Continuing with my recreation of the Monon Roster, I finished my favorite of the the Monon Diesels, the Fairbanks-Morse H10-44.
Monon only had one of these engines, #18. The hood of #18 changed throughout its time with the Monon. The original had railing attached along the side of the hood, and a completely different paint scheme.
Another change of note is the number of vents located near the cab. It seems that it went from three to two at some point in its lifetime.
This picture best represents the body that I modeled my unit from. I chose the livery of the top picture, mainly because I liked it better, the red logo really makes the mostly black model really "pop".
I apologize for the dark pictures, I really struggled with this, since black LEGO is hard to capture with any clarity.
(click image for slideshow)
During the November IndyLUG meeting, the few members that stayed around after 5pm went up to my LEGO room to just build, something I don't think we've ever done in the past. Free Build. We did decide on a theme, and space was the foundation for our creations. It's been a while since I've built anything space, and even longer since I've built any sort of space ship. It was a fun little session, with guys running into each other trying to find pieces in my modest little build room.
I present the X-J4 Quadralizer, a short range fighter built for speed and maneuverability. It was designed to out class the opposition, rather than rely upon brute force. Its dual cannons, though small, do pack a nasty punch.
(see the other member's creations here)
Over the last year, I've wanted to dedicate my train building to only Indiana railroads. I started the process by ripping apart nearly ALL of my old train MOCs. The Monon Railroad is one of Indiana's most well known, but unfortunately is now a fallen flag railway (meaning it is out of business or has been absorbed by another railroad). Many of Monon main lines were transferred or torn up. The main north-south road through Indianapolis has now been turned into a public bike / walkway and named the Monon Trail in honor of the once great railroad.
My first attempt at building the roster of the Monon resulted in a yet to be documented F7 unit and consist. Currently only the engine, baggage car, and diner car are completed. Once done, you'll find it here.
One of my favorite switcher engines is the EMD NW2. The Monon used these units as their primary switchers and had at least 7 units.
This was a particulary challenging build, mostly due to the sloping of the hood. Once I fugured out what pieces I wanted to use for it, it was clear the the hood was going to require a lot of SNOT (studs not on top). And now for the pictures:
I hope to eventually complete the entire Monon roster, with at least one of each engine represented.
If were to ask a group of LEGO Train fans what the "correct" width of a LEGO train should be, you'd probably get as many answers as there were pollers. LEGO has traditionally built their models 6 studs wide (there are a few exceptions to this however).
There have been some excellent discussions on LUGNET about what the "correct" scale should be.
John Neal wote in this LUGNET post:
You have 2 choices upon which to gauge your
scale-- the height of the minifig or the track gauge (the distance between the
rails). As John (Gerlach) mentioned, a typical US train is about 10 feet wide, and
standard track gauge is 4’ 8.5”, or about 5 feet (half of train width). Since
the distance between the LEGO rails is 5 studs, that would put you, as again
John (Gerlach) noted, 1 stud = 1 foot, or 10 wide. This is the true scale using LEGO
track gauge. That makes a minifig about 5 feet tall, and this would be perfect,
except for the unfortunate reality that the LEGO wheels are terribly small
at that scale, making 10 wide trains look rather funny.
So the question becomes how far do you want to deviate from the ideal
proportions (not considering the wheel size issue). 8 wide scale says that a
minifig is about 6 feet tall and the track gauge is a bit wider than standard,
but the wheels are about spot on in terms of size, and again as John (Gerlach) said, it is
the best compromise if you are trying to build as “realistically” as you can.
For some reason, I've always built my trains 8-wide. I never took
thought about what the correct scale should be, I've just always
thought they looked "right". I recently was lucky to have the opportunity to help develop a train set for the LEGO Company with 9 other LEGO fans. While I can't say much about the set until it is launched, I will comment on the difficulties for me to reduce my train building to 6 wide. We (the train builders group) decided from the beginning to keep the trains we built in scale with what LEGO had already produced in the past, which was, for the most part, 6 wide trains. At first I had trouble overcoming the initial compression that 6 wides required over 8 wides. After a few builds though, I quickly began rolling out more models, each one a little faster than the previous. For a moment, I entertained the idea of converting all of my trains down to 6 wide. It was done beautifully by Steve Ringe of the MichLTC and former "8-wider". These are some of the best looking 6 wide trains, in my opinion. Some advantages to converting everything to 6 wide are the amount of pieces and functionality. When you build 8 wide, you increase the amount of brick used exponentially, because you aren't just building wider, but longer and taller as well, which also increases the weight of the train. LEGO motors weren't designed to pull heavy loads because they are a "toy". I was really impressed with Benn Coifman's [Central Ohio LEGO Train Club's (COLTC)] feat of pulling 28+ train cars. This is something that I can only dream of with 8 wide trains. The other problem with big heavy trains is that the standard LEGO train controller can only output so much power. Once you put three or more motors on the same track, the controller begins to overheat quickly. Fortunately, we have overcome this by sprucing up the electronics in some of our train controlers which now output more current.
