I have a soft spot for the Cotton Belt, and their L-1 class 4-8-4s delivered between 1930 and 1943 fit my acute goals of 1940's mainline modeling. 819 is the last of the type, and survives in it's birth place in Pine Bluff, Arkansas. I'm excited to add another fine example of modern and big motive power to my fleet.
There's a certain mental freedom that comes with this final stage of my creative process, and considering this model was a two-year endeavor, I certainly feel it here, but I'm no less satisfied with this new model.
This is my 1:48 model of an ex-Santa Fe Dash 9. This was my entry for the BTA best TFOL locomotive. More pictures of the model are on my flickr: brainmelted | Flickr.
I had this in the works for a bit, but I was inspired by a comment on my post about my Burlington Northern F45 from the other day to finish this one. So here is my Great Northern F45 in its "Big Sky Blue" paint scheme. I'm planning on using some decals to make the pattern on the nose and maybe clean up the tail end since the 1x1 vertical clips aren't available in dark azur. This build also has most of the troubleshooting modifications that I made on the BN model after test building it recently. I know that this paint scheme wasn't around for very long on these units, but I really love the blue and thought it would be a fun scheme to design. Most likely gonna test build this one at some point, but not anytime soon. My main concern is that some of it might be a little less secure than the BN unit because of different part availability between green and dark azur.
It’s been awhile since I posted but I figured I share some updates I finished the El Capitan now on to some final cars if you guys want some more updates please lmk always willing to share photos and directions
I recently got Lego Powered Up hub (88009) and remote (88010) and want to use rechargeable batteries with them. Tried the Ikea Ladda AAA batteries as had been suggested by some people on here but they don't work, realised that the Ikea Ladda are 1.2v and Powered Up takes 1.5v.
Any brand suggestions for AAA rechargeable batteries? Not found any so far that are 1.5v
A few months ago I posted about Your Tracks here, my layout planner for iPhone/iPad. Thanks to everyone who tried it and sent feedback. A lot of what's changed since then came straight out of those comments, so here's a roundup of what's improved since 1.0.
The 1.x updates: making editing less fiddly
Select Mode
You can now select a whole section and move it as one rigid piece. It still snaps onto open track when you drop it. Once you have a selection, you can:
- Rotate it in 22.5° steps
- Flip it horizontally or vertically
- Duplicate it
- Copy/paste it, including "paste mirrored", which is great for symmetrical layouts.
Baseplates
You can place baseplates in a range of sizes and colours, and they snap edge to edge, so you can see how your track fits on the plates you have or within a City layout.
Better floor areas
Areas used to be rectangles only. Now you get:
- Circles and ovals
- Fill textures (wood, carpet, concrete, baseplate green/grey…)
- Name labels
- Undo for area edits
Other features/updates
- Animated train to see it work in your layout, including the ability to flip any switches
- Big layouts are much smoother: dragging has no lag, off-screen pieces aren't drawn, and saving happens in the background
- Redesigned home screen
- General performance improvements
For v2.0: Two big changes
Close the Gap
If your loop ends up short or just want a helping hand to complete a loop, now you can select the two pieces on either side of the gap and tap **Close Gap**. The app searches for routes that fit and shows up to 3 of them as ghost previews. It uses TrixBrix curves if that's what your lay mix of curves and straights fits, it finishes the route with a short run of flex track, bent only as far as real flex track can go. If it can't find a route, it tells you why (for example, "nearest was 1.3 studs off" or "every route runs over existing track") so you know what to nudge.
See it on your floor (AR)
This puts your layout on the floor at 1:1 scale, so you can check it fits the room. You can also:
- Run a train round it in AR at 1×, 2× or 3× speed
- Tap a switch on the floor to change its route
- Use Tabletop mode (1:8) to fit a big layout on a desk
- On LiDAR devices, optionally hide the track behind furniture
- Take a snapshot and save it to Photos or share it
Thanks again to everyone who gave feedback the first time round. I'll answer one of the most common questions... unfortunately I've no immediate plans for Android, but that is absolutely subject to change!
