Ongoing BR Mark 1 Ideas

[Hod Carrier]

The humble BR Mark 1 coach has been a ubiquitous sight on the UK's rail network for decades. As such, it has been created and recreated in LEGO many times and in many different ways by many different builders. My own take on this iconic rail vehicle has been evolutionary and takes a lot from the designs of others and, as such, I have never presented anything in this field as my own.

I was tinkering with the design a few months back to see if I could adapt it to create the outwardly similar CIE "Laminate" coach design to complement the Turfburner loco, and I was stuck on what to do with the body profile. Both the "Laminate" and the BR Mark 1 have a very gently curve in the lower bodywork between the bottom of the windows and the solebar. So far the two main options taken by LEGO builders to this shape is either to leave it flatly vertical or to use curved slopes, but to my eyes neither really works very well as they are either too little or too much. So I wondered what people think of this alternative technique, which is to use flat sides but slightly angle them in towards the bottom.

Compare and contrast with this BR Mark 1 with curved slopes on the lower sides.

I've not got a cutaway render to show how it's done just yet, but I could knock one up.

Edited April 3, 2021 by Hod Carrier

[CMF-1138]

I think it looks really good, and I like seeing a different approach. I'm certainly no expert on the prototypes, but I tend to agree that the curved slopes (which I am already quite envious of as a "flat-sider" myself) result in a more pronounced curve than most of the photos that I have looked at. Your angled flat sides more closely approximate the slope, to my eye. The tradeoff is the gaps, but they aren't unsightly.

[Eki1210]

great coaches! i think brickbuild the gap won´t be as noticable as on the renders, so maybe it isn´t as big of an issue.

[Hod Carrier]

Thanks for the feedback.

Yes I am wondering too just how bad that gap might be when it comes to building these coaches. I'm hoping that it won't be too awful and that the render is exaggerating it a bit by making it unrealistically dark. Only time will tell.

Just a quick look underneath the skin to show what's happening inside. It's not the most earth-shatteringly amazing technique, using hinge bricks placed on their sides. I've placed them under the tables to try and make them less intrusive into the interior.

[zephyr1934]

1 hour ago, Hod Carrier said:

Yes I am wondering too just how bad that gap might be when it comes to building these coaches. I'm hoping that it won't be too awful and that the render is exaggerating it a bit by making it unrealistically dark. Only time will tell.

Why not moc-up a small section of the car side, maybe 8 studs long, to see how it looks in real bricks? It's helped me a lot to fine tune builds that I'm not sure will work with real bricks.

[Tube Map Central]

Curves for me, so many details on Lego trains get exaggerated, a bit of extra curve to the tumblehome is almost necessary to blend in with the exaggeration elsewhere

[SD100]

It would be interesting to see that in the real brick, especially moving in a train. I'm partial to the curved bricks, but that might just be the investment I've already put into them... 

SD

[Pdaitabird]

I like your angled approach! I don't think the gap will be noticeable at all in real bricks. If you're looking for more inspiration, have you seen this technique by @wes_turngrate?

[Hod Carrier]

4 hours ago, zephyr1934 said:

Why not moc-up a small section of the car side, maybe 8 studs long, to see how it looks in real bricks? It's helped me a lot to fine tune builds that I'm not sure will work with real bricks.

Oh yes, definitely. I don't have sufficient number of the hinge bricks to try it right now but it's on the list.

2 hours ago, Tube Map Central said:

Curves for me, so many details on Lego trains get exaggerated, a bit of extra curve to the tumblehome is almost necessary to blend in with the exaggeration elsewhere

 

1 hour ago, SD100 said:

It would be interesting to see that in the real brick, especially moving in a train. I'm partial to the curved bricks, but that might just be the investment I've already put into them... 

SD

That's fair enough. I appreciate the feedback, gentlemen. Thank you.

29 minutes ago, Pdaitabird said:

I like your angled approach! I don't think the gap will be noticeable at all in real bricks. If you're looking for more inspiration, have you seen this technique by @wes_turngrate?

I have, and it's probably the closest anyone has got to the correct profile of the Mark 1 coach. It's very impressive indeed. I wonder if @wes_turngrate has built one yet to test it's stability and strength. My very first MOC, the 4-wide DD-VIRM, had a similarly "bendy sided" approach to facilitate the body profile of that train, but even after putting it through a structural rebuild it could still go wonky if not handled gently.

[SeaKing61]

I used this technique on a mk1 coach I made. The curve is gentler than the technique shown above but leave a 1 tall plate along the bottom and gaps in the coach side.

Lego DB999508 by Laurie Bennett, on Flickr

Laurie

[Feuer Zug]

On 4/5/2021 at 3:39 PM, SeaKing61 said:

I used this technique on a mk1 coach I made. The curve is gentler than the technique shown above but leave a 1 tall plate along the bottom and gaps in the coach side.

Lego DB999508 by Laurie Bennett, on Flickr

Laurie

Brilliant!

[Hod Carrier]

On 4/5/2021 at 8:39 PM, SeaKing61 said:

I used this technique on a mk1 coach I made. The curve is gentler than the technique shown above but leave a 1 tall plate along the bottom and gaps in the coach side.

Oh yes, I remember this and being impressed by the way that the seat part gives a curved rather than a flat profile. As you say, the use of this part does also have some drawbacks, but then so do all other techniques. Modelling in LEGO is so much about finding the best compromise and the one that you are happiest with.

[M_slug357]

I think the most important question relates to specific liveries: Which technique is the most cost-effective by livery?

[Paperinik77pk]

I like all the approaches - the curved one is the most "classic" , The angled one proposed by @Hod Carrier is surely a great alternative (and maybe is more prone to include some more details/colors - being based on tiles) and the "seats" one is a very nice use of a very very specific part, even if it could have some problems with color availability. Great stuff!!!