Hello there! I'm The LEGO Railway Series!

For those of you who don't know me from twitter, I model characters from The Railway Series (Thomas the Tank Engine) but I do so as realistically as possible using the actual basis for the characters.

So I posted here on Eurobricks once before and just never kept up with the site or the thread. So I'm just gonna start over again! I'm gonna be using this thread as a central place to post all of my stuff to make things easier for myself.

 

 

So what better model to get this started off with than Thomas!

Everyone knows Thomas is an E2, so that's what I've built. He's got as many bells and whistles as I could cram onto the model.

He's fully motorized using Power Functions (IR receiver and an M motor) and is powered by a 9v battery in the firebox area. (it needs a custom wire adaptor to transfer the power to the PF components) He also has an entire cab interior with controls and everything.

Aside from the side rods which use modified liftarms to attach the flex tubing, the 9v battery adaptor wire, and some custom wheels (I plan on using Breckland Bricks wheels), the entire model is Legal and buildable. Unfortunately I've not been able to physically build this model yet, but I plan on it by before the year is up!

Thomas by The Lego Railway Series, on Flickr

Thomas_2 by The Lego Railway Series, on Flickr

Thomas_3 by The Lego Railway Series, on Flickr

Thomas_4 by The Lego Railway Series, on Flickr

 

Looks fantastic. The level of detail you've included is astonishing. Best of luck building it in real bricks.

9 hours ago, Feuer Zug said:

Looks fantastic. The level of detail you've included is astonishing. Best of luck building it in real bricks.

Thanks. I know ill be able to, atm its just a matter of sourcing the bricks. I don't have the $ at the moment to just drop on it.

That's looking really nice!

 

Just one thought, do you allow the middle axle to float? Otherwise, you might want to use a blind driver in the middle to keep it from binding.

9 hours ago, zephyr1934 said:

That's looking really nice!

 

Just one thought, do you allow the middle axle to float? Otherwise, you might want to use a blind driver in the middle to keep it from binding.

oh yeah absolutely it would be blind. It just looks nicer for renders to keep the flange.

Here's another engine! this time its Percy. I based him on the GWR 1338. He's powered by Circuit Cubes. again like Thomas, he's fully buildable and 99% legal (he would be normal green but it looked weird, it was really dark for some reason, so i just made him bright green for the renders.)

 

 

Percy_2 by The Lego Railway Series, on Flickr

Percy_3 by The Lego Railway Series, on Flickr

Percy_4 by The Lego Railway Series, on Flickr

And here is the actual GWR 1338 this one *isnt* buildable due to parts availability but I figured it would at least be a fun render.

GWR 1338 by The Lego Railway Series, on Flickr

Edited April 14, 20222 yr by The Lego Railway Series

The bright green for Percy / GWR 1338 works better than the dark green. More lively. Another great engine.

I'm liking this idea of building the prototypes of the Thomas engines. It needs a Gordon, Henry and James, but I'm sure that will all come in due time.

7 hours ago, zephyr1934 said:

I'm liking this idea of building the prototypes of the Thomas engines. It needs a Gordon, Henry and James, but I'm sure that will all come in due time.

Gordon and James are actually finished save the tender, still working on finalizing the fowler Tender. Henry is WIP, he's giving me a bit of trouble. I'm just taking my time uploading what I've already got.

other things I've finished are Bill & Ben, Annie & Clarabel, The Fllying Scotsman, Bertie the Bus, Rusty, and Skarloey. but I've got  more than double that number of things that are WIP.

 

Oh yeah, definitely trickle it out, at most one per week. That gives each locomotive its own spotlight. If you posted several at a time you'd saturate your audience.

Looking back at Percy you've done some interesting build techniques, e.g., the bucket handles. There is a lot going on in that tiny engine.

The level of detail here is inspirational. 

This time is my Biggest and Best. The LNER A1 Pacific, "Gordon". (With the dinky 3500 Gallon Fowler tender lol)

The Tender isn't actually quite finished yet, but its all undercarriage and interior work. What it looks like on the outside is how its gonna stay.

