by me. The colorful moon landscape background is from early 1960's NASA maps that I thought were really cool. More stuff will come as I think of it, so keep your eyes peeled for updates to this thread! UPDATED 7/11/21 This Zephyr-like loco is going to replace the engine at the head of my Astro-train. I decided to do this for one reason: motorization! I will soon be able to put a 9v motor at the head of the train, running it via electricity for shows with Gateway LUG. The inter-car connection is the same as before, and most of the needed parts for the engine (plus one more passenger car!) will come from the pervious loco. Thoughts?
-
Hi all, here is my new creation, Western Railroad. You can play some Ennio Morricone's composition in the background. Western Railroad by Nikola Đurić, on Flickr Western Railroad by Nikola Đurić, on Flickr Western Railroad by Nikola Đurić, on Flickr
-
Heavily inspired by @Electricsteam's long-awaited in-the-brick Atomic Streamliner project, (as seen here in this thread) I have designed my own Atomic-Age wonder called "Nucleus". It is, as the inspirational original builder once said "a fission powered turbine loco" with 4-4-2 Atlantic wheel arrangement. The Nexus Force logo piece goes on both sides of the locomotive's tender. Nucleus is owned by the Neo Nexus Force, and is a retro-futuristic stream-liner mix of old-style 2-rail technology, but with hyper-modern safety features designed specifically for use by Nexus Force personnel as a very high-speed, high-security ground transport between the northern-most city of St. Nicklaus and north-pole-hugging outpost of Ice Station Odyssey, around 590 miles away. (this all takes places on the ice-bound planet of Beta Polaris, which orbits what we here call the North Star, far away from Earth.) Thus this makes it a space train! Unlike the slower Earth trains, the Nucleus type of space-train is super-streamlined, and can go up to speeds of up to 160 MPH on it's special track, with super-elevated curves and long straight-away's over hundreds of miles, all while using Positive Train Control (PTC) on the the mostly double-track mainline, where all vehicle crossings are flyovers and switches virtually non-existent once out of St. Nicklaus city limits. This train runs along with seven identical versions of the train on the route with up to five in running order on the route and at least one in the maintenance shed / in emergency backup storage at any one time. They are named / numbered Nucleus 1 through 6. The baggage car, which usually holds anything from sled dogs in crates, to core samples of millennia-old meteorites bound for labs under armed guard. All the doors on this model open up, as shown. (The rest of the passenger cars doors on the the other cars open too, but it's only here you will see it being shown!) The passenger cars come in groups of two, jointed together by a Jacobs bogie in the middle. The observation car at the rear of the train. This train will go nicely with my Nexus Force moon base, plus my other, Classic Space themed train based on the Aerotrain, called the Astrotrain. The Nucleus train probably won't be built for a while, (orange isn't a cheap color!) but it's at least on my radar. Once again, a hearty thanks to @Electricsteam for his wonderful eight-wide model, as it inspired my six-wide one. As usual, comments, questions, and complaints are always welcome!
-
I've had the Disney train set since it came out, and recently I've been trying to improve it. From other threads I've read, I'm not the only one. My current project is reconfiguring the engine and tender so the tender has more of a resemblance to the C.K. Holliday, which requires moving the motor to the driving wheels. This is my first time altering a Lego set, and I was hoping for some tips/ideas for the rolling stock. My goal is to have two open gondola cars, three cattle cars, and the caboose. Just like the picture below. From some of the other threads I've seen, there's a lot of really neat changes, and I'd be excited to get some feedback. Thanks!
-
This model was inspired from this set-733 like MOC by @AFOL7777. I turned it into a railroad-served industrial track ballast loading facility to have the crane load dark bluish gray 1 x 1 round bricks into the crane's bucket. Then you can drop them into train hopper's when they arrive with the pull of a sliding plate. You may have noticed I had to extend the height of the model 1 brick, to allow for Diesel 10 to fit underneath, as he is the primary engine to work the ballast facility. (His claw made him too tall, but it's okay now.) The tan tile parts under the crane are the pull pins to make the coal fall into the hopper cars. Inside of the crane with "controls" for the bucket motors and the crane itself, which travels along some narrow-gauge tracks and can swing from side to side. In reality, the "hand of god" method is used to make the crane move, with a rope extending to the roof of the crane cabin which I can wind and unwind to load and unload the ballast into the train cars. The office of the owner of the ballast operations. The reason for the odd footprint is the factory MOC I made earlier this year resulted in a base-plate piece (dimensions 16 x 48 studs) that I was looking to use somewhere.... enter into the picture this model, and now I've nearly solved that little issue. This 6 wide BR "Warship"class with hydraulic claw (AKA Diesel 10) model has been heavily modified by me from a old Class 37 file by LazarusBricks to have new removable roof sections for the cabs with seats for figures and cab controls. As you can see, I chose to leave off the face to keep the engine more in line with the rest of my locomotives. Diesel 10 works the ballast facility most of the time, so I included him here. I'm going to have my Diesel 10 model pull 6 of these coal cars plus a brake van inspired by the 1980's 12v era red/ yellow sets to my gravel facility. The 12v era model and Diesel 10 are already built, and the plank wagons are on order as of 1/11/2020. NOTE: All credit for the six dark grey wagon models seen in the picture above goes to @Pdaitabird, who designed them. See here on Flickr for the awesome tutorial by him for the construction of the BR plank wagon. BUILDERS NOTES: The ballast facility is now done, but the trucks to be filled with the crushed rocks are not (yet). More pictures to come soon!
