My LNER Class A4 4468 Mallard

[garethjellis]

I know that many A4's have gone before me but here is my Take, I have to credit all the people have gone before me go give me inspiration and ideas / solutions.

The model ended up at 1014 parts, 63 studs long including the tender, 8 wide and 10 tall. I have the Bricklink orders in so we will see if concept design works in brick. Normally there are a few challenges translating from one tho the other.

I decided to go with power functions for this model, I used dual M motors in the boiler, and IR receiver and battery in the tender. I will more than likely convert this to 9v once I once I have finished my pickups project. More to come later.

Factual blurb: Number 4468 Mallard is a London and North East Railway (LNER) Class A44-6-2 Pacific steam locomotive built at Doncaster, England in 1938. It is historically significant as the holder of the world speed record for steam locomotives.

Edited December 21, 2014 by garethjellis

[Srbandrews]

Beautiful design! How many studs long is it? Looks huge. The way you've managed to get some of those curves into the design is amazing. Great work.

You almost certainly have more experience of this than I do but, having just started building locos, it seemed to me that having 6 drivers along an 11 stud wheelbase with the front and back pairs flanged created quite a bit of resistance on corners.

Edited December 21, 2014 by Srbandrews

[Selander]

Wheel arrangement is probably designed like Emerald Night with a floating bogie in front and floating wheels rear, which can travel sideways and hence makes it possible to take curves and points.

The renders has two Medium(M) motors, not L-motors, right ?

Nice lines on the loco !!

Edited December 21, 2014 by Selander

[garethjellis]

Hi "Srbandrews", below is a picture of the drive train, "Selander" is correct, there are similar bogey connections to the Emerald Night with the front bogie being articulated.

Also "Selander" good eye, I have changed the text above to read M motor, it originally was going to be large ones, but I could not get it in the space I had.

Thank you both for the nice feedback

[Steph 104th]

Wonderful locomotive, you've captured it beautifully. I would love to see it as a set one day.

[Srbandrews]

Actually, I meant the fixed drivers being spaced over 11 studs as opposed to the Emerald Night's 9.

That's not to say it jams, but it does drag.

Edited December 21, 2014 by Srbandrews

[Lazarus]

Nice work, Only thing i can say is it looks a tad bit fat maybe add a few more studs to the length.

It might be just coz of it being 8 wide and not 7 like the one i did.

[Barduck]

beautifull design, I think it's the best one yet I've seen

[garethjellis]

it looks a tad bit fat maybe add a few more studs to the length. It might be just coz of it being 8 wide and not 7 like the one i did.

I agree, your boiler is 5 wide and mine is 6, but the smoke box fairing on yours is 4 and mine is 6 which is what I think makes it look fat. I am also unhappy with the fat appearance. I am going to try to slim the fairing down to 5 wide and slope the sides in. Stand by.

[Exa]

Waouw ! Very nice one. She have no front light ? The sleek design of the true model is really well made. I would be pleased to see the same one form Lego. Will you go for Lego Ideas ?

[GSD Jerrys]

nice! love the colour

[codefox421]

I'm surprised to see how hollow it is. Great job capturing this iconic locomotive!

[garethjellis]

As I mentioned above, I felt the front looked fat, I have spent some time to try an narrow the front but now I feel that I have lost those clean lines,

Any thoughts? Stay as I had it before?

[The_Prime]

I think that the new version looks more like the original, but a light on the front would be very impressive, and would finish the look of it

[zephyr1934]

Wow, that looks really great. Getting all of the detail on the sides is a lot of work. I like how you were able to hide the top of the drivers. I was going to suggest lowering the black on the cab roof by half a plate to hide the transition to the blue slopes, but that probably would not be easy to do... and then you lose the continuity with the top of the boiler.

[Lazarus]

A4 is ment to be less wide in the front and tapper out to the boiler.

But the front black bits do need some work to get the line right.

Its a hard loco to do as you know and it took me a very long time to get in right in ldd.

[garethjellis]

I am still waiting for all the parts from Brick Link to finish this model and will post when it is done, however I finished the externals of the Gresley Teak coaches.

Edited January 25, 2015 by garethjellis

[Srbandrews]

So nice! Terrific work.

[locoworks]

they are Gresley coaches not Grisley , named after the designer Nigel Gresley who also, as it happens, designed the A4 Mallard

[garethjellis]

they are Gresley coaches not Grisley , named after the designer Nigel Gresley who also, as it happens, designed the A4 Mallard

Thank you 'locoworks' for pointing out my 'typo' I have fixed it up.

Indeed you are correct. Nigel designed a whole bunch of Locos for GNR and LNER including corridor tenders and articulated carriages.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nigel_Gresley#Locomotives_designed_by_Gresley

[willhappy]

hi

love this train

If only i could get some plans for something like this

will

[Lazarus]

Gareth I think u still have my plans around for the A4, mine is only 4 wide at the nose out to 5.5 wide boiler on a 7 wide loco.

As shown

[Bricksmith]

Also been working on an A4 Pacific, trying to be as 'conventional' as possible. That has meant that the loco has no motor in it in order to get the best look, I think i'm going to use the old Hornby trick and put something in the tender.

Couple of pictures here if it helps anyone; the low-res image is the LDD template (With no wheels of course) and the high res image is the work in progress of the LDraw model, where you can see the approach i've taken for the internal structure.

[garethjellis]

This is a fun looking version, just about 7 wide right?

[Bricksmith]

It is, yes. In fact the cab is no more than 6 studs wide, like much of the Lego City trains. The aim is for it to be to the same scale/guage as them, hopefully with a bit of playibility in there too.