Subject:
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Re: New MOC: 4-8-4 Northern
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.trains
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Date:
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Sat, 3 Jan 2004 16:23:15 GMT
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Viewed:
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1811 times
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In lugnet.trains, Shaun Sullivan wrote:
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Hi All,
Well, after at least 8 months of on-again off-again effort, I’ve finally
finished up my 4-8-4 Northern Steam Engine:
<http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?f=67693
The most amazing thing to me was the sheer size of the engine; I stayed true
to a minifig-compatible scale of a little bit more than 1 foot per stud, and
the resulting locomotive is a monstrosity! You can see a side-by-side
comparison of it and my Hudson engine (which had been my largest engine):
http://www.brickshelf.com/gallery/sullis3/Trains/Northern/484northern19compare.jpg
Features include:
(1) Working pistons; as with the Hudson, there are two per side - the drive
piston and the valve piston. The pistons here actually have the least
friction of any of my designs to date - on straightaways they work
brilliantly! On the curves, the drive wheels do not ride on the rails of the
track, so the pistons do not move.
(2) Lower-angle variation on the robot-arm cowcatcher design.
(3) A working front light
(4) For the first time, I have a steam engine that is *pulled* by a motor in
addition to being pushed by the tender! This was practical due to the
enormous size of the engine - for once, the standard LEGO train motor was the
right scale to be in the leading truck.
(5) The second large “smokestack” coming off the main steam cylinder is
easily removable. Beneath it there is one of those large aqua-colored
Fabuland buckets. I don’t know if it will work, but sometime I’d like to
drop some pieces of Dry Ice in the bucket and see if any “Steam” escapes
through the stack. My main concern is that the cold temperatures might
induce cracking in the bucket ...
(6) One of my favorite features is the use of 1x2 panels and 1x1 corner
panels, mounted horizontally, to produce the “ledge” that runs the length of
the cylinder. I first experimented with this on the 0-4-0 Yard Goat, but I’m
particularly happy with how it came out here.
The main downside to the design, as it stands right now, is that it cannot
really handle corners. However, the challenge isn’t at all what I expected;
when going around a curve, the engine leans out a bit, since it is no longer
supported by the drive wheels (Which have slid inside the outer rail of the
track). Once the engine starts coming out of the curve, the outside drive
wheels are below the level of the rails due to the tilt, and rub against the
inside of the rails instead of riding up on top of them. Evantually, as the
engine continues to come out of the curve, the rubber drive wheels bind
against the rail altogether, bringing the engine to a stop. I haven’t relaly
spent much time thinking about this yet, so any ideas are welcome!
Also, I have to apologize for the coloration of the photos. Some of them
came out looking quite interestingly pleasant, while others just look yellow
or orange. The natural lighting today was strange, with heavy cloud cover
and snow. Ahhh well, maybe more pics will come once a sunny day peeks in.
Anyway, please let me know what you think!
-s
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Hi Shaun
Another great creation from SLCO (Shaun Locomotive Company)!!
I can clearly see it is a development from the previous Hudson, but this new
Northern looks much better. You have got the proportions absolutely right now
when the engine is a bit higher compared to the width. I like the scale (1 stud
= 1 foot) it corresponds well to width of Lego-track, but of course the engines
will be a bit large if you want to run them on curved tracks.
Thanks to the dat-files available for the Hudson I have tried to copy your
model. It is nearly completed but now I really must modify it to comply with
your new higher standard. Thanks for all the inspiration you provide with the
fine photographs. It is still a few days before work starts again on the Jan
7th, and the weather is suitable for Lego activity.
If you don’t already have good reference material for US engines I can recommend
“The Illustrated Encyclopedia of North American Locomotives” by Brian
Hollingsworth. It is often up for sale on Ebay. Another online site I often
visit for inspiration is Fine Arts Models. They produced a number of railway
models and a lot of detailed pictures can be found on their homepage
http://www.fine-art-models.com/e/models.htm
I guess the Northern represented the peak of the steam engine development so
what is SLCO going for in the future: Mallets or Diesels?
Regards from Goteborg Sweden
Mattias
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Message has 1 Reply:
 | | Re: New MOC: 4-8-4 Northern
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| Hi again Shaun After studing the fantastic pictures in more detail I have two small qustions Just behind the main smokestack there are two pins standing up side by side, How are these made? How have you connected the piston rods to the wheels? (...) (21 years ago, 4-Jan-04, to lugnet.trains, FTX)
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Message is in Reply To:
| | New MOC: 4-8-4 Northern
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| Hi All, Well, after at least 8 months of on-again off-again effort, I've finally finished up my 4-8-4 Northern Steam Engine: (URL) The most amazing thing to me was the sheer size of the engine; I stayed true to a minifig-compatible scale of a little (...) (21 years ago, 3-Jan-04, to lugnet.trains, lugnet.announce.moc, lugnet.org.us.nelug, FTX) !!
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