Brickset ForumShopping at LEGO or Amazon?
Please use our links: LEGO.com • Amazon
As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases.
Please use our links: LEGO.com • Amazon
As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases.
Motorizing the Constitution (79111)
JMTodd
Member Posts: 12
Hi all,
The information on the new Winter VIllage set has gotten me thinking about the holidays...I know, it's July. I am fairly new to trains and think it is time to add a train to the winter village. I would prefer to avoid spending the money on the retired holiday train. I prefer the vintage appearance of the older steam engines and think the LR Constitution #79111 should work nicely if I add a couple passenger cars and a caboose.
With that said, could anyone outline how to add the RC functions to the Constitution? I have seen it done in a video but would not have a clue where to begin.
Thanks,
J
The information on the new Winter VIllage set has gotten me thinking about the holidays...I know, it's July. I am fairly new to trains and think it is time to add a train to the winter village. I would prefer to avoid spending the money on the retired holiday train. I prefer the vintage appearance of the older steam engines and think the LR Constitution #79111 should work nicely if I add a couple passenger cars and a caboose.
With that said, could anyone outline how to add the RC functions to the Constitution? I have seen it done in a video but would not have a clue where to begin.
Thanks,
J
0
Shopping at LEGO.com or Amazon?
Please use our links: LEGO.com • Amazon
Recent discussions • Categories • Privacy Policy • Brickset.com
Howdy, Stranger!
Categories
- All Categories
- 16.2K General
- 3 Announcements
- 3.1K Collecting
- 3.7K Everything else LEGO
- 1.7K Building and Techniques
- 2.3K Brickset
- 14 Ambassador
- 1K Introduce yourself
- 385 The Database
- 438 Brickset.com
- 316 Forum Operation
- 15 FAQs
- 13.9K Shopping
- 1.7K Shopping USA/Canada
- 337 Shopping Elsewhere
- 11K Marketplace
- 1.2K Other
- 571 Community and Events
- 262 Photography/Video
Brickset.com is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, the Amazon.com.ca, Inc. Associates Program and the Amazon EU Associates Programme, which are affiliate advertising programs designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.
As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases.
Comments
I would recommend placing those power function in a passenger wagon as apposed to the engine as it will be a lot easier than messing with all the friction causing gears.
* The Lone Ranger movie had a scene at Promontory Point, where the golden spikes were driven, celebrating the completion of the Transcontinental Railroad. Seeing as they don't call this train the Jupiter (CP's engine), I assume it's the UP's engine and they decided to just call it the Constitution for the purposes of this set (it doesn't really have a name other than No. 119). It actually doesn't matter either, because the Jupiter was a 4-4-0 also.
Note: I did this before reading the Brick Journal article. I actually got a chance to check that out recently, so our methods are similar, but I tend to like mine better. The IR seems better hidden, the battery is more accessible and you don't have ugly wires snaking across the gun car. Sure this rearranges the two rear cars, but it's a small price to pay imho.
Basic PF setup: Motor, Motor Ornament (4493326), IR receiver, Battery, Controller
Pic 1
I used a 13/64" drill bit to make a hole (as seen in the pic) to fit the motor technic pin. Just be sure to drill very straight - a drill press is recommended. 4x 1x4 black plates are used to help secure the motor to the tender plate.
Pic 2
Place the receiver in the tender, the side bricks holding the "Constitution" nameplates need to be replaced with ones without inside studs to allow the receiver to fit. I used 4x 4558955 bricks. Various 1x black plates are used to replace bricks and create the gap for the wires to feed (see the tender shell in the back). a couple 1x2 plates on the receiver connector provide an attach point for the "coal plate cover" that will hide the receiver guts.
Pic 3
With the tender shell back together.
Pic 4
With the coal plate on, basically a 4x4 plate with black greebling to simulate coal.
Pic 5
The battery resides in the prison car. I positioned it as shown, looking like it's backward, because this allows the button to be pressed by sliding the door. I raised the entire wall structure of the car by 1 layer of black plates to allow for more room to stick a finger in there when turning it on/off. Without it, the roof kept annoyingly popping off. Of course, I also left a 1x gap in the front of the car while doing so to allow the battery wire to sneak out toward the tender as you can see.
Pic 6
A better look at the raised brick level, though it's kinda tricky to see with the sliding door frame that sticks out. You can see it clearly looking at the bottom left of the car. Note, putting the battery in like this still allows the exploding door play option lever to work. The only downside is very little room to play in the actual car, though a minifig can still fit in the jail part.
Pic 7
Aaaand done. The only exposed wires are a short run between the tender and prison car and a slight curl from the motor to the IR receiver just behind the tender. With enough "coal" in place, the IR dome is relatively invisible also. I put in a 1x4 plate and tile in front of it to help hide the switch.
