LDD MOCs: Original Disneyland 1955 Coaches, Freight Car, & Lilly B

[Brickstarrunner]

In the Town Forum, I've been doing a Turn of the Century Middle-American Town Based on Disneyland's Main Street U.S.A., and I began work on the Station and Railroad first. While I keep progress of the buildings and such in the Town forum, I shall keep you guys posted on the progress of the train and station.

Anyways, when creating the station, it just didn't look right without any coaches, so in keeping with the Turn of the Century theme I have going on, I decided to recreate the original 1955 Disneyland Passenger Coaches, one of the Original Freight Cars, and the remodeled Lilly Belle (More on that later).

Let me start off with the Combine Car. The Combine Car is short for Combination because it is both a mail car and a passenger car in one.

Then comes the Passenger Coaches, which is pretty much self explanatory.

All coaches are lit up by these gas powered lamps found in the ceiling.

Then at the end comes the Lilly Belle, an original 1955 Disneyland Coach/V.I.P. Lounge/Caboose. Let me explain. When the Passenger Train was introduced in 1955, it was a great looking train and all, but it took quite some time to load and unload passengers. Things got complicated when they added two more stations on the line, creating a stop-and-go type of load and unload (In 1955, there was a siding at each station [2 Stations in total with 2 trains running at most at a time] so the other train could bypass the other train loading/unloading). QAround 1975, the coaches were switched out for the modern day coaches you see today, which are easier to load and unload. The coaches were forgotten and left to rot until a private investor bough all but one of the coaches and set to restoring them to their former glory.

Now what happened to that one single coach? It was kept within Disneyland's arms safely behind the walls of the roundhouse. Was it left to rot? What did they do it it? In 2006, they did a full restoration of the coach, turning it into the Red V.I.P Coach it is today.

(PS: My Lilly Belle is also going under some restoration of its own to make it more like the real coach, so what you're seeing is still not the end product)

A closer look at the custom bogies located at the bottom of each rail car.

Remember when I said that there were two trains? Yes, in the 1955 Disneyland, there were in fact 2 trains. One pulling the Passenger (This) and the other pulling the Freight. The freight is still operating today, it's just that it's been heavily modified so that they also match the modern day loading/unloading technique. I decided to recreate one of the original gondolas on the original freight (With one or two artistic licenses)

Sadly, I could not find any pictures of either the original or modern day freight train,

Now, the train is fantastic looking and all, I know that, but how will it get to the next station? It has no steam engine to pull it. Unfortunately, LDD is very VERY extremely ill equipped when it comes to the railroading section. There are some key elements, such as the giant driving wheels with the slots for inserting the coupling rods. Also, I am very terrible at making Steam Engines. They are great to look at, but all those tiny parts make my head spin. And the limitations of LDD can be a bit mind numbing as well.

I am trying to mash together both designs, but I have come to no avail. Could someone please assist me? Or at least point me in the right direction? Leave a suggestion if you can. Anything would be very helpful right now. Or should I just leave it engine-less and make the excuse it uncoupled to go to the roundhouse or something?

Edited June 27, 2012 by Brickstarrunner

[Legogal]

Wow! This is lovely! What a wonderful recreation of a famous train!

Sorry I can't give advice on train building, but you have built something very cool!

[stacker9000]

Great concept, your designs are looking very good. Very interested in seeking it in real bricks.

As for the engine: the picture of the number 1(C.K. Holiday),Looks almost exactly like the Toy Story train That LEGO released. I would go to LEGO.com and download the directions to that set and start there, then add details or items as needed until I was happy with its design.

Good luck and excellent job so far!

[Murdoch17]

I have a simmliar 4-4-0 locomtoive... I based it off someones elses MOC (I forget who, sorry!) here at Eurobricks, and made it in my railroad's colors. You can have it, (if you want it) to modify into the E.P. Ripley (Engine No 2) Here are a pic oir two:

Note: The front end is lifted off the ground 1/3 or a brick. It's supposed to do this and it willl work in real life.

And the LXF:

LXF for the Steam Locomotive

If you want more pictures, I'm going to create a topic for it sometime today, or you can see it on MOC pages:

Link to my MOC Page

Enjoy!

EDIT: I now have found the orignal MOC. Daedalus304 made it about a month ago. here's his topic: Daedalus304's Steam engine

Edited June 8, 2012 by Murdoch17

[Brickstarrunner]

First came the PCC Red Car Trolley (Pictured in my signature), now an American 4-4-0. You just love to save me, don't you?

[Rail Co]

WOW! Great start. I love the amount of detail you have put into this! Good luck on the loco!

