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full gallery
My first attempt at the C&NW Bi-levels was nice at the time, but now looks
clunky. The prototypes are designed for push-pull operations, with a cab car on
the rear end. But because I used the drop train base for the cars, I could only
put motors under the locomotive. A fact that made push operations that much more
demanding on the motors. The drop train bases also made the cars look really
tall and stocky. And when I built them, dark green was a very expensive dream so
V1 was in standard green. You’d recognize what I was aiming for but you’d never
go, “wow, that’s CNW to a T” (for the morbidly curious, go up one level from the
full gallery to see what I mean).
In the past year Lego introduced the necessary curved bricks in dark green and
Lugbulk put enough of them at my disposal. So I’ve gone back and revisited the
C&NW Bi-levels. The cars are completely new, I moved away from the train base,
and the new cars 42 studs long. The new 1x2x2 windows made the control cab
design trivial. With the extra room, I could put two headlights on the cab car,
so that lead to my choosing the PF lighting element. The cab car has a 9v motor
underneath to make “push” operation smoother. But with the length of the car I
had to do some subtle snot work for the power pickup to make it around curves.
While it is hard to see in the photos, there are actually a pair of 1x4x1 panels
flipped upside down above the rear of the 9v motor on the cab car. While I don’t
mind showing my studs, I am pleased with the smooth roof and the more seamless
integration of the air horns on the cab car. Aside from replacing the green on
the locomotive, it is largely unchanged. All in all the cars are better
proportioned. But best of all, I got the colors much closer to the prototype.
Enjoy,
Benn
full gallery
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Message has 2 Replies:
 | | Re: C&NW Bi-levels, take 2
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| (...) Awesome train Benn. The C&NW colors look great. The dark green is a huge improvement over the older version. I could make some kind of dig here and say something about not being the right width but I hold my tongue. ;) I love the choice of the (...) (14 years ago, 1-Mar-11, to lugnet.trains, FTX)
| | | Re: C&NW Bi-levels, take 2
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| In lugnet.trains, Benn Coifman wrote: <snip> (...) I love the dark green, Benn! And I love the (URL) Twin Cities 400> line; it was the major competitor to the Hiawatha line. Speaking of the Hi, I have pretty much completed mine, after only about 8 (...) (14 years ago, 1-Mar-11, to lugnet.trains, FTX)
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