The Lego Railway Project.

[Annie]

I thought it might be best to start my own thread instead of tagging on the end of other threads. So this carries on from the thread here http://gardenrails.myfreeforum.org/sutra75710.php#75710

So basically what I'm aiming to do is build a Lego based railway to a realistic standard as I can manage to make it. This will be an indoor railway built on panel doors as baseboards, but if I find that a Lego based railway is indeed possible and I'm not mad afterall I might just take it out into the garden.

The prototype will be New Zealand Government Railways during the small engine era when all manner of delightful tank engines were in use as well as the 'R' and 'S' class single Fairlies which have always been my favourite NZ class of locomotive.

My first Enlighten train order arrived today, - and yes I know Enlighten is a clone brick maker, - but then I've never been a Lego purist and to me a brick is a brick is a brick. So wot did I get?
A #639 track set comprising 8 curves and 8 straights for $NZ14
A #632 'crew car' (182 pcs) which is a balcony ended coach for $NZ20
A #638 'Steam Freight Locomotive' (240 pcs) for $NZ24
And a #621 'Express Locomotive' (178 pcs) for $NZ21

The #621 loco is actually a modern Hi-speed electric outline loco which was sent to me by mistake instead of another steam loco, but I've decided to keep it for 'research' purposes and if nothing else it gives me a loco baseplate and two sets of bogies as well as two minifigs and extra bricks that can go into the storage crates for later.

Enlighten track. This is completely compatible with Lego track as well as being much cheaper. Track for Banbao's train series is also compatible as well. To my surprise I've discovered that some track I have left over from breaking cheap battery trainsets down for parts is also 'L' gauge, which is 38mm or an inch and a half.


The end balcony 'Crew Car'. I'm going to do my best to make this coach more like the end balcony coaches that were used here in New Zealand.


The 'Steam Freight Locomotive'. Yes I know it's on bogies, but I'm sure I can work around that and either make it look more like a geared articulated tramway loco, or a single Fairlie.



I've got two Banbao trainsets on layby as well which will give me a whole lot more track, four points, extra wheels and bogies, as well as a pair of radio controlled powered loco motor blocks and all the associated electrical gubbins. Since they're both modern outline electric sets they will be mostly broken down to go into the brick stores, but surprisingly they do also contain many parts that I can use on this project of mine which is why I decided to buy them.

[Annie]

There's a whole esoteric language associated with Lego and Lego clone trains. Standard Lego trains are 'six wide' meaning they're built on a six stud wide baseplate which is actually too narrow in scale terms if the 'L' gauge track is taken as being standard gauge. Builders of more realistic railway models will use 'seven wide', 'eight wide' and even 'ten wide' and up as their building width according to their prototype and the real world gauge they are representing. I'm going to have a go at the balcony end coach first and I'm going to try out 'ten wide' as a width as the gauge used here in NZ is 3ft 6 inches. This should give the coach a much better appearance and also allow me to add detail such as footsteps on the balcony ends without fouling the bogies. If this works I'll order some more of these coaches if not I haven't exactly had to spend very much on the experiment.

[Annie]

"We usually only read the 'structions when we get inna pickle," protested young Sidney.
"Well if you read the instructions first you won't get in a pickle," replied Becky.
"Why didn't we fink of that Bill?" asked Sidney, but Bill is smart enough for once not to reply.


"Eek wot's that!" yelled Sidney dropping his spanner.
"That's a Lego man," laughed Bill.
"Well send him off," said Sidney, "Coz I'm scared he'll bite me or sumping."
"Don't be silly Sidney," smiled Becky, "He's come to help us because we've never built a coach like this one before."


In case anyone is wondering the tools my little helpers are using are a mix of Lego, Playmobil, World Builder and dolls house 1/12th scale tools. I made one of the wood saws from a scrap of aluminium and the handle for it from a wee piece of pine. The wooden toolbox is a 1/12th dollshouse item.

[tom_tom_go]

I love Lego

I had a battery powered Lego train set (4.5v I think) that just went foward/backwards by switching a lever on the battery wagon. It was black and came with a flat wagon and a mail car I think.

Keep up the good work

[Annie]

I'm starting to become very fond of Lego too Tom Tom

Tonight was all about establishing just which brick parts I'm going to need to convert the Enlighten crew car into something resembling a NZR coach circa 1900 or so. Containers of bricks were emptied out and sorted through to find the extra parts to widen the coach body. This coach is going to be a 4 wheel 1st/2nd class coach based on the NZR Class 'D' and with the body being widened and the windows changed about quite a surprising number of additional parts were needed.
Of course I had my little helpers, though when it came to sorting bricks there seemed to be an awful lot of, 'Hey he's collecting the ones I'm supposed to be looking for,' and not a lot of work being done.

I'll take better photos tomorrow in the daylight, but you can still see the shape of what I've been doing. In the end I went with 8 studs wide as 10 wide would've needed a lot more bricks to get the proportions right. Some of the bricks and parts I've used are correct for shape, but not for colour and will be replaced when construction is finalised.


The original Enlighten coach design only had room for four seats down the centre of the carriage interior. With the additional width I can now fit in 8 seats with an aisle down the middle of the carriage.


I really had fun doing this. Today wasn't a great day for me healthwise and I certainly couldn't have built a Class 'D' 4 wheeler from wood or card without making a mess of it. Building from bricks is good, it's like doing 3D jigsaws and I like it a lot.

Here's something to make you go 'Wow'. I didn't build it, it's built by a chap named Greg Athol (If I remember correctly) and it is a seriously impressive Lego locomotive.