Rail Co

[Brickstarrunner]

Thanks again for the engine! I modified the driving rods a bit as well as the tender and gave it a fresh coat of paint. It looks fantastic!

I also refurbished the Lilly Belle as well.

And the station is coming along nicely.

Edited June 27, 2012 by Brickstarrunner

[SDH]

These are coming along nicely. It'll be nice to see them in real brick. One suggestion, you might think about putting Red 1x1 plates in the holes in the stairs at the ends of your cars. I noticed that there's a red and green accent on the real cars and this might be a nice little touch. Any attempts to make the sliding doors on the Combine Car work? I know that stuff like that's a pain in LDD, the large wall elements capture the feel of the doors really well though.

[mrlegoman]

They're all looking good! Especially liking the Santa Fe coaches.

[Pencil_42]

Excellent designs; very inspirational!!

Thank you for sharing!

Curtis

[Brickstarrunner]

These are coming along nicely. It'll be nice to see them in real brick. One suggestion, you might think about putting Red 1x1 plates in the holes in the stairs at the ends of your cars. I noticed that there's a red and green accent on the real cars and this might be a nice little touch. Any attempts to make the sliding doors on the Combine Car work? I know that stuff like that's a pain in LDD, the large wall elements capture the feel of the doors really well though.

Sad to say, they have to remain stationary. The cramped spaces do not allow for a sliding action. No tiles for it to slide on, no arm to hold it. It had to remain on the studs to ensure that the dimensions are the same throughout the cars. If I were to make the doors movable, the roof would have to be 1 place to 1 brick taller than the others.

In the late district, I got some good news for everybody!

I am happy to announce that a second train has just arrived at the station! Engine No. 1; the C.K. Holliday and it's original freight train (Cattle Car, Gondola, and Caboose). The C.K. Holliday has a red and dark steel blue (Or at least I wished we had that color) coat and also has a balloon smokestack. The cattle car doors are non-operational either, and it would be a nightmape to make it slide back and forth due to the way the tiles are placed. Speaking of which, you CAN peak inside. There are no bricks behind the tiles so you have a full view of what's inside, but there's not much inside as it just holds the supports and other things that make the car look the way it is. The roof is also slightly a bit higher than the coaches by 1 brick. The caboose is pretty much just the Lilly Belle gutted and simplified, putting in an extra door inside, replacing the minifig seats with a brick with tiles on top, and that thing on the top. The back is the same as well except the railing is now colored black, the side railings removed, and the signal lantern being a simple red 'stop' type of lantern.

I have also done a few alterations to the coaches. If you look closely, you'll noticed I added 1x3 inverted roof tiles at the corners under the roofs and did a few color corrections to the cars. Also, the headlight has been altered to give it a much more rounder look than the original so that it looks more like the real deal.

Also the station's roof is proving to be quite difficult due to the lack of inside corners, since the only one available is 1 brick tall, when I need inside corners 2 and 3 bricks tall. This is going to require some creative thinking.

Edited June 27, 2012 by Brickstarrunner

[Brickstarrunner]

Just a smll update on the Train Station. It's coming along fantastically, and will look better with the Passenger Train alongside it.

A little assistance as well?

How can I improve the T-junction between the roof tiles? The only inverted roof corner in LDD that I've seen so far is only 1 brick high. Besides, both roof tiles come at different heights (2 and 3 studs high). Is there a way I can improve that design, or is that as best ad I could make it?

Edited June 27, 2012 by Brickstarrunner

[WesternOutlaw]

Your Disney collection is quite impressive BSR. I've always been a huge Disney fan, so I especially like this set.

On a side note, please be aware that our site guidelines are images not to exceed 800x600 - if you could please resize your larger images. Much appreciated.

[Brickstarrunner]

Your Disney collection is quite impressive BSR. I've always been a huge Disney fan, so I especially like this set.

On a side note, please be aware that our site guidelines are images not to exceed 800x600 - if you could please resize your larger images. Much appreciated.

Yeah, sorry about that. To quote the vultures from Splash Mountain:

"He learned his lesson alright..."

"But I'm afraid he learned it too late!"

There we go. Now you can have your trains in a bite sized format. I need to keep that process in mind next time I post. Thanks for reminding me!

Edited June 27, 2012 by Brickstarrunner

[WesternOutlaw]

Thanks

[xboxtravis7992]

I cannot help but wonder how many of us have made it to this forum through your link on MiceChat...

Anyway is the train still in progress? It looks like it will be very nice once it is finished. I agree on the sentiment that LDD though is difficult to use for designing trains.