Every now and then there are some articles online on one of the well-known fora that you just HAVE to share to a broader audience. A while ago my eye fell on an article by Hod Carrier over at the Train Tech forums of Eurobricks. Hod Carrier is no stranger here at BMR, having contested twice on OcTRAINber, and one time almost. Today we present his second part about Trackside Structures, one of my favorite parts of any realistic Lego Train Model Railroad:
Thanks so much for the fabulous feedback that I’ve received so far. It’s really amazing to have prompted such a response.
I’ve been busy adding a few more details which I hope you won’t mind me
sharing. Don’t worry, though. I’m not intending on reproducing every
single piece of UK rail infrastructure.
In order to reduce noise and wear to rails and wheelsets, flange
lubricators (sometimes referred to as grease pots) are provided because,
lets face it, no-one likes a dry flange. *Ahem*. These automatically
apply a small amount of grease to the train wheels as they pass to help
reduce friction. These are often found in areas where the route follows
tight curves or at junctions.
When clean these are generally yellow to make them visible, but over
time, and through careless refilling, these eventually become black.
Very simply, this is a drain. At some locations the ground or
environmental conditions means that the ballast and formation of the
track is insufficient to provide adequate drainage. In this instance
additional drains are provided, either at the sides or between the
tracks. I won’t insult anyone’s intelligence by showing the design in
isolation, as I’m sure it should be clear.
This is a Hot Axle Box Detector (HABD) together with it’s associated
small portable-type lineside equipment building. These detectors are
dotted around the network and are used to detect an overheating axle
box. These automatic installations sound an alarm at the signalbox and
tell the signaller which axle and on which side of the train the defect
is occurring so that the train can be stopped and examined.
The central detector between the rails is offset to be nearer one rail
or the other to help the system determine which side of the train the
defective axle is.
There are many different designs of point/switch motors in use across
the UK, and this is just one of them. It is an older design that has
since been superceded but which remains in operation in large numbers
across the network.
The design does not affect the operation of the switch and should not
interfere with passing trains either. I would have liked to have had a
go at one of the successor designs, but the studless nature of the
standard LEGO points/switch preclude this, although third party
offerings may be different.
All of my designs so far have been made to be compatible with the
PennLUG ballasting standard. While it’s great for LEGO modellers by
being compact and not too demanding in terms of parts, I don’t think
many operational railways would tolerate such a shallow bed of ballast.
Certainly in the UK the trackbed is much wider and ballast shoulders are
built up at each side.
I suppose you could call them shoulder pads in that they bulk out the
track ballasting to more realistic proportions. There are side sections
and centre sections.
Used together for a twin track arrangement (as in the previous picture) the total width comes out at 34 studs, two more than a standard 32×32 baseplate. Consequently I have shown the design split across two baseplates with the centreline as the join. To make this compatible with the MILS modules, the centre section is built in two halves to facilitate splitting of modules into individual 32×32 sections.
The following article is a summary of some tips and tricks for layout designing combined with some basic facts that involve the layout designing progress. This article won’t summarize every subject which involves the designing process since there just too many. However, there will be tips and tricks for both beginner and experienced builders.
Epoch
First thing when deciding to design your layout is to figure out what epoch you want to built in. Every epoch reflects a particular time within railroading history. The idea is that you can build whatever you want, as long as it makes sense within that epoch (or one below or above), because the chance of prototypical railroading would be highest, ie. the chance that two trains, or buildings, or cars, would have been able to ‘meet’, would be the highest if we follow these rules. For the AFOLs out there that may not be familiar with the epoch system I hope this explains:
Epoche
Time period
I
1835–1920
II
1920-1949
III
1949-1970
IV
1970-1990
V
1990-2006
VI
2006-current
The epoch system is an important thing for layout building since your chosen epoch effects your entire layout. For better understanding we take a station as an example. During the Epoch III period there were different safety regulations when it comes to station’s compared to the Epoch VI period. Take platform length or height for example. Also, station designs, a “modern” design won’t match a full Epoch III layout. Details like these give your layout a lot more realism but can also act as a starting point when considering designing.
Another good example is level crossings. During the Epoch I-IV level crossings where common to see. In the Epoch VI period, especially in Europe, level crossings are becoming a thing of the past especially on main high-speed lines.
Every now and then there are some articles online on one of the well-known fora that you just HAVE to share to a broader audience. A while ago my eye fell on an article by Hod Carrier over at the Train Tech forums of Eurobricks. Hod Carrier is no stranger here at BMR, having contested twice on OcTRAINber, and one time almost. Today, his piece is about Trackside Structures, one of my favorite parts of any realistic Lego Train Model Railroad:
As we’re all grounded at the moment, I thought I’d use some of the time to have a little look at ways to make subtle improvements to the track. It’s always great to debut a new loco or item of rolling stock, but apart from ballasting the track on which these trains run often gets overlooked. As a train driver here in the UK I thought I’d see how to add the sort of details seen along the lineside in order to add realism, often with only a few parts.