[Annie]

Ok, hopefully these are better pictures so you can see the progress so far.





I wanted those ribbed bricks on the ends to be red not brown, so I checked out Bricklink only to discover that red is a rare colour for that particular brick and they cost $NZ0.50 each instead of $NZ0.05 for every other colour. I'm not without options though as early period NZR coaches were also painted brown, red with brown ends and green.
Red wasn't a shade of colour I used much for Brikwars wargaming and what I had in the way of bricks were mostly Megabloks and Cogo which are two different shades of red. Fine for a wall, not so hot for a coach.
I've got plenty of brown bricks because one of my armies used brown vehicles so I think I'll rebuild the coach using brown bricks, but still with red doors and window frames. This is still going to be the Kotanga Tramway afterall so I guess they might've painted their coaches a little differently to the government railway boys.

It might seem strange to be messing around with a coach and not getting on with building the railway itself, but until I've got the sizing and proportions right I won't know what clearances I'll have to work to.
My little helpers are busting keen to make a start on building the 'R' class single Fairlie; - especially Bill and Sidney as they have helped previously with building all my locos, - but they are just going to have to be patient because I don't want to be rushed over getting the working scale set in place. It's a lot easier to adjust and rebuild a coach than it is a loco afterall.

[Annie]

So much for not building locos. This afternoon I was breaking down some of my old Brikwars models for parts and I found a couple of steampunk styled ones so I thought I'd get my little helpers on the job to build a vertical boilered loco for the logging tramway.

While we had been sorting bricks Becky my little carpenter lady found a horse so that was her completely distracted for the rest of the day which is why some of the woodwork on the tram loco looks a bit makeshift.





I'm reasonably happy with this loco and I plan on motorising it with a simple chain drive. That grey handwheel is far too big so I'll have a dig about and find a smaller one and I have some other little bits and bobs to add to dress up the boiler. As I've mentioned I'm not really a Lego purist so once I've got this loco how I want it I'm going to add a touch of glue here and there to help keep the roof supports together as there isn't much holding them on.

Lego and other brick trains use magnetic couplings. I haven't really had much of a play with these yet so I'm not sure if I'll use them or not.

[tom_tom_go]

The Lego train set I had used magnetic couplings and I found them to be very strong so you should not gave any problems.

Cheers,

Tom

[Annie]

The Lego train set I had used magnetic couplings and I found them to be very strong so you should not gave any problems.

Cheers,

Tom

Yes Tom after a little experimentation with the magnetic couplings I've reached the conclusion that they should be just fine. None of the trains I'll be running will be especially long ones so they won't have any great load on them.

Not much more has been done as I've just had another patch of not being very well which is annoying as I've got this unopened pile of railway brick set boxes the postman brought me in my bedroom that are just crying out for me to get stuck into.

I'm still in two minds as to whether I should take the step of increasing scale to 10 wide instead of 8 wide. 10 wide will give me better proportions and overall larger models, - which would be nice, - but then I would move beyond Lego minifig scale which means that populating my layout would become more difficult. There is the possibility that if I lengthen the legs on my railway minifig folk they might be just fine. More experimentation needed methinks.

Locos and rolling stock aren't the only thing on my mind as I've got some house and farm brick sets in the pile too. These won't necessarily get built according to the instructions so as to provide me with buildings for the layout.

[tom_tom_go]

So is the girl a scale model of you?

If you can drill while making tea then I have loads of jobs for you in my house

[Annie]

My hair hasn't been that luxurious shade of brown for some years now Tom

I am handy with tools though and I'm good with presenting folk with a nice reviving cuppa when they need it most. My daughter is following in my footsteps and is presently rebuilding the engine in her Rover car at the moment while she's waiting for the university year to start.

[hussra]

I also have a big box of the unpowered blue Lego track that was around in the early 80's.

Yes, we've got a box of that too (at my parents' house) - used to drive me to tears, I'm told, trying to get it to stay together while I ran trains on it. (IIRC it was the grey incarnation that introduced the little clips to hold the rails onto the sleepers more firmly.) My first garden railway used the grey track minus the two central power rails.

[Chris Cairns]

Here's something to make you go 'Wow'.

Wow indeed. Do you know if it is modeled on a particular class of Garratt or is it just generic within the limitations of the Lego used. Certainly shows off the articulation a treat on that section of S bend track.

Thanks for posting that image Annie.

Chris Cairns.

[Spule 4]

I have a Lego powered baby Krok and some goods wagons, cranes, trucks, extra track, etc.

Bought it for my kids of course!

[METHSSNIFFER]

Hows the railway coming on

[Annie]

Awaken old thread

Sorry for the lack of updates. I had and am having a lot of problems with my health, but somewhere in amongst it all I did get some things built.

Meyer articulated loco.




Engine shed corner of my experimental indoor layout. The odd looking white loco is a not entirely serious steam-electric loco I put together for fun to make use of some high-speed loco parts I was sent by mistake.


With the layout half built I got sick again and my cat took to sleeping on the layout and managed to break a lot of the buildings & etc that I'd put together. At the moment I'm in progress with clearing everything away and I'm still making up my mind as to whether or not I'm going to rebuild the layout or not.

[Annie]

I'm having a look around for photos of some of my Lego models and as I find interesting ones I'll post them in this thread.

Based off an actual loco that was in service here in New Zealand. The track is by Oxford a maker of Lego compatible bricks.




Steam-electric loco. Such things were experimented with in the early years of the 20th century and that was all the encouragement I needed to build my version.


Ancient and modern steam-electric locos side by side.