Oh, the last bit was adding 1x9 technic lift arms, identical to the ones on the Emerald Night, to the drive wheels. With the arms and 6 pins, this took all of 30 seconds. Unfortunately, without major reconstruction, you can't add the actual steam drivers, mostly because this train is designed, um, imposssibly. The articulation (pivoting) of the sets of wheels would never occur in RL. This engine ties the steam pistons to the front wheels, which pivot from the drive wheels, meaning that the main drive rod would have to also bend or pivot to actually work. Again, this design would fail in real life, but hey, it looks good in Lego.
Also, I don't have any lights installed yet, though I'm tinkering with how I want to tackle that. I've seen some do it, but it requires major reconstruction, and I'm not yet a fan of the existing techniques. For now I was trying for minimal alterations of the base model just to get it to run.
Anyway, I'm pretty pleased with the results and it runs great. Good luck :)
Btw, connecting to the tender using the above method isn't that big a deal, because you can raise the whole tender up one plate and thread the light cord under the IR receiver, toward the engine.
One lighting solution I had was to have a single, small headlight that matches the one on the EN, then put the other LED as a cab light, pointing toward the (fake) cab light hanging from the rear of the cab. All works well, but snaking the line to the front is not easy because you'd have to end up boring a path along one of two stud widths, which, being 50% of the structural support of the existing design, means it's not the best plan. I was wondering if anyone had thoughts.
a) I didn't have a technic plate handy
b) I'm very impatient, and I didn't want to wait for one to be delivered
c) I'm very cheap, and didn't want to pay for something I didn't need to
d) I had a 13/64" drill bit handy
http://www.bricklink.com/catalogItem.asp?P=2653
That would make a channel part way down and maintain the structure. I built the standard engine last night, can recall there was also a LBG 2x3, but not whether this was aligned with the 1x2 technic brick. If you could take these out and add two more 2653s that would get you nearly all the way from the cab to the front.
Otherwise, I suppose you could always resort to more drilling...
As for drilling, if it's buried in a model and you can't see it, and it's going to be relatively permanent, it's an option.
First up is to add an extra black plate layer to the base of the tender, leaving a 1x wide channel under the IR receiver. This allows the light cord to be attached to, fold under, then thread back forward under the IR receiver and into the engine cab, where the light mounting brick attaches. From this, I then dealt with the two lights that split off from that brick.
First, I used @luckyruss' suggestion of http://www.brickset.com/parts/?part=4211613 which worked out great. Using three of them gives a perfect channel to snake a light cord to the front of the locomotive. Also, I had to raise the boiler up one plate height to accommodate them (see the black stripe in Pic 1. I don't mind this because as with the tender above, a) it was easy and b) it actually gives the engine a little more beef, which makes it a bit more substantial and less "toyish."
Now here was the big problem. The light cord now made its way cleanly to the front, but there was no canon way I could determine to get the light cord up through the top and into the new headlight housing in a really clean manner. One solution was to leave a hole on one side of the top by replacing one of the curved black bricks (http://www.brickset.com/parts/?part=609126) with a couple black 1x1 plates and a black cheese slope, but I didn't care for that look, nor the resulting gap in the top. What I instead decided to do was cleanly notch that black curved piece near the stud so that the wire could slip by and go straight up. I did the same to one of the two 1x6 black plates that are lined up under the headlight and the smokestack so that the wire could breach the top and reach the headlight. The actual headlight housing consists of two 2x2 black plates, a 1x2 black plate, a 1x2, single-hole black Technic brick, a clear stud and clear mini radar dish. I also replaced the two 1x2 cheese slopes with four cheese slopes because the breakup just looks better. I also raised the smokestack by one plate because I was feeling randy.
Now, what to do with the second light? Two lights up front just did not work, nor look good on this kind of locomotive. I was considering just burying it in the boiler somewhere to hide it, but then thought I might use it to light up the cab somehow. Then, looking at the cab, the design already has a "light" hanging like a lantern off the back of the cab roof. Well, one black headlight brick and 10 seconds later, and the second light points right into this lantern, giving the impression that it's lit. Then I replaced the two clear 1x1 plates with clear yellow plates to make it a little more "lantern-like." Booyah! (Pic 3)
Pro 1: It looks and functions great imho.
Pro 2: The headlight is more prototypically accurate, because it now hangs out over the front smoke box door on the front of the engine (the Chinese hat).
Con 1: Innocent pieces sacrificed their future usage for the good of the build. I would love to hear alternatives, but I can sleep at night, because these pieces are now fully dedicated to this train.
Con 2: The locomotive, tender and battery car are now pretty much permanently attached, because the wires are not easy to detach/reattach. It's not that big a deal, but it does make it slightly more difficult to put on and off the tracks.
I'd already decided that I wanted all the gubbins in the locomotive and tender, with nothing in the trucks. So this is what I did:
First I used the motor from the Passenger train to replace the wheels on the tender. I replaced the base with two 4x6 places, two 1x6 plates and a technic 2x6 plate (oh alright, I didn't have one, so I used a technic 2x4 and a normal 2x2 instead). This saved me having to sacrifice an innocent plate. ;) It also lengthened the tender by 2 studs, which not only covers up the fact that the motor is 2 studs longer than the normal base, but also helps create more space inside for the battery box.
