4511 Passenger Car Modification

[Hobbes]

It's been a little quiet in this forum lately, so I thought I'd share a little of what I've done over the weekend.

A short introduction beforehand:

Since I've had the 4511 I wasn't really satisfied with the look. When I first saw it I didn't like it very much but thought it had potential. What was disturbing to me was the fact it didn't have real doors. For me as a fan of the 1980s trains that looked weird. And it wasn't "5 bricks high" but only 4. But it turned out that was just the way models were being designed nowadays. And I got used to it, even more, I think it's not that bad a building technique.

Anyways, I got the train for Christmas 2004 (yeah, that long ago) and started modifying it right away. I always wanted to rebuild it with the ICE color scheme (white-red) but after some tries I liked the original color scheme better. Anyway, what came out was Version 1. It looked ok but somehow not what I wanted.

Then I got 7470 Space Shuttle which uses lots of this part - and I thought I could use this as roof parts for my train. Well, after a quick BL order of 400 of those and some sorting I finally got around and modified one of my 4511 Passenger cars.

OK, enough of the talking, lets head on to the pictures (all thumbs are clickable):

From left to right you see the original version, my first version, and on the far right my current Version 2:

The original car on the left, my current Version 2 on the right:

As you can see the roof looks a bit "loose". That's due to it consisting of lots of 1-wide pieces:

You might notice that its "base" resembles the Santa Fe cars - and you're right. I loosely based it on them. I added 2 studs on each end since the higher roof on the original 28 studs base made it look a bit bulky. I also copied the wheelbase and the underside luggage hold:

What's really been bothering me from the start was the door:

On the left is the original car door. To me it always looked kinda "unfinished" or "cut in half". It's "hinted" by a green 1x2 brick with grille, which is ok, but to me it always looked like it kinda "ends" right there. On the right picture you see my version. I used 1x2 bricks "all the way down to the base", so the outlines of the bricks form a "full" door. I hope you can see what I mean.

Also quite unsatisfying to me were the... uh... "end pieces" of the train, above the magnets where two cars "connect". Here's a picture:

On the left the original and on the right a loose copy of the Santa Fe version. The latter also uses a black 1x2 window instead of a transparent panel which looks more like a door. The Santa Fe cars use a plate on the bottom of the bricks and one at the top right underneath the rounded bricks. I left that out, would have look too bulky.

Finally a shot of the interior - which isn't much since it's only second class >:-)

Weird thing was: although I have tens of thousands of bricks I was still lacking a few special pieces and had to improvise (nothing visible, though).

Next is either the first class car, which will differ in interior only, or the locomotive. That depends on which special parts I will need for the locomotive and if I have to make a BL order.

Hope you like(d) it, it was fun for me to build it and f-i-n-a-l-l-y come up with something I like :-)

[snefroe]

your mod looks waaaaay much better then the original stuff 8-

[KimT]

Nice MOD. *y*

[Must do this to my own High Speed train.]

It makes it look more right and I agree that the original door is off :-|

KimT

[Hobbes]

your mod looks waaaaay much better then the original stuff 8-