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Hey everyone,
Just returned to my pile of Lego bricks after half a year on exchange at the
University of Queensland in Brisbane... Australia is awesome, I reckon!
Anyway, I came across this wonderful train with a name that says it all, the
Tilt Train, connecting Brisbane with Cairns in the far north. One of the world’s
fastest narrow-gauge trains, it tilts in order to obtain maximal passenger
comfort when negotiating the winding tracks at high speeds.
It just had to be built and I wanted the tilting to be just right! Here’s the
result:
http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?f=113761
Cool picture, right? It looks like one long curved train. Click on the picture
to go to the Brickshelf folder with many more (and better!) pictures of the
train, the construction and the real Tilt Train. Be sure to check the movies of
the tilting mechanism in action!
The tilting mechanism is extremely simple and quite fragile but it works great!
Using the towball plates 
 and some train weights, the train will
tilt in the curves and return to vertical on the straight tracks thanks to
gravity! The key is to elevate the rotation axis as high as possible and in the
meantime lower the center of gravity. Check these pics to see how it is done:
http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?i=1073483
http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?i=1073484
And, well, you were actually stealing my thunder, Tim
(http://news.lugnet.com/trains/?n=24092), I waited for the pictures to be
moderated, guess you have to get up early in the LUGNET community!
Oh, the roof, it is built out of need, I simply don’t have enough
 to built train roofs... but the result is
cool! Actually, I’ve often found that the best ideas come to me when I have to
think creatively because I’m out of the right bricks! The roof is actually quite
stable as long as you don’t turn the train upside down in which case the roof
will fall apart :-) (happened a couple of times...)
That’s it for now, I’d really like to hear your comments on this one!
Have fun,
Esben
Copenhagen, Denmark
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Message has 8 Replies:
 | | Re: The Queensland Tilt Train - and it tilts!
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| Congratulations, Esben! Thats a fine looking train. I find the tilt mechanism very interesting! Only one other tilt train I know of is James Mathis' APT, which from what I know, uses a similar mechanism. It's a pity that this doesn't have interiors, (...) (20 years ago, 23-Jan-05, to lugnet.trains, FTX)
| | | Re: The Queensland Tilt Train - and it tilts!
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| (...) In your movie #4, the train goes through much of the last turn with the wrong tilt..., like the last car got "stuck" in the previous tilt. Is something jamming? Great work! :] KDJ ___...___ LUGNETer #203 (20 years ago, 23-Jan-05, to lugnet.trains)
| | | Re: The Queensland Tilt Train - and it tilts!
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| (...) Very nice, and technically very interesting. The only comment I'd make is that, while your model is very cool, the power cars on the real tilt train don't actually tilt, only the passenger cars do. Allister (20 years ago, 24-Jan-05, to lugnet.trains, FTX)
| | | Re: The Queensland Tilt Train - and it tilts!
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| Cooool! our beloved Tilt train! looks groovy :D sadly we lost one late last year in an accident and it won't be replaced :( but we have a couple left... not an expensive trip either. Nice train! wanna sell me a ticket? ;) Mel back in Brisbane, (...) (20 years ago, 24-Jan-05, to lugnet.trains, FTX)
| | | Re: The Queensland Tilt Train - and it tilts!
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| (...) Hello Esben, You have built a really good model train ! 10/10 ! It's good to see people from all around the world ,building Australian trains. I really like all of the tilt mechanisms that people have built . I've been planing to build a APT (...) (20 years ago, 24-Jan-05, to lugnet.trains, FTX)
| | | Re: The Queensland Tilt Train - and it tilts!
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| (...) Very clever design, Esben! Well done. I may try to redesign my APT set as inspired by your ball-and-socket construction. I wonder if this (URL) socket piece> would work? Maybe is in this (URL) alternate construction of Esben's tilt design>. (...) (20 years ago, 25-Jan-05, to lugnet.trains, FTX)
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