Azure Express

Azure Express – Model T

Hi All,

Did you, like me, miss out on the Emerald Night (EN)? After returning to LEGO last year, I couldn't afford to buy a copy of the EN and I wanted a steam engine to run alongside my other LEGO trains so I decided to designed my own.

I first built a prototype out of my old bricks over the last 4-5 months or so, but I soon ran out of the types of bricks I wanted. I carried on and finished the design in Lego Digital Designer, and then rendered the images.

I’ve ordered the parts needed and will provides updates as I go, with pictures, and of the finished model.

Brick Count / Price

• The engine and tender together comes to 652 bricks.
• Including the carriage, the brick count would be 944.

Both hopefully low enough to be considered and to come in at a reasonable price.

What I would really like is for the engine and tender to be one pack and the carriage to be a second. That way you could buy more carriages if you want a longer train, or keep the cost down and have a shorter train.

Carriages

The carriage is heavy inspired by the EN model, it really is a beautiful design. I hope thought, that this will also allow the carriages to be used by both those with this model and those who originally purchased the EN.

Power Functions

The train shown here is designed for Power Functions. The motor to drive the train can be configured in two different ways, vertically located near the fire, driving the engine through the large wheels, or through the 88002 motor, driving the tender. The train works well with the engine being pushed by the tender, with the battery box and receiver in the tender.

The top piece of the 'coal' is the power switch. When pushed down it turns the battery box on or off, and as the top down picture of the tender shows, a technic brick with holes will allow the light to be visible to show if it is on or off (I've added a green coloured brick to show this).

It would work equally well with an old 9v motor as well.

Without power functions the train runs very smoothly when pushed on the ground/carpet or around a track. I'm unsure what effect adding rubber rings on the wheels does (as per the EN). Without power functions, the tender wheels are replaced by axles in the same configuration as the third set of wheels. This is how I originally designed it before adding power functions.

Train / Engine

It is purposely not designed to look like one particular train to widen the appeal for train fans. It is loosely based on various real engines from various sources & searches. Blue because it is my favourite colour and it looked royal with the gold! I don’t know how to add stickers to the rendered models, but the model number (0012?) and the letter ‘T’ would need to be on the flat tile under the window, and something like ‘Azure Express’ on the tender and some dials on the flat grey tile in the engine.

If you have a very good eye for detail you can see in the engine only pictures that there are gold coloured round pieces and in the other pictures they are silver. I thought there was enough gold so changed the colours but never updated those pictures!

There is very good strength in the barrel of the engine for small hands to push the train around. The pistons on the side are also optional and can be removed if desired.

The barrel also features studs that go in multiple directions, which could be a new way to use the bricks for some people.

Play features

1. The fire box doors can be opened and closed as the fire needs
2. The driver or helper can use the shovels on the tender
3. The hinge can be lowered or raised to create a walkway to move between the engine and tender.
4. One figure is included in the pictures, to shovel the coal and just for a bit of fun.

Thanks

I have to thank the members of Eurobricks for their feedback whilst I was designing (Jtlan, ScotNick & detjensrobert) and CP3Owen for his guide on pov ray, whom have all helped to make the design the way it is. My wife for everything else!

Support

Let's help show LEGO that trains are important! With no (currently) new expert trains available then this can help fill that void. Please share with your friends and family, tweet, retweet and blog about it!

Thanks everyone!