Most of the time, pictures say more than a thousand words. Today’s model proves this point, even though they are renders. Anyways, John O’Shea, known for his amazing US and EU style trucks, build a small Komatsu Road/Rail Digger for an upcoming bigger build. Don’t try to build this beast at home without at least painting several parts, but hey, that’s one of the premiums of Digital Builds.
Picking up a piece of Concrete
According to John, these renders are done with Blender, a piece of open source render software and the Mecabricks plugin. I know both and I have definitely never used them before, but if you guys want to give it a try, you now know what kind of amazing photo-realistic pictures you can make with it!
BMR: Tell us a little bit about yourself and your MOCs.
My name is Isaac, I live in the UK and have been back-and-fourth with Lego for as long as I can remember! Back when I was 13 I started exploring Stop-Motion Animation, and what better resource could I hope for than the mountain of Lego I’d accumulated as a kid! I must have caught the Lego bug without knowing it, because once out and started University, I realized I was still very much hooked on building Lego.
The MOCs I’ve built are all British locomotives & rolling stock, 6-wide. This is quite an off proportion for a lot of people, but I’ve found it to have become a unique (and slightly cheaper) style that I’m extremely happy with!
BMR: What got you started with LEGO trains?
I went to University in York, where I worked at the National Railway Museum for the best part of a year. Legends such as Mallard and Flying Scotsman were regularly visiting or on display, so it didn’t take long for the railway bug from my childhood to take hold again. By that point I already had a lot of the Lego, so the rest was a no-brainer!
Isaac’s 4468 Mallard speeding on the track.
BMR: What is your build process for making a new MOC?
It can depend on the build. For a lot of my bigger projects, like
Mallard or the Gresley P2, I designed the model on LDraw before printing a
parts list for Bricklink. In other cases I will attempt to engineer a
locomotive with my existing pieces. This is how the LSWR O2, Midland ‘Spinner’
4-2-2 and Class 48 Diesel all came about.
BMR: What is your go-to place for inspiration?
There are many – the museum was certainly a great place – but If I had to name one other, there’s a chap on Youtube called Chris Eden-Green who creates mini-documentary profiles on classes of Steam Locomotive. They’re accessible, well-shot and delight informative, and I’ve got many ideas for locomotives to build from them. I hope you don’t mind the shout-out!
BMR: What are your latest projects?
My builds are on hiatus at the moment as I take on a full-time job and work on several animation projects. By no means am I leaving the hobby, but I do think a break from the same thing can be healty once in a while! That said, I’ve been working on some rather interesting stop-motion puppets using Lego pieces as the base for the skeleton. Purists might not like it though as it involves a lot of snipping and drilling!
Purist might want to close there eyes.
BMR: What is your dream project?
Some kind of representation of Dawlish, but in Lego. A mainline running along a sea-wall beneath dramatic cliffs, then entering a small seaside town with a station before disappearing into a tunnel. Maybe throw in a castle on the clifftop for good measure. Probably impractical and definitely heavy on the wallet, but… What a sight it would be!
BMR: You have a lot of cool and interesting YouTube video’s about your MOCs. What inspired you to make these?
Thank you very much! I’ve been making YouTube videos for about 10 years now, so when the Lego Trains came along it was by far the best way for me to share them with people. Film/video making has always been in competition with Lego for my greatest passion, so combining the two was always going to be inevitable.
BMR: What is your favorite show that you have attended with your MOCs so far?
Shildon Brick Show (At NRM Locomotion, Shildon) was where I met the
wonderful fellas at the LNUR. I’ve been to many shows with them since and it’s
always been a wonderful time, but it doesn’t beat where it all began.
A few of Isaac builds at the Yorkshire Brick Show 2018.
If you want to see more of Isaac builds check out the following links:
In the LegoWorld 2018 Report Raised promised that somewhere in March 2020 the 2019 article would be published. Since Enrico considered that to be a bit late, he volunteered to write the 2019 article, but in 2019. However, since Raised was supposed to edit, it only goes online now. So you guys know who to blame now!
Choochoos and modern Electrics, everything is possible in Legos!
The Event
LegoWorld is an 8-day event (9 if you include the pre-show set-up day) and is held annually during the Dutch autumn break. The event is the biggest Lego event here in The Netherlands and attracts around 100.000 visitors every year. The event is held in Utrecht and is thereby located in the center of the Netherlands.
Those 8 days ask a lot of our trains, and since the layout is a rather big one and the trains run for multiple hours straight, it asks a lot of our models. They tend to break down every now and then, but also batteries need to be charged. Due to the huge amount of young visitors, we want to have at least 2 trains running at any point, so this event not only ask a lot our trains but also a lot of us.
One of the casualties we had. Raised his NS 6400 derailed in the corner located in the old section of Tijn his city.
The Team and the Layout they built
The team this year was made up by 6 people: Raised, UrbanErwin, Tijn, Gijs, Esran and Enrico. We each contributed a different part of the layout.
