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Well, its finally ready for public consumption! So here it is...

This Big Boy features:

- Lego Power Functions motors provide the moving force. There are 4 (yes,...four) M sized PF motors (that are barely) stuffed into the boiler. (I would have prefered 2 XL PF motors instead of 4 M's, but believe it or not, no matter how hard I tried, the much larger XL PF motors were just a couple plates too wide to fit inside this boiler design.) There are 2 M motors connected to each of the 2 articulated sets of 8 drivers. The (rechargable) battery box is placed near the front of the tender, while the receiver is hidden amongst the tender's load of coal.

- The Battery box and on/off switch is quickly accessed though an easily-removed "gate" at the front of the tender. The battery rests on floor tiles and between an inside rail arrangement that holds it in place, but still allows the battery to slide right forward for easy access when the gate is removed, enabling the battery to be either turned on/off, or replaced with a different one if it is time to charge it.

- The driving rods and pistons are fully functional. (I wanted to see that thing move while it moves, you know what I mean? :-) )

- All 4 wheels of the leading truck are fully functional, and all 4 wheels steer when it traverses through the curves. (That, without a doubt, was the hardest thing to figure out how to do on this moc. While there were lots of other areas on the Big Boy that were a pain in the a-- to model, a 4-wheel-steering leading truck that cleared the pistons and front drivers of an articulated wheel set made me scratch my head for a l-o-n-g time.)

- The engine's cab and tender are 8 studs wide, and the boiler is approximately 7.5 studs wide. Even though these measurements might suggest that the scale of this engine is at 8 wide, in all actuality, because of the gigantic dimensions of a full size Big Boy, this moc is probably closer to being in 6-wide scale (or possibly maybe even 7 wide scale) then in 8 wide scale. (Especially when the Big Boy is placed next to and compared with most mocs that are modeled in 6-wide. But I am open to hearing everyone's else's opinions on this Big Boy moc's 'actual' scale. I am kind of curious as to what everybody thinks on that subject.)

- The moc is completely able to negotiate all curves and switches. (I built this thing to be able to play with it, after all! LOL. Locomotives aren't any fun at all if they are just sitting on a shelf being looked at.) I have a fairly tight layout, with many close-placed switches, and I have somehow managed (after much repeated rebuilding, b----ing, and track testing) to make that bazillion-wheeled monster go through corners and switches successfully. (I did have to move some of my buildings back and away from the corners of the track a stud or two in order to able to accommodate the wide swinging boiler, however.) I have not tried this engine on flex track, yet- I wonder how it'll do riding on that stuff?

- The front coupler is fully functional (but rarely used).

- Total model length from the front engine coupler to rear tender coupler is just a few tenths of an inch short of 31 inches. (I was hoping the thing would make it to a full yard long when I was done building it, but because I like building train mocs that are scaled to the driver size, it didn't scale right at 36 inches in length. But how cool would it have been able to say "This engine is a yard long and built entirely of Lego!"? LOL. )

- I'd like to believe that the moc is about 97% done (but you know how that goes-- nothing you build is ever really DONE done.) There is a small bit of plumbing to do yet, a wrong colored headlight holder (it needs to be black), and stickers to do yet. Part of my hope is that I will get some good build feedback, and if anybody has any ideas/suggestions for improvements, please fire away. :-)

- The only non-lego part on the moc is the use of metal wire inside the flexable tube used for handrails to help maintain the correct shape of the flextube bends. (I do love using BBB wheels on my train mocs, but in this circumstance I wanted to power this thing using the actual drivers as the motive force, and because of that, I needed to use Lego's rubberband-grooved drivers for improved traction.)

"I used to do a little but a little wouldn't do it so the little got more and more"

Taken on his Birthday, 23rd July, our tribute to the great, top hat wearing, master of the axe, Slash!


What was supposed to be a photo shoot for some self-promotion shots, for Robs guitar teaching, turned in to us having a laugh, and using an old studio photo of Slash (polaroid resting against the right boot) for inspiration, we set about shooting a tribute with a touch of “British-ness”, the Tea and Biscuits, thrown in.


Strobist: Main image - 430EX II Bounced into white umbrella high just off camera right. YN-560 Bounced into Silver reflector camera left.
Steam - First shot, YN-560 kettle right and slightly behind the wall through the doorway to prevent fallout on the wall, forward Light blocked by black reflector cover. Second shot, YN-560 through snoot kettle right, aimed higher to get more of the steam.
Additional shots - YN-560 through snoot aimed at the front of the cup/biscuits, hat and Polaroid.

Edits: Due to only having two lights the shot had to be taken in stages and composed together in Photoshop later. Merged shots through lightening layer mode. Steam layers added with layer masks to remove light fall off on the kettle and floor. Tweaking of levels. Texture layer added. And black and white layer added with hard light to boost contrast.