[MOC] Santa Fe EMD FP45

[Marlow]

I had been looking for other locomotives used with the Santa Super Chief and El Capitan than the F7, that is kit 10020.

And this is actually one of my first attempt trying to create a MOC in Stud.IO.

The loco is loosely designed around the EMD FP45, like the ATSF 108 (Picture for reference here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santa_Fe_108#/media/File:ATSF_108_at_Southern_California_Railway_Museum.jpg )

I say loosely, because my MOC only has twin axle trucks and the rear is a bit different, but I wanted to keep it as drivable on L-gauge track as possible. More like the original Lego Santa Fe sets created by James Mathis. Where the window is at the rear, the bulleye sticker from 10020 should be applied. 

/M

Edited August 7, 2023 by Marlow

[ivanlan9]

Nice! 

It's obvious that you had access to the old Santa Fe F kits--the grey trucks are a giveaway--and this is an excellent representation.  I love the nose!

That said, I do think it ought to be a little longer, which would allow you to put three fans at the end, over the radiator, and two in the middle.

This is a terrific choice for a model, one that hasn't been done in Lego AFAIK.

[Marlow]

1 hour ago, ivanlan9 said:

Nice! 

It's obvious that you had access to the old Santa Fe F kits--the grey trucks are a giveaway--and this is an excellent representation.  I love the nose!

That said, I do think it ought to be a little longer, which would allow you to put three fans at the end, over the radiator, and two in the middle.

I've not physically build it yet, but mjaeh ... I have to admit, that I'm lucky enough to have a few of those.

I'm still looking for roof pictures. Also, The proportions at the front are a bit off, so I'm probably moving the nose 1 stud forward and and either extend the nose by one stud or the body by one stud.

 

Quote

This is a terrific choice for a model, one that hasn't been done in Lego AFAIK.

I figured, it would be a great alternative to pull the Super Chief and El Capitan carriages, especially because this is one of the last locomotives that did pull them, before Santa Fe handed over their passenger service to AmTrak.

And I've not been able to find any MOCs of this particular locomotive.

/M
 

Edited August 7, 2023 by Marlow

[Marlow]

I found a video, that showed me the fan positions. I've also reworked the front guard rail. 

Basically I've moved the cab 1 stud forward, extended the body by 1 stud and then added the extra fan with a correct gap to the rear 3 in the back.

 

But I'm also just after realising, that ATSF 108 has a 3rd door on the other side. I still might have to alter some stuff here.

Edited August 8, 2023 by Marlow

[LEGO Train 12 Volts]

Beyond the third missing axis, the model is beautiful and instantly recognizable!

Perhaps I would have made the roof a lower plate ...but I don't know the wagons that this locomotive will have to carry.

[Marlow]

5 hours ago, LEGO Train 12 Volts said:

Beyond the third missing axis, the model is beautiful and instantly recognizable!

Perhaps I would have made the roof a lower plate ...but I don't know the wagons that this locomotive will have to carry.

The roof is in line with the Lego 10022 and 10025 sets. I'll post pictures, once I have it actually build.

/M

[zephyr1934]

Interesting take in this locomotive (one of it's close relatives was even painted up in Maersk).

Offering a little unsolicited advice, I think the nose looks nice and good choice to shorten the front deck to one stud. The doors seem a little too pronounced, could you do a half plate inset? (e.g. using brackets pointing in next to the door and a brick with studs on the inside in the door held together with a 1x4 plate or tile). I think on the prototype the red warbonnet did not go that far back, what would it look like if you moved that up a few studs? I know you carried this over from 10020, but where the yellow stripe becomes two studs wide near the roof looks a little off. Is there any good way to do it at one stud wide? I think lego did two studs wide on the Super Chief because there were no good one wide options at the time, but they masked it by putting the transition "under" the grill. That is definitely a tough feature to reproduce though, the slope of the thin line it is not conducive to pure lego brick built solutions at this scale.

For the impure, there is even a solution for the three axle trucks.