Inside the boiler are 2 M motors that power the front and back driver wheels, the tender will carry the battery. (PU system) The rods work like butter and are *mostly* legal! I've actually started building this model physically mostly because of the nature of the front end, I couldn't problem solve that part digitally when building it.

Shoutout to a user here Ts__ for answering some question about his LMS Black 5 that I've used as inspiration for how I tackled this guy, and by extension a few other engines I've yet to show off as well as the idea for the articulated front bufferbeam.

Gordon by The Lego Railway Series, on Flickr

Gordon_2 by The Lego Railway Series, on Flickr

Gordon_3 by The Lego Railway Series, on Flickr

Gordon_4 by The Lego Railway Series, on Flickr

Gordon_5 by The Lego Railway Series, on Flickr

Gordon_6 by The Lego Railway Series, on Flickr

 

Another gorgeous MOC. I can't wait to see this one built in real life. This is what an expert level locomotive should be.

That is a stunning build. The detailing throughout is over the top, my favorite might be the cab detailing and how you've done the front of the cab/roof interface. The pivoting pilot is also brilliant. So what is the gray part along the top side of the boiler, is that a string or ???

2 hours ago, zephyr1934 said:

That is a stunning build. The detailing throughout is over the top, my favorite might be the cab detailing and how you've done the front of the cab/roof interface. The pivoting pilot is also brilliant. So what is the gray part along the top side of the boiler, is that a string or ???

The grey handrail is a custom part I mocked up. its a stand in for what I want to do, but I wanna do it as legally as possible so I'm still not sure exactly how I'm gonna handle it. The thicker sections all along it are small pieces of the rigid flex tube cut to size, and the thinner part will be some kind of wire or string. But in the render its an antenna with the bottom cut off.

21 hours ago, The Lego Railway Series said:

The grey handrail is a custom part I mocked up. its a stand in for what I want to do, but I wanna do it as legally as possible so I'm still not sure exactly how I'm gonna handle it. The thicker sections all along it are small pieces of the rigid flex tube cut to size, and the thinner part will be some kind of wire or string. But in the render its an antenna with the bottom cut off.

Ah, okay, you could probably make that work IRL using just modified (cut) whip antennas.

Fantastic work! The valvegear in motion just looks mesmerising, and there's so much intricate, fascinating detail to take in even when it's static... I wouldn't know where to start with a build like this!

You're building some beautiful engines here - I'm looking forward to seeing more!

Here's James! An L&YR class 28 with extended front running board and added leading wheels. His front two drivers are attached to a normal Train Motor. no closeups of the tender this time, its the same exact build as Gordon, just red.

James by The Lego Railway Series, on Flickr

James_2 by The Lego Railway Series, on Flickr

James_3 by The Lego Railway Series, on Flickr

Edited April 29, 20222 yr by The Lego Railway Series

On 4/28/2022 at 5:54 PM, The Lego Railway Series said:

Here's James! An L&YR class 28 with extended front running board and added leading wheels. His front two drivers are attached to a normal Train Motor. no closeups of the tender this time, its the same exact build as Gordon, just red.

You are getting such great detail into these locomotives. I really like the "the real engines behind Sodor" that you are building here.

The Sodor China Clay Company Bagnall 0-4-0STs! Bill & Ben. They are based off of the port of par engines Alfred and Judy (shown off at the end in green)

The model is equipped with Circuit Cubes battery and motor.

Bill & Ben by The Lego Railway Series, on Flickr

Bill & Ben_2 by The Lego Railway Series, on Flickr

Bill & Ben_3 by The Lego Railway Series, on Flickr

Bill & Ben_4 by The Lego Railway Series, on Flickr

Bill & Ben_5 by The Lego Railway Series, on Flickr

Alfred & Judy by The Lego Railway Series, on Flickr

Edited May 2, 20222 yr by The Lego Railway Series