Powered Up MOD: 10183 Hobby Trains Crocodile (Free Instructions)

[BatteryPoweredBricks]

This is my Powered Up MOD of the 10183 Hobby Trains Crocodile Locomotive (Designed by @HoMa).  I tried to stay as true to the original look and feel as possible while taking a few artistic liberties as well as a few structural changes. 

I already have "plenty" of 9v trains and not enough track to justify them so I decided to convert this locomotive to PU.  I'm using @Lok24's PyBricks train control program to enable using dual motors as well as smooth acceleration.

This was such a fun project and definitely sharpened my skills not just with Lego but with Bricklink Studio and creating instructions.  I will link the instructions below as well as the companion video which goes into much more detail about the inspiration to build it and design choices.  There were definitely some challenges along the way .  Play well!

Instructions and Studio file: https://rebrickable.com/mocs/MOC-161975/BatteryPoweredBricks/powered-up-mod-10183-hobby-trains-crocodile/

 

 

Edited October 23, 2023 by BatteryPoweredBricks

[THERIZE]

Nice! As someone who who completely missed out on the hobby train, the idea of getting pieces seperately to make the models is also something I've thought of a long time. Maybe with your instructions to also convert it to Powered Up I might even make a plan to do it. 

Edited October 24, 2023 by THERIZE

[LEGO Train 12 Volts]

Very nice conversion and great design work!

I often work with MODIO too!

[HoMa]

@BatteryPoweredBricks wow thanks for showing us your PU Hobby Train Crocodile and even providing instructions. Maybe you could share the instructions also on https://open-l-gauge.eu/

It's great to see how you improved the crocodile in terms of color and parts. As you mentioned it in your video, when we designed the original Hobby Train set, the part selection was fixed at a certain point and we wanted to offer a "universal building set" for trains. So each individual design had to deal with the limited amount of parts. And many improvements you've done where not available back then, e.g. a 1x2 with a clip.

Thumbs up for your PU crocodile 👍

Holger

[BatteryPoweredBricks]

On 10/24/2023 at 10:47 AM, THERIZE said:

Nice! As someone who who completely missed out on the hobby train, the idea of getting pieces seperately to make the models is also something I've thought of a long time. Maybe with your instructions to also convert it to Powered Up I might even make a plan to do it. 

This was definitely a set I missed back in the day.  I really only started learning about it in the past year or so.  Such an interesting story of how it came to be!

 

12 hours ago, LEGO Train 12 Volts said:

Very nice conversion and great design work!

I often work with MODIO too!

Ha!  I have so many outtakes for anything I record.  If I remember to I'll throw them at the end of the video as a goof 😅

 

6 hours ago, HoMa said:

@BatteryPoweredBricks wow thanks for showing us your PU Hobby Train Crocodile and even providing instructions. Maybe you could share the instructions also on https://open-l-gauge.eu/

It's great to see how you improved the crocodile in terms of color and parts. As you mentioned it in your video, when we designed the original Hobby Train set, the part selection was fixed at a certain point and we wanted to offer a "universal building set" for trains. So each individual design had to deal with the limited amount of parts. And many improvements you've done where not available back then, e.g. a 1x2 with a clip.

Thumbs up for your PU crocodile 👍

Holger

Thanks!  I am continually amazed with the number of models built so quickly from such a small selection of parts.  I've also been told there are plenty of unofficial alternate models I should look in to as well.  The rabbit hole runs deep 😅.

I can look into uploading them to open-l-gauge, from what I'm seeing it looks like a lot of highly detailed custom MOCs.  But if they are open to modified official sets I'm glad to share my instructions anywhere