Subject:
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MOC: 4-6-4 Hudson
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.trains
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Date:
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Mon, 29 Jul 2002 03:11:54 GMT
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Highlighted:
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!!
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1713 times
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Hi all,
I uploaded pics of my 4-6-4 Hudson steam engine and tender this afternoon.
They can be found at:
http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?f=22292
A couple of points about the engine:
(1) For once, I can recount the exact date of conception for the project! I
started working on the design for this on April 29th of this year.
Interestingly, this *exactly* coincides with John Neal's post about his son
Ross's amazing 4-6-2 Pacific engine:
(http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?f=16328). I was inspired by the
amazing detail on that engine to try another design of my own.
(2) This engine features two (2!) pairs of working pistons; both the drive
pistons and the valve pistons reciprocate in the cylinders. Additionally, the
two pistons have different accelerations, and slightly different phases, a
feature which is accomplished using a levered linkage. The actual mechanism
for regulating the valve pistons is much more complicated than what I depicted,
but I felt that the compromise still offerred a pleasingly aesthetic
representation. I included a number of 15-second movie clips that demonstrate
the working of the pistons as the engine is moving along the track.
(3) The drive wheels actually ride on top of the rail, as is the case with
Ross's design. This provides for the use of some interesting driver wheel
choices. The driver wheels on each side are geared together with 24-tooth
gears in order to maintain alignment, and prevent binding with the linkages.
In order to pull this off, 5 24-tooth gears were needed for each side: one
attached to each wheel, and then two idler gears. As a further challenge, the
idler gears had to make use of 1/4 stud offsets to maintain the correct
spacing. The three driver wheels on each side are furthermore on separate
axles as the wheels on the other side, so that the two sides can rotate at
different rates as the train rounds curves.
(4) In addition to the shining headlight, the coal furnace actually works! I
used four of the old style 1x2 bricks with a light on top to achieve this
effect. With all of them oriented to blink mode, the varying frequencies
produces a nice "flickering" effect. Mounted behind a wall of 1x1 trans-red
plates, and a number of trans-orange flame pieces, the furnace appears to have
a rich red flame. Both the head lamp and the furnace are powered from a 9V
battery box hidden in the tender. The switch is hidden under the coal in the
tender's bed. I included a few 15-second movie clips that show the effect;
unfortunately, in movie mode, my camera insists on continual auto-focus, so the
overall clarity isn't great (What with the changing lighting conditions), but
you should be able to get the effect.
(5) The cowcatcher! After a thorough search that didn't uncover any designs
which emulates the look I was going for, I came up with this design. I also
produced a 6-wide version, which I'm hoping to see on a steam engine sometime
soon: http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?f=21720. In any case, I'm
pleased with this design.
(6) Oh yeah ... under the heading "best laid plans of mice and men oft go
awry" comes the fact that the engine comes is 10 wide. I intended it to be 8
wide, but when the walkways were added on each side, and all of the linkage
pieces, the predominant width is definitely 10 studs. However, at the pistons,
the width actually creeps up to about 12 studs.
(7) Unlike my usual fanatacism for collecting entire tomes of source material,
I built this design from one image:
http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?i=217960. I found several others
in looking around, but none that captured the details I really wanted to
include. In the end, this is the only one I referred to.
(8) It does go around curves, switches, and crossings. The only wheels that
actually run in the tracks are the four leading wheels and the four trailing
wheels, all of which are actual LEGO train wheels (the forward ones being the
old style, the trailing ones being the contemporary design). The driver
wheels, as mentioned above, actually wide on top of the rails, and therefore
can pass over any layout. That being said, it's still a heavy steam engine.
When it starts to get some distance from the power source, it tends to slow
down and *gasp* stop. Ahh well.
Hmm, I guess that's about it. Thanks for looking!
-s
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Message has 6 Replies:
 | | Re: MOC: 4-6-4 Hudson
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| (...) Shaun, Thanks for taking the time to post descriptions and photos of the fine detailed workings of your excellent Hudson. This model was beautiful to see in person at BrickFest. Well-deserving of the BrickFest 2002 "Best Train MOC". later, (...) (22 years ago, 29-Jul-02, to lugnet.trains)
| | | Re: MOC: 4-6-4 Hudson
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| WOW, that looks NICE, my dad though it was a model, not lego! If i had the time i'd build like that Josh (22 years ago, 29-Jul-02, to lugnet.trains)
| | | Re: MOC: 4-6-4 Hudson
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| Hi Shaun, (...) That's absolutely incredible. The outline is just right, with a fantastic sense of power and presence, particularly in the low-angle pictures. And then all the details. Ah, the details. Wonderful. (...) <snip excellent implementation (...) (22 years ago, 29-Jul-02, to lugnet.trains)
| | | Re: MOC: 4-6-4 Hudson
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| (...) Wow, Shaun, you have outdone even yourself here! You have raised the bar so high that it will be extremely difficult to top. Your double piston rod design is nothing short of amazing; Ross was extremely impressed! (a higher compliment I can't (...) (22 years ago, 30-Jul-02, to lugnet.trains)
| | | Re: MOC: 4-6-4 Hudson
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| (...) Of course, I'd be remiss if I didn't point out that in the BrickFest 2002 general competition (I don't know about the Town/Train room's own competition, someone can maybe fill me in?) Shaun's 4-6-4 Hudson took the award for "Best Train." Given (...) (22 years ago, 30-Jul-02, to lugnet.trains)
| | | Re: MOC: 4-6-4 Hudson
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| (...) Fantastic work Shaun! You really have created a Master Model. All the small detailing parts makes it look so good. Good use of the 'string parts' (or what they now are called) from the Camel set. Beautiful and very inventive cowcatcher of (...) (22 years ago, 31-Jul-02, to lugnet.trains)
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