MOC- the streamlined North Coast Limited passenger train

[zephyr1934]

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I am pleased to present my MOC of the Northern Pacific streamlined Vista Dome North Coast Limited. The North Coast Limited ran between Chicago and the Pacific Northwest (the train split and went to Portland and Seattle). Much of the attractiveness of this build is simply due to the prototype, designed by Raymond Loewy. More info on the actual train can be found here.

One of the unusual features on this train was the full sleeper domes (as opposed to the dome-observation sleeper cars found on several trains). More info on the domes can be found here.

I have been working on this MOC for over two years and it remains a work in progress. The initial assembly occurred about two years ago and it has been displayed a few times. However, without the lettering, I considered it far from complete. I just applied the decals this past weekend and uploaded the photos to brickshelf.

The cars are 42 studs long plus diaphragms (another stud total), to strike a balance between realistic scaled length at 6 wide (more like 52 studs) and the operational constraints of lego curves.

The cars have a real vestibule on the door end (set off from the interior) like the prototypes.

They also feature close coupling for display, with the diaphragms connecting, while with the insertion of an extra magnet allows for sufficient clearance to take a curve.

The domes were my focal point.

The use of the 3x6x1 curved windscreens was one of my favorite features, but there is a lot of snot in the domes themselves to get the right shape and form. I used transparent headlight bricks so in principle one could see through the dome, but in practice only a bright light can make it through all of that plastic. Still it does a good job reflecting the ambient light so the design worked, just not as originally intended. There are lots of subtle features to be picked out, including the detailed under-frame (no great shots at the moment) and the half plate vents on the side of the dome cars, e.g., as seen below the dome here.

Throughout the cars I used an unconventional approach. Sand green plates are way expensive. So the lateral strength of the cars comes from white 6x plates between the sand green and dark green layers. This has the added bonus of making the windows much more apparent than they would have been without the reflective color on the inside.

I did seek bonus points for the use of a large unruly piece for the roof of the observation car.

I had to leave out several cars (including the RPO/dorm; travelers rest lounge; several coaches and sleepers; and a sleeper dome).

The locomotives have a lot of subtle features going on, e.g., the louvered openings between the porthole windows and the much more complicated snotted nose. Unfortunately for me, the NP was one of the few railroads to actually paint over the chrome upper grills on the F-units, still, I took the liberty to use chrome lego grill tiles since they are typical of most F-units and dark green grills would not show up well.

The train is powered by a pair of PF train motors in the b-unit, which also houses a rechargeable battery, IR receiver, and extra weight for traction. I've made a few small changes to the build over the years, e.g., swapping out 1x2 grilled cheese for 1x2x2/3 curved slopes on the nose of the locomotives.

The train runs fine around standard lego curves, but it looks a little awkward,

It looks REALLY sharp on the wide radius curves, e.g., on PennLUG's layout (videos can be found here)

All of the photos thus far are from before applying the decals. Here are few shots with the custom decals applied,

Many more shots are in the full gallery. Enjoy the ride, questions and comments welcome,

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[Asper]

This is wonderful!

[Younge]

What an incredible looking train!!! You managed to get a SNOT version of the engine's nose that looks much better than the Sante Fe!!!

Now I want this as the official 2015 Creator train!!!

[robuko]

Beautiful build! The color scheme is fabulous.

Edited November 12, 2014 by robuko

[garethjellis]

Great work! how many cars in total?

[BricksMcgee]

Great MOC. A and B units in particular caught my eye.

[BrickBuff]

Un-be-lie-va-ble!

I hope you have the track to go with it, it must be enormous! Kudos.

[zephyr1934]

Thanks for the kind words all.

@Younge

You just got my vote in your campaign to become the next lego production manager (grin). I probably would have used the half arches like the Super Chief it they were available in the two greens, it would have made the front a lot easier to do. The limited number of parts in these two colors made it a lot of "fun" to build. I have a 6 plate gap in the middle of the sand green to ensure that the sides line up with the rest of the locomotive (I think I used a 2x3 plate with hole and a jumper plate inside to get those together). Then the outer-most bit is studs out for the tiles and cheese bricks. The plow/pilot was fairly straight forward. I used minfig neck brackets to hold the 1x1x5/3 curved bricks on. The front unit has 1x1 tiles next to the coupler while the rear unit does not (if the tiles were there, they would occasionally knock against the magnet holder, very tight clearance). If you want more details on the nose let me know.

