cgarison Posted April 28, 2015 Posted April 28, 2015 (edited) After 5 months of planning, 7 weeks of building and 3 weeks of testing, my latest creation is finally done. Well, all the major work is complete and much of the minor tweaks that need to be made as a result of continued tests will have to occur, but for the most part, this is the final model. Detailed, high resolution pictures can be found here: Edited April 28, 2015 by cgarison Quote
ncx Posted April 28, 2015 Posted April 28, 2015 I loved this train at Brick Fest on Saturday. Excellent design. Would have loved to see it in action though :/ Quote
lanesteele240 Posted April 28, 2015 Posted April 28, 2015 The slug is awesome. The engine is awesome. The whole thing is awesome Quote
Zerobricks Posted April 28, 2015 Posted April 28, 2015 Really stands out. Nice futurisitc train. Quote
cgarison Posted April 28, 2015 Author Posted April 28, 2015 (edited) Thanks for the compliments. I loved this train at Brick Fest on Saturday. Excellent design. Would have loved to see it in action though :/ I really wanted to unleash this beast a couple of times on Saturday, but Amazon was late with the delivery of Neodymium magnets and the standard Lego magnets were not strong enough to hold the tender to the locomotive in the turns. It did run for about 30 minutes on Saturday pushing the Ghost Train around the loop while I had to rebuild a truck that lost a gear. On Sunday after I got the magnets Saturday evening in the mail, I ran the train for 45 minutes, but the stress of the the uneven tables that contributed to the Ghost Train losing a gear on the trucks also blew the bricks holding the main drive line for both of the trucks out from under the train. This means the train still needs some tweaks and adjustments to get it right for the next event, probably BrickFair Virginia but it may make another "Yard Queen" type appearance at Scouting for Bricks in Leesburg at the end of May. The slug is awesome. The engine is awesome. The whole thing is awesome "Space Slug" might be a name that may stick considering the train is 55 studs long with another 42 studs for the tender. This was my first 8 wide build and I must admit that it took me a few months staring at the frame plate for this train to figure out how to get things built at that scale. Edited April 28, 2015 by cgarison Quote
mostlytechnic Posted April 28, 2015 Posted April 28, 2015 Love the details of it, especially the high-tech looking trucks! Quote
Commander Wolf Posted April 29, 2015 Posted April 29, 2015 Not my usual cup of tea, but I actually really like this. It's got a nice shape, palette and selection of detail. I especially like the (to me) retro-ish nose. I think the body could be a little shorter or the trucks a little taller, but meh. What do you have under there is it just the usual train motors? Quote
cgarison Posted April 29, 2015 Author Posted April 29, 2015 Not my usual cup of tea, but I actually really like this. It's got a nice shape, palette and selection of detail. I especially like the (to me) retro-ish nose. I think the body could be a little shorter or the trucks a little taller, but meh. What do you have under there is it just the usual train motors? The nose was and cab was designed to have the feel similar to the streamlined Union Pacific trains of the 1930's. Many children see that nose as one that looks like that of a space ship like the shuttle. The trucks are brick built using technic bricks and gears with L Motors for power. I tried tried to using the rounded bottom, round 2X2 boat studs to support the botton of the gear train on the trucks so I could operate the locomotive using an unmodified Power Functions train wheel, but that did not work and I am in the process of changing the wheels to #35 O-Rings (from Lowes) for grip and going back to standard plates to support the gears. I plan to take pictures of the setup of the inside of the locomotive late and post to Flickr. When you see these, you will notice that I have an allotment of space on both ends to accommodate a gear setup very similar to that used by Nate Brill on his AEM-7 Amtrak model. Due to the weight of this build I discovered that this setup had some issues and modified it again using M-Motors and another type of gear package. This too had problems in its first test run due to excessive friction with the elaborate gears so I resorted to direct drive with L motors. This opened up a tremendous amount of space where I could go back and shorten the locomotive, but time was short and PBF was less than two weeks out when I finalized the driveline just in time for the April PennLUG meeting. As far as making the trucks taller, this design has been modified from those on the original Space Train by Peter Morris and are a couple of plates taller than those typically used by my fellow builders at PennLUG. This modification was recommended by Robin W. at GFLUG because the Space Trains use a fixed motor and a rotating truck compared to many of the PennLUG trains where the motor is mounted to the truck and both motor and truck turn as a single unit. The extra Technic plates in this design support the axle running from the motor to the truck and has greatly reduced the number of motor failures in the last MOC that I built. Other than using the Lego PF train motor, this is as robust of a setup and you can get for overall longevity. (My Ghost Train MOC now has over 40 hours of runtime with this design and has not had a single motor failure and only one worn out axle needed to be replaced in this time.) Nice was there a gbc there? Yes, there was a small GBC setup at PBF this year. It would be really nice to have many more people join in the fun at the AFOL convention next year (in April) or even make an arrangement to demonstrate these wonderful MOCs at the BrickFest Live event in September. BFL this fall will not be an AFOL convention, but I think a few of us that are very local to that event will try to set up a small public display this fall to advertise our presence in the community. Quote
Pizzareno Posted April 29, 2015 Posted April 29, 2015 This is just so epic. I like it lots I love how different it is, the lovely colours. Mmmm very good! Quote
9v system Posted April 30, 2015 Posted April 30, 2015 Is there a video of the gbc I want to see it. Quote
cgarison Posted April 30, 2015 Author Posted April 30, 2015 Is there a video of the gbc I want to see it. I will send you the link if I find any GBC video from PBF2015. Quote
zephyr1934 Posted May 2, 2015 Posted May 2, 2015 I don't know, the silhouette of this engine reminds me of the modern day commuter locomotives like the MP36PH. Sure the detailing on the sides are completely different, but even for being a purely fantasy train it does a great job capturing the look and feel of real trains. Nice job. Quote
cgarison Posted May 2, 2015 Author Posted May 2, 2015 I don't know, the silhouette of this engine reminds me of the modern day commuter locomotives like the MP36PH. Sure the detailing on the sides are completely different, but even for being a purely fantasy train it does a great job capturing the look and feel of real trains. Nice job. Wow! It does have a shape similar to the MP36H. That was never on the list of trains that I picked for inspiring a portion of this locomotive.And thanks, it took a tremendous amount of research to find elements on real trains to add to this locomotive. Quote
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