Steam-locomotive DR BR 38.2-3 XII H2 and custom 3D-printed rods

[Bricks-on-Rails]

Good evening community,

Today i want to present our latest realized model. The XII H2 was especially designed for the hilly terrain of saxony. It has been built in Chemnitz between 1910 and 1927.

The model consists of approx 1121 parts and it´s about 58 studs long. The model is a customer-wish and it´s designed for a motorization with power-functions as well as powered-up and for sure with the old 9V train-motor. All the electronics like motor, battery-box and IR-reciever take place in the large coal-tender. All the wheels are from Big Ben Bricks. The main wheels are XL-drivers, the wheels on the front-bogie are medium and at the tender are small train wheels. To make this locomotive with the low hanging cylinders suitable for curves, i separated the cylinders horizontally. The upper part is fixed to the main frame and the lower part is connected to the bogie and could swivel left and right.
Special attention was paid to the boiler with the golden rings and the golden accents like in the example. The technic to create the boiler rings was taken over from the DR BR 01 of Simon Jakobi (Dr.Snotson).

The instruction of the DR BR 38.2-3 is no available on our website.

As a speciality i also want to use this opportunity to present our latest news. Since November the 1st we offer different 3D-printed components in our shop too. We offer different rod-designs in various dimensions, as well as rod sets or special components like blind-wheels or customer solutions. This offer is probably most interresting for customers in europe because we´re located in Germany but we ship worldwide too.

 

And here with custom 3D printed parts.

 

[SteamSewnEmpire]

The only think I'm not wild about is the smoke stack. Everything else is spectacular. 

[neonic]

11 hours ago, Bricks-on-Rails said:

The XII H2 was especially designed for the hilly terrain of saxony.

Where is that based on? Well, I mean what is special on that train (designed for the hills) comparing to other locs?

And what does that thing do, between the two 'front axles'? I've read that they are both pistons? But what does the lower one do, whats the function of it, because it moves with the wheels?

 

Further, great looking loc. Lots of details like all those 'plumbing', all those domes and box on the top (don't know the use of it) and all the rest. the Flowers as valve looks good as well. the Whole train looks great with those gold details, like it.
 

ps. Lot of other great builds on the site. Take a while before I've seen everything  Already seen some nice stations and warehouse.

Edited November 25, 2020 by neonic

[Fuppylodders]

Absolutely beautiful looking train! The gold ring accents look seamless! 

I don't normally frequent the train forum, but damn... This thing brought me here in a flash 

It may even be one that breaks my train cherry 

[JintaiZ]

Beautiful train, I just think it'd be nice to replace the red axle.

Edited November 26, 2020 by JintaiZ

[Feuer Zug]

Great looking locomotive. The gold highlights on the black really make it pop.

[ReplicaOfLife]

Brilliant design! Looks absolutely astonishing!

 

9 hours ago, neonic said:

Where is that based on? Well, I mean what is special on that train (designed for the hills) comparing to other locs?

And what does that thing do, between the two 'front axles'? I've read that they are both pistons? But what does the lower one do, whats the function of it, because it moves with the wheels?

 

Further, great looking loc. Lots of details like all those 'plumbing', all those domes and box on the top (don't know the use of it) and all the rest. the Flowers as valve looks good as well. the Whole train looks great with those gold details, like it.
 

ps. Lot of other great builds on the site. Take a while before I've seen everything  Already seen some nice stations and warehouse.

I'm not the OP, but since I happen to know this:

Mainly, it's the fact that the XII H2 had smaller driving wheels (at 1.59m diameter) than comparable locos that were built by other german state railways at the same time. The most famous one among those is the prussian P8, which had driving wheels 1,75m in diameter. Having smaller driving wheels means that the locomotive is less likely to stall on tracks with steeper gradients. These locomotives had two cylinders, one on each side. When the wheels are smaller, it does not take as much power to turn them round, especially on a gradient. Downside is that the maximum speed is smaller with smaller wheels.

 

The 'things' between the two front axles are the cylinders. It is not realistic that the bottom half is attached to the front bogey, that's most likely done so that the model can get around the tight Lego curves. On real locomotives, they are one block  and always are in line with the driving wheels. The lower part is the actualy cylinder driving the locomotive, the upper part are the valves which steer in which half of the cylinder the steam is routed.

Edited November 25, 2020 by ReplicaOfLife

[Bricks-on-Rails]

On 11/25/2020 at 8:06 PM, ReplicaOfLife said:

Brilliant design! Looks absolutely astonishing!

 

I'm not the OP, but since I happen to know this:

Mainly, it's the fact that the XII H2 had smaller driving wheels (at 1.59m diameter) than comparable locos that were built by other german state railways at the same time. The most famous one among those is the prussian P8, which had driving wheels 1,75m in diameter. Having smaller driving wheels means that the locomotive is less likely to stall on tracks with steeper gradients. These locomotives had two cylinders, one on each side. When the wheels are smaller, it does not take as much power to turn them round, especially on a gradient. Downside is that the maximum speed is smaller with smaller wheels.

 

The 'things' between the two front axles are the cylinders. It is not realistic that the bottom half is attached to the front bogey, that's most likely done so that the model can get around the tight Lego curves. On real locomotives, they are one block  and always are in line with the driving wheels. The lower part is the actualy cylinder driving the locomotive, the upper part are the valves which steer in which half of the cylinder the steam is routed.