The Heroes of Legoworld 2019: Erwin, Raised, BigDeady, Tijn, Enrico and Esran. Gijs isn’t in it because he took the picture, right Gijs?
Unfortunately, we don’t have our own tables (yet), so we are always depending on the tables provided by the venue. Most of the time these aren’t properly aligned at all, but luckily we got more than enough beer coasters to get this fixed. Hooray for beer coasters!
How many Minifigs do you need to fix a bit of plastic shaped like a Utilities Box?
The plan for the layout was different compared to last year, as we decided to not re-use the diorama style. Instead, we went for the oldschool circle layout, just like most other LTC’s do. This solved two problems: Less track necessary for the staging yard, and all track would be on MILS level instead of having to build a ramp to go down to table level. That system didn’t work out properly last year, because even the smallest incline meant a lot of stalling of our engines, partly due to the way they are build, partly due to flawed powertrains *cough Raised cough* . We christened this our “Christmas tree set up” from a joke Tijn made when we came up with the layout design, because it looks an awefull lot like something that runs around a Christmas tree. Or, in our case, a concrete pillar…
An overhead view provided by BlueBrick, the track planning software we use for LegoWorld.
Let’s
divide the layout for this article into 4 sections: North, East, South and
West.
North
The North
section was a typical Dutch piece of landscape, flat, green and some cows, a typical
Dutch Polder in fact. This piece was mostly built by Raised, who built a beautiful
curve into the track, so it gave a smooth and “prototypical” presentation of
our landscape. The last piece of the North side, all the way into the North
West part was built by Gijs and the r104 curves in the North East side were
built by Enrico, with Tijn providing the small siding with the baseplates surrounding
that. The North West side had a small factory with a siding, which led into the
Shadow Station, from where we could easy do the many repairs that were
necessary for this event.
The East section was Bahnbetriebswerk Neukirche by Enrico, which turned out a bit bigger than expected: 1/3rd bigger than it was, in fact. The Bahnbetriebswerk was connected in the North east by a triple switch made by TrixBrix and the amazing R104 curves by Brick Tracks. The mainline continued on the back side of the Bahnbetriebswerk to the South East part of the layout. In the middle was a turntable with engine shed and a couple of platforms where “passengers” could get on and off. The Bhw had everything to keep a steam engine running, except for batteries… Continuing into the South East part the Bahnbetriebswerk transformed into a museum line which split up into 2 parts.
Both going into a forest bit where one stopped, the other going into the Esran’s amazing Steam Pump and small Railway station.
South:
Esran’s Steam Pump connected into Tijn his beautiful city and Railway Station in French Style, all in beautiful MDF masonry bricks. His city starts at the old Railway station Esran made in the South East part. From there some amazing winding streets and old buildings went down onto the main street where his station is located. Due to the difference in height between his city and the rest of the layout it has got a cool and realistic feel to it.
Passing the
station is the grand warehouse where the parking is located for the station.
Because the parking and a road disappear into the background it looked like the
layout had a lot of dept to it. From there the mainlined continued pass the
last couple of buildings onto the bridge made by UrbanErwin. The bridge might
be simple in its design but it’s 100% made from Lego and didn’t break down for
the entire week!
OK, it did break down, but only after Erwin threw it onto his own layout (and Raised his eanos…)!
West
The West
part of the layout is where our Shunting Yard was located. Here visitors could
see most of our rolling stock which wasn’t running (or which fell apart) and
children where able to ask: “why isn’t that train running?”. Almost all of the
switches were motorized in this part. Your were able to control the switches by
using an IR remote (only bad thing was that some off our trains where set to
the same IR channel). Next year we are just going to use Polarity Switches
instead, but it did give a cool vibe to it, and felt very realistic. The South
West side had some big trees which created a great photo location. The North
West side had a small harbor scene made by Gijs and my ICM “koploper” was set
there with the scaled drawings in front, showing the public that our trains are
built in scale.
The West Side of the layout, Enrico was just fixing/breaking the yellow NS 1600
A typical day in the Yard
“No Kids, nothing is running”
Special Guest:
This year
we invited a special guest, BigDaedy and his MOC’s. He joined us from Friday
afternoon onto the end of the Sunday. It was great having him around and
comparing his MOC’s with ours. He also had some great advice for Enrico’s
Bahnbetriebswerk, apparently all of the signals weren’t placed correctly. That
can happen to everyone, right?
Here is
small piece about LegoWorld from his point of view:
Greetings
fellow train heads and readers of BMR. My name is Raimund, but I’m usually
known as “BigDaedy” on the internet. Thanks to a special invitation
by the Dutch Lego train community I was able to participate at this year’s LegoWorld
in Utrecht. They asked me to write a brief summary of my experiences during my
trip or let’s just say about my adventure going to Utrecht.
Now what
was so special about LegoWorld Utrecht 2019 for me?
