LDD MOC: Truck and train trailer

[English Electric]

My sons main lego interest is usually lego trains, and he asked me to make him a truck for towing trains around on, here is the LDD result, I'm pretty happy with it and am now being pestered to get the bricks to build it! Let me know what you think...

Dave

[Zerobricks]

Nice to see the roles reversed so the truck drives the train Looks really good, maybe it would be smoother with some steering on the trailer?

[lightningtiger]

Great digital design 'English Electric'........Brick On Truck On !

[English Electric]

Thanks for the comments, I've done a fair few alterations today, but still a work in progress. I will look at the cost of building through the week!...

[English Electric]

Ok,had a total re-design of the trailer, and several mods to the truck. The aux engine to run the trailer is now part of the trailer, and there is a long range fuel tank mounted behind the cab. The trailer wheels I realised were too big compared to the truck, and made the loco area high, hence the total re-make. I also corrected an error on the truck where the front panel was sitting too low leaving a gap under the windscreens, see what you reckon...

[jedijon]

Can you remove most of the trailer axels? Looks quite weird compared to real world trucks if that matters to ya!

You know what I do see on the road all the time? Train wheels. Must be some kind of foundry around here because they're always shipping these modified flatbeds with long rows of wheels already pressed on the axle. Very cool looking and pretty doable in lego.

[English Electric]

The reason the trailer has so many axles is due to the load being carried. Even UK locos (small by worldwide standards) can weigh in excess of 130 tonnes.

Here is an example similar to my design but with a shorter trailer for a smaller load...

Here's one with a 9 axle trailer...

Ultimately they are configurable to load length, weight, etc...

[ER0L]

Though I think that plain 8-wide trucks are too wide for minifig scale, I really like your design. The trailer looks particularly good, but also the tractor is nicely done, especially with those new details. The cab looks a bit long, even if a sleeper cab is involved, I'd shorten it for two or even three studs.

Something I'd like to know since I'm actually struggling with the size ratio between trucks and trains: Usually a loco isn't supposed to be smaller than a truck - does that mean that your trains are 8w? If so I'd be very interested to see how that looks like. My idea is that if trucks are 7w (my preferred width) trains should be at least 7w or rather 8w.

Anyhow great work, looking forward to the further development of this.

[English Electric]

Thanks for the feedback, I see what you mean with the cab depth, I will have a look to see if I can improve it.

As for loco width, the gauge profile in the UK is fairly small so I don't think width difference would look too bad, here is a UK class 47 on a 12 axle trailer, it's actually narrower than the trailer. This is 12 axles long, I went for 9 as it will I think suit Lego loco lengths better.

Edited November 4, 2014 by English Electric

[English Electric]

Cab now shortened back by one stud, I'm happier with the look. I've also re-addressed the exhaust to make it less basic, and deleted the second exhaust in lieu of fitting an engine air intake...

Edited November 4, 2014 by English Electric

[English Electric]

Sorry for rambling on, I took a good look at the truck tonight and decided it needed re-doing, I decided to base it on this Heanor unit:

[ER0L]

Looks great! Proportions are much better with the lifted roof, and the rail plate above the windscreen was really missing before. Maybe larger wheels would look good on the tractor now.