[MOC] Emerald Night class locomotives

[TF Twitch]

Ever since I purchased the Emerald Night set back in 2011, I have fallen in love with it. One of the first modifications that I made was powering the locomotive without the XL Motor taking up the cab and detracting from the overall play value. Finding alternate power sources led to the creating of other locomotives of the Emerald Night class. My style of locomotives is a mix of North American and European designs, and is greatly reflected in my 4-8-4 Emerald Northern (shown further down).

4-6-2 Emerald Night

This is the original Emerald Night, which has undergone some slight cosmetic modifications to improve the overall look. I was very impressed with this set and as such I wanted to change as little as possible. Perhaps the largest change was installing a Power Functions Train Motor under the tender.

4-6-4 Emerald Baltic

The Emerald Baltic came about after the second version of my Emerald Northern. I pretty much took the firebox, cab, and trailing truck from the Northern and stuck it onto the original Emerald Night. Then I used the tender from my improved Emerald Night and changed the front cowls. I named this one "Emerald Baltic" since it sounded better than "Emerald Hudson". North American influence is shown through the wheel arrangement since the 4-6-4 was more widely used in North America compared to the rest of the world (at least to my understanding).

4-8-4 Emerald Northern

The 4-8-4 Emerald Northern would have to be my pride and joy locomotive. I have been working for a few years to perfect this locomotive. Once I think that I have it right, I find something new to improve it. It features Power Functions Lights above the smoke box and the tender (which is an improvement over the original Emerald Night since I have a larger tender to work with), two L-Motors in the boiler, and lots of other small details to help the locomotive just pop. The 4-8-4 wheel arrangement was not that popular nor widely used outside of North America. The external sand and steam domes and streamlined nose are also of North American influence.

Any comments, critiques, and constructive criticism is welcome!

[Murdoch17]

As I've said before, I love your models, though I think the 4-8-4 Northern is probably the best of this bunch. However, you could rename it the Indigo Northern, as Emerald is a green, as you probably already know. You could continue that thought towards the Baltic, calling it the Diamond Baltic. (as it's a grayish - color, like a dirty white) The problem becomes when you build a brown or obscure colored engine... like what would reddish brown be, Topaz? Or lime green, as some one else built a couple years back...

Anyway, Keep on steaming!

EDIT: Typo

Edited March 5, 2015 by Murdoch17

[TF Twitch]

As I've said before, I love your models, though I think the 4-8-4 Northern is probably the best of this bunch. However, you could rename it the Indigo Northern, as Emerald is a green, as you probably already know. You could continue that thought towards the Baltic, calling it the Diamond Baltic. (as it's a grayish - color, like a dirty white) The problem becomes when you build a brown or obscure colored engine... like what would reddish brown be, Topaz? Or lime green, as some one else built a couple years back...

Anyway, Keep on steaming!

EDIT: Typo

I always appreciate your feedback, Murdoch. I have thought about changing the "Emerald" in the names, but I decided to keep it to relate it to the original Emerald Night and show that they come from the Emerald Night class of locomotives. I do realize that being of the same locomotive class means that they are the same wheel arrangement, style, etc., but I took artistic liberties. Renaming them has crossed my mind, but I have called them Emerald [whatever] for so long that is has stuck and grown on me.

[Chubbs]

Have you physically build any of these models or are they just LDD models at this point? I like the look of them. I missed out on the Emerald Night unfortunately.

[TF Twitch]

Have you physically build any of these models or are they just LDD models at this point? I like the look of them. I missed out on the Emerald Night unfortunately.

I own two Emerald Night sets. One is built and the second is used as a concept testbed for ideas.

[zephyr1934]

You are working on a nice roundhouse full of locos. I like your L-Motor gearing, clean, simple, and clever.

[TF Twitch]

You are working on a nice roundhouse full of locos. I like your L-Motor gearing, clean, simple, and clever.

Thank you. Keeping it simple and able to actually work has been the culmination of lots of trial and error.

Something that I forgot to mention in the initial post concerns the 4-8-4 Emerald Northern. I have thought about using Big Ben Bricks small wheels for the pilot and trailing trucks of the locomotive since they would have less friction than the LEGO small train wheels that have the o-rings. I figured that less friction would be ideal and is less that the L-Motors have to work against. Does anyone have any thoughts on this?