@robuko

Thanks for the kind words, though credit for that goes to Raymond Loewy, the designer of the original train.

@garethjellis

3 locomotives (2 F7A and 1 F7B), and 8 cars (baggage, 2 coach domes, coach, diner, duplex sleeper, sleeper dome, sleeper observation), all of which are at least partially visible in the last photo of my original post.

@BrickBuff

I think it is about 14 ft long in total. On my home track it is always in at least one curve, but at shows it can stretch out on the straight aways. My favorite was when I ran it on the PennLUG layout though. Those curves were fantastic and all the detail they built in to the layout is over the top. I am looking forward to the ME models curves.

[Dread Pirate Rob]

Stunning. Those domes are amazing!

[Man with a hat]

Nice, really nice. Amazing you got that to work with those colours. The nose is very clever and although I am not really fond of stickers as wind screens I wouldn't know how to do it any better. And the domes are stunning as well. Top job!

[keeganp1234]

Funny, I live in Portland. Good looking train! Right near my school, there is a train museum and one of the dining cars from this train is held there. I see it every day when I drive to my school.

Good work!

[legoman666]

Love it. Nice to see a train that isn't black or gray. I've been trying to make locomotives that are other colors myself.

[James Mathis]

Amazing work! The locomotive nose, cab doors-- the whole train looks like it could be 7 or. 8 wide, but just 6-- wow! That's the best vista dome I've seen! What an evolution in streamline design over the last decade and a half. Beautiful set.

James

[baard]

I really like the way you have managed to solve the different angles of the nose as well as the color choice.

It looks amazing through the long curve!

Brick on!

[LEGO Train 12 Volts]

Oh my dear Zephyr ...the whole train slipped past my radar ...this MOC is totally cool!

Delightful looking livery and great building construction: the front nose and the windscreen of the locomotive are great and the three cars with dome are simply amazing!

Stickers are the icing on the cake!

Top notch work my friend! :thumbup:

[Hrw-Amen]

A really stunning looking train, so much detail and so long.

[zephyr1934]

Thanks all for such kind words from such good builders. Indeed, working in the two greens was quite a challenge. There were no snot pieces at the time in either color (well, insanely expensive sand green headlights and dark green 1x4 bricks with studs on the side, neither of which I used). In fact at the time there were no 1x1 dark green plates or tiles and the 1x2 plates were stupid expensive (oh how quickly prices change). This build predated the Lone Ranger train, so the 2x4x0.67 slopes on the F's actually came from EN with the gold stripes removed.

Needless to say, I love dome cars. If you've never ridden in one, do so at the next opportunity... and do it in a short dome like this so you can see all directions rather than a full dome where your view is limited (I cannot recommend the VIA Canadian highly enough, the Canadian, a few other VIA routes and the Alaska RR are the last domes in regular operation).

In any event, the domes took quite a lot of work to get right and there are a few subtle tricks, largest of which is using the 3x3 curved plates on the ends of the dome to get the right look of the profile. The 3x3 technic beams and the windshields at the end of the car are both too curved compared to the prototype.

[Commander Wolf]

I like how you make full trains instead of just locos. Does the makeup of the train actually reflect prototypical consists?

The headlights on your A units are a novel touch - I don't think I've seen that before. What are you using for the center frames in the domes? It's not more 3x3 corners is it?

Also. Nice stickers.

[Venunder]

Wow!

I would buy a Creator or UCS Expert version of this train.

[dr_spock]

Very nice. Those stickers really give them that extra wow factor.

[cgarison]

Those big sweeping turns on PennLUG's layout really make this train shine! Excellent work and what an amazing investment in sand green parts.

My question is how long will this train run with all of those cars with 2 motors and one battery pack?

[Steph 104th]

Beautiful build! Wonderful use of the vikings sea serpent joints piece infront of the cabin.

[Barduck]

I'm in love. Might even try my own, if I find time. Such great colors, style and details, it's just out of this world

[King Aragorn]

Wow what an infinite beauty! :wub:

[LEGO Guy Bri]

Very good looking train. Another +1 on the color scheme and I love the design of the dome cars