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Been busy the last month. Here’s my final take on the famous Big Boy 4-8-8-4. It uses power functions and the motors are synchronized through a shared drive shaft to power both sets of driving wheels. It’s articulated and reinforced to work on standard Lego track. There’s footage of it running over on my FB page “Phoenix Train Works” since I’m not sure how to upload video here. Overall, it was a fun project to design in LDD and build IRL. Not really complicated to me but just so big. (Seriously, had to work on it on my dining table.) It’s nearly three feet long and under 2000 pieces. I designed the vector UP graphics too and Million Prints over in Canada printed them flawlessly. 4005 was chosen because the real thing rose from the ashes of a wreck. Next phase is rolling stock…
Cheers,
M.P.LynesThanks. Let’s just say the Big Boy is considered both by train fans and Guinness Records as the ultimate steam train ever built IRL (length, weight, and POWER). As a model, it’s no less awesome seeing it run around Lego track with all that articulated detail parts moving flawlessly. XD
Just for kicks, you should check out videos of the UP Big Boy Number 4014 that was recently restored. It was going around the central US this summer hauling an excursion tour.
Please explain 4-8-8-4 again? And also explain Million Points and the resulting decals. Are they similar to LEGO’s glossy print? It’s hard to tell from the photo.
Hi Rich,
4-8-8-4 is the class of the Big Boy train by wheel configuration. There’s 4 guide wheels up front, two huge sets of 8 driving wheels, and 4 trailing wheels. So, say the Hogwarts Express is a 4-6-0 if you look at its wheel base and the Emerald Night is a 4-6-2.
Million Prints is a Canadian company that prints custom graphics directly on bricks with UV ink. It’s not the same as Lego’s zero-thickness tampo printing process (you can feel the thin ink layer) but it prints perfectly crisp and is highly durable. I plan on using them again when I get around to building the Challenger 4-6-6-4 in real life, but I currently have rolling stock in the works for the Big Boy so that will be a while.
Thank you. I hope to show her off someday. It’s a shame it wasn’t ready for that Monroeville Brick show last month.
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