First,
this would be the first time for me to meet the masters of Dutch train building
and their mocs in real life. Then it would’ve been the second time ever for me
to be part of an event like this, the first time being at an event in a different
country (since it’s still within the EU it’s not really a big deal) and the
very first time to actually see how my MOCs would perform on a larger scale
layout, other than a circle of R120 lying on my bedroom floor. So, there is
room for lots of things to go wrong, but fortunately in the end everything
turned out perfectly. As a matter of fact, this weekend has been one of my most
pleasant experiences so far in my life. I’m still baffled and overwhelmed by all
the hospitality, generosity and overall cheerfulness I’ve received by all the
people and amazing builders I’ve met during my stay. Please let me take this
opportunity to express my deepest thanks to the whole Dutch community – You
guys rock and make this such a wonderful hobby!
That
being said, let’s get back on the road again. LegoWorld in Utrecht is actually
really easy to reach. You stumble out of the central station and all you’ve got
to do is to literally walk across the street and you’re already inside. Raised
picked me up at the entrance of the show and guided me directly towards the
layout, giving me lots of info and advice on what to expect during the next 48
hours. I guess it’s safe to say, that I must’ve experienced some sort of
sensory overload during my first few minutes at LegoWorld. Strolling through
countless amazing builds felt like walking in a wonderland and left me stunned.
I think that’s what an unsupervised child must feel like in an “all you
can eat” candy store. Anyhow the rest of the herd gave me a wonderful
welcome and showed me around the layout, pointing out all the little details
scattered around. Now it was time for me to unwrap all of the nice things I’ve
brought with me. Luckily my rolling stock didn’t take any major damage, so I
was quickly set up and ready to go. The first trial run of my consist was
indeed very successful. As a matter of fact, my Traxx was so reliable and fast
that it blew over some of the foam boards at the side of the track due to its
airstream. Partly cause of this incident a speed limit was imposed for it, as
the other guys were quite “scared” of the speed of my train and
worried that it might derail in the curves. Luckily for me, my design proved to
be quite sturdy, I’ve lost less than ten parts during the two days and my
trains seemed to handle the inevitable accidents quite well. Most derailments
actually happened cause someone’s *cough Raised cough* mocs lost vital parts
during their laps on the layout. I really enjoyed discussing all the different
designs and techniques used on both the rolling stock and the layout, so I’ve spent
most of the time taking mental notes on what designs to steal and incorporate
in possible future builds or collabs.
Raised and BigDaedy discussing the different designs they have.
At the
end of the day there was an official part by TLC. Two Lego Star Wars designers,
Jan Neergaard Olesen & Kurt Kristiansen, held a presentation about the
creative process and how a set is designed what changes it has to go through in
order to be released to the public. Very interesting behind the scenes
information and we’ve even got a sneak peek on what’s coming up next. Once the
presentation was over, the attention shifted to the more community related part
of the evening. There were speed building challenges and of course every
participant received a large Lego gift. Sadly, I didn’t get one, as I was only
a guest, but this will surely change next year!
I was also able to get an autograph of the two Lego designers on my engine. How awesome is that? Looks a little bit like graffiti but a lot cooler!
Thumbs up for the Traxx!
Saturday
turned out even better than the day before. A seemingly never-ending crowd of
people, especially children gathered around the layout fascinated by the moving
trains, the huge engine shed, Tijns city, Esrans factory and all the tasty
little details on the countryside. Since I don’t speak any Dutch, it was kind
of difficult to answer the questions of the visitors, but there was always one
of the guys around who patiently translated everything into English for me.
Being a little know-it-all, I also used the chance to point out a few mistakes
on Enrico’s Bahnbetriebswerk, mostly regarding the signaling. Sorry mate
couldn’t help myself!
The overall performance of the rolling stock was quite good. Only a few crashes happened and none of them were really disastrous (for me). We also had lots of room for trying different compositions of the trains and comparing the individual performances of the locos. Of course, this led to debates on what traction system is superior, like geared L-motors or ordinary train motors and the consent that ball bearings should become mandatory. UrbanErwins automated train operation was also very fascinating for me. Looks like there is indeed some potential within the new PU system.
Once the
show was over for the day Tijn invited us over to his place, where he and his
wife cooked us a delicious dinner (compliments to the cooks once again!). More
stories were told, we drank some apple cider, which I’ve brought from home,
together and we laughed and laughed and laughed. A perfect ending to an awesome
day, if I might say so.
As the
sun rose on this beautiful Sunday morning, I was hesitant to wake up. Being in
Utrecht amongst all these wonderful people was so enjoyable that I’ve really
wanted to stay until the end of the show. Sadly, I had to be back at work on
Monday, so I spent the morning filling up with my mind with more pleasurable
memories, until I had to catch my train back home on the afternoon.
And
that’s how my adventure at Utrecht went by. Thanks for sticking through until
the end and I wish happy building to everyone out there.
