Subject:
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Re: 8-wides coming around soon
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.trains
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Date:
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Wed, 6 Jun 2001 03:49:40 GMT
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Reply-To:
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{cmasi@cmasi.}nospam{chem.tulane.edu}
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Viewed:
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623 times
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Josh Baakko wrote:
>
> In lugnet.trains, Christopher Masi writes:
> > Josh Baakko wrote:
> > >
> > > I'm starting work on some 8-wides now, but I've built a few 6 wide
> > > containers. I'm interested how other people build containers for 8-wides?
> > > For all of my trains I've decided to count 1 stud as 2 feet to make train
> > > cars shorter (only used on trains). That way an SD90MAC, which is 109' would
> > > be rounded down to 108, and divided by 2 to make 54 it studs long. So my
> > > first container is 6x10 to make it a 20' container, but to match my
> > > semitrailers (at 5 blocks tall they look very strange. So i went with 4 now
> > > they look short, so i'm going for 1 or 2 plates in there. Has anyone else
> > > built a 6 wide container, or does eveyone still use 4 wide containers?
> > >
> > > (wow, thats long...)
> > > Josh
snip all my previous comments
>
> But anyways, if i build a 50 foot boxcar I'll go with a longer mesurement.
> My major problem is the containers & the huge cars 7 locos (SD90MAC & 89'
> auto haulers). I'd like to build the containers the same size, or close to
> the same size as you said above. But that would cause the container cars to
> be accesively large, and look dumb next to an SD90MAC, the car would end up
> being about 50 studs.
>
> Josh
Yeah, those long cars are going to be a problem. I want to build an
autorack,[1] and like you said, they are 89'. By my scale that would be 71 studs
(gulp).I'll have to scale that down a bit (understatement).
I think you can go longer than 54 studs for you SD90MAC. My SD40-2 is 59
studs, and since the pivot points are actually only 28 studs apart it has no
problems negotiating curves. I know, a 59 stud engine on trucks centered 28
studs apart seems wrong, but the pivot points on my 6 wheel trucks are way off
center and it works out OK.
http://cmasi.chem.tulane.edu/~lego/NOLTC/tech/pivoting_truck/steerable_wheelset.htm
In my experience, when I hit 40 studs between pivot points I start running
into clearance issues (difficulties clearing the yellow switches on the switch
tracks). So, that sets the distance between the pivot points. But when a
pivoting truck is used to simulate an SD truck you gain some extra length on the
engine. I am guessing that my maximum working SD engine length would be about 75
studs. I am not saying that it won't look silly, or even that it will work. I am
just saying that if I combined the dimensions from my longest simple truck model
with my pivoting trucks that it looks like 75 studs is an upper limit.
So, I guess my suggestion is to make your SD90MAC as long as you can, and
choose a length for your 50' rolling stock (that seems like as good a length as
any to peg as the "most common" short car) and then compress all other cars
relative to those two points. If you want a bit more room to play with, make the
short cars a tad shorted than your original plan. In any event, a 75 foot car
would be about half way between your SD90MAC and your 50 ft box car. A 90 foot
car would be 80% of the way between the two cars. I guess this is the way I do
it, but I never really thought about it.
By the way, my two double stack container cars are 44 studs long[2] (not
counting the trucks because the trucks extend past the end of the container
cars), and they don't look bad behind my 59 stud long SD40-2. (IMO) when I built
the container cars I had no idea how long they were supposed to be (still don't
know). I just built them around my containers, and included a little extra porch
area, because that is what I thought they looked like (I sat and watched a bunch
of them go by while waiting to get into day care the other day/month).
Anyway, good luck with the SD90MAC. I am looking forward to seeing what that
monster is going to look like.
Chris
--
See some of my LEGO creations at http://cmasi.chem.tulane.edu/~lego/
1. I haven't even started collecting parts...lots of gray 1x6 plates will be
needed, not to mention yellow plates.
2. Sorry, I don't have pictures of those cars yet. They are nothing wildly
spectacular, but they are a nice looking set of two well type (no raised walls
on the ends) double stack container carriers. They bring my freight train to a
total of...get this...a whopping....9!!! cars including engine.
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Message has 1 Reply:
 | | Re: 8-wides coming around soon
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| <snip> (...) Yeah I'll be starting soon, I like that 70 stud Idea, and the container cars are close to the length of a SD40-2. The well is 48' on most mordern well cars (In the USA). I figure 12-14 studs for a 20' container. Josh (23 years ago, 6-Jun-01, to lugnet.trains)
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Message is in Reply To:
| | Re: 8-wides coming around soon
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| (...) Not sure... I thought it was longer, ... But anyways, if i build a 50 foot boxcar I'll go with a longer mesurement. My major problem is the containers & the huge cars 7 locos (SD90MAC & 89' auto haulers). I'd like to build the containers the (...) (23 years ago, 5-Jun-01, to lugnet.trains)
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