 

[Marlow]

1 hour ago, zephyr1934 said:

The doors seem a little too pronounced, could you do a half plate inset? 

The door is not fully there yet, for sure. I also am still looking at how to show the bulleye window on it.

The warbonnet actually goes that far back on ATSF 108. I found a video of it, when it was restored 4 years ago and relaunched. 

On the left hand side, it actually has the bulleye of the middle door in the red. It does not have a middle door on the right hand side.

So I was playing around with l, how I'd get that integrated.

Additionally, I've had to redo the MOC in LBG and DBG last night, because the slippers (1x2 45 deg slope with cutout) only were launched in 2011 and never came in old light grey.

/M

 

Edited August 8, 2023 by Marlow

[Marlow]

4 hours ago, zephyr1934 said:

I know you carried this over from 10020, but where the yellow stripe becomes two studs wide near the roof looks a little off. Is there any good way to do it at one stud wide? I think lego did two studs wide on the Super Chief because there were no good one wide options at the time, but they masked it by putting the transition "under" the grill. That is definitely a tough feature to reproduce though, the slope of the thin line it is not conducive to pure lego brick built solutions at this scale.

You are correct. On the EMD F7,

James masked it by ending the line in the grille and then going 2 studs on the roof. He could have gone single stud with Slope, Curved 2 x 1 x 1 1/3 with Recessed Stud, which he uses extensively for the door frames and in other places, but then he would have needed to build the entire roof with those or the 4 wide variant of them.

As I'm using the slippers, I can easily enough go 1 stud wide. I might look at that.

/M

[LEGO Train 12 Volts]

18 hours ago, Marlow said:

The roof is in line with the Lego 10022 and 10025 sets. I'll post pictures, once I have it actually build.

Then it's perfect, I too always check that I don't have any lower locomotives than the rest of the train!

[Marlow]

6 hours ago, LEGO Train 12 Volts said:

Then it's perfect, I too always check that I don't have any lower locomotives than the rest of the train!

Hah. Well, the locomotoive will be lower than most of the rail cars, but that is, what the baggage dorm car of the El Campitan sorts the height difference out with it's scoop.

/M

[Marlow]

Latest iteration. Front doors still work in progress.

 

Imagine 10020 sticker set being used for Santa Fe war bonnet, side logo, windows (bulleye) and fans. I have confirmed with BrickStickerShop, that they actually can make me a custom sticker sheet. So it's even getting the 108 numbering.

/M

Edited August 9, 2023 by Marlow

[SD100]

16 hours ago, Marlow said:

Hah. Well, the locomotoive will be lower than most of the rail cars, but that is, what the baggage dorm car of the El Campitan sorts the height difference out with it's scoop.

/M

That engine does capture the essence of the fp45 very well, but I'm waiting to see that coach!

SD

[zephyr1934]

That looks a lot better with the one-wide yellow stripe.

 

On 8/8/2023 at 12:08 PM, Marlow said:

The warbonnet actually goes that far back on ATSF 108. I found a video of it, when it was restored 4 years ago and relaunched. 

I hope I'm not being a nuisance by tossing in my 2c. This page has roster shots of the engine through seven successive paint schemes (five different schemes since the last being a recreation of the first, and the 5th redoing the 3rd) including a nice view of the side. It looks like the gray (silver) should be about twice as long as the red. The FP45's are 22 ft (44%) longer than the F7's. So cutting most of that length out of the gray would make the two colors about equal in length, as per your build. If you are building the cars proportionately to their width, they would be about 50 studs at 6 wide, in which case I'd suggest lengthening the engine a bit. But if you are keeping the cars shorter to be a consistent scale with the super chief cars and look better on R40 curves then the proportions of this build are spot on.

 

[Marlow]

4 hours ago, zephyr1934 said:

That looks a lot better with the one-wide yellow stripe.

