In the last 5 years, me and BigDaedy have been desiging our own takes on the Bombardier Traxx in 1:45 scale. The Traxx runs both in the Netherlands and in Germany, and is, together with the Siemens Vectron, one of the two truely “European” Electrics out there at the moment. While we had very different starting points, we more and more converged to a same type of design, but we’ll get back to that in a future post. Since both of us have just finished our respective versions, we thought it would be nice to present them together in one post.
Introduction: The Traxx
The Bombardier Traxx is the current workhorse on most of the Cargo trains in Europe, but next to that, it also has seen a fair share of use in passenger trains. In the Netherlands the High Speed Line – Zuid between Amsterdam Schiphol, Rotterdam and Breda is their main operating ground, but there are also several private freightcompanies that run Traxx’es. In Germany almost every Rail Cargo company uses Traxx’es, plus several of the big passenger train companies like Deutsche Bahn and Metronom.
Motorization
Between our two models there are some very big similarities, which (most of the time) are intentional since we worked very closely together on this design, sharing WIP pictures quite often. Some differences are the vents on the side of the roof, the pantographs, the sidepanels and a different motorization option. Whereas I (raised) chose to go all-in with two 1:2 geared PF L-motors for extra speed, a PFx Brick (with the potential to include lights) and an additional XL Speaker for sound, all build in, BigDaedy chose the always reliable 9V motor. Who says Modern European Elecitrics can’t have some heritiage in them? (In all fairness, with the future arrival of FX Track, a hybrid of both might not even such a bad idea to begin with…)
Greebles
The same goes for the greebles in the front. We kind-of discussed about these, and both of us decided to take design elements from the other into their own model. However, still both of us kept some of the elements we thought were more ‘ours’ and thus, as you can see, some small things like the air hoses do differ.
The same goes for the side greebles, both on the trucks and the equipment boxes. Since BigDaedy chose 9V motors to work with and I used brick-build trucks, we have totally different designs. Both of them might look a little bit silly, because officially the size of Traxx wheels should be equivalent to BBB M-wheels. However, due to reliability (me) and the fact that he used 9V motors (BigDaedy) none of use were able to incorporate those.
Top-layout
When it comes to the top-layout, both of our Traxx’es look very different. This isn’t that strange, since we modelled two different versions; I did a multi-system version that has to run on four different currents, BigDaedy did a version that only has to run in Germany and thus has a limited range of pantographs on board. Officially, a Traxx F140 MS2 has three different types of pantographs, but as long as there are Belville Ice-skates available, I’ll just stick with those.
Stickers
As you can see, I tried to add as many of the decals as possible on the loco; not only UIC numbers and logo but also all the little ones that tell you about where the loco is allowed to run, it’s weight, length, etc. etc. For this I used a Dymo MobileLabeler. It’s maybe not perfect when compared to for example the decals of OKBrickworks, but the flexiblity that it gives me in printing my own stickers has been a game-changer for me.
The graffiti on the front is prototypical by the way (see below). Also, I decided to add some strips of 1 plate high black Lego stickers to design the frame of the windscreen. I’m still looking for the ideal way how to solve this with bricks & plates, but for the time being, I’m pretty happy with it, and I don’t think I will change it untill I do a second unit.
Consist
Unfortunately, I haven’t yet been able to design the ICR-Prio carriages that are part of the Fyra. I do have the design ready (they are identical in form to the ICRm carriages that I modelled last year, just a different livery), so for the time being you’ll have to live with a picture of the prototype.
BigDaedy on the other hand… Well he did design some pretty nifty carriages! Dosto Double Deck carriages from DB Regio, to be more precise. Digital for the time being, but I’m quite sure this will change on short notice.
Future
Both BigDaedy and me have some plans for different versions of the Traxx and to actually build our full consists. A version of the F140 MS2 but in NS livery is high on my list for example. However, after both of us have been designing these beasts on and off for the last 5 years, this might take a while.
However, we are planning to meet up later this year to see how both models compare to each other In Real Life. We are not totally sure when exactly this will be, but when it will happen, I’m pretty sure I will post some of the in a follow-up post.
Extras
For everybody that stuck with us till the end we have a little reward: The P160 in HectorRail livery.
Thanks for reading, and hopefully our next batch of European Electrics won’t take five years to finish!