This is, without a shadow of a doubt, the most complicated thing I have ever built in Lego.

At first glance, it doesn't look like anything particularly noteworthy... except that the boiler is a full-rotation SNOT (studs up, sides, and bottom); the boiler is 5 wide on top and bottom, yet must still make room for three L PF motors, and transition to an 8-wide cab that is also angled forwards. The cab itself is almost entirely built with studs on the sides, in the process managing to squeeze in all the windows and the inlaid steps up to the door. I made every effort to get the details right to match this locomotive as-built (note: the lone survivor of the class [and it is a miracle that any of these odd birds is still in existence - you can singularly credit that to them lasting in service until 1963 on the DM&IR], #304 [#604 when working in Minnesota and Wisconsin] was significantly altered when she was transferred by U.S. Steel to the midwest following the dieselization of the Union RR in 1949. The booster was removed, and a lot of the in-boiler tubing was pulled to the exterior [via elimination of the jacketing] to ease maintenance headaches. Frankly, I prefer the contrast between the rather clean top half and extremely cluttered area between the boiler and the frame, so that's why I went with the earlier incarnation [ironically enough, it seems as if DM&IR also regretted the changes. With the booster removed, they wound up adding weight to the engine to attempt to compensate]).

So what makes this engine unique? The 0-10-2 isn't a decapod that's been flipped backwards. Rather, it is a very modern 2-10-2 with its lead bogie eliminated by the (probably bewildered) draftsmen at Baldwin. Union (and parent U.S. Steel) went with this design because the locomotives were intended for transfer service and short, slow lugging duties, none of which required a forward truck. The most important consideration, however, was that the railroad had no desire to enlarge their existing turn tables (the majority of the rest of the Union's roster was composed of consolidations; tables had remained small). Thus, the easiest and most practical solution was simply to nix the truck and go slow. 

And, of course, she's just a brute - possibly the most beastly (if, obviously, not largest) locomotive to ever trundle the rails. The word "abomination" comes to mind (what with the high-mounted, puny headlight, stunted tender [with its rear truck pushed as far forwards as possible], and enormous air reservoirs mounted on the hips), except that I think there's something strangely comely about the whole package. I hope to visit the real thing the next time I drive back east.

Anyway, here are the photos, first with the modernized loco:

 

'Clean' classic:

 

 

 

Edited March 7, 20213 yr by SteamSewnEmpire

Interesting prototype, great model!

Great job getting all the funky angles to work!

The sheer ugliness of that brute irl is fantastic and you've gotten the general feel of the thing perfectly! Great work!

Ungainly, cooky, but powerful. Nice work making it fit with all the angles.

16 hours ago, Brickwolf said:

Interesting prototype, great model!

 

13 hours ago, Pdaitabird said:

Great job getting all the funky angles to work!

 

12 hours ago, High_Admiral said:

The sheer ugliness of that brute irl is fantastic and you've gotten the general feel of the thing perfectly! Great work!

 

9 minutes ago, Feuer Zug said:

Ungainly, cooky, but powerful. Nice work making it fit with all the angles.

Thank you.

I am at least considering building it IRL, and have given some consideration to actually doing it in DM&IR colors. I have an email out with the DM&IR historical society asking if these engines were ever painted in the road's attractive grey scheme. Some modelers have gone ahead and done it that way...:

... and I think it looks really, really, really sharp like that. However, if it never actually wore that scheme, I'll stick with mostly black.

Edited March 8, 20213 yr by SteamSewnEmpire

It looks like it could've been from this picture. The fittings and cab do have a higher contrast from the boiler jacketing so I'd say its highly likely that they ran in grey jackets for awhile

1 hour ago, High_Admiral said:

It looks like it could've been from this picture. The fittings and cab do have a higher contrast from the boiler jacketing so I'd say its highly likely that they ran in grey jackets for awhile

Do you (or anyone) have an opinion on whether LBG or DBG is more representative of that grey? I am on the fence:

I mean, I *think* DBG is closer?

iirc, Tony Sava did the DMIR Yellowstone in Dark Bluish Grey, which looks freaking great. I would recommend that .

34 minutes ago, High_Admiral said:

iirc, Tony Sava did the DMIR Yellowstone in Dark Bluish Grey, which looks freaking great. I would recommend that .

Oh, I saw that and thought it was light grey. Must just be the lighting. Or my eyes suck. Probably the latter.

4 hours ago, SteamSewnEmpire said:

Oh, I saw that and thought it was light grey. Must just be the lighting. Or my eyes suck. Probably the latter.

The driving rods are LBG, once you notice that you can easily see the boiler is DBG.

That thing's a monster! Great job capturing it.

 

As for colors, gray is always tough to capture in photos. But you can CAD it up both ways to see which you like best. Whenever I have troubles with color or geometry decisions I MOC up a small sample with the colors together, anything from a stack of 2x4's to actually building the key feature in isolation.

4 hours ago, zephyr1934 said:

That thing's a monster! Great job capturing it.

 

As for colors, gray is always tough to capture in photos. But you can CAD it up both ways to see which you like best. Whenever I have troubles with color or geometry decisions I MOC up a small sample with the colors together, anything from a stack of 2x4's to actually building the key feature in isolation.

Thanks. 

