Here is my early Christmas present for everyone. I present to you: my ultimate steam locomotive, #300486 "Big Blair"!
About this creation
"Big Blair" has finally arrived! She is my 6-10-10-6 articulated compound steam engine, and the pride locomotive of my railroad.
Technical Specifications:
Length: 11 Straight Track Pieces
Height: Unknown Amount of Standard Bricks
Width: 10-Wide
Power System: 8 Power Functions Train Motors
Class: 8MT (Mixed Traffic)
Here she is in all of her majestic splendor without the Christmas decorations. Quite the sight to behold.
Big Blair as seen from the side. She is quite the monster and is fitting of her name.
The front view of Blair. Some might say that she is simply an "up-scaled" Union Pacific Big Boy, but that is not the case. Unlike my previous locomotives which have had multiple influences, Blair is different. I wanted her to be the largest, yet still feasible, steam locomotive. Since the United States built the largest steam locomotive in the world, it only made sense to keep Blair as a primarily American design. The intent is make her look big, mean, rugged, ugly, and yet somehow beautiful to behold and truly worthy of being a "Mixed Traffic" locomotive.
The rear view of Blair. The two rear lights on the back of the tender are able to accept a set of Power Functions Lights.
Here is the wheel base that I used for Blair. I took away the rest of the locomotive so that the basic wheel structure could be shown. Due to the size of Blair, all of her drive wheel sets are able to articulate. It is not shown here, but there are openings at the front and back of each drive wheel set to allow Extension Wires to be run from the front motor to the tender. I went with a different design this time since I had the room. Instead of routing the wires through the boiler, I chose to route them through the drive wheels since the interior is hollow and spacious enough.
The leading truck uses, once again, the 3 Axle Trucks design by Mike Kollross. As shown by my extensive use of this design in my previous MOCs, I really love this design because it is so ingenious! Thank you, Mike!
Here you can see how the leading truck is connected to the front drive wheel set.
A side view of a drive wheel set. Most of the details are carried over from my 4-8-8-4 Version 3 locomotive.
After studying many pictures, I updated my drivers to the "more advanced" design. I personally like it a lot more than what I was previously was using.
Another closeup of the drive wheel set.
The trailing truck has the same basis as the leading truck.
The trailing truck connects to the back of the second drive wheel set with a much shorter connector.
I spent a lot of time with the leading truck to make it look just right with the ladders and lights. These lights are also able to accept the Power Function Lights.
The front end of the boiler. Once again, I wanted that rugged and ugly look, which I believe that I achieved. The number boards will read "300486" when Blair is built in real bricks.
An underside look that shows more detail of the leading truck that supports the cab and the firebox.
A back view of just the locomotive, which also reveals part of the cab interior. Notice the space in the trailing truck, which allows the wires from the front to be routed through.
The tender contains six of the eight motors used to power Big Blair. Also shown is where the IR Receiver is mounted. As with my previous tenders, the top is able to come off in two sections, the front and the back.
The basic wheel structure for the tender. Only the middle two motors are attached to the tender. This design should allow for the tender to easily make curves.
I took away one side of the tender to reveal the two layers that are hidden within. The bottom layer is used to route the motor wires and the extension wires, whereas the top layer houses the IR Receiver, the Battery Box, and any necessary Control Switches to ensure that the motors operate in the same direction.
A look at the front end of the tender shows the opening that accepts the wires from the locomotive into the tender itself. Gracious space was given to allow flexibility when navigating curves and switches.
This picture shows the scale of Big Blair, just in case no one has caught on to her massive size yet. The attached car is built to scale of the Emerald Night and is a 6-wide creation.
Here is the customary front shot group picture of all of the steam locomotives that I have made so far. From left to right: Briana, Version 3, Big Blair, Version 2, and Version 1.
Another group picture. Big Blair dwarfs all of the rest.