-
Dear Community, The week has passed very fast once again and like promised I would like to present a model for the start of the weekend. But first a little text. Some of you may have already seen it while browsing through my Flickr channel. It's the "German Crocodile", the DR E 94. It was built from 1940 and was mainly used in heavy goods traffic in Germany and Austria. 200 units were built. The nickname "German crocodile" was given to the locomotive because of the optical similarity to the "Swiss crocodile, the SBB Ce 6/8", which comes much closer to a crocodile. But the real nickname is not "crocodile" but "iron pig". They were designed for freight trains with up to 2000 tons. This heavy electric locomotive fascinated me already as a child on our domestic model railway layout. Apparently effortlessly she pulled the at that time seemingly endless coal train over our 4m² plate. The model is approx. 43cm long, 8.5cm wide and approx. 12.5cm high, with extended pantographs even higher. The locomotive can be motorized with two Power-Functions M motors, one of which is housed in each "crocodile snout". The IR receiver and battery box fit easily into the spacious cab. Inside, it was even possible to design both cabs. The detailed roof can be removed for easy access to the interior details and electronics. The two chassis, each with three axles (all driven) are pivoted and also very detailed. Here were not the "standard railway wheels" used, but the large spoke wheels of the Emerald Night, as these fit much better to the scale. By the way, the size of the model fits perfectly to the already introduced "SBB De 4/4". What has always bothered me with this locomotive, as well as with the "sister" from Switzerland and other locomotives of similar design, is the relatively large gap, which is between the driver's cab and the two " mouths " (also to be seen with the crocodile from LEGO set 10183). This gap is usually quite large with LEGO models, as the available curve radius is very small compared to the scale. In the real model, however, the gap is hardly noticeable. My goal was to "develop" a system that allows cornering but keeps the gap as small as possible. The solution is relatively simple. Below the cab there is a kind of rail system which is attached to both " mouths " and thus enables the three elements to be pulled apart if necessary, e.g. in curves. On a straight line, the elements are pulled together again by means of an attached rubber band. The assembly attempts have left a good impression on me. Unfortunately also a long, heavy train causes, that the elements can pull each other a little bit apart when driving straight out. As with the "SBB De 4/4" it is possible to build the locomotive in three different colours: - dark green (still my favourite) - grey - blue (DB colouring) And now have fun looking at the pictures. Criticism welcome. The example (Source: Wikipedia) More pictures in the flickr album With kind regards Martin | Bricks-on-Rails
-
This bahnhof (train station) is based on a number of hauptbahnhof (main stations) throughout Germany. It also uses parts from 60050, but not much. The major inspirations are Bremen and Frankfurt am Main. It has three tracks for trains with an overhead bridge to gain access to 2 & 3. Signals are at the ends of the platforms for tracks 1 & 2. As seen from the internal view, the shopkeeper and the bäckerei are present, but additional areas have been added. A ticket agent, locker area, and WC are new. The station has plenty of windows, allowing for good lighting as seen when illuminated from inside.
-
These two rail vehicles are a type of railcar called a Galloping Goose, and are slightly inspired by seven real vehicles built and used by the Rio Grande Southern narrow gauge railway back in the 1930s to 1950s, when the little railroad was torn up. Six still exist in original form, with one being a reconstructed replica. These machines are really something Doctor Frankenstein would love - a bus body or boxcar welded to a road vehicle (usually a Pierce Arrow limousine, though bus bodies were later used) for the front end, with train wheels added underneath. My interpretations of this type of vehicle are built in freight (red) and passenger (blue) versions, even though the real-world ones are all silver / light gray painted. (NOTE: This vehicle's front half was inspired by @hachiroku and his Indiana Jones "Raiders" staff car MOC from 2019.) The rear of the Galloping Geese. As a play feature, you can open the doors to the drivers compartment and place a driver at the wheel. The back half of either vehicle is not meant to be accessible. The free LDD file for both Galloping Geese can be found at my Bricksafe page. I'm currently building the blue Galloping Goose in real life, so keep your eyes peeled for that separate thread later! Thoughts, questions, complaints, and suggestions welcome!