Cheers,
Raimund
Line-up’s:
On Saturday
night we decided to stay a bit longer and before we noticed, we started from
lining-up all the TRAXX locomotives at the show, into sorting all of our trains
by their colors. This resulted up to 2 line-ups: the red and the yellow one.
On the
inside corner there was from front to back: A Snngs made by Urban Erwin, 2 double-decker
coaches made by BigDaedy, a Eanos made by Raised and the red 1600 made by
Raised.
On the
outside corner there was a 0-6-0 Tank Engine made by Esran, a Vectron and TRAXX
in 6 wide made by Gerard Salden, BigDaedy his 2 TRAXX locomotives and as last
again Raised his “FYRA” TRAXX.
On the
Siding going into the Shadow Station were Raised’s NS 6400 and Enrico’s V100.
Lets start at the front and work our way into the back. On the front siding: Enrico’s ICM “koploper” (because it needed a lot of repairs, he wasn’t confident enough to place the entire train at this line-up).
On the
second siding: Tijn his Sik, Raised his yellow 1600 and a ICR coach in 6 wide
made by Gerard Salden.
On the
Third siding: The IC Direct TRAXX made by Gerard Salden, the NS 1100 provided
by a member of our crew from the layout last year (Christiaan), the NS 1200 by
UrbanErwin, and the Plan W coach by Christiaan again.
On the
Forth siding: Mat 64 (“Apenkop”) by UrbanErwin.
On the outer
corner: Enrico’s NS 2454 locomotive and Raised his ICR 8 wide coaches.
Traxx line up
The third of the special line-ups held at the event was the Traxx line up. 2 from BigDaedy and 1 from Raised.
That’s how you make pictures!
The Backdrop:
Last year we learned a very important lesson. To get the best view of the layout itself, it a good thing to not be able to see the chaos behind the layout, aka the repairing of broken trains and us eating lunch. Last year we fixed this problem by using a blue linen backdrop with wooden rods to keep it all as straight as possible. It looked fine, but just didn’t work as planned: It was too instable due to its own weight, not so easy to set up, and mostly a bit too high. So, if you were standing in the front of the layout you couldn’t see what happened at the back of the layout, which isn’t that handy if you know 50% of our track was behind the layout last year…
White Foamboard backdrops. Fixing pictures since 2019!
Luckily, we
fixed that problem this year by using foam plates as a backdrop. These were held
together by using Lego pieces on the top and the bottom. The provided a great
backdrop so that visitors were able to see the train running on the layout but
not our lunch. However the organization managed to placed us in a way that we
had 2 concrete polls right in the middle of our layout, obstructing our view,
so trains were still able to stop running for 5 minutes before we found them.
This picture made from above truly shows how busy LegoWorld can get, this day we sold out with 15000 visitors
Impression of the layout.
Here are
some more pictures/videos of the layout for you to enjoy!
The Trans Europ Express, or TEE, is a magical name when it comes to railroading and pioneer in high speed, and international and luxury travel. Today we dive into the history around this concept and the train which made this concept a reality. We’ll look at not one but two LEGO versions of the TEE, in this collaboration article between Holger Matthes and myself.
VT 11.5 – A star is born.
In the
mid-1950s, the European economy picked up speed again, and the western European
countries began to establish new relationships after the devastation of the
Second World War. In this context, eight European rail companies decided to
introduce a joint train offer: the Trans-Europ-Express, TEE for short. The
modern express train network was intended to connect the European metropolises
with one another and, in particular, offer the wealthy business travelers of
the economic miracle an alternative to car and air transport. For this new type
of traffic system, the Deutsche Bundesbahn procured several multiple units with
type VT 11.5 railcars, which were put into operation in June 1957, later also
locomotive-covered trains were used. With this decision, DB made history. For
15 years the German diesel multiple units were used as TEE and shaped the image
of international express train traffic like no other train set.
601 001 in Friedrichshafen Stadt, 24.04.1983 . Foto credits go to ( Thomas Reincke )
Symbol of a Europe without borders
Close
cooperation with its European neighbors was of great importance to the Deutsche
Bundesbahn right from the start. An example of this is the European freight
wagon community “EUROP”, which was initially founded in 1951 with the
French State Railways, creating an extensive, freely available European freight
wagon pool. Three years later, the DB agreed with most of the European railway
companies that in future only two wagon classes would be used, which would be
comfortably adjusted.
Another
result of the growing (western) European cooperation was the establishment of
the European express train network TEE. Development began in 1954 with the
founding of the Trans-Europ-Express Commission based in The Hague. The founding
members were the State Railways of Belgium (NMBS / SNCB), the Netherlands (NS),
the Federal Republic of Germany (DB), France (SNCF), Italy (FS), Luxembourg
(CFL) and Switzerland (SBB); later the Spanish State Railways (RENFE) also
joined.
Since the
railway administrations were unable to agree on the introduction of a standard
vehicle, they were limited to introducing the trains under the common name and
logo TEE and defining several binding criteria:
Due
to the low degree of electrification in the individual countries, the TEE
trains should initially run as diesel multiple units.
