Pennsylvania RR H10s Power Functions Based Steam Engine

[Cale]

Pennsylvania RR #7688

Pennsylvania RR #7688 was built by Lima Locomotive Works in September 1915. She was one of 445 H10s class 2-8-0 Consolidations built for the Pennsy and one of 45 to eventually receive automatic stokers. She is equipped with a 80P81a class tender.

She is now preserved at the Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania in Stasburg Pennsylvania and is the only surviving Lima built PRR steam Locomotive.

My model of #7688 has a unique twist. It ditches the standard 9v train motors and uses a power functions based drive system inspired by Swoofty. If you want to know all the gory details about it works you can find my article on it in RailBricks #5.

Building this engine has given me hope for the future of LEGO Trains. #7688 was built with the PF elements currently available (which aren’t really geared for trains but are very versatile non the less) and has proven quite successful. Hopefully when the actual PF Train line is released things will only get better.

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Pennsylvania RR F37b class Flat Car

The Pennsylvania RR built 17 of these F37B class flat cars between 1948 and 1952. The center of the car was completely open to allow a tall load to be carried as low as possible minimizing clearance issues.

The one thing I couldn’t fit in #7688’s tender was the battery box. So I chose to build a Pennsy F37b flat car with an electrical transformer load to hide the batteries. I’m hopping that the smaller rechargeable battery that will supposedly be released with the Power Functions Train line will allow me to eliminate the need for a battery car.

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Cale

[Brickadier General]

I probably already told you this at the January PennLUG meeting, but good work on this awesome solution. I really look forward to seeing this run on our club layout at Brick Fair.

[Brickmaster]

I really love the fact that you get the curved shape down, but you can still tell that it's made of lego due to the hard edges. Sometimes the absence of that streamline curvature should be prided, rather than discouraged. This is one of those rare cases.

[Captain Zuloo]

This is remarkable. I read the entire RB issue, and then I read the part about this loco AGAIN! I think you are a genius and should be recognized as one of the best and most innovative train MOCers of all time. Very, very well done.

[Freddie]

I'm a little dissapointed that you went with Swoofty's solution to powering the wheels, as you could in theory have the main drivers as propulsion wheels, and therefore have the locomotive itself propel the train, with the battery-box and receiver neatly packed into the tender. Other than that, it's an impressive feat of LEGO engineering.

It is nonetheless nice to see people experiment with this. I've myself have been experimenting and theorising about it in MLCad, and ended up with a small dual-shunter (master and slave unit, attachment shows mock-up of master) with a single motor powering the two units through universal joints between them (the axle leading out of the locomotive goes to the slave unit). The master unit would be carrying the motor, with the slave unit the receiver and (rechargable) batteries. The result: Six powered axles, 2cm/sec top speed and 29Ncm of torque.

I am honestly not grieving the loss of 9V if this is the future, because it is IMO superior in terms of flexibilty and potential.

[Cale]

I'm a little dissapointed that you went with Swoofty's solution to powering the wheels, as you could in theory have the main drivers as propulsion wheels, and therefore have the locomotive itself propel the train, with the battery-box and receiver neatly packed into the tender. Other than that, it's an impressive feat of LEGO engineering.

It is nonetheless nice to see people experiment with this. I've myself have been experimenting and theorising about it in MLCad, and ended up with a small dual-shunter (master and slave unit, attachment shows mock-up of master) with a single motor powering the two units through universal joints between them (the axle leading out of the locomotive goes to the slave unit). The master unit would be carrying the motor, with the slave unit the receiver and (rechargable) batteries. The result: Six powered axles, 2cm/sec top speed and 29Ncm of torque.

I am honestly not grieving the loss of 9V if this is the future, because it is IMO superior in terms of flexibilty and potential.

I didn't power the engine through the drivers because there was no elegant way to hide the motor with the way the boiler is constructed. And I hate seeing motors, gears, and other drive train parts poking out and marring the looks of a model. Besides this works well and I'm happy with the results.

Cale