-
This 2-10-4 'Texas' type steam locomotive MOC I have made has two older ancestor LEGO models that were both 2-8-4 'Berkshire' types by other builders. Parts / techniques / ideas from these two models were mashed together to design my own loco. For the first ancestor loco, we have to go back to 2012, when I bought @SavaTheAggie's 8-stud wide 2-8-4 Polar Express loco instructions. I then spent the next three years heavily modifying the model I made from them, eventually ending up enlarged into a 2-10-4 'Texas' type. This revised loco also had a very similar color scheme to my new loco, with an all-black look with red box on the tender. This original 'Texas' type loco was destroyed long ago for parts. You can buy the original loco instructions by Sava here. For the second engine, we move forward to 2021, when I bought some Rebrickable instructions by @Plastic_Goth for a 7-stud wide 'Berkshire', from which I took the boiler and cab areas and made the rest of the loco myself using principles and ideas gleamed from the first loco 9 years prior. this design was modified and used several times in 4-8-2, 4-8-4, 2-8-4, and more wheel arrangements over the years. You can buy the instructions by Plastic_Goth here. Now in 2025, I have designed a 2-10-4 based on a stretched Plastic_Goth boiler with the paint scheme of my modified 8-wide version of the Sava Railways engine and my own loco running gear + tender. I think I did a really good job mashing these ideas together and making it into my own MOC. The engine rolls beautifully without any major issues except one: when being pushed backwards the engine can collide with the tender. Grabbing the loco itself and pushing the tender back (instead of dragging the loco behind the tender by holding that) bangs the cab roof into the top of the tender. It's my design's fault, and I can't seem to sort the issue out, unless If making the cab roof shorter in length. (which I don't think looks good and won't be doing.) The rear of the loco. Apologies for the one tile not being pushed down all the way - it has since been fixed. The cab of the loco, with firebox and gauges. The engine is 7 studs wide from this point back through the tender, while the boiler is 6 wide, not including the overhang for the walkways. Thoughts?
-
I like the late-1930s car from 2015 San Diego Comic Con set 'Action Comics 1 - Superman', but didn't particularly care for the garish colors of green and yellow - or the insane price! So I used the instructions and built my own normal version in dark blue, then this black one with XS Big Ben Bricks train wheels instead of rubber tires as a railroad inspection vehicle. This rail mobile has a number of changes from the set, but it still seats one figure at the wheel. Speaking of which: the person in the picture is a division superintendent, and he is wearing green in tribute to the original colors of the SDCC set that inspired this MOC. The rear of the rail mobile. (apologies for the dust - I just built this two days ago!) Inside the vehicle, featuring the drivers seat. Thoughts?
-
The model seen here is originally based upon open-back instructions purchased in 2012 from Brick City Depot. The 'Winter Village Train Station' can be seen here and was first built in real bricks by me in 2017, but then torn apart only three years later in 2020. Well, I regretted that decision to dismantle the model from the moment I did so. Thus, I've rebuilt it using newer techniques and a few modifications. Some examples include (but are not limited to): two new ramps at the ends of the slightly-shorter platform removal of the second story seats have been redesigned vintage Coca-Cola vending machine added new signage, posters, and billboards station master mini-figure new chimney flue Here we see the track side of the station. Two benches are placed outside, and another is inside. Also visible is a chalkboard showing arrival and departure times from this station, along with each train's destination. Here is the street side of the station, with a Coca-Cola machine and a Radiator Springs poster visible. Empty bottles are in the wooden crate next to the soda machine. The inside of the MOC has a waiting room and ticket seller one one side, and a baggage room on the other. Shown here is the passenger waiting room. (yes, the clock is 90 degrees out of place. I didn't realize until after I had made the pictures that it was incorrect compared to the other two clocks) Here we see the baggage room, used for express freight, passenger baggage, and the mail. Two big sliding doors allow for cargo to be loaded onto the platform side, or out the street side and onto a truck. Here's the late 1930's / early '40's era station master of the small town Mount Clutchmore train depot, who I've named named Robert. Robert has seen a lot of changes in his 25 years of railroading. He's seen the Boys go 'Over There' to fight in the trenches, survived the Flu Epidemic of 1918 around when they came home, witnessed the golden years of the Roaring Twenties end with the economic Crash of '29, and saw masses of hoboes riding freights through his town, while sleek streamliners flash by. Now, another war is starting abroad and he's also seeing the diesel-electric locomotives for the first time as well. Simply put: the times keep changing and the calendar marches relentlessly forward. Robert isn't sure what tomorrow will bring, but he's certain the railroad will get us there. That's all I got for this MOC. Thoughts?