They
should reach a top speed of 140 km/h.
Only
the 1st car class should be offered (at least 120 seats and no more than three
seats per row).
The
trains should have exclusive on-board catering.
There
should be spaces for passport and customs control while driving.
The
trains should be painted uniformly in a wine red / beige color dress (in
Germany RAL 3005 / RAL 1001).
Some countries did not have their own vehicles built for TEE traffic. In DB’s opinion, the requirements set by the TEE Commission could only be met with a new development. That was the birth of one of the most striking rail vehicles of its time, the VT 11.5.
The date is February 2019. I was become a bit bored with building landscapes and infrastructure for my Bahnbetriebswerk [https://brickmodelrailroader.com/index.php/2019/06/06/the-design-of-bhw-neukirche-by-enrico-lussi/]. I wanted to build something different, a locomotive that would be a real “working horse”. It took me three weeks from the design to the building of not just one but a total of three locomotives. In this article I will take you readers into the design process and how I was able to design and build in such a short time.
I was spending every “Lego building”
time that I had into my Bahnbetriebswerk. Which is something that isn’t that
unusual when you build such a huge layout. The problem was that I was getting
bored with the Bahnbetriebswerk. To get some renewed energy back into the hobby
I decided that I would spend all my free time for three weeks in building a
locomotive. By doing this I would get new inspiration and energy for the
Bahnbetriebswerk.
But how do you decide which
engine is best to build?
I decided to separate the three weeks into three phases (each week one phase). The first would be the research, the second the design, and the third the actual building. But first, a bit of history.
The “workshop” table with a couple of my MOC’s during trains day at Brick King. From left to right: ICM 4001 “Koploper” NS2454, NS 2459, NS 2412. That workshop became the inspiration for this article.
History
The NS 2400 [WIKI LINKJE] was
a diesel electric series locomotive built for the Dutch Railways in the 1950’s.
They were used from 1954 until 1991. They were designed and build by Alsthom in
France. The first 16 engines where painted light blue, the rest of the series
was brown and from 1971 they got the famous Dutch yellow and gray color scheme.
In 1991 all of them were either sold or scraped.
Several of them ended up in Belgium, Saudi Arabia, France and Italy. After
their service abroad, several came back home again. In total there a 6 still in
the Netherlands, they are owned and used by Dutch Railway museums . The numbers
of those 6 are as follows: 2412, 2424, 2454, 2459, 2498, 2530.
The light blue NS 2412, the blue colors is really discolored by the son in this picture, yes the son doesn’t only discolor Lego, but trains to. Beside the NS 2412 is the NS 2019 a locomotive which is imported from the USA to the Netherlands.
The Research Process
The “normal” research process that I do for a train takes around a month. The reason that this time I was able to do the research in just one week was the fact that I already had accumulated information for a long time. I already had a lot of detail pictures on my hard drive, and a few books with Technic information about the locomotives. And to top it all Raised was able to provide me with a scaled drawing that I was able to get to the scale I built (1:45 for the win!!!). Also, since several of these loco’s are currently used in a lot of Railway museums in the Netherlands the ability of seeing these locomotives in acting is just an hour drive from my home for me.
Since I already had a lot of the information I needed at hand, I was able to start the project quick and with ease. For the readers that are wondering, “why do you need all that research for a Lego train?”, the answer is quite easy, I try to build a “copy” of the real-life version in Lego. Because you’re building a copy you need to transfer each detail into Lego, if you miss a detail, it won’t become an exact copy. And beside that people like Raised and my other fellow LUG members won’t stop criticizing my locomotives if they miss a detail 😉
This picture really shows how the squire looking design has some strange and unique curves.
So, 1 week down, 2 to go.
The Design Process
My normal design progress contains a lot of trial and error in LDD (Lego digital designer). For a change however I wanted to use a different design process, something Raised and UrbanErwin swore by. By getting designs of the original locomotive in scale 1:45 I was able to work out the sizes and scale of the locomotives. Besides that, it provides a perfect “blueprint”. The original design plan was in scale 1:400, Raised was kind enough to scale them to 1:45 by using Photoshop and then I was able to print them out on A3 paper.
I decided to build a prototype by using the scaled designs of the locomotive and all the bricks I had in storage, colors I had in storage were mostly black, dark bluish grey (DBG) and Light Bluish Grey (LBG). Because I wasn’t restricted to colors I could experiment as much as I wanted until I finally had a design I was satisfied with. Rainbow designs are the best. The best thing about this is that you can get a quick 3D model which shows how the engine is going to look. I really recommend doing this! You get a quick good look at how your model is going to look and it definitely helps with the Bricklink part later.
The difficult thing about the
design of the NS 2400 is that it looks really squire, but it has a lot of
strange and unique curves and beside that in scale both “noses” are 5 width and
believe me that is not a fun with to build (more about that later).