Thank you all, for your praise and the kind words. And a special thanks to ReplicaOfLife for this explanation i could nothing more add to.

@ SteamSewnEmpire: To be honest I don´t like the smoke stack too. The example has this edge i tried to replicate but the cone is to much formed. Do you know a different solution?

[SteamSewnEmpire]

10 hours ago, Bricks-on-Rails said:

Thank you all, for your praise and the kind words. And a special thanks to ReplicaOfLife for this explanation i could nothing more add to.

@ SteamSewnEmpire: To be honest I don´t like the smoke stack too. The example has this edge i tried to replicate but the cone is to much formed. Do you know a different solution?

I'll definitely see what I can do. Do you have a picture of the real thing to share? I have a really hard time getting Google to locate photos of German steam locomotives - I think their algorithms struggle with the decimal points.

[Thai bricks]

About 10 pix here: https://www.bahnbilder.de/name/galerie/kategorie/deutschland~dampfloks~br-382-3-saechs.html

There is also a good picture and tech drawing in the Wikipedia article.

Edited November 27, 2020 by Thai bricks

[SteamSewnEmpire]

Alright, IMO the upward taper is so insignificant that it can be ignored (most U.S. steam locomotives also have a degree of flare to their stacks, and the majority of North American modelers do not attempt to replicate these, either). As an example, here's a NA locomotive with stack flare that's about the same as your own:

Mercifully, for a continental European steam engine, your DR BR 38.2-3 XII H2 seems to have a pretty fat stack (I was really worried it was going to be a thinner model more common to Germanic prototypes).

Therefore, I would propose a very simple solution such as this:

The prototype probably has only 2 degrees of outward flare (maybe as little as 1 degree), so - from a distance - it's a detail that the eye won't typically pick up on. By contrast, the Lego cone piece probably flares out at a good 15-20 degrees - which is so significant that it becomes very jarring. Generally speaking, when it comes to Lego, if something has <5 degrees (or so) of change, I try to avoid modeling it - especially at this scale. People wouldn't notice the 1-2 degrees you're missing; they WILL notice the 13-18 degrees you added (which is exactly why I first commented - I hadn't even seen the prototype yet and knew something was a bit off). Hopefully this seems logical. 

Edited November 28, 2020 by SteamSewnEmpire

[neonic]

7 hours ago, SteamSewnEmpire said:

 

Looks nice. Why didn't I have think of that? I'm building a few trucks and guess this looks cool on a truck too.
On my truck I have use a bucket. Maybe it's an option too for the loc?

 

On 11/25/2020 at 8:06 PM, ReplicaOfLife said:

I'm not the OP, but since I happen to know this:

Mainly, it's the fact that the XII H2 had smaller driving wheels (at 1.59m diameter) than comparable locos that were built by other german state railways at the same time. The most famous one among those is the prussian P8, which had driving wheels 1,75m in diameter. Having smaller driving wheels means that the locomotive is less likely to stall on tracks with steeper gradients. These locomotives had two cylinders, one on each side. When the wheels are smaller, it does not take as much power to turn them round, especially on a gradient. Downside is that the maximum speed is smaller with smaller wheels.

Thanks for the explaining. So ... it's a bit like the gears on your bike, that you have to peddle harder but it cost you less energy? Maybe a dumb example but something like that?

[zephyr1934]

58 minutes ago, neonic said:

Thanks for the explaining. So ... it's a bit like the gears on your bike, that you have to peddle harder but it cost you less energy? Maybe a dumb example but something like that?

Exactly that

[Bricks-on-Rails]

12 hours ago, SteamSewnEmpire said:

Alright, IMO the upward taper is so insignificant that it can be ignored (most U.S. steam locomotives also have a degree of flare to their stacks, and the majority of North American modelers do not attempt to replicate these, either). As an example, here's a NA locomotive with stack flare that's about the same as your own:

Mercifully, for a continental European steam engine, your DR BR 38.2-3 XII H2 seems to have a pretty fat stack (I was really worried it was going to be a thinner model more common to Germanic prototypes).

Therefore, I would propose a very simple solution such as this:

The prototype probably has only 2 degrees of outward flare (maybe as little as 1 degree), so - from a distance - it's a detail that the eye won't typically pick up on. By contrast, the Lego cone piece probably flares out at a good 15-20 degrees - which is so significant that it becomes very jarring. Generally speaking, when it comes to Lego, if something has <5 degrees (or so) of change, I try to avoid modeling it - especially at this scale. People wouldn't notice the 1-2 degrees you're missing; they WILL notice the 13-18 degrees you added (which is exactly why I first commented - I hadn't even seen the prototype yet and knew something was a bit off). Hopefully this seems logical. 

Just as simple as good looking. Thank you very much, i will integrate that soon.

[Jerry McGlade]

The gold accents make this design pop out when you look at it. Fantastic job. 

[Bricks-on-Rails]

Good evening,

Thank you all for your feedback again. Now i can also provide some real-life pictures and a short video with a test ride.

I hope you like it. By the way the custom rods are already available on our website, the wheels are currently prototypes but will be available soon.

DR BR 38.2-3 on Youtube I wasn´t able to implement the video right here. So i hope that´s fine too

Flickr-Folder with more pictures

With kind regards 

Martin

[Man with beard]

Absolutely beautiful model! The gold looks great in the physical build. Very cool to see as someone who has never before seen German locomotives. Thank you for sharing!

[SteamSewnEmpire]

This thing really is lovely.