Pullman MOCs for Emerald Night

[Heppeng]

These I hope are my eventual solution as to the conundrum of something suitable for my EN to haul. Of course ideally it would be up to four of the standard coaches that came with the set, but I could not justify the expense! As a short term measure the coach from my set was sold and replaced with four Enlighten First class coaches (+ plenty of change left over!) However whilst the Enlighten coaches are quite good quality and well detailed, with some very nice printing, particularly the windows, they are somewhat of a design compromise to say the least. They only come as an end car, a sort of cross between a British Pullman and a Santa Fe observation car, but without enough windows to observe through. They also substitute green instead of brown, which kinda matches with the EN, but is not right for a Pullman. And finally they use six high transparent doors - great for printing a nice representation of a Pullman oval window (in green!) but bad as it makes the coach tall, which is a particular problem since the EN is not only wider than a standard Lego train, but shorter too, and these coaches really emphasize that!

So it is time to come up with something better. I started out with the original EN coach design as a base, and started to turn it in to something more Pullman like. Indeed I thought that originally this would just end up being a MOD, but I just kept tweeking the design until there was so little left of the original that did not seem appropriate any longer!!! And then when I started adding interiors I MOCed it some more in to four different types of car!

I have tried to ensure that I have only used colour/brick combinations that actually exist, but am open to constructive critisism and other ideas - of course reserving the right to reject them!!!!

So without further ado, this is the result:

1. Pullman Parlour car:

2. Pullman Kitchen car

and interior:

3. Bar Car

and interior

4. Brake/Luggage car

And finally the whole train assembled behind the EN:

Over to you!

[v6TransAM]

Good looking clean design, needs a little something underneath between the truck though.

Other than that very nice design

[Heppeng]

It does, would probably end up something similar to what the EN coach has - the trucks are about the only thing left that is the same as the original!

[garethjellis]

I like the way you have made these with out using very expensive tan window frames, I like the roof lines too! Now just gotta make em 8 wide ha.

[Heppeng]

I have to confess.... The printed windows from the Enlighten cars are so nice and so close to the Pullman style, even including curtains, that I don't think that I am going to be able to resist using them... OTOH if Lego had done the same, then I expect the printed panels would have been just as expensive as the tan windows, perhaps even more so because you could use them on any colour train! And I really would have liked to do them in 8 wide, the extra space for the bar and kitchen would have been a godsend, as well as being able to have table and chairs down both sides. However they will be getting run on a 12V railway with somewhat restricted clearances, and there was also an element of attempting to build something that could have been done by Lego themselves instead of the EN coach they ended up with.

[detjensrobert]

Looks cool, but those 4x3 windows look way too big and oversized for the train. Maybe use the 2x2 windows like the Super Chief?

[dr_spock]

Nice. I think the windows looks a bit big for passenger cars of that era. Probably not too hard to make a frame sticker around them.

[Heppeng]

The Pullman cars that these are inspired by did have large windows that take up the entire height of the tan section - here is a typical example:

Whilst the windows may be slightly too large, OTOH 2x2 would be way too small, so I think probably the larger panels are the best compromise.

The windows I intend using are shown below, and even include a good representation of the curtains you can see in the picture above.

The one thing that's eluding me at the moment is a better design for the bar stool in the bar car. I can't afford to make it any taller as there would not be sufficient headroom for a minifig with a hat and it has to have studs so the minifig won't fall of when the train is in motion, but I want something that looks a little more elegant than a 2x2 round plate!

Edited November 29, 2014 by Heppeng

[detjensrobert]

The printed ones (Enlighten, I assume?) look better than the plain ones. The frame and curtains will help fill out the space.

[LEGO Train 12 Volts]

Your fleet looks very nice! I like your end-wagon, and the inner detail of the restaurant!

Very original work!

[Heppeng]

The Kitchen of the Kitchen car ended up being a little more 'open plan' than I was hoping, which was a constraint of working it in to a six wide car - not enough room for walls! Still it includes oven, two burner hob, cupboard, worktop, sink, and serving counter. I think there is just enough room to squeeze a chef in too, although he won't have room to move!

Yes the printed Windows are Enlighten, I was not sure what sort of reaction I would get for using a clone brand, but the windows are so close to what is needed and will make such a difference to the finished train it would be a shame not to use them solely on a matter of principle.

Thanks for all the kind remarks!

[Heppeng]

OK, I intend to start ordering bricks for these this weekend, Any further comments/suggestions before I commit myself?

[dr_spock]

I was looking at thin tape for adding stripes on some of my models. They come in different colors. It might be an another option to frame the windows to look like the prototype. You could cut curtains from thin cloth and stick them to the inside.

[Heppeng]

I have ordered the bricks now. Despite getting the lowest humanly possible price for the bricks, the total cost is around £130 inc postage for the four coaches, and that does not include the admittedly somewhat limited bricks that I already own! Mind you, its still well under half the price that I would have had to pay for four Emerald Night coaches.... My wallet must hate my Lego addiction!!!!

[Heppeng]

One thing I did not quite realise was the number of parts in the colour I wanted that were only introduced this year:

The 3x2 windows for the doors - only in the Parisian Restaurant and the Simpsons House

The dish for the lampshades - only one in the Fairground Mixer

The gold bar for the handrails - only in the Tumbler

The Reddish brown bracket used for the SNOT on the brake coach - only in the Sandcrawler

Plus quite a few others which did not appear in that many sets, but at least are not particularly expensive.

If the only way to get parts was to purchase complete sets, that would taken 11 Fairground Mixers alone - thank goodness for Bricklink and Lego Bricks & Pieces!

[Heppeng]

Got all the bricks now. Well as usual almost all of them - no matter how hard I try and check and re-check I always seem to make an error in ordering! So far I missed the 1x1 reddish brown plates, and I am short of a 1x6 reddish brown plate too. I will build them without the missing pieces anyway - probably the best way to find out any more omissions! There are also one or two minor design errors which I might take the opportunity to fix. As always it looks like I will need an extra follow up bricklink order to complete them!

[jabz10]

Hi interested in this, care to share the parts list please? I don't suppose you have any instructions to build?

My friend has a EN Loco and tender he wanted to sell, so I may purchase them off him, if I can build these for it.

[Heppeng]

I will see what I can do, I have the LDD files from which it is possible to create instructions and a parts list, however I may want to edit them slightly before release! I would actually quite like to put them up for a lego ideas project, trouble is that train stuff is notoriously difficult to gain votes for. Mind you, if the next creator train happens to be a suitable steam loco...

[Heppeng]

So over Christmas I have built them and this is the result:

I'll need to wait until I have some other stuff to order from bricklink to fully complete them as I don't really want to place one order just for the 1x1 plates that I forgot... but I am very happy with the result!

[Frank STENGEL]

Nice work.

[UrbanErwin]

They look pretty good

[detjensrobert]

They turned out well.

I now see that the small windows would have been too small. The curtained windows look better, although they do stand out just a little bit.

Edited December 30, 2014 by detjensrobert

[Heppeng]

They do a bit, in real life they look a bit more subdued, the camera flash tends to exaggerate them slightly.

Many thanks for all the comments!

[James Mathis]

Great design work. Wonderful to see your iterative design process and trade study toward your unique and well executed solutions. A noble set of coaches to complement the venerable Emerald Night.

Nicely done,

James

[ahardy]

These are absolutely fabulous! I work on preserve railway in Kent and we have several Pullman coaches. My girlfriend has bought me an EN for Christmas and I would love to build a set of these to run with it. Any chance of a parts list and some pointers?