[TF Twitch]

My Emerald Night currently uses zephyr's driving rods, and if I ever build the Emerald Baltic it will have them as well. I like the black driving rods on the Emerald Northern since gray clashes too much, but I know that gray rods are the correct color. Any thoughts on this?

Edited March 14, 2015 by TF Twitch

[LEGO Train 12 Volts]

I like the work on the Emerald Baltic!

Great project!

[M_slug357]

If you have drive rods from zephyr, there's nothing wrong with coloring them a bit; Might look nice if the middle of the rods are colored black with the edges kept grey?

[TF Twitch]

I like the work on the Emerald Baltic!

Great project!

Thank you!

If you have drive rods from zephyr, there's nothing wrong with coloring them a bit; Might look nice if the middle of the rods are colored black with the edges kept grey?

I thought about that, but how accurate would that be to real locomotives? I personally have not seen any driving rods that are like that.

[TF Twitch]

I wonder if anyone has any additional thoughts on using BBB wheels for the small wheels on the pilot and trailing trucks on the locomotives to reduce friction so the motor(s) would not have to work as hard.

[M_slug357]

For the least amount of friction, maybe you can use 9v wheelsets minus the housing? I'm pretty sure you can fit the metal axle through a technic pin?

[TF Twitch]

For the least amount of friction, maybe you can use 9v wheelsets minus the housing? I'm pretty sure you can fit the metal axle through a technic pin?

The 9V wheelsets are used on the tender of all three locomotives (in conjunction with the PF Train Motor on two of them, no Train Motor with the Northern). I think using that technique for the two trucks on the locomotive will take away from the overall look. The spoked wheel look of the LEGO and BBB wheels adds that small level of detail to the locomotive.

[M_slug357]

True; What about a mix and match? Say, have the front truck use BBB wheels, and then have the rear truck use the 9v wheels, but cover them on the sides?

Pic of what I try to say:

[Daedalus304]

True; What about a mix and match? Say, have the front truck use BBB wheels, and then have the rear truck use the 9v wheels, but cover them on the sides?

Pic of what I try to say:

That's actually exactly what I did when I built a class of engine based on the very picture you posted!

http://www.eurobricks.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=96781&hl=

It's a good technique and looks and runs well. Having the spokes on your visible wheels looks really nice, especially in the designs which let light through them as you can see it when the wheels are spinning.

As for covering the back wheels, it does make your locomotive a little wider. Looking at the frame/springs on the rear axle of the Flying Scotsman, the default wheelsets actually may be best as they've got similar details on them and don't go out to 8 wide like custom sides would.

[TF Twitch]

True; What about a mix and match? Say, have the front truck use BBB wheels, and then have the rear truck use the 9v wheels, but cover them on the sides?

Pic of what I try to say:

That's actually exactly what I did when I built a class of engine based on the very picture you posted!

http://www.eurobrick...topic=96781&hl=

It's a good technique and looks and runs well. Having the spokes on your visible wheels looks really nice, especially in the designs which let light through them as you can see it when the wheels are spinning.

As for covering the back wheels, it does make your locomotive a little wider. Looking at the frame/springs on the rear axle of the Flying Scotsman, the default wheelsets actually may be best as they've got similar details on them and don't go out to 8 wide like custom sides would.

I do appreciate the feedback! I think that the wheel setup that I will go for my current 4-6-2 Emerald Night and the future 4-8-4 Emerald Northern (no plans yet to build the 4-6-4 Emerald Baltic) are to use BBB wheels on the pilot and trailing trucks and use the LEGO wheels with rubber bands for the driving wheels. Using the rubber bands for the 4-8-4 makes sense since they will be powered by the L-Motors and need the extra traction. I think that I will continue to use rubber bands on the Emerald Night's driving wheels because I have found them to sometimes slip, not rotate properly, and not grip the rails without the rubber bands. Does anyone know how reliable the BBB Large wheels are? Perhaps the issue is that the LEGO wheels are made to be used with the rubber bands (hence the groove in the flanged wheels) whereas the BBB wheels are made without said grove.

Also, I do like the idea of covering the trailing truck wheels since it would appear more "North American" influenced (since I like to mix North American and European styles together), however I am hesitant to do so since I feel that it will not mesh well with the rest of the locomotive. The locomotives of the Emerald Night "class" are meant to pay homage to their origin and resemble the original set. I feel that changing the style of the trailing truck will detract from that. Unless anyone has a viable solution that looks good and meshes well with the locomotive(s)?