So, here she finally is! I know that I have been inactive (sort of) recently, and this is why. I wanted to make sure that she was perfect for her debut. Many thanks go out to:
jd davis: I have enjoyed talking with you about our creations and what we can do to improve them. By looking at your creations I have been able to overcome many obstacles with steam locomotive design in LDD (getting the driving wheels and drivers to match up perfectly is a pain!) The tender for your Mammoth is still a WIP, but it is coming along nicely. It will be up soon.
Anthony Sava: I look to your creations a lot to find those small details that need to be added. Your Allegheny was a HUGE (see what I did there?) inspiration that made me want to create a large steam locomotive of my own. Go big or go home, right?
Trevor Young: Once again, the advice that you gave me early on helped tremendously in ways that you could not imagine. One small piece of knowledge that is passed on can go a long way.
Yay, I made it on the front page! This is my first creation to do so, which is quite exciting for me.
Building instructions
Download building instructions (LEGO Digital Designer)
Comments
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I made it |
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December 22, 2012 |
Quoting jd davis
good luck with that. you see thats why the mammoth will never be built.
Oh, it will be built. At some point. After I build the Briana for the wifey. And I use some more "persuasive skills" of doing lots of favors for her. |
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I like it |
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December 22, 2012 |
good luck with that. you see thats why the mammoth will never be built. |
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December 18, 2012 |
Quoting Builder Allan
That is one huge locomotive! Very cool design, i am sure this machine will haul any heavy load :-)
You know what the hardest part about this build/design is? Convincing my wife to let me order and build it in real bricks. |
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I like it |
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December 18, 2012 |
That is one huge locomotive! Very cool design, i am sure this machine will haul any heavy load :-) |
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December 15, 2012 |
Quoting jd davis
so hows the mammoth motorization coming along?
WIP. Trying some new stuff out instead of being just a larger version of Blair's tender. Attempting to give it its own "SHAZOW!" look. |
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December 15, 2012 |
so hows the mammoth motorization coming along?
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December 12, 2012 |
Quoting jd davis
you just wait soon there will be an even larger loco to your big blair than the mammoth.
I look forward to it! |
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December 12, 2012 |
you just wait soon there will be an even larger loco to your big blair than the mammoth. |
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December 12, 2012 |
Quoting jd davis
I can't belive it, you outdid my tender designs. i am still in shock by this steamer. exellant job. you win the title of the worlds largest tender builder. keep it up you just might make the book of builders i need to beat it the loco race. i hardly doubt you could make a engine that is longer then the mammoth with out a tender.
Thank you very much for the compliment. I wanted to do a Vanderbilt-style tender, but kept with the traditional rectangular box to keep the overall look flowing nicely. I am taking a break from steam locomotives to work on some rolling stock, so your Mammoth Boy still is the longest (albiet STILL not very practical, me says, and us agrees). |
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December 12, 2012 |
I can't belive it, you outdid my tender designs. i am still in shock by this steamer. exellant job. you win the title of the worlds largest tender builder. keep it up you just might make the book of builders i need to beat it the loco race. i hardly doubt you could make a engine that is longer then the mammoth with out a tender.
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December 12, 2012 |
Quoting David the Fire Ninja Jedi
Wow! Very nice design! I like how you made it look real!
Thank you! I was hoping that even though it is a completely custom design that it would appear feasible and could have possibly been built in real life. |
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December 12, 2012 |
Wow! Very nice design! I like how you made it look real! |
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I made it |
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December 12, 2012 |
Quoting Trevor Young
Again, Glad I could help. And this thing will go around 40 stud curves O.o Wow! This monster must be fast with all those motors too! Do you have a rough price estimate of what this entire thing would cost?
I designed her to be fast with lots of pulling power. What good is a locomotive if it cannot haul anything? I have not looked up the price for this yet, but I can imagine that the wife will make me sacrifice a few things in order to buy this, i.e. not driving the '78 Vette for a while... |
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December 12, 2012 |
Again, Glad I could help. And this thing will go around 40 stud curves O.o Wow! This monster must be fast with all those motors too! Do you have a rough price estimate of what this entire thing would cost? |
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