bogieman

Nice work. The fixed single axle rear truck would have to be built to rotate somehow coupled to the front truck to make it capable of Lego tracks. Always loved the Aerotrain which came out when I was about 6 YO. Started my love of trains and my career at EMD. I've seen both preserved trains, one in Green Bay under roof in great condition, the other in St. Louis, parked outdoors and deteriorating. I hope they someday put it under roof; Google maps shows it's still outside. Dave

That is truly outstanding, what scale is it? I especially like the detail on the trucks as I designed those on the prototype. Dave

The L-motor is geared 1:1 with the drivers so benefits from their larger diameter. In my experience, it's not necessary to worry about closely matching the speeds, the motor characteristics take care of it. It's not much different that IRL putting an SW1500 into a train of SD70's. They all contribute to the total tractive effort according to their abilities. I connect my motors in parallel to the Tsunami2 DDC controller so they all see the same voltage. As long as they aren't experiencing wheelslip, they will find an operating point on the torque-speed curve where they're happy. I'm not sure if it would be any different using a PF infrared receiver for power as that puts out a PWM voltage. This terrific resource shows how all the Lego motors produce more torque as they are slowed down when operating at a constant voltage: https://www.philohome.com/motors/motorcomp.htm This is similar to the series-wound DC motor characteristic of real locos.

Looks great running! I can't tell from the second video if the trailing set of drivers rotate relative to the boiler. If they do, where did you locate the pivot? Dave

Really looks great! Nicely done. Do you print your own valve gear and rods? Dave

Outstanding, been following your progress on Flickr. Particularly love the timber bridge.

Looks like a great show layout. Will you have it at Brickworld Chicago this year?

Great work! Love all the gears.

Well done! Love all the colors, especially the dark blue and dark green. Dave

Fantastic work! I, too, would love to see a video of it in action.

I've bought injection molded R40 and straight ballast plates from an AliExpress seller and am very pleased with the fit and finish. Here's a link: https://www.aliexpress.us/item/3256804522620044.html?spm=a2g0o.order_detail.order_detail_item.3.35a1f19cmSQDAr&gatewayAdapt=glo2usa The straight ballast plates are about $0.61 each if you buy 100, They fit both Lego and clone track I've bought. I've been printing my own R56, R72, and R88 ballast plates to fit Bricktracks, BlueBrixx, and TrixBrix molded tracks and TrixBrix R72 switches with good success too, after several iterations to get the fit where I like it. Dave

Looks good!

Great video and exploded assembly sequence. Not trying to be critical but the prototype shown at the beginning of your video and all EMD passenger locomotives until 1994 have the steps mounted to the side of the loco with no recess for toe clearance. The steps are only 4" wide and having climbed them many times, I always thought they were unsafe, especially in winter covered with snow and ice. But since they worked okay on the FT demonstrator they were done the same way on every wide carbody model until the F59PHI. So you can just use a 1x2 door rail plate (32028) to represent each step or something similar that protrudes, replacing the 1x2 panel. Dave

Well done! I was surprised to see the red strip go down the middle of the roof, expect that was covered by soot soon.

A nice little locomotive but I think your son did a fantastic job on the video! How many frames in the video? I can't imagine the work it took. Dave