The Lego walking drag-line takes its first steps.

Yes, I know, this is the most boring movie you have ever seen! For me it marks a great achievement: when I started working on this model back in 2005, I had no way to know if the walking mechanism would be able to lift and propel all the weight of the machine.
After many delays (due to lack of parts and other projects), a recent push over a weekend enabled me to install the boom, power the rotation mechanism (only one out of four slewing motors is powered in the video), add some counter weights (two transformers that will eventually power the model plus a lot of Lego weight elements) and test the walking mechanism.
The walk cycle is very slow (although almost twice as fast as a real machine!) and moves by only a few millimeters per step but it works!
Up to date pictures can be seen in the gallery.

A steamup and a new project.

Click on the picture to see a few more photos from today's steamup at Richard and Melinda's place. We had great weather and plenty of engines running.
Here is a short movie showing some of them in action:

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My newest project is a 1:20 scale Shay locomotive with a surprise twist...
It will re-use an Accucraft two cylinder Shay chassis, engine and trucks. However it will have a strait boiler (as opposed to the T-type of the stock locomotive. The first few pictures are located in the galley here.

Steam-up at Mark's

We had another fine running day at Mark's place yesterday. The weather was cold enough to have great steam plumes, but not so cold that it would be uncomfortable. I managed to forget to bring my good camera, so I don't have any movies and some of the pictures are "artistic" (i.e. shot with my mobile phone)...
I brought my portable dual gauge track to see which gauge one locomotive can pull a full size passenger: the Accucraft K28 pulled me without problem and pulled some heavier passenger with a bit of help starting up hill. The two cylinder Shay pulled a child without problem but could not manage an adult.

Pictures of the steam turbine locomotive

These pictures were taken a coule of weeks ago on Henner's layout (which is under construction). They show the structure of the Lego chassis with all its gears and shfts. Click on the picture to see the complete gallery.

The turbine locomotive.

This prototype is powered by a Jensen turbine. The boiler is a return flue type from Cheddar fired with butane by way of an Accucraft Shay burner. The chassis is built out of Lego Technic and rides on BBB wheels. This was shot on Richard and Melinda's layout in Millbrae California on October 27th, 2007.

The steam powered hamster wheel.
This is a 3' diameter track that rolls around, powered by a Regner Willi live steam locomotive. It is made of eight sections bolted together. Each section is made of six pieces: two rails, two ties (about 1' long) and two rail joiners (curved to match the rails).
The entire thing was designed in 3D CAD (Alibre Design) then each part was converted to a 2D drawing and water-jet cut by Big Blue Saw. The ties are MIG welded to the rails. Click on the movie above to play it and have a look at the pictures in the gallery.

BAGRS at Roaring Camp.
BAGRS setup its portable tracks at Roaring Camp. As in previous years, the live steam track was setup right next to the main line, next to the station. Click on the movie on above to play it. Go to the gallery to see some pictures of this event.