Interstellar Zephyr - streamlined diesel with passenger train for space layout

[Murdoch17]

The Interstellar Zephyr transports Nexus Force personnel as a very high-speed, high-security ground transport between the northern-most city of St. Nicklaus and north-pole-hugging outpost of Ice Station Odyssey, around 500 miles away. (this all takes places on the ice-bound planet of Beta Polaris, which orbits what we here call the North Star, far away from Earth.)

Unlike the slower Earth trains, this Zephyr type of space-train is super-streamlined, and can go up to speeds of up to 110 MPH (135 is the loco's top possible speed) on it's special track, with super-elevated curves and long straight-a-way's over hundreds of miles, all while using Positive Train Control (PTC) on the the mostly double-track mainline, where all vehicle crossings are flyovers and switches virtually non-existent once out of St. Nicklaus city limits.

This train runs along with nine other identical versions of this train (10 total trains in all) on the route with up to seven in running order on the route and at least two in the maintenance shed / in emergency backup storage at any one time.

You may have noticed the train model is NOT in the original light gray "stainless steel" of the original Pioneer Zephyr on which is was (kind-of) based. The orange and white color scheme is because it's for my Nexus Force theme... to be honest, it's not even really a Zephyr that much anymore. It's more of a mix of the Pioneer Zephyr and several other concepts that began in the 1930's - '50's era, like the dome car. (To call it a hodgepodge would be accurate!)

This model features three joined cars, with the power car up front, a coach, diner-dome in the middle, another coach, then the observation lounge at the rear. None of the car's roof sections come off, and their is no interior, to save on costs when this model is built in real life. The repurposed 2014 CITY Arctic logo slope on the rear of the lounge car is a missing print, as are the three dark bluish gray "donut" tiles on the loco unit. (these parts should have a engine fan / rotor print)

The train uses only a few magnets to sperate the train in the middle, as having Jacobs bogies throughout with my current storage setup would have been unwise. This also leaves open the possibility for future expansion of a car or two... maybe a dome car could be in the cards somewhere down the line? (Yes, I know no shovel-nose Zephyr ever had domes... but this isn't a normal Zephyr, now is it?)

You can see more details on the arctic / space base shown above in this thread in the Sci-Fi forum. Be warned, it needs to be updated with some newer pictures of stuff I designed!

Thoughts on this model?

EDIT 5/10/22: model completely revised and updated.

EDIT #2 5/11/22

Three hundred parts found, 737 left to go on my space Zephyr. (the wrong colored window glass will be popped out an replaced when it's needed) The dome car, is not included in the totals either way as I'm still not sure it would work out to build it... even if I did make it work, I would be buying almost every single part on it. So, basically, it won't even be attempted for a while.

Also, I got the shovel-nose built except for two orange slope parts.

Edited May 11, 2022 by Murdoch17

[Murdoch17]

Above is the original train from September 2021...

...and here is the revised version as now seen in the first post.

Parts are being found currently to make this train a reality... it should hopefully be done next month. (I hope!)

Edited May 10, 2022 by Murdoch17

[garmsey]

I like how your design has taken inspiration from real trains but you have modified it to meet your story.  I look forward to seeing the new design when you are able to build it.

[Paperinik77pk]

Very very nice train, its retro-futuristic look is awesome!!! 

[Murdoch17]

6 hours ago, garmsey said:

I like how your design has taken inspiration from real trains but you have modified it to meet your story.  I look forward to seeing the new design when you are able to build it.

Thanks @garmsey! Part finding has started as seen below, so hopefully the train (except for dome car) will be built by next month. No promises on that, though!

Three hundred parts found, 737 left to go on my space Zephyr. (the wrong colored window glass will be popped out an replaced when it's needed) The dome car, is not included in the totals either way as I'm still not sure it would work out to build it... even if I did make it work, I would be buying almost every single part on it. So, basically, it won't even be attempted for a while.

Also, I got the shovel-nose built except for two orange slope parts.

29 minutes ago, Paperinik77pk said:

Very very nice train, its retro-futuristic look is awesome!!! 

Thank you @Paperinik77pk! Retro-futurism is a REALLY hard look to achieve, so I'm glad it comes across as intended.

 

Thanks again everyone!

[Murdoch17]

The remaining 537 parts that I didn't find in my own bins / buy locally for my space Zephyr model have been ordered as of Saturday the 14th.... and yes, there is an dome car in the consist.

Assembly of said model should commence by tomorrow, as the last order (hopefully) arrives today, Saturday the 21st.

[Murdoch17]

This is as far as I can get without the needed remaining parts for my Nexus Force RR version of the Alco RS-11, with some of the not-shown long hood section' parts boxed up for later building. The final construction with the remaining 189 parts will commence when they arrive sometime next week / week after that.

This locomotive replaces the Zephyr loco I tried / failed to build for my Nexus Force passenger train. As such, the unused parts for the freight train that I had collected that this loco was originally supposed to pull were repurposed for other uses, such as the Ice Slicer MOC I showed off digitally earlier this week over in my Sci-fi forum topic.

As it currently stands, the passenger cars I bought on May 14th have also been completed IRL, but have not yet been photographed due to lack-of-space / rearranging issues... but that's another story!

The model (seen in it's final digital form directly above) started out as a ALCO MRS-1 built by @SavaTheAggie, but has been so severely modified that it no longer looks like the prototype loco (or Sava's original MOC, honestly). So I went searching and found another ALCO locomotive, a RS-11 that looks (kind of) like my loco. Both my model and the new prototype have the four wheels, and the same basic hood and cab design as the MRS-1 model that preceded it. You can read more about the RS-11 and MRS-1 the their respective Wikipedia links. 

I changed out the original grille bricks at the rear for grille tiles SNOTed-in sideways for a more consistent look when compared to the roof vents. I added back in Sava's maintenance cabinets from the MRS-1, yet attached them differently using newer parts. I also shortened the frame by six studs to fix the spacing problem created by the missing two wheels.

Edited June 17, 2022 by Murdoch17