-
This is the fifth version of my modification of set 7997 (Train Station). Here are my notes to recap my progress from stock set to version five: I got the original set 7997 (shown above) in 2007, along with a double rail crossover for my Birthday. I wanted to make it a full building but didn't have the parts. By 2008, I had discovered Bricklink, but the station was in pieces by then and was not re-created until early 2012. The station was a stock set, while I searched for ideas. Eventually, I came across a build by a fellow Eurobricks user named Lazarus that incorporated a modular basis, a full building (street & track-sides) & a appealing design. I saved a picture of it and made my own design based on his. I included really neat features, (such as the arched lattice windows made with a fence) but I went too far and made it impossible to transport to train shows and LUG meetings. The platforms were very flimsy, and during the move to a new house in 2013, it shattered into small chunks. So, I went back to the drawing board, scrapping everything but the building itself. The 2015 version of the model was eventually scrapped in 2020 after it was accidentally dropped and destroyed. However, now in 2024 I made a red version of that model, with a few new parts added on. It has one platform, plentiful outside seating and a removable roof with second floor office. There are many other changes from the set, but the heart and soul of that 2007 set is still there. The name of the station is Edgewood, and it is staffed by the two figures standing on the platform. Here is the street side of the station, with the brick-built LEGO railway logo plainly visible. I decided on the swapped color scheme because of the similar yellow-to-red color swap sets 4554 - Mero Station / 2150 - Train station from 1991 / 1996 respectively. Upstairs is the station master's office. (Don't ask me how he gets up here - I don't know!) Here we can see the interior of the station's main floor, with ticket machines and refreshment stand. Here you can see the modular breakdown of the model, which includes the following: -Station building (lower floor) -Station roof and Tower control room (upper floor) -Tower roof -left platform section -right platform section ...Thoughts?
-
This early-1930's Duesenberg SJ is based off the car seen in Indiana Jones set 7682 (Shanghai Chase) from the 2009 Temple of Doom line. I changed the color from tan to black, updated the look with parts not available 15 years ago, and added a hardtop roof among other things. Oh, and me being me, I added some flanged railroad wheels to use the car an an inspection vehicle for railroad officials like the one shown. (Because why not drive the high iron in style?) I've always wanted to build one of these in black (since the set was released, actually), and now I've got one! The only problem is, it show dust WAY too easily, as you can see. ...It's the curse of building in black! The rear of the car. The car seats two figures inside the cabin. Thoughts?
-
(I was torn between Train Tech and Town forums for this thread, so if it needs moving - don't hesitate to move it, mods!) Recently a Flickr user named elijahleestewart commented on one of my riverboat pictures asking about me making a Ninjago ferry from season 4. I said I already had City set 60119 (Ferry) and was not interested in making another. But this conversation got wheels turning, and about two hours later I came up with this vessel you see here, which was made by tearing apart my original Ferry to revise it. The port / left side of the vessel. From here you can see the ladder to access the bridge. The starboard (or right side). The opening gates no longer fold down (as in the original set 60119), but they do split apart to allow train cars to be loaded two at a time. You can load two of the bigger cars (24 or 28 studs long), three 16-long cars, or a single 34 stud long depressed center car on this ferry or you can mix and match. (The last 34 stud long car type is too long to have two of it's kind on there, but it can fit one 34 long and another of anything shorter than that such as a 16, 24 or 28.) The roof section of the bridge is removable to place figures at the controls. Another source of inspiration was the Albatross, a former Vicksburg-area railroad ferry from 1907 that was converted to a St. Louis river cruising ship (one of the largest vessels ever on the river) called the Admiral in the late 1930's which then became a casino and then was sadly scrapped in 2011. You can read about the Admiral here on Wikipedia, and view a picture of the Albatross on Flickr here, courtesy of the Herman T. Pott National Inland Waterways Library. (You can loose a few hours perusing through steamboats on that Flickr page!) ...That's all I got. Thoughts, comments, opinions, and questions welcome!
-
I was fiddling around with an old car MOC found on Rebrickable (based on a vehicle from the LEGO City Undercover game), seeing what colors I could make it into when I discovered dark tan was possible. Me being me, I then turned the car into a rail mobile because I thought it would look cool on my railroad. Thus, it became Track Inspection Vehicle No. 4. It may sound odd, but during the 1970s, railroads in the US were cash-strapped, worn out and over-regulated - they were looking for cheap, quick fixes in every way in order to stay afloat, and this was a way to save a few bucks. If you are wondering why I chose this color - it is meant to be a dirty, ugly, strange color as the railroad isn't trying to impress anyone with this vehicle... and this kind of dark tan actually was a popular color in the 1970s! The rear of the vehicle. The car's roof comes off so one figure can sit at the wheel and the trunk opens. Thoughts?