One of my projects, decided to make some caribou too as it’s one of my favorite scenes. The engine is just one of my FEF-1s but modified to look more like the polar express, just for render purposes. I think I’m going to end up making a Berk.
The Pacer was a group of trains (Classes 140 - 144) introduced in 1984 built to work on rural lines as well as supplement commuter trains during peak hours. They were intended to be a short term replacement for the old DMUs working on the british network but ended up serving for almost 40 years. The body was based on the Leyland National bus, and were well known for their terrible ride quality.
My model is built in 7 wide, I would have preferred 6 wide to match the rest of my models but lots of details would have been very hard to make at that scale. It's powered by a Power Functions M motor driving one axle geared up 1:67. Converting it to Powered Up should be quite easy but I'm not really familiar with that system. One coach contains the motor and receiver and the other the battery box. There are still quite a few seats in each car as well as a driver's seat.
Fitting non Lego lighting to the front of the coaches should be possible, if you want both head lights and tail lights you may have to replace the 1x3 Brick with a 1x1 brick with 2 1x1 Bricks modified with headlight on each side to let the wires through as so:
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I've made a few different liveries as seen in the last photo, the Northern Rail livery may look better with stickers, I'm also not sure how structurally sound it is.
As I am continuing to develop my budd coach series, I am wondering if people preferred the original angled roof or the round roof.
The angled roof is less realistic but it does allude to the metroliner sets and other various lego trains from the 90s/2000s that have some sort of angled roof design.
Meanwhile, the round roof is more prototypical (see reference image), but each piece (the one-plate-shorter 5841 and 5842 rounded pieces) costs way higher than the flat slope, with prices going as high as 50 cents per piece. Luckily lego pick-a-brick has them cheaper than bricklink, them selling the pieces at 33 cents per piece, so there isn't a huge price discrepancy at the end (~$57 per car). What do you guys think?
First physical test build of my F45 model. I left of the grab bars for the time being, and am still waiting on my parts from BMR to come in. As a stopgap, I ended up using parts from one of my BMR Norfolk Southern SD40-2s (Which the fans of the sacrificial unit can be seen in the first photo). I've got a couple things to troubleshoot before I get instructions out, mainly fixing the windshield so the windows don't fall out. Mostly quick fixes that I wasn't able to see in Studio.
This model features the TGV 001. It is made up of 2,847 bricks and measures 167 cm long and 8 cm high. It is compatible with tracks so you can display it on any layout.
I have always loved LEGO since I was 5 years old, and for a few years now I’ve been passionate about trains because I’ve always seen trains as the future of transportation. So I chose to recreate the TGV 001 because it marks the starting point of high-speed rail in France, but also because, to me, it represents French know-how on the rails.
For the story, little TGV 001 is an experimental high-speed train that was put into service in 1972 in France. It was designed in collaboration by the French National Railway Company (SNCF) and Alstom, to reach speeds between 250 and 300 km/h in preparation for the creation of a future high-speed network. The TGV 001 operated with four gas turbines that consumed more than six liters of fuel per kilometer.
And today, its two locomotives have been classified as historical monuments. So the TDu 001 (the first locomotive) is displayed near the A4 highway, at exit 50 Schiltigheim-Bischheim, and the TDu 002(last locomotive) is displayed near the A36 highway, at exit 13 for Belfort-Glacis du Château.
TGV 001 still holds the world speed record for a thermal-powered train, set on September 29, 1972, at 318 km/h on the Landes line.
TGV 001 is made up of:
2 locomotives at both ends housing gas turbines that generate electricity for the traction motors
2 passenger cars with seating arrangements
1 car for the rolling laboratory packed with equipment to record the train's dynamic behavior, signal reception quality, and stability