But there was one problem. It
took me around 4 days the design the locomotive. However I wasn’t satisfied
with the nose; it looks like a simple design, but it truly isn’t. The nose has
4 lights in it that all have a size that’s difficult to build in Lego if you
try to build exactly to scale. Second was the height; the nose is now 6 bricks
high but in 1:45 scale it should be around 5 bricks, but the amazing Martijn
decided to help me out by quickly designing a prototype nose in LDD. He couldn’t
change the height of the nose, but he was able to help with the difficult
shape.
The real life version and the Lego model, there a couple of details that don’t match. And I promise I will change that…. one day.
I still had 8 days left for the building progress, building itself wasn’t the problem, but the shipping time however, was.
Building progress.
I decided to build 3 different
locomotives. They each are based on a locomotive that is preserved in a museum
in the Netherlands and by building 3 I was able to build one in each color scheme
that the locomotives had, being light blue, brown and dark gray-yellow.
I won’t take you through the entire Brick Link progress, but I got to mention that I was fortunate enough that I was able to purchase all the parts from Brick Link stores which shipped quickly. After 3 days of waiting patiently the first orders started to arrive, but there was a problem, something little called college… I had a very important week of exams, so I couldn’t build for most of the 8 days that I had left, losing most of the days. I only was able to start Friday 16:00, (meaning I had until Monday evening to finish 3 locomotives), after I finished my exam and rushed to the metro to get to the closest train station. After watching the trains arriving and departing, I got on my train that would take me home. 18:00. Let’s get this party started.
In just 3 hours I was able to get 80% done of the brown version(2459) but I was still missing a Bricklink order. Luckily the last final and very important order arrived Saturday morning. And then the marathon really began. The reason I started with the brown version is simple: The parts of the brown version arrived first.
For power there was a big problem. There wasn’t a lot of room inside the engine to place an IR receiver and a battery box. Placing the battery box was already tricky, however, I was able to hide the battery box by using a clever trick and thus placing most of the battery box inside the cabin. So, I had 2 options, Powered Up or SBrick (there are more options out there, but I don’t use/have the laying around). A difficult decision to make, but why make the decision to go for only one? Since I was making 3 locomotives, way not use both! So, the brown one (2459) has 2 pf train motors a reachable battery box and a SBrick. The blue (2412) and yellow-gray (2454) have 2 powered up motors and battery box.
This picture shows how much “space” there really is in my NS 2400 design. And yes that’s a rubber band holding the pf wires together.
And then, finally, Monday evening!
Did I make it? Yes, I did. But was I completely satisfied with the result? Not
totally: The undersides use simple parts, and really miss a lot of details. I
still haven’t got around to finish it. But I promise, one day I will get to it
and I will let you guys know!
So, that’s it for now. Three weeks and three new locomotives later I was finished. But it was a great journey and I hope that I was able to take you to the journey and hopefully inspire you to build! Because that’s the goal of this article, to tell you that you don’t need that months and months or even years and years before you finish your MOC; just three weeks is enough to have a great time!
Three weeks, three locomotives, do I need to say more?
Some might say that engines that look like a big box have no soul. That they are just what they are, big boxes with no aesthetic value. I however tend to differ. Just like how American diesels have found aesthetics in absolute utilitarianism with all kind of weird vents and other hood elements sticking out of the weirdest places, so do boxes on wheels have a certain beauty in a ‘form follows function‘ way of thinking as well. In fact, the box on wheels is the European version of exactly that, the absolute utilitarian engine. So, little surprise that I was blown away when Dennis aka TECHNO posted his rendition of the BR 143, the absolute max in German boxes on wheels.
According to the builder, it is meant as a birthday present for one of his colleagues who – luckily for both – don’t use social media. Which means that we have now seen the model sooner than the intended new owner. Talking about the privilege we have as a community!
Currently it’s now powered, but Dennis aka TECHNO has semi-promised us he will in the future build a second, fully functioning, version. I for one definitely look forward to that version as well.
One more thing: Some people might say ‘yeah it’s a box, it’s not that hard. Just try to model a GE ES44AC with all it’s vents and quirks, and after you finish doing that, we will talk again. To those people I say: Well… Boxes aren’t that easy to do either. Ironically, because they have so little design elements, they look way off if you just mess up one. Point to prove is the render that Dennis aka TECHNO made before building. Just have a look at all the little details, the slightly sloped windscreen, the cheese graters on the roof, etc. etc. Point made.
As promised, this is a follow-up to the post by BigDaedy and me about how the both of us designed our Bombardier Traxx’es.
The people who know me, know that most of my Lego projects can take weeks, months, even years to finish. It’s something I’m not especially proud of, but on the other hand, I know it’s just my way of building. For some reason I never mastered the art of Digital building, so everything I build, is build IRL. For me that makes the process even more lengthy, because I also tend to delay my BL orders. However, every now and then you meet somebody who seems to be having the exact same project and lengthy building process, and can actually stimulate you to finish a build. This post is the result of one of those projects.