As the motor base is higher than the normal wheels, I put a 1x12 plate either side to bring the tender sides down a bit. I then built up the sides using the original bricks and some spares. I had to use a layer of black as I didn't have enough dark green, and I added an extra plate layer as well (which I really should have put in black too). This got the tender high enough to hide the battery box (with two tiles under it so it can just lift out).
To turn it on and off, I used two 1x1 clips on top of 1x2 jumpers, with a bar across them and a wrench-thingy hanging down through a 2x4 technic plate. If you push down on the centre of the bar, it bends just enough for the wrench-thingy to press the green button :)
I'm not completely happy with how the tender looks, but I think that's just with having to use a layer of black. I think if it was all green it'd look fine. Personally I think it being higher and longer is a bit more realistic-looking.
With the IR receiver, I originally wanted to put it forward of the cab, in place of two of the black grill pieces, but as there's a bit of SNOT going on in that area there's just not enough space.
So I compromised and put it at the front of the roof, with the main part of the IR receiver in the cab. This required the disassembly of most of the cab, with the roof and section under the black grills being re-built. I also took the opportunity to add a black plate layer along the length of the train, as I saw @TheLoneTensor do that and it does make the train look a bit more substantial.
All put back together again, and it works well! I don't have any lights to add, but I can't say I'm too bothered about that. I don't have a Technic beam the right length for the wheels either, but that'll get done in due course.
I am pleased that I managed to get it all into the locomotive and tender, even if the IR receiver shows through the windows somewhat. I have ideas for modifying that area, but I don't have the elements I need for that yet.
Btw, the name change came from having to login via twitter, apparently when you do that it grabs your twitter name as your brickset name. Freaky.
Taking inspiration from the way that @crazycarl motorised his, I took my tender apart last night and completely re-built it to contain the battery box and IR receiver.
This morning, I took the cab apart (I'd had the IR receiver in the cab before), and re-built it and the back of the firebox, keeping the basic shape, but adding rather more detail to the cab.
See what you think...
I haven't run it on track yet, but I would imagine it'll be similar to how it ran when I had just the battery box in the tender.
Has anyone found a way to add lights to the engine?
I'll warn you, it involves brick mutilation!
Thanks :)
I think I can just about figure out the walls of it, it's just the PF placement that I'm not sure of.
By the way @Paperballpark, I figured out how to do you method for the tender now, so I don't really need a picture. Would be useful to post one for others who want to do the same though.
I hope this helps!
Note that this method only works if the boilder has been given an extra plate in height.
The pictures are out of sequence. Don't blame me!
Pic 1 shows the separated boiler, with the round bricks/plates and the grey 2x6 plate replaced by this piece in grey and black.
Pic 4 shows a close-up of the top of the boiler.
Pic 5 shows the hole extending all the way through the boiler from the front.
Pic 3 shows the top of the boiler above the bottom part. Note the fire box I did the other day. This is where my lights theoretically exit at the moment, although were I to actually put lights in, I'd probably remove one stud from the top of the wall dividing the fire box from the cab, and lead it through just under the cab roof.
Pic 2 is me shining a light through from the cab.
Pic 7 shows how I'd get the gap under the light (I used red bricks because I don't have black in those bricks)
Pic 6 shows from the front with the dish at the front removed. Here you can see the intention, that the wire runs the entire length of the train, exits into the back of the dish and then goes back under the lamp support. This is the bit I'm not sure about - the wire looks small enough to fit in that gap, but until I have one in front of me, I can't be completely sure.
Thoughts?
Also, I'm having trouble with drive rods. Whenever I try connecting them to just the two drive wheels, they often shift daigonally, and when I connect them via all three wheels, it sometimes jams. Is it to do with the way the wheels are connected?
Seems to run perfectly with no jamming.
-----------------------
Here's a picture of my Constitution. Idea for the front lantern was @TheLoneTensor 's, and idea for the tender was @Paperballpark 's. Thanks guys, really appreciate it!
Edit: Oops, forgot to attach pictures! I'll post them below.
After building the train, I'm thinking of using the motor in the coal car instead of the engine because it seems like the undercarriage (? ) will fit easier than trying to modify the whole engine. I haven,t actually looked at everything physically yet, I just finished the train last night.
I was surprised at the way the cow catcher was attached to the front. Are other Lego "steam engine" trains designed like this or is this the first one to have the engine slide separately on top of the cow catcher? I've wanted to buy the Hogwart's Express but couldn't afford it and still can't. Is that train designed the same way? I'll probably stop dreaming about owning it if it is.
I don't know a lot about trains but this seemed like a strange design to me. I'm assuming I will have to change the way the wheels are attached to the front if I want to make the train more realistic? Or is this going to make it impossible for the train to turn? Guess I'm going to find out. :}
I don't know about other steam trains, as I only have the Constitution, but I believe the Emerald Night has a similar arrangement.