GE Dash 9-44CW /w Canadian National livery in 7 wide [WIP]

[legoman666]

Following up on my CSX AC4400CW: http://www.eurobricks.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=98313

This build shares a lot of similarities and techniques but some of the details are different and I plan on arranging all of the electronics differently.

Here's the prototype I'm trying to mimic:

And here's what I have done so far:

As you can see, I'm trying to place the battery box horizontal rather than vertical. Hopefully this will make some of my pervious hurdles less troublesome this time around. The specs will be the same as my CSX: custom pickups to pull 24V from the track, bridge rectifier, DC-DC converter to maintain a feed of 10.8V to a custom Bluetooth controller, battery backup protected by a diode all powering 2 Large PF motors.

[Fugazi]

Looking good! I fixed your title, I'm sure you didn't really mean 'Cash 9' and 'Canadian Northern'.

[legoman666]

Can a mod edit the title, that's supposed to be national, not northern. I blame autocorrect on my phone ;)

Edit: damn you're fast!

Edited September 24, 2014 by legoman666

[legoman666]

Mostly done from this point of view. A few small details on the front and rear walkways are not complete.

At the peak on the top of the rear, I'd like to make it red, but it'll show through the vents and I'm not sure of how it will look.

Missing the proper ditch lights and handrails.

Battery box drops right in.

Electronics are on the bottom this time, figured I could get away with not using a fan to cool them since air would kind of be flowing by. I still have yet to see if it will work okay in practice. Board on the left is a custom Bluetooth controller designed by Codefox421, and the board on the right is a DC-DC converter to supply it with 10.8V.

That's all for now, waiting on a bricklink order with a few small bits. Hope to replace the wheels with steel O gauge, just need to mill a technic axle cross into them.

[legoman666]

Choo choo

[Man with a hat]

Nice. That's running very smoothly.

[zephyr1934]

Great build and the bluetooth control looks really slick

[UrbanErwin]

Nice my only question is, is the front not a little too high, or was it necessary because of the motor in the engine?

[lightningtiger]

Cool looking engine 'legoman666'......Brick On !

[dr_spock]

Good work. Nice to see a Canadian railroad.

Canadian Northern could exist if Canadian National bought out Burlington Northern instead of Sante Fe.

[BricksMcgee]

Nice work! The wheel plates seems a little far out to me (bit hard to tell as I'm only on my phone), but the patterning is superb!

[LEGO Train 12 Volts]

Epic locomotive ...I love those bogies and the electronic work!

[legoman666]

Great build and the bluetooth control looks really slick

Thanks! It works very well, I highly recommend BT in lieu of IR.

Nice my only question is, is the front not a little too high, or was it necessary because of the motor in the engine?

You are correct that it is a little high, but it's not because of the motor, I think the main problem is that on the real thing, the sides slope away from the center on the front. I couldn't find a way to do that smoothly on my model, so the entire thing is as high as the center. I spent a lot of hours fiddling trying to get it right and never came up with a satisfactory result.

Nice work! The wheel plates seems a little far out to me (bit hard to tell as I'm only on my phone), but the patterning is superb!

Thanks! There is a gap between the plates and the wheel because the center axle has to have room to slide. As a result, the side of the trucks are about half a stud away from the edge of the wheels. If the center wheels were blind, it wouldn't be an issue and I could scoot everything in. Blind center wheels is something I could look in to I guess.

Epic locomotive ...I love those bogies and the electronic work!

Cheers. They'd look better on an 8 wide locomotive I think ;) They should also probably be black, but it was too hard to see the details when they were black, so I made them dark grey instead. Plus, in dark grey, I was able to use the 1x2 plate /w technic axle hole, which is a closer match to the real thing.

I've added a few more details since my most recent post. Few things left to do; add decals and get another set of custom steel wheels, but it will take a while. I'm working on a BNSF ES44DC now, but I'm short on orange pieces, so I'll have to order a lot of them. Also want to make a loco in dark blue to match the newer CSX paint scheme and so have been stock piling some parts.

Why all these replies all of a sudden, lol?

[legoman666]

I finished the handrails and changed the peak of the top radiator grille from black to red. Need some red minifig neck brackets for the ditch lights still.

Added the exhaust port.

Front hand rails done too.

Two brothers, back to back.

Working on this badboy next.

[UrbanErwin]

The new BNSF is making a good start and the result of the Canadian National is looking very good.

[King Aragorn]

Great model ...I didn't know there were so many well-made trains!

[legoman666]

Thanks guys. Having a hard time scrounging up the orange, might make another CSX locomotive with their new dark blue paint acheme while I collect more orange.

[legoman666]

Forgot that I had added decals to this a few weeks ago:

[zephyr1934]

That looks great with the decals (well great without and even better with)

[edsmith0075]

This may be off topic, so I apologize in advance, can you post pics or provide a tutorial about your boxcars? They look amazing especially the UP one!