Edited March 9, 2015 by TF Twitch

[zephyr1934]

My Emerald Night currently uses zephyr's driving rods, and if I ever build the Emerald Baltic it will have them as well. I like the black driving rods on the Emerald Northern since gray clashes too much, but I know that fray rods are the correct color. Any thoughts on this?

Many thanks, glad the rods are serving you well. I can do black as a special order for a nominal extra charge. Drop me a PM here or on bricklink if interested.

If you have drive rods from zephyr, there's nothing wrong with coloring them a bit; Might look nice if the middle of the rods are colored black with the edges kept grey?

Indeed, many of the North American steam locomotives that I am familiar with have had the center part of the rods painted black (the indented region of the rods I produce). I've seen several European locomotives with the same area pained red.

I thought about that, but how accurate would that be to real locomotives? I personally have not seen any driving rods that are like that.

It may have been fashionable on the older locomotives, many of the large surviving steam engines have all silver rods, but some of the older ones have the centers painted black, e.g., the SP Pacifics.

[TF Twitch]

Many thanks, glad the rods are serving you well. I can do black as a special order for a nominal extra charge. Drop me a PM here or on bricklink if interested.

Indeed, many of the North American steam locomotives that I am familiar with have had the center part of the rods painted black (the indented region of the rods I produce). I've seen several European locomotives with the same area pained red.

It may have been fashionable on the older locomotives, many of the large surviving steam engines have all silver rods, but some of the older ones have the centers painted black, e.g., the SP Pacifics.

Many thanks for the input. Once I can convince the wifey to release the necessary funding for production of the Emerald Northern then I will work with you on something. I will consider which route to take with the rods; either all black or gray with black in the middle.

[TF Twitch]

Since I last posted on this particular thread I have been working on a few more Emerald Night derivative locomotives. My most recent is a 4-8-2 that I am calling the "Emerald Mountain" class for heavy drag freight. I have added additional influences from German locomotives, such as the paint scheme and tender design. I want to add some influences from other countries, but I cannot find any real defining characteristics. What would be some characteristics from Japan, China, Russia, and African locomotives that I could include?

[xboxtravis7992]

I like the look of the 4-6-4 but the tender looks a bit short for such a big engine, maybe it would look better a few studs longer?

[TF Twitch]

I like the look of the 4-6-4 but the tender looks a bit short for such a big engine, maybe it would look better a few studs longer?

It uses the same tender as the 4-6-2 Emerald Night, which is a tad too short in scale already. I may lengthen both tenders by one axle (wheel set), so about four studs. Thank you for the feedback.

[TF Twitch]

Here are some screen shots of my 4-8-2 Emerald Mountain.

The 4-8-2 Emerald Mountain class of locomotives was designed by Nacho Enterprises Railway System (NERS) as their primary heavy drag freight locomotive. As with all of their locomotive designs, they have several influences from other various locomotives and nations. The 4-8-2 wheel arrangement originated in South Africa, and was very popular in North America. The domes atop of the boiler and the smokebox are Oriental-influenced. The tender design is based on the 4-8-4 Emerald Northern, but draws upon German locomotives for increased water and fuel capacity. Being a derivative of the original Emerald Night shows its British heritage. This particular Emerald Mountain locomotive has been painted to resemble the German locomotives.

This MOC is powered by two Power Functions L-Motors, which was tricky to make it all fit. To create the basis for this MOC I took my Emerald Northern and replaced the firebox, cab, and trailing truck with those from the Emerald Night. Some modifications to the opening firebox in the cab had to be made, but it still retains the basic shape and function.

Any feedback and critique is welcomed!

[Murdoch17]

This 4-8-2 loco is your best yet! I love how the domes look, and that you managed to fit in two L motors in such a cramped space is amazing.

Keep on steaming!

[TF Twitch]

This 4-8-2 loco is your best yet! I love how the domes look, and that you managed to fit in two L motors in such a cramped space is amazing.

Keep on steaming!

Thank you, I am rather proud of this one. After I build the Humble Sapphire for the wife, it is a toss up between this and the Emerald Northern as to which one to build first.