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I figured fellow Pittsburghers might like to see this project. I’m working on a P.R.R. 4-8-2 “Mountain” train with maintenance cars. I’ve already built the fully articulated crane car and work caboose IRL, having taken inspiration from the trains I saw over at the Science Center. A few of my relatives have taken up Lego as a hobby and so they wanted to see how well this kind of cargo cars can be done in Lego. Entered it in the Brick Train Awards but sadly did not win.
The Mountain steam engine is based on various examples in other model train gauges without being specific to an exact engine. From a technical perspective, I designed it to have two PF L-motors at reduced speed gear to increase pulling force to the equivalent of 3.5 motors. Hopefully I can build the engine sometime in the coming new year as I already built my steamer for this year (Challenger). LOL
Wow! I like it! I had seen your articulated crane, but not the gondola or flatcar. Nice job! Do you sticker your builds?
Thanks! I don’t sticker but I do have MillionPrints print my custom graphics on Lego bricks for me. My Challenger and Big Boy train have them, though I have a few cargo cars I’d like to create graphics for.
I’ve updated the P.R.R. mountain design to include new Pennsylvania livery and a ton of added details common to both first and second batches of Mountain steam engines. I plan to build it by around March or so and I figure it might be hit with any P.R.R. related projects in the future. XD
230119 Update:
The Mountain 4-8-2 is about 95% complete and doing tests on my infamous tabletop track. It either makes the curve at the edge of the table or does not return…
Chassis works on standard track. Still got a few more details and forms to revise on the body such as the sand dome not being an actual circle and extending the fire box forward. But I’m happy to see it rolling without a problem on standard curves as I don’t have space at home for larger radii.
It’s a race between it and the Schnabel car as to which gets done first.
It’s a race between it and the Schnabel car as to which gets done first.
I’m rooting for the Schnabel!
The PRR livery is nice and got me wondering about the font. At first I thought that must be Times New Roman. Some googling indicates that they used a custom font, the closest widely available font being Craw Clarendon. What did you end up using?
Thanks. I ended up using Book Antiqua as that was the closest I had in my software’s assortment of fonts. Managed to get the letters placed precisely on the tiles for printing, so this side elevation is more accurate than the previous renderings.
Fortunately, the new updates to the body details won’t affect the lettered tiles as I shift some things around. XD
@playingwithechoes those all look fantastic. Do you generate instructions of some sort or do you just free build (on the computer and then IRL) based on your previous experience with designing these?
@timf, thanks. I do make instructions on Amazon, but only after the physical build since I get a lot of requests for that from my Phoenix Train Works fans, especially for my steam engines.
What I do during design in Studio software is make subgroups for the train, such as cabin/boiler sides, motor mounts, and driving wheel chassis groups so I can keep track of what I’m building IRL and hunting for parts in the pile. I do design with previous experience in mind but once I build IRL and make some changes, I make an as-built digital version to document those changes, like in architecture. Best thing I learned from experience is just how much overhang there can be when designing huge trains for standard Lego curve track so I always try to “overestimate” the sway range of the guide and trailing wheels.
I’m happy to announce that the P.R.R. Mountain 4-8-2 has been completed and is ready to service the needs of the Steel City LUG Railroad.
The printed tiles have arrived and are installed. The train passed my tests on standard Lego curve track and features the details needed for running long times at shows, such as rubber bands, internal collars on axles, twin L-motors and the V2 receiver.
Here are photos of the physical build. 🙂
MPL
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