For me, this story started the moment when the Dutch Railways (NS Hispeed more precisely) started operation on the High Speed Line between Amsterdam Schiphol, Rotterdam and Brussels. Because the ordered 250 km/h High Speed EMU’s weren’t ready when the HSL was finished, NS Hispeed decided as a stopgap measure to use the Bombardier Traxx F140 MS and IC carriages instead for what they called their “Fyra” service. Fun fact: The name comes from the same people that came up with the nonsense word “Thalys“.
A short note: Officially this consists isn’t high speed at all, but after a bit of re-gearing they could run 160 km/h. The main reason then wasn’t the speed, but the reliability and operationability: The Traxx was at that point in time the only locomotive that was able to run on the HSL to begin with, due to troubles with the special version of the European Train Control System that was used at the HSL at that time.
However, this being the first new Electrics by NS since the NS 1700-series build between 1990-1994, which I build several years ago, they immediately caught my attention. Due to the double curved front shape, I didn’t really know where to start, at one point even contemplating to just saw the Jack Stone car canopy in two. However, being the purist that I was (In my defence, I was a lot younger back then) I decided against it an shelve the whole idea.
In the end of 2014 I finally had my first a-ha erlebnis and realized how to build the double curved front. After trying it out and getting the ‘right’ feeling, I decided I should move forward and try to actually build the whole thing, instead of only the front. However, me being me, it just didn’t work out, and I got stuck with half an engine that I didn’t manage to finish.
Now, this is the moment that normally I would shelve an idea indefinately and just give up. Luckily for this build, this was the exact moment I got in touch with BigDaedy. He was very enthousiast of the build and told me I should just continue. The reason was simple; he had just started his training to become train driver on the German Traxx. In his own words:
“If I remember correctly you started building your first iteration of the Traxx sometime back in late 2014, right when I started my trade training to become a driver.”
Even though he tried to get me enthousiast about a total rebuild, I just didn’t see any added value in that, I had just given up on the loco. BigDaedy however had a different view and got inspired in 2016 to just give it a try himself as well:
“I’ve built my first version in early 2016 after seeing this post in a German forum, 1000steine.”
We kept in touch while I was living abroad for a year, and thus was away from most of my Legos. I did keep the original mock-up of the front, but wasn’t really interested in doing anything with it. Every time when BigDaedy send pictures of his current WIP it kind of gave me the feeling to keep on trying, but in the mean time I had started several other projects, plus it’s really nice weather in Curacao so why bother.
Around the time I moved back to Europe I got another message from BigDaedy: His second version was ready. Ditching the curved slopes he came up with a totally new front design, which didn’t bear any resemblance with mine at all. It’s always impressive to see how different builders can come up with totally different designs for the same prototype, and this was no exception.
This second version however left me with a problem: I got really inspired this time around to start building again, but for the next two months, all my Legos were locked away in a container, waiting to be shippped back from Curacao to Europe. So again, I wasn’t able to actually build anything (and still wasn’t comfortable with LDD either).
So finally, in the beginning of 2018, I was reunited with my Legos and ready to go. I didn’t change all to much from the previous iterations external, but internally I did a lot. As usual however, life catched up on me, and more than that, Legoworld 2018 did.
An then came the build by Dennis aka Techno, and I knew I had a major
problem. Cause Dennis actually managed to get almost everything right
that I never managed to. I had been struggling with certain details in
the front for example that I never got around to fix, and he just nailed
them in his first pictures.
To make matters even worse (or maybe better?) for me was that BigDaedy contacted me again, showing his almost finished Traxx P160 DE ME, the Diesel version of the Traxx, in use with DB Regio. That one set the bar even higher, incorporating some of his earlier design elements from his Electric Traxx, but also some elements that Dennis aka Techno had introduced.
In the meantime I had however finally been able to find my ‘ideal’ front. I combined several types of slopes and techniques, including a nice incline, to get to an as natural possible version of the shape that these beasts have.
So then came the most difficult part (at least for me): Choosing the drivetrain, desiging the frame and building the trucks. All other parts of building a loco are pretty easy with me, but these three always turn out to be a huge pain. Finally I just ended up with a plates + bricks frame that is party hold together by the L-motors themselves. It does very well actually, the loco is really stable, so I can’t complain.
I however did have to exchange gears in the end (and thus come up with a different way of connecting them) because this way it actually slowed down the motor, whereas I wanted an increase in speed. I’m definately not that good with gears…
And that actually leaves at the end of this story. Because when I had these parts finished, the rest just fell in place, and I was finally able to keep up with BigDaedy’s speed. He actually decided to ditch his last version of the front of his loco and change it to the one I had just engineered, so that took him a couple of extra days to figure out how I had attached all those parts. In fact, his V4 and my V2 have been finished within a month of each other. Not bad when you think of it!
To quote BigDaedy for the last time:
“In a few days we’ll see the fourth and hopefully final version. What a long way to go, but perfection takes time. “
And right he is!
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