Here it is in grey:

I think I like it better this way. I chose to keep the walkways black, since it would require only 2 sticker-per to make them blend with the boiler (rather than 3-per if they were grey or white). I'll have to add more piping on the locomotive and a few other details that the DM&IR put on here and there.

One thing that I don't want to do is remove the booster. I know that DM&IR definitely never had it, but it's such a neat feature on this engine (I like the idea of simply having an extra part moving on the tender; any additional motion is always welcome with steam engines). The purist in me wants to strip it out, but the railfan in me wants to keep it because it's cool. And I'm kind of leaning towards the latter.

Edited March 9, 20213 yr by SteamSewnEmpire

That's a mighty fine lil loco done up in a nice grey! One of these days, I might try my hand at the big DMIR Yellowstones, this build is surely driving me in that direction!

On 3/9/2021 at 1:14 PM, SteamSewnEmpire said:

Thanks. 

Here it is in grey:

I think I like it better this way. I chose to keep the walkways black, since it would require only 2 sticker-per to make them blend with the boiler (rather than 3-per if they were grey or white). I'll have to add more piping on the locomotive and a few other details that the DM&IR put on here and there.

One thing that I don't want to do is remove the booster. I know that DM&IR definitely never had it, but it's such a neat feature on this engine (I like the idea of simply having an extra part moving on the tender; any additional motion is always welcome with steam engines). The purist in me wants to strip it out, but the railfan in me wants to keep it because it's cool. And I'm kind of leaning towards the latter.

Wonderful digital build. I'm currently building a DMIR Yellowstone irl using Phoenix Train Work's Big Boy as a base to modify and drawing inspiration from Sava's Yellowstone. I'm looking to build a DMIR collection of each preserved locomotive type, including the 0-10-2. Any chance of making a deal and gaining access to the instructions? Why reinvent the wheel when we can borrow and modify it.

@Tolletyle

Welcome to EB!

I believe SteamSewnEmpire has left this forum - or was "banned", as you can see below his avatar. No idea how to make contact with him.

Best,
Thorsten

Is it me, or lots of "people" joining, and their first necropost is asking for instructions. Then we never see them again. This one didn't bother to notice the user was banned even. SIGH

8 hours ago, Feuer Zug said:

This one didn't bother to notice the user was banned even.

Yes - my bad.

10 hours ago, Feuer Zug said:

Is it me, or lots of "people" joining, and their first necropost is asking for instructions. Then we never see them again. This one didn't bother to notice the user was banned even. SIGH

I'm brand new and just learning the forum, wasn't aware of the ban notification. I saw a project relevant to my interests and wanted more info. I appreciate the warm welcome...

Don't take it personally, we just had quite a lot of these requests in the past and asking for instructions in general is something most more sophisticated builders frown upon in general, although most people in this forum are always open for help and guidance. Welcome to the forum!

12 hours ago, Tolletyle said:

I'm brand new and just learning the forum, wasn't aware of the ban notification. I saw a project relevant to my interests and wanted more info. I appreciate the warm welcome...

You must forgive me, I guess I'm becoming one of the old fuddy duddies around here. I remember the days when a person's first post was to the "Hello, my name is" forum. After that, it was watching, observing, and occasionally making a post about somebodies MOC while learning the forum rules.

On 1/29/2022 at 7:41 PM, Tolletyle said:

I'm brand new and just learning the forum, wasn't aware of the ban notification. I saw a project relevant to my interests and wanted more info. I appreciate the warm welcome...

Not a problem Tolletyle, as previously said, there has just been a rash of single post people. Those are only an issue because the clog up normal discussions. When an old thread like this gets a post it comes up to the top of the list and inevitability sparks its own bit of discussion. There is no way a new member would know.

We are very welcoming of new active members (aside from the general grumpiness of folks bumping old threads- but no one holds a grudge) so apologies for us old-timers starting out on the wrong foot.

 

On 1/30/2022 at 7:47 AM, Feuer Zug said:

You must forgive me, I guess I'm becoming one of the old fuddy duddies around here. I remember the days when a person's first post was to the "Hello, my name is" forum. After that, it was watching, observing, and occasionally making a post about somebodies MOC while learning the forum rules. 

That is an excellent point, I've just bumped that old thread and suggested it be pinned.

 

Anyway, as for asking for instructions, there are many members that share their works freely, but typically they will say so in there posts. There are many who share them for a small fee, e.g., via bricksafe.com or full blown instructions at various sites. And then there are times when people want to keep their builds a secret. Again, no harm in asking, no one holds a grudge. It takes a lot to actually upset this group.

 

Welcome to Train Tech, you might want to introduce yourself here, and I'm looking forward to seeing your input in other threads.

 

On 2/2/2022 at 4:25 PM, zephyr1934 said:

Anyway, as for asking for instructions, there are many members that share their works freely, but typically they will say so in there posts. There are many who share them for a small fee, e.g., via bricksafe.com or full blown instructions at various sites. And then there are times when people want to keep their builds a secret. Again, no harm in asking, no one holds a grudge. It takes a lot to actually upset this group.

true true. i have just made a dropbox shared folder with my mocs in it for anyone to enjoy. just studio files instructions would be too much work for each model i build. speaking of it i need to add my new models to the folder. i will maybe do instructions for my octraintober submissions.