Another option would be to compromise between these two and build 7-wide. German LEGO Fan, Ben Beneke, has been promoting 7-wide train building for a few years. He has an excellent presentaion that he gave available here. This was it, I thought! This is how I'll start building my trains. I tinkered around in MLCAD with some designs and sketched roughs out on paper. The major problem with building 7-wide is trying to make everything work in an odd-numbered scale. LEGO train windows and parts are usually in an even number sized, so working them into an odd size model is difficult. Ben does build some beautiful trains, but most of his work is devoted to the steam era, and those models can get away with odd sizes. Spencer Rezkalla was able to pull off some nice looking 7 wide models, but they didn't end up being that much smaller than 8-wides, so besides the challenge factor, what was the point?
When I began toying with the idea to start making custom train kits, I wanted to make 7-wides so that I could reach a broader market. People with 6-wide or 8 wide layouts could easily integrate these models without much hassle. I've now changed my mind again, by not changing my mind. I'm going to stick with 8 wide because that's what I enjoy building, and what I think looks best. My future train kits will be 8 wide models, a niche in custom kits that hasn't been filled.
In the end, build what you like. The debate will go on forever, so have fun with it!
Browsing some of the 2007 set pictures over at Brickshelf, I noticed yet another new tub design from LEGO.
These look to be even more unstackable than the last batch of tubs with the stud patterned top. One of the advantages, however, is that some of the tubs will have clear lids, so you can see the contents, but it is unknown right now whether or not there will be a cardboard insert inside unopened sets, making it impossible to view the contents at retail stores. It will also usher in the return of baseplates included in bulk tub assortments, something that seems to have disappeared in the last couple of years.
I really miss our old style tub, mostly because they have the ability to be stacked while open on top of one another without the top tub sliding all the way down into the bottom one. (If you've never noticed this, open two of these old tubs and rotate one 90 degrees.)
When you think of Halloween, you think of scaring people. What better way to scare people than to show them how obsessed you are about a toy?
This was actually mostly Chris's (my wife) idea, I just supplied the reference material. We spent all day Saturday (an excess of 8 hours) making these costumes from scratch. It only cost us $30.00 for both because I had lots of cardboard already. As some of you may know, Chris is a little competetive at times, and well, there was this costume contest that needed to be won.
Long story short, a lot of fun was had by all and the Spurgeons walked away with the top prize, which turned out to be a Chinese Fondue set and not the Imperial Start Destroyer UCS set after all!
Some of you may have heard of the fabled XL clear baseplate. Rumor tells, that one of our members may even be in possession of such a rare item.
Although we may not be getting the XL version, preliminary photographs are indicating that we may be getting a 16x16 clear baseplate in the new LEGO Mosaic sets. Click on the picture for your analysis. See how the yellow bleeds through the baseplate and the white seems to be slightly different?
If I get any "official" word, I'll post it here first!
UPDATE: Confirmed! These are in fact clear!
For those that may have missed this posting on LUGNET, Jamie Berard, an AFOL and set designer at LEGO, gave a very interesting presentation at Brickfest 2006 about what considerations designers must take into account when creating models that will go into production. I found it very useful in my building considerations as well.
If you have Microsoft Powerpoint, you can download the presentation from LEGO here.
I've also created an Acrobat .pdf version for those without Powerpoint here.
Today, I'd like to show you some pictures that I've been collecting for a while. All of the parts shown are actual LEGO parts, but never saw the light of release for reasons unknown to me, but of which I will speculate.
First up:
The Unreleased Monorail Cross Track or "X" Track
I found this patent while searching the LEGO Patents one day. I was doing this because I saw this really neat framing of the original LEGO Patent being sold on Ebay, and I knew that searching and viewing patents was free, of course. Anyway, I've not seen an actual proptype of this part and assume that it was scrapped before it could even be fully realized. LEGO scrapped the Monorail series after only 5 sets, two of which were merely track add-on packs. I've heard many rumors as to why LEGO scrapped the line and assume it had a lot to do with outsourcing the motor parts. As you can see in the picture, the cross track had an automatic switching mechanism similar to the Right and Left switch points that were produced for the line.
Unreleased Technic Lift Arms
I don't remember where I got these images from, but they are from a few years back. I'm not much of a Technic builder, so I'm not sure how useful these pieces would have been if released. I do like the 2x4 Technic brick, however.
The 8x8 Lattice Plate, but Without the Middle 2x2 Plate
I found this one while browsing Brickshelf and am not sure of its origins. It doesn't appear to serve much usefulness aside from allowing you to stack it onto a stack of 2x2 bricks.
My favorite unreleased part:
The Skeletal Horse
This is by far the coolest unreleased part of this series, and the reason that I saved it until last. I've heard that this may have been a figure for one of the Harry Potter sets, but I am not that familiar with the series outside of the movies. It is said that some prototype pieces are cast in clear plastic so that all of the inner workings can be tested. Other prototype pieces that do not have inner connections are cast in red plastic, and such pieces have become expensive, rare collector's items, such as the red ghost shroud that has been seen for sale on Bricklink for $25,000.00. (image found on Brickshelf)