909 National Limited with streamlined 4-8-2 steam locomotive - real life MOC

[Murdoch17]

This train is named the 909 National Limited, a (fictional) early 1930's steam-powered train run by Brick Railway Systems. This transcontinental train has it's respective east or west bound sections leave New York (or Los Angeles) on Monday at 9-AM sharp for the 3-day "Day" trip to the final destination, 72 hours distant, at 9:00 AM on Thursday. Then, after that train is cleaned and restocked in less than 12 hours, than it, or the standby train if their is delays, can be sent back as the "Night" section on-wards at 9-PM Thursday to 9-PM Sunday night. At 9-AM Monday morning, the whole cycle repeats anew for the next week. Their are five complete train-sets, two being used at any one time, two being cleaned and restocked on a bi-weekly basis, and one for standby in case of breakdowns. Also, coaches are in ready to use condition in several yards in large cities, just waiting to be dropped into place if a car needs to be worked on en-route.

There are seven of the streamlined 4-8-2 "Mountain" type engines (numbers 4307 to 4314) assigned to the 909 National Limited, with a rotating pool of rolling repair and preventative maintenance schedules vigorously followed. Here we see engine 4312, it was built in the late 1920's by Lima locomotive Works. It was one of the lucky few of the 50 engines bought by Brick Railway Systems to receive a complete streamlined casing shortly after being assigned to 909 National Limited in 1931, along with six other's of it's type. It is painted in reddish brown with a fluted black side stripe on the engine and black box stripe on the tender to keep it in line with the passenger cars of the 909 National Limited, it's assignment for the foreseeable future.

In reality, this locomotive was inspired by the South Australian Railways 520 class 4-8-4 and the hover mono-rail engine from the Legend of Korra TV Show, while the train coaches were inspired by a vintage 2009 LEGO model of "Galaxy Express 999". (Link to Brickshelf here ) The real story behind the of the name 909 Limited is a combination of this fantasy train and the Beatles song "One after 909", which is sort-of about a train.

This is where the food is cooked and baggage is stored on the transcontinental journey. I don't know if such a car type really exists, but if not, I'm not sure what to call it... any suggestions?

One of these cars is a sleeper, one a dining car, and one is a coach. But YOU get to guess which one is which! (Answer: They are exactly the same externally and there is no inside details. Only my imagination provides the difference!)

The observation car at the end of the train has a viewing platform for looking at all the wonders this country has to offer as they go by.

Builders Notes:

So I looked back through the forum archive, and didn't see a topic posted for this train by itself. I saw one with other trains with it, but not one by itself, and it wasn't even in real bricks... so here is my updated for 2019 pictures and detailed description for this revised model. Also, the three day journey each way is plausible, as I asked Google, and it spit out a map from 1930 that said it took a train three days (72 hours) to get from Los Angeles to New York City. Now, I know that most trains headed to LA started in Chicago, but I'm ignoring that fact in my alternate reality LEGO-world here steam never died off completely, Amtrak doesn't exist in the semi-corporate mess it does today, and the electrification of the Milwaukee Road reached from the Twin Cities region to the Pacific ocean and are still there today. On that note, the North East Corridor wires stretch all the way to Chicago.

...anyway, kinda got off topic there.

As usual, if you have any questions, comments, or complaints, please post them below!  

[Pdaitabird]

Nice streamliner! It has a very recognizable 1930s aesthetic. 

[Rustie86]

Interesting build. The locomotive reminds me somewhat of the Grand Trunk Western U-4b streamlined 4-8-4s. 

[Man with a hat]

Nice. i like that observation car. Did you consider longer passenger cars? It may look better with that long (good looking) tender proportion wise. But in any case you are building up quite a nice collection of trains.

[Murdoch17]

On 12/5/2019 at 4:30 PM, Pdaitabird said:

Nice streamliner! It has a very recognizable 1930s aesthetic. 

Thanks @Pdaitabird!

On 12/8/2019 at 9:15 PM, Rustie86 said:

Interesting build. The locomotive reminds me somewhat of the Grand Trunk Western U-4b streamlined 4-8-4s. 

Thanks @Rustie86, I never realized the similarities!

On 12/12/2019 at 1:45 AM, Man with a hat said:

Nice. i like that observation car. Did you consider longer passenger cars? It may look better with that long (good looking) tender proportion wise. But in any case you are building up quite a nice collection of trains.

@Man with a hat I have a standard length for my passenger car.... no car can be longer than 34 studs (the depressed center flat car in my freight train). This is because of the cut-down paper boxes I use, as seen in example form below:

I can store a lot of cars in each box (around five or so + the locomotive, usually), but they can only be as long as the box allows. (I have to take my longer Bipolar electric engines apart into two sections at the joint to get them to fit in their respective boxes!)

Edited December 19, 2019 by Murdoch17