 

I hope I'm not being a nuisance by tossing in my 2c. This page has roster shots of the engine through seven successive paint schemes (five different schemes since the last being a recreation of the first, and the 5th redoing the 3rd) including a nice view of the side. It looks like the gray (silver) should be about twice as long as the red. The FP45's are 22 ft (44%) longer than the F7's. So cutting most of that length out of the gray would make the two colors about equal in length, as per your build. If you are building the cars proportionately to their width, they would be about 50 studs at 6 wide, in which case I'd suggest lengthening the engine a bit. But if you are keeping the cars shorter to be a consistent scale with the super chief cars and look better on R40 curves then the proportions of this build are spot on.

 

I didn't go with longer for 2 reasons: I started with a traditional train base, (which I actually already have extended by a few studs and then there is indeed that issue R40 curves.

If I had gone longer (as the RP45 is), then I could also have gone with 3 axle trucks.

So the length is indeed intentional.

/M

Edited August 10, 2023 by Marlow

[Marlow]

This approach could be taken to the door



Or the original bracket used, but turned around with a sticker.

/M

[Marlow]

This would be with half a plate in.

Compared to the original plate:

/M

[Marlow]

Or maybe just using a train window to indicate the door like this:

Probably the best way to do it.

/M

[zephyr1934]

5 hours ago, Marlow said:

I didn't go with longer for 2 reasons: I started with a traditional train base, (which I actually already have extended by a few studs and then there is indeed that issue R40 curves.

If I had gone longer (as the RP45 is), then I could also have gone with 3 axle trucks.

So the length is indeed intentional.

Indeed, all good calls. In a world with R40 curves tradeoffs must be made (are you sure you don't want to go 12 wide and build for G-gauge track? Grin)

 

45 minutes ago, Marlow said:

Or maybe just using a train window to indicate the door like this:

That has a certain simple elegance to it

[Marlow]

I build 10022-1 in Stud.IO today for reference with the FP45 MOC. What a horrible mess. Especially pinning the bogeys together and getting the roof in place.

The result was worth it though. It shows, how well they fit together. Yes, the loco is new greys and the carriage is old greys, but that's actually not too bad, as long as it's not a mix within the same carriage.

/M

 

[Marlow]

41 hours torture of my PC here's a Stud.IO render:
 

 

[bogieman]

Great video and exploded assembly sequence. Not trying to be critical but the prototype shown at the beginning of your video and all EMD passenger locomotives until 1994 have the steps mounted to the side of the loco with no recess for toe clearance. The steps are only 4" wide and having climbed them many times, I always thought they were unsafe, especially in winter covered with snow and ice. But since they worked okay on the FT demonstrator they were done the same way on every wide carbody model until the F59PHI. So you can just use a 1x2 door rail plate (32028) to represent each step or something similar that protrudes, replacing the 1x2 panel.

Dave

[Marlow]

2 hours ago, bogieman said:

Not trying to be critical but the prototype shown at the beginning of your video and all EMD passenger locomotives until 1994 have the steps mounted to the side of the loco with no recess for toe clearance. The steps are only 4" wide and having climbed them many times, I always thought they were unsafe, especially in winter covered with snow and ice. But since they worked okay on the FT demonstrator they were done the same way on every wide carbody model until the F59PHI. So you can just use a 1x2 door rail plate (32028) to represent each step or something similar that protrudes, replacing the 1x2 panel.

Hmm. I'll have a look at that. I've literally just taken that approach from 10020 (the F7). Thanks for pointing that out.

/M

[Marlow]

On 8/15/2023 at 7:44 PM, bogieman said:

Not trying to be critical but the prototype shown at the beginning of your video and all EMD passenger locomotives until 1994 have the steps mounted to the side of the loco with no recess for toe clearance. The steps are only 4" wide and having climbed them many times, I always thought they were unsafe, especially in winter covered with snow and ice. But since they worked okay on the FT demonstrator they were done the same way on every wide carbody model until the F59PHI. So you can just use a 1x2 door rail plate (32028) to represent each step or something similar that protrudes, replacing the 1x2 panel.

I went back to the picture and I had indeed not paid attention to that detail.

Here is an updated render, taking that into account.



/M

[bogieman]

Looks good!